Travel: Harry Potter Studio Tour

OOTD: Samsoe & Samsoe shirt,
Topshop leggings and socks,
H&M boots

One of the reasonably few loves my other half and I have in common is a love of Harry Potter and Disney. So, with my birthday approaching - and both Harry Potter and Disney World firmly unattainable due to budget - we booked a visit to the Warner Brother's "Making of Harry Potter" studio tour in glamour-ridden Watford! Having spent a rather hefty seventy pounds on the tickets, I must admit that my default negativity was kicking in; would this really be worth not just the ticket price, but also the added expense of the hotel we'd booked, and the cost of travel? I am therefore very happy to report that the trip so far exceeded my expectations that I just had to write a post to encourage anyone else sitting on the fence about it to go!

Siegfried and I booked the tour tickets for my actual birthday (around two months in advance, but they were already only selling start-times post 3pm!) and then decided to get a room in a nearby pub (on booking.com, via stayinapub.co.uk) for the night before. We'd already searched for hotels, with little success considering our limited finances and dislike of chain, super-budget places - but then my mum suggested finding a pub with rooms, which we hadn't thought of! It was a great idea because we ended up getting a room and breakfast for a little over thirty pounds each; bargain! The pub/inn was called The Two Brewers in Kings Langley, and although it was in the middle of nowhere and fairly nondescript, it suited us down to the ground. The room was clean and comfortable; we were perfectly situated to kill the morning shopping in Watford town centre; and the breakfast was superb. If you'd like more info, you can read my TripAdvisor review here, and book a room here. 

After spending some time in Watford shopping (I think Zara are absolutely killing it at the moment; I bought three things and could’ve gotten about thirty more!), we headed to the Studio Tour. We got parked quickly and easily, and picking up the tickets was also speedy. They have a lot of staff there so everything runs really smoothly (take note, almost every other business in the world at the moment!). As we had a half an hour or so before our entry time, we hit the H U G E shop in the lobby. They sell basically everything you can think of that you’ve seen in the films, and it was so much fun just walking around and looking at all of that! Especially because nothing was obviously Harry Potter-branded; whenever they bring out themed merchandise I think how unrealistic and inauthentic they make it. Did Harry Potter sit on the train to Hogwarts unwrapping a chocolate frog with “Harry Potter™” emblazoned across it? I don’t think so! 

I was also pleasantly surprised with how accessible everything was. For example, the wands - which were stacked up in a sort of mock-Ollivander’s - had a large display where each box was opened, in order to let you see and touch as many of the wands as you'd like to before buying. And everything that was too expensive to do this with was shown in a display case, so you could see exactly what you'd get. I think that's important to do when dealing with such potentially large and extravagant purchases. For another thing, the prices weren’t actually that ridiculous! Like, yeah, there were £500 wizard chess sets and £90 Deathly Hallows necklaces - but then there were always cheaper alternatives; standard silver-plated jewellery, or a £50 plastic wizard chess set. We actually ended up buying most of the stuff we wanted from the Platform 9 and ¾ shop halfway through the tour, which we were quite pleased with ourselves for thinking of, as it meant we skipped the long queues in the main shop. We got a postcard, a fridge magnet for my parents, a replica Hogwarts Express ticket (a bargain at around £5, because I’d been thinking about spending £50 on a print of the exact same item from the “Graphic Art of the Harry Potter Films” exhibition on that we’d seen in London a few months ago!), a chocolate frog, and a Deathly Hallows necklace. Oh, and on our way back through the main shop (the tour exits right into it) we picked up a hilarious replica of the Knight Bus’ shrunken head - it even has recordings of his catchphrases and is now proudly hanging from my rearview mirror. 

There's a good pit-stop halfway through,
where you can grab a Butterbeer

The tour itself starts with a briefing from a staff member, and then a short introductory movie (starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson of course!). Without wanting to give too much away, you then get to hit the Great Hall - they even let me push the doors open because it was my birthday! (I legitimately started low-key crying. Shhhhh.) That’s the last section that you could call “guided”; you’re gently moved on to the area/s that you can go through at your own pace. Quick note here: our ticket time was for 3:30pm, and we didn’t get out until it closed at 8pm. A staff member at the beginning said their longest tour was twelve hours, and their shortest only about forty-five minutes. We really wished we’d been able to get earlier tickets, so if you’re pretty huge fans I’d say go no later than around 3pm (Also, the opening times change so check online before getting tickets and/or planning your visit!). 

Again, I don’t want to give anything away, but the rest of the experience was awesome. I’d been pretty skeptical about the steep entrance fee, but I’d say you most definitely get your money’s worth. There’s so much to see, and tons of interesting information to take in. There’s short movies to watch, and lots of behind-the-scenes displays in addition to the complete sets that they’ve reconstructed right there for you. Also, I was really impressed by how many interactive activities there were. Some of the displays had buttons you could press to make things happen, and there were things like “wand workshops” where staff members gave you wands and taught you different spell-casting techniques/routines. You could climb onto the Hogwarts Express, walk through the Dursley’s house and down the Hogwarts bridge. Everyone gets into the spirit of things so you don’t feel silly or self-conscious, which is great because I can be quite shy. And - obviously - people are just constantly taking photos and videos and messing around pretending to be in the movies or indulging the child they once were, who played pretend Harry Potter games for hours on end; I know I definitely was! We tried to limit the amount of time we spent on our various phones and cameras, but when there’s so many good photo opportunities it is really difficult! 

One of the many photo opportunities we
took advantage of!

One of the parts that I think people get the most excited about is the green screen experience, where you can do things like fly a broom whilst they superimpose you onto a background to make it seem like you’re flying over Diagon Alley, the Hogwarts Express, the castle, etc. The staff give you instructions like “lean to the left, and now the right, watch out behind you for dementors” etc. It’s really fun and the others in your party can watch it happening live on a screen, but at the end they offer it for sale, which actually ruined it for me because the prices were just so stupidly inflated (£20 for a USB of a thirty second clip - really?!) that my cynicism returned fully-fledged. Also, the staff member that we were unfortunately paired with during that section was possibly the least enthusiastic person I’ve ever met. I know she’d probably repeated that exact same speech about a hundred times that day alone, but others were still making a concerted effort, even if it was just for the behalf of the small children. Our narrator just spewed it all out in a monotone whilst looking like she’d rather be anywhere else in the world. A big shame, because everyone else had been so great, so she stuck out like a sore thumb and is remembered for all of the wrong reasons!

Like I said, we didn’t get out until right when the place closed at 8pm, and even then it was only because we had to leave; we could’ve spent a lot more time just wandering around absorbing everything. The last room was especially impressive, so we took a little time to just sit and reflect/enjoy ourselves there. I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone wanting a fun, interesting, and unusual day out - and if you’re a Harry Potter fan I’d say it’s a must-see. I’m already considering another trip sometime in the future!

Have any of you guys been? I’d love to hear what you thought or what your favourite part was. Feel free to leave me a comment!