Thursday 24th May 2018
The day had finally arrived for our harry potter trip! If you've seen my 'what I got my boyfriend for his 18th' post then you'll know I got him tickets to the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour! We've been looking forward to it since then and were so bloody excited! Me and mum picked Iestyn up at 7:15 and she dropped us off at Sainsburys. We grabbed a meal deal each and some sweets for the journey, then walked over to maccies to grab some breakfast before the coach arrived. We booked through bakers dolphin and our pick up point was right next to maccies.
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When the bus arrived, they gave us our seat numbers and we got settled in! The coach had super comfy seats which you could lie back and everything which was fab. I had a little nap on the way up, we played a game on Iestyns phone and had a good laugh. We stopped at reading services and had a look around for half an hour. When we got back on the coach, we had under an hour to go! Iestyn had a little nap and I was buzzing with excitement!
Pulling up into the car park filled me with excitement. We could see the big pictures and stills plastered on the front of the building and the new entrance! I say new, it just wasn't there the last time I visited a few years ago. When we were parked up and raring to go, the bus driver went to go get all our tickets. He was only ten minutes, but it felt like the longest ten minutes ever! When we got out of the bus he told us that we were allowed in at 2 (it was quarter to 1 at the time so we had just over an hour till entry time and 45 minutes before we started queueing) and we had to be back at 5:15. I was really glad that we arrived over an hour earlier as it's best to go to the gift shop before hand so you don't need to save time to go after and rush around inside. When we first got off the bus and started walking up to the entrance, I noticed a bunch of new stuff already! The first cool new thing was the walls surrounding us that were covered with daily prophet articles and wanted posters etc! It was the coolest thing and a perfect background for photos.
The new entrance was for security, which was reassuring. I felt extra safe as they checked our bags and pockets etc. They also had some props and outfits from fantastic beasts and the hand prints of Dan, Emma and Rupert. Iestyn also kept showing off he had the amazing Hagrid on his ticket and I had Draco Malfoy lol
I spoke to one of the people there in regards to an email conversation I'd had, arranging for me and Iestyn to get birthday badges as I wanted to make Iestyns day extra special! (I only got one as Iestyn was nervous to do the birthday things on his own, and it was my birthday 4 days before so I could get away with it) The woman was super nice and gave us some passports, which I didn't get the first time so I was pleased about, and then went off to sort out the badges for us! We attached them where we could, them began the long walk to the original entrance. The walk was super cool as the walls had the marauders map design everywhere and had some amazing quotes from the books written every now and then!
When we finally got to the main entrance, we headed straight for the gift shop. At this point we had about 30 minutes till we wanted to join the queue so the timing was perfect. I picked up 2 things for myself while I was there and surprisingly stayed in the budget I set myself! (I'll do a haul as a separate post.) When we'd finished in the gift shop, we joined the queue! It was about 1:35 but the queue was so long we were lucky we got in at the earliest time in our slot! As the goblet of fire special event was on there was a big triwizard cup in the centre of the queue!
It was so cool. We also had a good look at the cupboard under the stairs of course.
We got let into the tour at exactly 2 which was fab! They ask you to not post or write about the first 2 rooms so they remain a surprise for future guests so I won't go into detail there. Once we'd got to the end of the second room, they asked if anyone had birthday badges! I took a deep breath with nerves and raised my hand and they asked me and Iestyn to come to the front! We both got to push open the doors to the great hall in front of everyone! So many eyes were on us but it was the best buzz, and there was something so magical about being the people to open the doors and step foot into the phenomenal set first, not behind a crowd of people. Because of the special event, the goblet of fire took centre stage in the haul and they even showed us the special effect where the goblet spits out the parchment with Harry's name on! The age line was also drawn and Fred and George dummies as old people were lying behind it! It was a really fun feature for the goblet of fire event.
If you've been to studios, you'll know the next room is just stuffed full of cool things, a set or a prop wherever you turn! So I'll put a collection of our pics below and try and caption what it is above!
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What an embarrassing fan girl
Ron Weasley's bed in the boys dormitory! A man asked me whilst I was taking it 'are you sure you don't want a picture of the whole room?' and I was like 'No it's okay, Ron's my favourite' and he gave me the weirdest look hahaha
The griffendoor common room and their outfits from the prisoner of azkaban
By the time we'd reached the end of this amazing room of sets, we got to the entrance of the forbidden forest! This was one of the most exciting bits for me as I'd never seen it before! The forest was added about a year after I last went. I don't want to spoil it too much for others by going into great detail but it was amazing and probably my highlight of the day! It's so well done and so damn creepy! There was smoke coming up all from the ground and scary sound effects playing.
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What an embarrassing fan girl
This is a prop from the Yule Ball, and I had to take a picture because of all the stunning pastel colours.
Ron Weasley's bed in the boys dormitory! A man asked me whilst I was taking it 'are you sure you don't want a picture of the whole room?' and I was like 'No it's okay, Ron's my favourite' and he gave me the weirdest look hahaha
This is one of my favourite elements of this room. If I could own a piece and have it in my house this would definitely be one of my first choices! It's so nice seeing everyones wands side by side and being able to appreciate the brilliant details, personalised for all the characters wands.
A selfie in the Mirror of Erized, of course
The griffendoor common room and their outfits from the prisoner of azkaban
All of dumbledoors memories for the pensive! Such a beautiful prop.
They had a set up where a photographer takes a photo of you so it looks like you're a half giant like hagrid and the other person looks human sized. I thought itd be funny if i was the giant for once hahahaha
Made snake phobe Iestyn take a photo with nagini
Voldemort's Dad's grave from the Goblet of Fire
By the time we'd reached the end of this amazing room of sets, we got to the entrance of the forbidden forest! This was one of the most exciting bits for me as I'd never seen it before! The forest was added about a year after I last went. I don't want to spoil it too much for others by going into great detail but it was amazing and probably my highlight of the day! It's so well done and so damn creepy! There was smoke coming up all from the ground and scary sound effects playing.
When you get in properly, you're greeted by buckbeak, but follows is not so charming..
SPOILER ALERT for this video if you haven't been to the forbidden forest section before.. but here's a clip to show you the creepy atmosphere of the entrance to aragog! It was SO well done and definitely one of my favourite parts of it all!
We came out into a gift shop which sold lots of cuddly magical creatures etc, then heard the toot of the hogwarts express from round the corner so we knew what was coming next! The platform 9 and 3/4 room is probably one of the most impressing and homely rooms. There's something so welcoming about seeing the hogwarts express parked up as you walk round the corner.
There was another gift shop in this section which Iestyn really loves and ended up buying a top from. We then went and sat in the train carriages that were open and got our photos done and printed! We heard some kids screaming when they went on before us so we were really worried there would be a jump scare and were so on edge and looked so funny in all the photos. We had a good laugh at ourselves for being such wimps!
Next it was time for the cafeteria which meant... BUTTERBEER! It was Iestyn's first ever time trying it and my second and I couldn't wait. Iestyn being the babe he is bought us a butterbeer to share and me a butterbeer ice cream which I'd never tried before and it was LUSH! Anyway, see iestyn's reaction to trying Butterbeer here..
And here's me enjoying mine!
When I was sat here eating my lunch, a little American girl came up to me and told me she loves my hat, it was so cute. Next we came out into the outdoors bit with Privet Drive and the knight bus etc! I love this section. Here's me and my butterbeer by the knight bus!
And then Iestyn!
The us visiting number 4 Privet Drive
Me looking sad outside the Potters house..
Hagrids bike! Iestyn wasn't too happy I made him go in the sidecar
When back inside, we popped to the loo before continuing into the special effects room! This is somewhere we didn't spent much time as we were conscious of getting back to the coach for the deadline, but would love to have a good look around next time! Hopefully next time we go will be with mum and dad so we drive and aren't under any time constraints!
The next part has got to be one of the most amazing parts of the whole tour. The BEST set. Diagonalley!
However we did have a good look at the artists paintings and sculptures as Iestyns very into things like that himself! He's us and Dobby, the hero we named our hamster after a few days after this hahah
And the it was over! We ended up right where we began 4 hours ago, in the gift shop! I picked up some prezzies for my family and then we went and sat in the cafeteria in the main entrance, wishing we could stay and do it all over again!
We walking back down the marauders map walkway to go get back onto the coach
The coach journey back included a lot of traffic and lot of nodding off.
We were sad to go home but happy to have had such a wonderful day. Thank you so much to the Warner Bros Studio Tour for making our birthday celebrations the best ever for our 18th, everywhere we went people wished us a happy birthday and it felt so special. We can't wait to come again! These were our faces knowing we couldn't go back the very next day..
Would love to hear if any of you have spend a special day like a birthday there and hear your stories of how awesome it was for you.
See you soon for more posts like this one!
E x
*THIS POST IS AN EXACT COPY AND WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON BLOG ESPEARUPDATES.COM ON JUNE 28th 2018*
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