After a slightly stressful journey (we had never been to the particular station we had to take a train from, and it ended up leaving later than we had hoped), we finally made it to the Warner Brothers studio with 20 minutes to spare before our tour was supposed to start. We picked up our tickets and went inside and waited in a queue to get into the actual tour. They took our large group first into a room where we were told the layout of the tour, and then into a theater to watch a short film with Emma, Dan, and Rupert. As the film ends, the three of them walk through the Great Hall doors. The screen rises and reveals those same doors right in front of us!
The tour guide welcomed us and then ushered us into the Great Hall. As I found with most of the sets, it felt much smaller than I had imagined. Also, there was no enchanted ceiling. It's incredible what film editors can do.
The Great Hall was the end of the guided portion of our tour. From there, we could wander through the three sound stages at our leisure. They said the average amount of time spent there was 3 hours, but the longest was 7.5 hours! We ended up being there for 3 hours, for the record.
The first sound stage was maybe not the biggest, but definitely the most full and iconic. It had the sets of the boy's dormitory, the Gryffindor common room, Dumbledore's office, the Burrow, Hagrid's hut, the potions classroom, the Ministry of Magic, with other props scattered around the room. I just couldn't believe that THIS was where everything came alive. It didn't feel real.
Dumbledore's Office
Boy's dormitory
Potions
Gryffindor common room
The Burrow
Umbridge's Ministry office
As I wandered through the sets, I loved reading all the background information. So much time and effort was put into making sure that these sets were perfect, down to every last detail. It was incredible to see things on the set that they didn't even show in the movies. They hand printed and painted all of the books and paintings. SO COOL!
After the first sound stage, there was an outside bit, where you could also purchase refreshments (aka BUTTERBEER). Real butterbeer is only sold in two locations: London and Harry Potter world in Florida. Now I've had it both places!!
Yum!
The Knight Bus (All destinations, except underwater!)
Breezeway at Hogwarts
#4 Privet Drive
The final part of the tour included the "creatures": goblins, werewolves, animals, Aragog, Buckbeak, etc. Then you could walk through Diagon Alley, which definitely felt small and cramped (but I suppose it's real!)
The last part of the tour was my favorite. In a large, dimly lit room was the scaled down model of Hogwarts used for sweeping shots of the castle. The castle was lit up and it was just beautiful.
Before you went out to the gift shop, this was displayed on the wall:
I'm obsessed with that quote from J.K. Harry Potter was my childhood, and it was so incredible to be able to experience where it came alive. There were so many young kids there, and we couldn't stop talking about how they don't really get it. Most of them probably didn't (or haven't yet!) read the books, they've only seen the movies. They haven't been able to experience the anticipation of another Harry Potter installment. While the movies and the books are done, I know I can always return to them for comfort.
After we left the studio, we came home and napped. I went out with most of the girls (a lot of the building is out of town) to a really cool bar. It had a pub look, but there was a DJ playing really good music. I had a lot of fun, and it was really close to the house!
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