A Lovely Day At The Harry Potter Studio Tour

My Christmas present from the Mr was tickets to the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden Studios.

It was awesome. 

I love Potter and would have been sat there on the doorstep on opening day if I'd had my way, but as the Mr and I work in education we could only go during school holidays and tickets were very hard to come by.

As it was Christmas, the tour was all done up for Christmas. Nice. 

I went knowing hardly anything about it - I had read no reviews, seen barely any pictures except what was on the website, and had no expectations. I would highly recommend all of these things if you are one of those people that, like me, love Potter but just haven't managed to go yet.

As such, I'm not going to "review" the tour, and I'm not going to post all my pictures of the sets and whatnot, I'll try to keep it kind of low-key and kind of spoiler-free - I'll just give some general info that worrywarts like me would like to know. 

 Parking - loads, free.

Busyness - not bad at all. As we arrived they were just allowing people back in after a fire alarm. They let a group in every half hour, and due to the alarm were an hour behind, but it STILL wasn't too busy once you got into the studios. 

Staff - impressive, friendly, helpful. Useful info over tannoy. 

Grub - a cafe and a Starbucks in the foyer area. The cafe sold hot and cold sandwiches and salads as well as snack-y whatnots. Expensive but not too bad. Plenty of seating, especially if there wasn't a fire alarm. 

Another snack bar half-way round selling a small selection of sandwiches, soup, drinks and crisps. Also Butterbeer bar.

Butterbeer - Nasty. The only bit of advice I got pre-tour was from my buddy Miss P who said "Only buy one Butterbeer. It's expensive and you won't be able to drink two." The advice is very sound.

£2.95 in a plastic cup, £6.95 in the fancy tankard that you get to keep (facilities to wash it out before you chuck it in your bag). Then you can drink real beer in it!

Apparently this is one of the only two places in the world to buy a genuine Butterbeer. I will not believe Hermione kept that waistline whilst drinking this crap, though. 

Toilets - Clean, easy to access all the way through.

Photos - The staff tell you the only couple of bits where you can't, otherwise get snapping.

Temperature - No really, this is the kind of thing I worry about. 

Some is outside, a lot of it is quite open plan, so if it's a cool day I recommend a jacket!

Digital Guide - Costs £4.95, highly recommended. Narrated by Tom Felton who's pretty funny and gives insider info, plus there's loads of extra pics, videos and even DanRad's first screen-test.

Time - We did 3 hours but I felt a little rushed - I think if you are a fan and get the digital guide, you will easily fill 4 hours - longer if you go to the shop. 

Shop - Sells everything! Wanna dress like those mannequins above? Go for it. 400 squid for some Voldemort robes? Do it! 

The stuff that people want costs the most. Sweets are particularly extortionate. Seven quid for a chocolate frog, eight for some Every Flavour Beans. Yeah, really. A mug will be about ten quid, the stuffed toys are fairly reasonable (£20 ish for a good sized Fang) and I picked up a very lovely book for £30 which I thought was a good price for how lovely it is. Also some sexy jewellery and art prints, definitely worth a good browse.

Suitability for non-PotterHeads - Actually very. The Mr isn't a big fan but he really liked the tour - there is so much to learn. For example, all the concept art and models... and check out some of DanRad's costumes below with continuity notes. For anyone who loves movies, especially fantasy or sci-fi, it is fascinating to see how they are constructed and the sheer amount of work that goes into them!

Also check out the detail in these newspapers! There were loads of these. Loads, I say. 

Suitability for kiddies - I'd say big Potter fans around age 7, 8 or 9 will love it. But any younger, or non-Potter-enthusiasts may find a lot of it goes over their heads. I didn't take our daughter, who is 6 and has only seen one of the films, and I think that was the right decision - she would have been bored.

Sit-Down Opportunities - What? Who doesn't like sitting down opportunities? I've had some museum trips spoilt by lack of sitting down opportunities and sore feet! No-one wants to stand for five hours. Anyway, there were plenty. 

As I say, overall I loved it and I really want to go back. I feel like I only discovered about 60% and I want to go back and seek out the rest. There are hidden treats everywhere, so it's worth getting that coffee before you go in so you are hyper-alert!

Okay, here's a bit of fun for the PotterNuts:
Fancy taking an OWL exam? I can only do one or two of the questions... but my NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION is to read all the books again then have another crack at this exam. Don't you say I've no ambition.