You're a Wizard Harry!

Today was the fateful day. Today had the same importance as the Trooping of the Colours. It was that important. Today, we went to the Harry Potter studio tour in Watford. It was great, and over 200 pictures were taken. And a lot of them will be posted on this blog for your viewing pleasure. I will start at the beginning. In order to get to the studio tour, which could not fit in the city of London, we had to take the rail, aka the train. This only seems fitting as we were basically going to Hogwarts. The train was lovely and more crowded than I thought. It was also short which was great. Only twenty minutes! From there we got on a doubledecker that was all decked (ha!) out in Harry Potter decor. What a way to start the tour.

We got there a bit early so had to wait around so of course we scoped out the gift shop and such. Then we joined a long queue to enter the tour. It took a while, but it was all worth it. And they had lots to look at during the wait. Including....duh duh duh...the cupboard under the stairs where poor Harry resides at the Dursleys. And in that cupboard was one of the earliest pair of Harry Potter glasses made for the movie.

We then were forced to wait in a room to watch a small video. Then we were corralled into a theater with comfy chairs to watch another video. Just let me into the studio tour, please! After all that, we finally entered into the Great Hall! Ah! So exciting. It was the actual great hall, which table settings and everything. We even got to look at some of the robes worn by different houses. (There are pictures below!) It was great. The cast of Harry Potter stepped on the same floor I did. Crazy. I know. Be jealous.

The Great Hall. 

Dumbledore!

Then we made our way into the actual studio, where they filmed actual scenes. It was loaded with props, costumes, and sets. Loaded. It took forever to get through the entire place, and that was only 1/3 of the tour. I suppose, I will show you in images. Words (besides captions) cannot describe in full the wonders of this place.

Daniel Radcliffe's Wardrobe

The boy's dormitory. That's Ron Weasley's bed.

The wands of the cast.

Gryffindor common room and Harry, Ron, and Hermione's clothing.

The invisibility cloak!

Entrance to Dumbledore's office.

So that's how you play Quiddich!

The Weasley's kitchen

Lord Voldemort and the Malfoys

There you have it. The highlights of the first portion of the studio. Check facebook, there will be a ton more pictures for you to enjoy. Next we move onto the outside portion where a few larger pieces were stored. And we also got to experience butterbeer. I don't really know what to think of it. Still undecided. Below are pictures from that portion. Enjoy!

The Knight Bus

And then we moved into the second studio. This one was not so overwhelming. It's focus was animatronics, creatures, and the creative team, while the first had no focus. Everything was so very cool. We got to walk down Diagon Alley, which was ah-mazing. Seriously. And we learned how different creatures came to life.

Fawkes

It was so sad when George died!!

Dobby!

Diagon Alley with all the shops!

The best part was at the end. And they were so smart to keep this until the end. There was in a gigantic room a scale model of Hogwarts. It was magnificent and huge. It was used to do flyover shots of the school and took a ton of people to make. It was beautiful. And of course they played sentimental music in there, so I almost teared up! Then right past that they had wand boxed with the names of everyone who was a part of these movies, as well as a touching quote from J.K. Rowling. Magnificent. Please, have a look at the pictures:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

A wand box for everyone who was a part of the HP team.

Okay! So that is the highlights of the Harry Potter studio tour! Wasn't it great?! I thought so. As a souvenir I bought a legit chocolate frog. The box is even a replica of the ones used in the movies. How cool! I haven't eaten it yet, but I'm sure it will be great! I hope you enjoyed your mini tour!

Week Three: Day Six: BLC 13