Day 8 - Happy Birthday Sweet Cassy - WB Studios Harry Potter Tour = Surprise

While we didn't initially plan this trip to coincide with my daughter's 12th Birthday it sort of worked out that way and what better way to celebrate it than in London.  Really, outside London in Watford at Warner Brothers Studio on the sets of Harry Potter.

Our family are Big Potter Fans.  My kids have grown up with Harry and crew and both my husband and I are as big of fans as they are.

I snuck their robes into the luggage and didn't even tell my husband about it.   I rolled them into the backpack as we made our way to the train station once again to Watford.   The kids are unaware of where we are going or what we are doing.

Where are we going????

Seriously?   OMG...BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!!

 As excited as she is, she is still exhausted so a little nap is in order

As we boarded the "harry Potter shuttle bus at Watford Junction she is rattling away.  "You know what would have been awesome mom?  If we had our robes...."   Well here they are darling....

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER

Just about ready to go in

The  Cupboard under the Stairs.   Now we are in line to go in.  My husband was a little worried that the kids dressing up was a bit infantile.  Until of course the 20 year old hotties behind us saw the kids robes and gushed how jealous they were.

Here we go

After a short film about the making of Harry Potter the screen rises and we are welcomed into Hogwarts by the beautiful doors we see in the film. 

As the doors open we are ushered into the Great Hall

Encouraged to take your time  and as many photos as you like we wander about and take it all in

Here is Harry's first robes from the Philosopher's Stone.  So Little

The floating candles

Props from the Yule Ball

 Costumes from the same

In front of the Chocolate props

Alan Rickman's wig

Dumbledore's hair

Various costumes.  The second photo shows the progression of Harry's wardrobe through the fight scenes in the final film Deathly Hallows

Another entrance to Hogwart's

In front of the Leaky Cauldron

Liam stamping his "passport"

The Mirror from Philosopher's Stone

Potions Class

Various artifacts from the films

We head into Gryffindor's bedrooms and common room now

The Invisibility Cloak

Here is Harry's and Ron's beds.  Little tidbit.  They never made the beds bigger as the kids grew so they were cuddled up in them near the end.

The entrance to Dumbledore's office

Dumbledore's office

 The Pensive

The memory vials

 Opening the door to the Chamber of Secrets

hadrid's hut

The vault door from Gringotts' Bank.  It was truly a work of art with real moving parts. Incredible

Deloris's office

This passport is really hard to push

Making things move at Weasley's Hollow

Ministry of Magic

 The Evil doors.  Bellatrix, Deatheater, Voldemort

 

Ministry of Magic

Atrium of the Ministry

The kids got to ride a broom on greenscreen to film and then we left in inside studio to the back lot where they played on other props.  They flying car.

mmmmmm Butterbeer. (at five pounds a glass it better have been good!!!)

Tom Riddle's grave

The only part of the bridge ever built. The rest was put  together with CGI

 The Night Bus interior

All aboard. It's gonna be a bumpy ride

Hello...Petunia...are you home?

The destroyed Potter home

Giant Chess Pieces

 We now head into the Creature shop

John Cleese aka Sir Nicholas, Nearly Headless Nick

My daughter on a bad hair day

See?  She agrees.

Dementors...feel the chill

Poor Dobby.  :(

Buckbeak

Gringott's model

Diagon Alley!!!!

I had to get a pic of my evil banker husband in front of the Goblin's bank

The staff were always helpful to snag a photo.  Really the staff were truly outstanding throughout.

 The original drawings and artwork displayed was truly phenomenal.   You see how much work went into every detail and it's exceptional.

 As we near the end of our tour (now almost 3 hours), we see the original white paper models made.

And Finally....The model used to film the castle for all the films.  It was incredible.

Finally we enter the wand shop again.  All of the wand boxes were hand made and in this final room.  Every box is inscribed with a name of someone who worked on the film.  There is box for every single person.   I think it's a pretty cool acknowldegment

Goodbye Hogwarts.  This was the best birthday ever and it's not over yet.   We jump on a train back to London

 

Almost forgot!!!  We headed back to St. Pancraes station and found Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross.   Hello photo op

Their favorites spot on the tube.  We tried to tell them it wasn't actually a seat.