Harry Potter Studio Tour

After years of promising to take Brandon to the Harry Potter Studio Tour, we finally got to go today as a belated treat for his birthday. Unfortunately no Joshua with us as he wasn't really interested and wanted to go fishing instead. Also there was no Tina as she was working last night and thus was in bed. So it was me, Brandon and Holly with our special guest guide for the day, Auntie Nicky.

I have to confess that I have personally never watched any of the Harry Potter movies from start to finish and therefore probably didn't have the same appreciation of the tour as Brandon did. However the tour really opened my eyes to the amount of work and the level of detail which is put in to these movies from all of the hand painted pictures, tapestries, animatronics etc.etc. I am definitely going to make an effort to now sit down and watch all of the movies.

Even Holly enjoyed the tour and as usual was very keen to be in loads of pictures. There was only two bits of the tour which she didn't enjoy and that was the large spiders in the wood and then the dragon scene in the bank.

Brandon had saved all of his birthday money for the shop at the end and I have to say was very tame with his spend and in no way got anywhere near close to challenging some of Amy's spends. In the end he only spent £132 on 3 wands and a Harry Potter watch. I also treated him to another bottle of Butterbeer as he really enjoyed the glass that I had with lunch.

Anyway thanks to Auntie Nicky for guiding us around and being able to have intelligent conversation with Brandon about the tour (as opposed to dumb Dad who knew nothing about the Harry Potter World). This blog is a bit of a picture fest and for once I am not going to embarrass myself by trying to explain what most of the pictures are. Maybe I'll sit down with Brandon at a later date and update the picture descriptions, but for now most are blank.

Brandon's 1st visit to Harry Potter Studio Tour for his 13th Birthday.

Nicky, Holly and Brandon with one of the large chess pieces.

Marauders map.

The floating candles in the cafe.

Holly with a large chocolate ice-cream which she couldn't finish.

Brandon enjoyed a rather nice looking cookie dough milk shake.

Hopefully the kids won't complain about the size of their bedrooms again!

The great hall.

Really thought Brandon would get his picture taken with his favourite house.

Some of the moving stairs and loads of the hand painted paintings used in the films.

Now why can't the boys keep their rooms as tidy as the dorm?

A selection of the 5,000 wands used in the film.

Brandon is now looking forward to the Florida roller coaster ride based on this.

Bringing back memories of my childhood with the Ford Anglia from the film.

Magic carrot cutting, ironing and dishes etc. If only we could use these spells at home.

Ever wondered what Holly would look like being bigger than her Dad.

In to the woods we go where Holly got a little scared of the spiders.

Platform 9 3/4. Nowhere near King's Cross station in London (who ever thought Harry Potter Studio Tour was in central London????).

Brandon and Holly made some Howlers.

Me and the kiddies with the train from the Harry Potter films.

Magically pushing a trolley through a wall.

And Holly's turn.

On the Hogwart train.

The sweet shop on the train.

Lunchtime and mine and Brandon's first experience with Butterbeer.

I never realised the Knight Bus was 3 floors until today.

The wonky bridge.

Me and the kiddies in the Ford Anglia.

A happy me in an old Ford.

Until I get kicked out by Holly on a swivel chair.

Never knew there was a shark character in Harry Potter.

The spectacular marble bank.

One of the goblins working in the bank.

The engineering behind this vault door is incredible when you see all the intricate moving parts.

The destroyed bank scene which featured the really impressive dragon scene that scared Holly.

The amazing Diagon Alley

Us 4 in Diagon Alley.

Puking pastilles in the sweet shop.

At the end of the tour - the very impressive scaled model of Hogwarts.

Attention to details is just incredible.

They even projected a firework display on the side of the model.