We were invited to a family blogger event at Warner Brothers studio. This was super exciting as Big A wanted to visit for her birthday which also happened to be this week, Little K went for a sleep over at Nanny’s house.
On arrival we were shown straight to a sign in desk, where we received a tour book, lanyard and vouchers for a free meal and drink, butterbeer, a photo and a surprise from the wand room. At the moment the tour are showing a special feature. ‘The Studio Tour’s Goblet of Fire feature will run from Friday 30th March – Sunday 23rd September 2018 and is included in the ticket price.’
We queued up to enter with lots of other excitable family bloggers. In the area where you first enter there is a cafe, cloakroom, toilets, and starbucks. You can also enter the shop before entering your tour. Allowing yourself enough time would be important on a busy day to ensure you make the most of your tour.
Upon entering you head through to an area where you watch a video and then into the cinema to watch a short video from the actors. You then head to ‘The Great Hall’ As it was Big A’s birthday she was allowed to open the doors, which was very exciting.
The Great Hall was surprisingly smaller than it looks on the television. Beautiful though it was. From this point the tour is self guided unless you use an audio tour or you can book a guided tour (for an additional cost).
We enjoyed looking at all of the outfits, props and videos in the tour. There is so much information and objects which are extremely memorable from the film. Lots of iconic areas and beautifully made props. It really makes you think how magical Harry Potter is and value all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes to make the films.
We thoroughly enjoyed the green screen. You are given a gown to wear and can fly on a broomstick. We were given free photos as part of our event however individual photos costed £14 to buy. You could also buy the video of you flying on your broomstick also as an option. We also had a ‘Have you seen these wizards’ photo too which was fantastic. You are also given a code to download the image to use on social medias which is a great addition! Photos are expensive however inline with many other attractions across the UK.
Around half way through there is the ‘Backlot cafe’ and the Butterbeer stall. We loved the food and thought it was fantastic quality, it was delicious and served very quickly we enjoyed a burger each, although you don’t get any chips unfortunately (We ordered ours without salad). We also tried Butterbeer and Icecream. We weren’t keen on the Butterbeer it is extremely sweet! The ice cream was delicious. You can buy these in a souvenir cup or sundae dish for an extra £3.
We loved exploring the Hogwarts express each of the carriages relates to a different film set. It is great actually climbing aboard the train. We loved having the opportunity to get the iconic platform 9 3/4’s photograph.
The staff throughout the tour were amazing. All engaging in conversation, being genuinely interested in chatting and sharing information with regards to how certain areas were used in the films. The studios are absolutely spotless, toilets are also very clean. The atmosphere was magical, so much to see and lots of buttons for interactive elements and levers to move to create special effects such as in the forbidden forest you can action ‘thunder’ and ‘wind’.
Big A and I really enjoyed learning how to use a wand in ‘Want Choreography’. This was great fun! Trying out the moves! She was much better than me!
Here are a few of our favourite photos (the lighting is dreadful for bloggers) –
Our favourite part of the tour was the Hogwarts model. I have seen photographs previously on others social media sites however unless you see it in real life it is hard to feel the full impact! Even hubby was blown away by the model. Just before viewing Hogwarts there are images and plans of made of paper which are also incredible and very intricate.
This photo does it no justice it is beautiful with little lights and you can see through the windows … you must see it for yourself! We would love to see it when they change it for the Winter snow scene.
When we went into the wand room (the last room you visit before the shop) we were given a free chocolate frog each! This was super exciting and we are going to give one to Little K. These frogs are iconic and usually cost £8.95. When entering the shop we noticed how expensive everything was but if you are an avid Harry Potter fan I suppose you can justify the cost! Big A treated herself to a lovely silver plated necklace which was what we felt was reasonably priced at £10. Wands cost from £29 and other items such as pin badges were £10.
What we thought overall:
We had an absolutely amazing time! The event was very well organised, we feel we had a good opportunity to explore and take part in the authentic tour. There are so many elements which we enjoyed. We were constantly pointing things out to one another lots of ‘look’ ‘wow’ ‘that is amazing’. We would love to visit again and highly recommend visiting. There were some young children there and the only area I would say they may be scared was the forbidden forest. Having spoken to people who have been before it seems they change things around a lot which keeps it fresh! We have left wanting to go again, I don’t think you will ever be able to see it all there is so much to see and read. There is genuinely nothing to improve! I can usually find an area we would change slightly but we had the most incredible time!
Get your tickets here : https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/goblet-of-fire
A massive thank you to Warner Brothers Studio tour for inviting us to the event!
Adventures of the Allum family 
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