Little Sis in London: Harry Potter Studio Tour

When I was just a wee lass in upstate New York, me and my sister had just one very special wish in life. We wanted to go to Disney World. And my parents, being the poor but ever encouraging individuals that they were fed that hope along. My Dad would tell us that if we collected all the change on the floor of their closet and put it in the change jug, by the time we filled up one or two of them we could head to Disney. My Dad worked in the kind of industry where he always had loads of loose change in his pockets and most of it would get haphazardly thrown onto the floor of their closet. Off we went to the closet to collect all the change and put it in the water jug. We hoped, and we dreamed, and we couldn't wait to head to Disney.

This is when I learned what evil was, kids. DON'T believe your parents. My parents did not bring us to Disney. Instead we moved to Minnesota, which is decidedly un-Disneylike. Disappointed. And I've held on to that grudge for awhile (actually, just about the Disney thing. I ended up loving Minnesota for the few years we lived there. I almost became famous with my girl gang. We called ourselves the Fruit Girls. OH YES WE DID. I was too cool for you to understand.)

Years ago in the height of the Harry Potter mania after the movies were officially done, we caught word of the Harry Potter World down in Florida and that desire to head there again over took us. Even as full grown adults. Well kids, I did make it to Disney. But I ran through it instead and just spent my only free day off at Harry Potter World. You can read about that stuff here.

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Wait....did you see what I did there? I told you I was gonna link to a post about Harry Potter World...and then I didn't. How's that feel Mom and Dad? Huh? Not good, I bet. I'm ready to go to Disney whenever you two are. 

Really I just forgot to blog about that experience. But I did love it.

And now for the actual point of this post (yes. There is one. I swear.)

Harry Potter Studios with my little sis was so much fun. Also, the second time I've been. It's so big and vast that going a second time (or maybe a third, or a fourth...) doesn't lessen the excitement at all. 

If you do go, I'd recommend eating properly before hand and then investing the extra cash for the audio tour. SO much good info. And you get chatted up by Tom Felton. But when doing the audio tour, you'll need to allow yourself at least 2.5-3 hours in the very first building. Once you get to the outside bit and then through the second building, you'll breeze right through. But this is why you need to eat properly prior.

Full English Breakfast and milky tea...yup. That is eating properly right there.

You get picked up in a pretty kick ass bus.

But obviously it's no comparison to the real knight bus. Which is actual buses welded together and enforced with steel on the bottom so that when it was driven, it wouldn't tip over. And they shut down parts of London just to film scenes with it being driven around.

A small scale model of Hogwarts that was being built as the books were being written. So they had to add things and change bits when J.K. Rowling would reveal new information about Hogwarts as the books went on. But they used this model to shoot a lot of the movie footage of Hogwarts, as well as a real life castle here in the UK.

Let's play Spot-the-Super-Nerd....Oh wait...THERE SHE IS.

We freaked out to learn those were the actual clothes that the actors wore. We kind of freaked out over every bit of information actually. We're generally very excitable people.

The great hall. Though I've been in the one that inspired J.K. which is in Oxford and is much, much smaller, but still looks really freaking cool.

It was freezing out but we did not care. Privet Drive was pretty awesome to check out.

And the actual cupboard under the stairs that they used in the films. They have this right in the lobby next to the line to get into the studio space.

Overall it was a ridiculously fun day. The Making of Harry Potter....or HARRY POTTER DISNEY WORLD as we like to call it, definitely fulfilled all my nerd fantasies.

Ummm, Mom and Dad, I still want to go to Disney and have a beer with Mickey. Actually, that's a lie, I am terrified of any person completely covered in animal costumes or cartoon costumes or just any costume where I can't identify the person underneath. Come one, what if it's an alien in there? YOU DON'T KNOW.

xx Lindsay