Warner Bros The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour – Review

Recently we made our first trip to the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesden, Watford. When we had booked our tickets in April, we did not know the date we had selected would fall during the Halloween at Hogwarts / Dark Arts season.

After having your tickets scanned you can purchase the Audio Guides for the tour (which we didn’t do) and then enter the main complex hall where a giant suspended Ukrainian Ironbelly is there to meet you. Here you can find the Chocolate Frog Café for all your treats, coffees, and milkshakes (more on that later) and The Food Hall where you can get a nice breakfast and lunch and there is also access to the Harry Potter Merchandise Shop.

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The Tour

As soon as your booking time comes around, you can start your tour. I would advise joining the queue about 10-15 minutes before, as the queues can get busy and long (TOP TIP: We did our tour first thing in the morning and the queues weren’t too bad, but at 12 when we were leaving, the queues were massive).

TOP TIP: If you have forgotten to pick up an Activity Passport from the front, in the waiting room the Member of Staff will have them to hand out, they are also available again at the first Stamping station near the Boys Dormitory.

Once the short films about the Making of Harry Potter are completed, you are welcomed to enter the Great Hall. As soon as the doors were opened, there was the first ‘wow’ moment, the hall was vast and decorated for Halloween with 100’s of pumpkins floating above the spooky fest, which is seen in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

PHOTO OP: This is a great place to get an iconic photo – the best time to do this is near the end of your time there, you have about 7-10 minutes to look around before the next group of people will be brought through, so wait, if you can and snap away!

You are then led to see the Interior Sets which have been built for us to view. These sets include the Boys Dormitory, The Potions Classroom, The Burrow, Dumbledore’s Office, etc. All of which have their own amount of attention to detail, for example in Dumbledore’s Office there nearly 900 individually labelled memory vials.

There are so many visual effects to see as well, the Chamber of Secrets door is fully operational and looks incredible.

At this section, there is also a green screen available for the guests to create their own moments on a broom, whizzing around London like the cast did during filming.

TOP TIP: If you want to purchase the photos or videos from these set up, the cashiers are available there, but further on, on the tour there are other professional green screen photo opportunities available and other places to purchase the photos. We found the queue at the Quidditch counter was quite long and the queues later in the tour weren’t so bad.

The Dark Arts

As mentioned above, we visited during the Dark Arts season, and we got treated to Death Eaters procession where they would show off their authentic costumes, and their combat moves. After they had done their moves, there was a photo opportunity with them. It was an incredible experience to see them in action and it added to the scary vibe in the Dark Arts section of the tour.

This section is also where you will find the famous Basilisk which is a fan favourite (especially if you part of the Slytherin House).

Forbidden Forest

Right next to the Dark Arts section, you will find the enormous gates which lead you to the Forbidden Forest. This was one of things we as a family were excited to see and we were not disappointed. The vibe was so on point, the setting dark and very creepy. You get to meet the Hippogriff Buckbeak, who bows his head to greet you and looks incredible, also there is another interactive section where you see the huge spiders which includes Aragog, the set looks so good and so scary!

Platform 9 ¾

The legendary Hogwarts Express locomotive is in this section, in all her glory! It is a truly magnificent set piece! It can be boarded, and you can look in each compartment which denotes certain scenes in the films, i.e., the icy window when the dementors make their first appearance, the sweet cart scene, etc.

There are amble photo opportunities to be had, with the train itself, with the trollies going through the wall, and there is also a green screen available where you can be on the train travelling to Hogwarts.

Halfway Point

This is the part of the tour where you can have a sit down, relax, have a bite to eat and get your hands on the famous and Butterbeer. Now, Butterbeer is a hotly debated subject when it comes to whether it is tasty or not. We, as a family all really liked it and would 100% be getting it again! We also tried to Butterbeer soft serve ice-cream, which was also, very tasty and would love to try it again! The ice-cream gave us a salted caramel flavouring with a hint of the taste of the drink. Big thumbs up from us!

Outside

Pivot Drive

Pivot Drive is open for everyone to come and have a look inside, you are met with the scene of 100’s of Hogwarts Letters coming through the fireplace and Aunt Petunia floating away! The details in the letters and the scene in general are so good.

Knight Bus

The purple Knight Bus is on the forecourt and has multiple interactive buttons which can be pressed by the guests. The bus looks incredible and being totally bespoke to the film, makes this all the more impressive.

Professor Sprouts Greenhouse

Another part of the tour that we were looking forward to was entering Professor Sprouts Greenhouse and meeting the Mandrakes. The set is amazingly realistic and was built by the filmmakers for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. You can step into the greenhouse and stop to pull out a potted Mandrake and our daughter had so much fun re-enacting the famous scene.

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Gringotts & Vault

Another wow moment was when we entered the Gringotts Wizarding Bank set, the set is lined by towering marble pillars, and has 3 magnificent crystal chandeliers in the middle. There are so many hidden details with quills, ledgers and piles of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts and Goblins working as cashiers.

PHOTO OP: As the Gringotts Wizarding Banks is just after halfway section, the crowds seemed to empty out a fair bit, so the opportunity to get another iconic photo with the chandeliers and the general settings in the background was quite easy.

Straight after the Gringotts Bank section there is a short Special Effects show where the Ukrainian Ironbelly comes out of the ruins of the bank and breathes fire! We have seen this effect a lot online but when you see it in person, it is effective and super cool.

Diagon Alley

As we entered Diagon Alley we seen a very menacing Death Eater who was waving his wand at passer-by’s and getting photos with whoever was brave enough!

We got a chance to look around and marvel at the details of each shop and how realistic it all looked. There is Gringotts Bank, Flourish and Blotts, Ollivanders Wand Shop and Weasley & Weasley Joke Shop.

The Hogwarts Castle

The final wow moment was walking into the area where the Hogwarts Castle is housed. This is a detailed model of the castle and was built for the first film, every courtyard, tower, and turret were filmed and enhanced with digital effects to create the realistic views of this school. As this is the final section of the tour, it is worth taking your time to look around all the intricate details of the castle and surrounding areas as they are truly incredible!

Harry Potter Merchandise Shop

Once the tour is completed, you enter the shop. The place where you will undoubtably spend a lot of money! There are so many awesome items to be picked up here, you can pick up your house cloaks, and pretty much anything in the house colours.

Getting There

WB Studios recommend that you arrive 20 minutes prior to your ticketed time. There is ample parking, and it is free of charge!

If you are not travelling by car, you can make your way to Watford Junction train station, which is a 20-minute train journey from London Euston. From Watford Junction there is a shuttle bus which is included in your entry ticket and takes around 15 minutes.

TOP TIP: One thing to remember or to note is the studio is not based in London as it states, it is based in Watford.

Review

I think, the Making of Harry Potter Studios far surpassed our expectations. We couldn’t get over the attention to detail in the sets and props, the stories behind them, the grandness of some of the parts, like Gringotts, The Vault, and Diagon Alley and the special effects in the Forbidden Forest and Platform 9 3/4.

The fact our visit coincided with the Halloween at Hogwarts / Dark Arts season, made it more amazing! It made us want to visit again at Hogwarts in the Snow which is available from mid-November to mid-January and when there is no event too.

I would 100% recommend getting the Activity Passport, as it made the experience fun and gave us something else to do on our tour around. The Passport also offers clues about how to find the 16 golden snitches that are located around the studios.