27 Feb

Day 18 – Harry Potter Heaven

 

Last day!  Tomorrow was nothing but travel!

We slept in a little.  We had huge plans today, but not until later.

Here’s our hotel:

Mind the gap!!

Our first goal was Westminster Abbey which we had not been inside yet.

Here it is!

Oops. It was Sunday. They were having church!

So we walked. Hello Big Ben!

We found a fish and chips place and decided that would hit the spot!

While we were sitting there, Chase asked if I’d looked at the vacation countdown on my phone lately. I hadn’t, so I opened it up. Look what he did! I loved it and almost cried at the same time.

We walked to the Underground after a yummy lunch. We passed Zara on the way and almost bought something, but passed. Must say I was loving the shopping in London.

We decided to stop at the Tower Bridge before our big destination for the day.

It was great! I wish we had more time to do the museum!

We bought some snacks and got on the Underground. Where were we going you ask? Well we had reservations at the Harry Potter Warner Brother’s Studio Tour! Woo hoo!!

According to the website, we should get there 20 minutes early to check in and could not be late for our reservation or we may not get in. It also said it would take about 20 minutes on the Underground plus a short bus ride at the end.

What we did not realize was that was only if we were on an express train. Oh my word, we were not. It took us more like an hour.

We thought we had plenty of time and suddenly we didn’t. I was starting to stress a little. Or maybe a lot.

Ally was going to KILL me if we missed this. Seriously. She may never have spoken to me again.

When we finally got to the end of the line, we didn’t want to wait for the bus. We ran right to a taxi driver and asked if he could take 5 of us and could he go as quickly as possible.

He could and did. When we arrived, Dad paid while I ran to the window to check in.

We made it! Hallelujah!

Walking inside we found these:

Inside was a big room with the store on one side, a café on the other and the line for the tour in front. The walls were lined with awesome pictures:

We decided to wait on dinner and the store and go right for the tour.

Harry’s room was in the line!

And more good news from the line – Free Wi-Fi! Woot woot!

All the better to Instagram and make your friends jealous.

The first room they take you into is a room full of screens where they showed movie clips. Then we went into a small theater. Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint appeared on screen as themselves.

They told us how much fun it had been to film and how they felt like they grew up there. They also assured us that none of the props we were about to see were replications. They were all the actual props and clothing they had used in the filming of the movies.

After they finished talking, the screen lifted and we were staring at – the doors of the Great Hall.

Oh. My. Word.

Goosebumps. Seriously. We all got together and when they opened the doors. We were IN the Great Hall!!

In. It.

They had uniforms behind the tables:

They told us a little about the Hall and what we were going to see and of course I took a million pictures.

Ally sitting at a Hogwart’s table!

Looking back at the doors:

The rest of the tour was self-guided at our own pace. It was divided into two ginormous warehouses with a café and some larger set pieces outside and in between the two.

Yule Ball attire:

Yule Ball decoration:

My kind of feast!

Ceiling in the Great Hall:

Wigs:

Bellatrix (obviously):

Multiple costume changes:

It’s Harry’s bed!

Ron’s bed:

I wonder how much this is worth?

It’s so hard to tell if this picture is straight:

Mirror of Erised:

Gryffindor Common Room:

The Invisibility Cloak!

Sirius and Tonks clothes!

Fawkes the Phoenix!

Dumbledore’s Office:

Hello, Snape.

Birdcage:

Ack! It’s the Snitch!!

Remus Lupin’s Trunk:

The Weasley’s cottage:

The baddies:

Dolores Umbridge’s Office. Boo!!

I solemnly swear I am up to no good.

Outside! Here’s the bus!

The bridge blew me away:

It’s the Potter’s home:

Privet Drive. So cool!!

Chess pieces:

Inside the next building. Not gonna lie. She freaked me out:

It’s the Monster Book of Monsters!

Aunt Petunia:

Poor Doby.

Buckbeak:

He’s freaky too:

What do you know, we are in Diagon Alley!

There’s Gringott’s:

And Olivanders!

Joke Shop!

There were a TON of White Card Models. They were so cool!

Plans everywhere!

I had seen pictures of what was waiting in the next room online and still was not prepared.

There are no pictures to capture how huge and breathtaking this was. My mouth dropped open when I turned the corner. Look at the size of the people to get some idea of how huge this was.

The details were stunning.

The light kept changing on it which made taking pictures uber-difficult. When the night scenes happened the whole room was blue! I hadn’t seen my parents in a while and I was afraid they were going crazy waiting for us, so I didn’t wait for a light change!

There were soooo many wands!

At the end we ate at the little cafeteria and then shopped. This was a barbeque sandwich that was quite yummy.

I loved the coke bottles in the UK. They all had a name on them. We looked for friend’s names every time we bought one. I thought this was appropriate for today.

We got some great souvenirs. Apparently I completely failed at taking pictures inside the store. I apologize to all trip report readers.

I bought Chase a baseball hat that says Seekers that was super cool. Sadly, he accidentally left it on Space Mountain at Disneyland a few weeks later and it’s now gone forever. Shame on you, hat stealers.

Here’s the main area without so many people:

Goodbye, Harry!

It’s the Harry Potter bus!

See how happy a girl with a Harry Potter bag is?

So I can’t tell you enough how much we loved this tour. Dad and Mom like Harry Potter fine but aren’t huge fans like us. Even they agreed it was amazing.

If you’re a huge fan it may be worth a trip to London all on its own. Yep. I said it. It was that good.

We took the Harry Potter bus back to the Underground and this time, with the help of some locals, we caught an Express train! I don’t know if you can see how many people have Harry Potter bags at the Underground stop:

Look! Alight here for the tour!

Back on the train and home to the hotel:

Tomorrow I was dropping the kids off at Heathrow to meet up with their youth group from church and go to Scotland for two weeks. So we were up late packing and sorting.

Our marvelous adventure was at an end!

It was such a great trip. Absolutely one of the best of my life. Thank you for following along with me!

 

 

Our 19-Day Mediterranean Adventure – Greece, Turkey and the Search for Free Wifi

Day 0 – Crazy Days Before Departure! 
Day 1 – On Our Way! 
Day 2 – London Layover 
Day 3 – Embarkation!  
Day 4 – The Beauty That is Monaco 
Day 5 – La Spezia aka the Road to Pisa or Florence 
Day 6 – Rome Baby!
Day 7 – Sea Day Fun! 
Day 8 – Introducing The Pneumonia 
Day 9 – Athens and the Inside of the Hospital Onboard!
Day 10 – Turkey 
Day 11 – Mykonos and the Start of a Countdown to Get Back to Mykonos 
Day 12 – Sea Day and Palo Dinner 
Day 13 – Segways in Malta! 
Day 14 – Last Day Onboard 
Day 15 – Disembark and Barcelona 
Day 16 – Travel to London
Day 17 – London Baby! 
Day 18 – Harry Potter Heaven