What Home Education Looks Like - 15th January 2018

Our long anticipated trip to the Harry Potter Tour at Warner Brother Studios! It was a huge Home ed trip (170 of us!) and had been booked almost a year ago! 

I know a fair bit about the films but am not a super fan myself (just have friends who are!) so I wasn't sure whether I'd be impressed or not. Actually the tour was very impressive with something for everyone. The tour begins with a short film and then the screen rises up to reveal a hidden door through which you see the first recreated set... the Great Hall.

Part of the reason the tour had been planned for this month was that everything would still be set up for Christmas.

You can only stay in that part, for a short while, but you can then do the rest of the tour at your own leisure. The next room begins showing you all the background of the making of the film, with, costumes, props, special effects, interviews with the crew and complete sets. I loved that you could see all sides of the sets, even the scaffolding holding up the outside. The amount of work that went into each scene was impressive.

The tour didn't just involve looking at things though, it had interactive parts where you could try out some magic.....

From that section you go through a part that was new for this season, The Forbidden Forest, a recreation of the amazing effects used to create a realistic magical forest complete with Hippogriff and storm effects..... oh and giant spiders!

Round the corner from there you suddenly find yourself face to face with a giant steam train, in a recreation of the station, and a chance for more interaction....

Then following on from there is the cafe with a chance to try the famous Butterbeer, either as is, or as ice cream. Surprisingly nice! Though sadly non-alcoholic ;)

We paused a bit there to catch our breath and enjoy our beer..... and regroup as Papaya was so busy taking photos (half of these are from her) that she kept lagging behind.

Then the next section was the outdoor sets and vehicles with again a chance to get photos. I was impressed with how many free photo opportunities there were!

After that was the main special effects section with the scarily realistic and lifelike models.

Then through to the bit I had most wanted to see, Diagon Alley!

I was a bit disappointed you couldn't actually go in any of the shops though :(

The whole tour was very much a celebration of the experts and artists who created the films, with even a section on the tiny cardboard mock ups of the sets.

The final reveal being the massive model of Hogwarts that was used for all exterior shots. It was huge and so very complete. Dressed in snow and with a cycle of lights showing day and night.

It has already made me view the films differently, and I knew a fair bit about film production even before we went. A big surprise for me was that I came out wanting to go again. Our friends had actually only seen one film before we went so they now plan to watch all the rest before we go again next year.