Warner Bros Studio Tour – Part 2, September 2024

Hopefully, you’ve already read the first part of our saga at the Warner Brother Studio Tour. If not, you can read it here: Warner Bros Studio Tour – Part One

Our day at the Warner Brothers Studio Tour was going brilliantly, aside from some ‘I need a carry’, ‘I’m hungry’ and ‘I want to go home’ moans from Elliott. We’d seen so much, stamped our passports, seen Dementors repelled and Death Eaters performing their show, been in the Great Hall, followed the spiders through the Forbidden Forest and boarded the Hogwarts Express. Now, it was time to eat.

We grabbed a table to drop our bags, then joined the massive queue at the Backlot Café. Some of the food options sounded great, so we opted for the BBQ pulled Pork fries, the kids had Hot Dogs and fries, and we got the Butterbeer Flight (1x Butterbeer in a souvenir tankard, 1x Butterbeer cupcake and 1x Butterbeer Ice Cream in a souvenir tub), and I had a Butterbeer Latte. The food came to £27.70 and the Butterbeer Flight was £19.95. Not crazy prices, but not cheap. Here are the menus.

The food was ok. Hot Dog buns were a little stale and fell apart chips were warm, but the pulled pork was nice. The Butterbeer is nice (though we prefer the hot and frozen versions you get at the Wizarding World in Universal Orlando), the cake was a bit dry and flavourless, though most of the flavour was in the cream frosting on top, but it tasted better with the ice cream, which itself was the winner. Fed and watered, we took our souvenir cup and dish to the tankard wash, freshened up and headed outside to continue our tour.

A bit of fresh air and daylight revitalised Elliott, who was less grumpy outside, and it’s a bit quieter, so Evan was a little less anxious with a bit more space to manoeuvre. Plus plenty of great sets to see and photos to take.

Theres the usual favourites out here to grab a photo on, like the full-size Knight Bus, the iconic Hogwarts Bridge, Hagrid’s motorbike and sidecar and the Weasley’s Ford Anglia. There were also some new and upgraded things to explore.

Privet Drive has been here for a while but has since expanded. On a previous visit, you could only walk into the hall and look in the front room, but now you can walk all the way through, seeing the hundreds of Hogwarts letters flying across the living room from The Philosophers Stone, and into the kitchen for a replay of Prisoner of Azkaban, with an inflated Aunt Marge flying out of the patio, with an unconscious Dudley on the floor! At the rear, you enter Harrys bedroom from Chamber of Secrets, with everyone’s favourite house-elf, Dobby.

We loved this, though it’s a bit noisy! You can walk through the greenhouse and see costumes of the Herbology students along with Professor Sprout. You can even pull a Mandrake from it’s pot and hear it scream, so don’t forget your ear defenders!

There’s also a fantastic small-scale model of the Burrow, which is great to look at all the details. I don’t think you really appreciate the details that go into these models and sets until you see them up close.

Back inside for the next part of the tour and you go straight into the creature workshop and animatronics section. There’s plenty to see and do here, including videos introduced by Warwick Davis, telling you about how creatures are made, make up, prosthetics, making them move and come to life. You can animate a CGI Dobby by moving in front of the camera for a Motion Capture experience or check out the case that holds a Mandrake, Hedwig and the weird Voldemort baby thing, that you can animate at the touch of a button.

There was a section dedicated to the characters played by Warwick Davis, and models and costumes of each of the Professor Flitwicks, Griphook and the Chief Gringotts Goblin.

Theres a section that showed you the material that was used to create the faces and hands of the goblins, allowing you to see and feel what it was like. It’s heavy stuff too, so must’ve been uncomfortable to wear all day! There were also several cases of Goblin heads!

Lots of models and props here, including scale models of Harry and Dumbledore, Dobby, Werewolf Lupin, Dementors, the Basilisk’s head and its skeletal remains, Grawp, Aragog, dragons, and Hagrid’s favourite Hippogriff, Buckbeak.

Gringotts looks amazing. New to us so it was quite the ‘wow’ moment walking in. It’s very impressive. We’ve seen the Gringotts queue at Universal, which is impressive enough itself, but nothing prepares you for the level of detail and intricate design of the real thing. With the great chandeliers, high ceilings and large columns, Goblins at their workstations, desks with quills and ledgers, gold and scales, plus costumes for Harry and Griphook under the cloak, Ron in Death Eater attire and Hermione as Bellatrix, it’s just amazing.

Another brilliant addition is the Gringotts Dragon. They’ve dressed a set as a broken Gringotts, when the Dragon appears on a screen at the back and breathes fire into the room, filling it with smoke and red light. Very cool.

The Gringotts Minecart, open vault doors, Helga Hufflepuff’s cup – these can all be found at the Gringotts vault. Where there’s a full set of Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault from Deathly Hallows, containing thousands of gold coins, goblets, artefacts and treasure displayed alongside costumes from the scene. Another new thing for us to see and a great addition.

There’s even a fun photo opportunity setup where you can pretend that you’re in the middle of Bellatrix’s treasure horde, holding the Sword of Gryffindor to reach the cup!

Out of Gringotts, and as per the films and books, straight into Diagon Alley (not diagonally) which is one of my favourite areas of the tour.

We were treated to our final Dark Arts treat where they act out a scene destroying Ollivander’s shop. A brilliant scene that we could all gather round and enjoy as the Death Eater’s set fire to the Wizarding World’s most famous wand emporium.

We loved seeing all the shops on Diagon Alley like Madam Malkins, Quality Quidditch Supplies and Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, with so much detail in the window displays, signs, the paintwork and artistry of it all. Brilliant.

Exiting Diagon Alley, we walked through the artwork exhibit where you’re treated to the initial cardboard models of the buildings and scenes, blueprints of set designs and lots of amazing concept artwork. It must have taken so many talented people days, weeks, months and years to create all of these fantastic visuals. I’d love to have one of these hanging up at home.
Onwards and upwards to the grand finale…

The Model of Hogwarts Castle is truly magnificent. It is massive, and the level of detail is amazing. The skill and precision that must go into making such a grand, detailed model is phenomenal. The model is set up perfectly so you can see every detail from all angels as you descend around it.

New lights and sounds had been added for a stormy night effect for Dark Arts, plus the usual background music and lighting to transform the room from night into day. Makes you feel like you’re in the film! We’ve seen the castle on previous trips when they do the Christmas events and the castle is covered in snow, which also looks great.

I’m not sure there’s another word to describe the castle model other than… Magical!

A little fun extra, they had a table at the foot of the castle where one of the staff was demonstrating some practical effects. They were making Unicorn blood, Fluffy’s drool and Troll bogeys! Eurgh!! Elliott was a fan.

The last stop on the tour is the wand room. Hundreds of wand boxes of all different colours and styles, each one labelled with the name of someone in the cast and crew from all 8 films. We like trying to find a few people’s names before we head out.

As is usual, at the end of tours and attractions, you end in the gift shop and there is SO MUCH here to buy. T-shirts and clothing, robes from every house, toys, plushes, film themed sweets and snacks like Honeydukes items and Chocolate Frogs, bottled Butterbeer, keyring, magnets and souvenirs. You can get a photo of yourself in the Daily Prophet, buy a sorting hat, find models and jewellery and of course, buy your own wand.

We picked up an Aragog teddy, a Pygmy Puff, a tote bag and a wand, which came to £84. They have custom wands, limited edition wands and replicas of the ones from the films. We have a few wands from our trips, and usually try and pick up the wands of the cast members who’ve passed away, and as Dame Maggie Smith had passed the day before, the choice was already made. “The wand chooses the wizard!”

It was another great trip to the Warner Bros Studio tour to see the sets, costumes and details of the Harry Potter films and all the new changes they’ve made. It’s not a cheap trip by any means. Our trip for a family of 4 cost £172. Single tickets start from £56 and there’s other options available to add to your package like the audio guide, dining experiences, afternoon tea and deluxe tours. Plenty of options to enhance your trip.

At the start of the tour, you’re given a Passport. If you don’t have one, head to reception and ask! In the passport, there are a few activities to enjoy:

• Find the Golden Snitches – There are several Golden Snitches hanging up around the tour. See if you can find them!
• Collect Stamps – There are stamp machines around the tour for you to add an embossed stamp to your passport pages. The first is at the Gryffindor Common Room, the last at Hogwarts Castle.
• Dark Arts Anagram – For Dark Arts, there were Dark Marks illuminated on eth walls around the tour. Each had a letter. Find them all and work out the word!

It was the end of our 3-day trip, so after a quick freshen up we walked back through the wand walkway to the car for a 3+ hour drive home.

Until next time, Mr Potter.