Warner Bros Studio Tour – Part 1, September 2024

After leaving Legoland Windsor and saying farewell to the Woodland Village, we made the journey down to our hotel for the night. We were staying at the Premier Inn Kings Langley (Not Kings Landing, we hadn’t ventured to Westeros). Kings Langley was only a short drive away from the next stop on our roadtrip – The Warner Bros Studio Tour – The Making of Harry Potter.

The Premier Inn Kings Langley was a nice hotel. Small, clean, quiet and good value at £73 for a room for four on a Saturday night. It doesn’t do evening meals as it doesn’t have its own bar/restaurant, but there’s a Miller & Carter next door if you’re hungry. We’d also added breakfast (£21.98) to our stay, and kids eat free at Premier Inn breakfasts (with a full-paying adult) so that’s always helpful. It’s only a small breakfast room, and wasn’t packed out, so everything was hot and freshly cooked. We ate well, so with full bellies we were good to get on our brooms for a short flight to Leavesden.

We parked up, prepped some drinks and snacks for the morning. We were planning on eating at the Backlot Café, so just something small to take the edge off, and we didn’t want too much in our bags. The kids had also brought their wands, robes and scarves to wear. As they readied themselves, a lady who’d clocked the kids in full Gryffindor regalia, came over to comment on how cool they looked and made the fatal mistake of asking if they knew any spells. Elliott, complete with Harry Potter glasses, smiled, pointed his wand and said “Avada Kedavra! Yup, my kids everyone. Meet a pleasant stranger and his first instinct was to mow her down with dark magic. And it was her birthday too!

We walked from our car park spot which happened to be next to the Wand Walkway – a set of leaning giant wands with lights on the end, which I bet looks great at night. Onwards to the main entrance to see the giant chess pieces from Philosophers Stone and into the foyer.

It has been a few years since we’d last visited the Warner Bros Studio Tour and it has changed so much! I can remember when it first opened, and the reception was a large open room with a coffee bar in the corner. Now, the reception area, dining spots and tour entry are big enough for them to be part of the tour.

Massive changes. The reception area is just huge now. We were greeted with a giant Dark Arts picture on the wall, advertising their current event, before turning to see the Dragon. I’m sure the dragon was hanging in the reception on our previous visit but the room it’s in is enormous now and makes the dragon look even bigger. With this the centrepiece over the large duelling wands carpet, there is also a display of Harry, Bellatrix and Lucius costumes from Order of the Phoenix, alongside some Prophecy orbs for the Dark Arts event on one side, the gift shop on the other and straight ahead was the café and dining areas.

We checked in at the reception desk to ask if they still did birthday badges, which they do. Aside from the birthday badge for Evan, (Elliott got one too to stop any potential arguments), we were given letters to Hogwarts and our tour passports. A nice little touch if you’re celebrating a birthday.

The Chocolate Frog café looks amazing. Shaped like a giant Chocolate Frog box, it sells hot drinks, snacks and Wizarding World themed cakes and treats. The Afternoon tea dining experience area, set beneath a replica of the Great Hall ceiling also looked amazing, albeit a little open to public gaze for what is an upcharged dining experience. There were also refrigerated units with sandwiches and snacks for a cheaper ‘grab and ago’ lunch. Kinda like a Harry Potter themed Tesco Meal Deal section. You can also find a hot food section and plenty of seating, so you won’t go hungry here!

On previous visits, we ‘ve entered a small barriered queue line, leading to a small room with 6 screens showing short films, talking to the film’s directors, and showing footage of the film premiers, explaining how the franchise became so popular. Now, this whole section is so much improved. You follow a winding pathway where the walls are covered in murals of scripts, quotes, blueprints, drawings and more before entering the video intro room. And yes, the ‘Cupboard Under the Stairs’ is still in this bit.

The video/intro room has been completely refreshed with one long screen around the 3 walls, along with movies posters and photos from the movies and on set. The video intro is now introduced by fans and the tour ‘interactors’ along with James and Oliver Phelps, telling us about the tour, what we can expect and any information we’d need before entering, all delivered in a much more unique, funny and ‘magical’ way.

This area hasn’t changed, and nor should it, as it’s iconic to the tour itself, and the reveal of the door at the end is brilliant. You enter into a room full of cinema seats, facing a giant screen where you watch a film intro about the Harry Potter series, introduced by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, before they walk through the doors of the Great Hall, only for the screen to raise and reveal the actual door to the Great Hall. And if it’s your birthday, you even get to open it!

I love the moment the doors are pushed open, and you see the Great Hall for the first time in all its glory, with candles floating above this iconic room you’ve seen in several films. Today, it was Dark Arts, so no candles. It was Halloween at Hogwarts, so the ceiling was covered in pumpkins, and it looked amazing.

The long table to the right was decorated with plates full of sweets and treats for a Halloween feast, with costumes all around from students in all four houses, teachers and other Hogwarts regulars. At the front was a display of the Hogwarts ghosts’ costumes, starring a very headless ‘Nearly Headless’ Nick, and of course you have the teachers table with the costumes of Dumbledore, Hagrid, Mr Filch and Professor McGonagall, featuring a tribute to Dame Maggie Smith who’d sadly passed away the previous day.

There is so much to see and do at the Warner Bros Studio Tour, you could easily take all day to do it.

From the Great Hall you enter the tour proper, with screens displaying footage about the franchise directors, models of the great hall ceiling, the Yule Ball display and more, heading down to a section of the moving staircase. Walls full of costumes and wigs, Umbridge’s Educational Decrees, the taps from the prefect’s bathroom complete with flowing multicoloured water and the leaky cauldron from the, erm, Leaky Cauldron.

At the top of this first section are some great things to see like the display of wands and the Mirror of Erised, but the highlights are the Gryffindor Common Room and Boys dormitories fully decorated with items from the films. Chudley Cannons flags, Harry’s trunk under the bed, Harry and Ron’s Christmas jumpers, the Invisibility cloak…

Just opposite was something new: The Slytherin Common room, a brilliant set that looks just as dark and gloomy here as it does in the film.

While enjoying looking around this section near the giant pendulum and Dumbledore’s office, we encountered our first Dark Arts display. The Death Eaters marched into the area and performed a magic combat routine to a backdrop of music and lighting, before moving on to the Dark Arts stage further on. We were lucky to escape with our lives! Pretty cool!

This is an amazing set with so much detail. I’d love to be able to see more of it as you can only see the front section, but there is a lot to look at here. You can see costumes, Fawkes, the Sword of Gryffindor, cabinets full of artefacts and Dumbledore’s cabinet of memories. Next to it is his Pensieve, which if you look into it, the grey and blue lights inside wave and move as if it was real.

Alongside Dumbledore’s office, there’s a wall full of the moving pictures from the castles, showing how some were greenscreen frames to make the come to life.

Down the middle aisle there are some really cool sets. One of my favourites was the bedroom from the Leaky Cauldron with the Monster book of Monsters moving and chattering underneath, with the model of Harry holding his shoe on the bed above. Next to this is the Potions classroom which looks fantastic. All of the details – hundreds of jars and vials filled with weirdness, each with a handwritten label, self-stirring cauldrons and potions paraphernalia, along with the costumes of Professor Slughorn and Severus Snape.

The whole greenscreen, broom-flying area has changed a lot. On previous visits, it was a small, busy room with a few stalls, now it’s a massive area with loads of photo stations for you to get your photo, complete with costumes and brooms flying overhead. We didn’t get one this time but have had them from the first time we went and they’re still on our wall. Definitely a great experience if it’s your first time here, it’s a great souvenir.

There’s a whole section dedicated to some of the fantastic things they’ve made that actually move. The thigs you’d think were probably animated, many were actual, practical items such as the door from the Chamber of Secrets, the locking castle door and Lupins trunk that packs itself away, brooms, Hagrid’s flying motorbike and more. We watched how they made the Knight Bus move, with the beds inside sliding and the chandelier swinging. Very clever.

We were near the back of this room, and they had a stage set up for the Dark Arts show with the Dark Mark shining along the curtain. It was nearly time for the next show, so we waited. They again made their way through the crowds, performing a small display at Dumbledore’s office, before heading to the stage. They take to the stage where there’s a Vanishing Cabinet, and with lighting and smoke, the cabinet opens, and the Death Eaters entertain the audience with more wand choreography. At the end of the show, they stop to take photos with the crowd.

Just round from Potions and near the stage is the set of The Burrow’s Kitchen, again with moving parts. I think this set is great as it’s a big area with lots of costumes and magic. Press one of the buttons to see something magically moving, like the scrubbing brush or the knife chopping a carrot.Next to the Burrow is Hagrid’s Hut, chock-a-block with baskets, boxes and cages, a Hagrid costume and model of Fang outside

The final area at the back of the room is home to another new thing for us – The Divination Classroom, which is superb. Tiered rows set up with tables, decorated with teapots and cups (probably all with ‘The Grim’ in them), next to student’s costumes, a massive tower of teacups and Professor Trelawney’s costume.

Theres some great pieces at the back here. The ‘Magic is Might’ Statue, Tom Riddle’s grave, the Black family tapestry, the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, complete with Snape as Neville’s Gran costume, some sections of the Ministry of Magic with the green-tiled walls and a brilliant animatronic of the Boggart as the Jack in the Box, rocking back and forth.

Here’s also another chance to catch the Dark Arts show, as the Death Eaters perform a small show in this area on the way to the stage.

There are some toilets back here too, so we freshened up, and had a quick drink before heading into the Forbidden Forest.

You used to exit to the Backlot just at the side of the Ministry of Magic sets, but they’ve added so much more in now, it’s unreal, and The Forbidden Forest is one of those areas. They’ve improved the forest for the Dark Arts event with a feature I hope they retain. They’ve added a scene with the Dementors, who eerily descend from the shadows which looked and felt very realistic. Well, about as much as a Dementor can look real. We all joined in with the interactor in shouting ‘Expecto Patronum’ and with flashing lights and sounds, the Dementors are repelled back into the darkness from whence they came. Brilliant.

At the forest, you’ll find a Hagrid costume and a Buckbeak model, before being asked to choose a path. “Follow the Butterflies” – for a safe route through, or “Follow the Spiders” if you’re feeling more daring. We followed the spiders into an area where giant spiders descend from the treetops and everyone’s favourite Acromantula, Aragog, appears. You can also add to the scene with buttons that add wind and lightning effects.

After escaping the spiders, you arrive at a small gift shop which had some really cool items and lots of vintage/retro looking pieces. We could’ve spent a fortune in here, but there’s an even bigger shop at the end, so we held off!

Off through the magic wall between platforms 9 and 10 and we arrived at Platform 9¾, a massive room that is home to the Hogwarts Express. Around the station, there’s plenty of trolleys filled with wizard luggage plus plenty of trolleys halfway through the wall for a great photo opp. There’s also a small station shop selling Platform 9 ¾ and Hogwarts Express merchandise.

And then there’s the train…

The full-size, ‘real’ Hogwarts Express, complete with smoke and whistle. Awesome. You can board the train and walk through the carriages, where each one is dressed to a particular film, and the back car has Harry and Ron’s outfits from their first journey, along with the sweet trolley and Scabbers, and opposite are the costumes from the Deathly Hallows Part 2, with Old Harry, Ron & Hermione 13 years later.

There’s also a video/photo area where you can sit in a faux carriage and pretend you are on your way to Hogwarts.

More Dark Arts fun here, and it’s a good show. There’s a small stage set up near the back of the room and the Death Eaters march towards it, causing explosions on the Hogwarts Express and the Dark Mark to appear, along with more wand choreography. The Death Eaters where happy to do some evil poses for your photos, so we were able to get a few more selfies with them before heading out to the Backlot

With this section done, we were at the halfway point, so it was time for a break…

Read about the rest of our Harry Potter adventure here: Warner Bros Studio Tour, Part Two