Harry Potter Studios Tour March 2023

On Saturday March 18, 2023 I went to the Harry Potter Studios at Leavesden near Watford. There were eight of us on the trip with my Mother being the oldest and my daughter’s best friend being the youngest. As all of us were adults – well age wise anyway as I am just a big kid at heart! – it was an interesting dynamic. We last went to the studios ten years ago, so there were definitely a lot of new exhibits, but more of those later!

Tickets, getting there and getting in

I bought the tickets over 6 months ago for a 12:30 entry time. They were £50 each for adults which I felt was likely to be good value, although obviously £400 is a lot to spend in one go. Given the fact that I hadn’t been with the family for a decade I thought it was fair enough. On a normal day we would have gone by train to avoid a 3 – 4 hour round trip drive, but due to the train strike it was two cars between the eight of us. The signs from Junction 20 of the M25 are very easy to follow, and your ticket price includes free car parking, so it’s a really good option if you are driving. If you go by train there is a shuttle bus from the station. The entry process is very straightforward even with the obligatory security check. When my wife’s bag was checked my camera was inside in it’s case – I wanted the photos to be as good as they possibly could be – and a rather bemused looking security guy checked to make sure it was a camera in there! Naturally, these days, very few people take pictures on anything other than their phones, but the quality I got was well worth the complications of going through the download process on my social media!

Tip Number One – Ask someone in your party to bring a good quality camera if they can, as well as a phone.

The start of the tour

There were definitely more people in our timed half hour entry than there had been a decade ago, as you might expect, but there was never the feeling that you were in a crush because of the way that different groups went into the first room of the tour in smaller cohorts. The guide in charge of the first part was very bubbly, but had the unenviable task of trying to get her largely British crowd whooping and hollering! The introduction to the tour from the three main actors, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, was the same one they used 10 years ago but still a good start. The first set you go in to is the Great Hall. Now, I was quite disappointed and underwhelmed. Why? Well, the last time I had been was December 2012 with the Great Hall dressed up for Christmas, but on our second visit it was set up for OWL and NEWT exams, which was never going to show the set off to equal effect. If it had been our first visit though, I think we would have been suitably awed by our first view of such a massive room.

Tip Number Two – The Great Hall looks different at different times of the year with Hogwarts at Christmas being the set with the biggest ‘Wow’ factor between November and January.

My Highlights

When I looked at the new attractions before I went I was really looking forward to the Hogwarts Express. Well, that more than lived up to expectations. I didn’t know where it was on the tour so I actually said ‘Wow!!’ when I walked onto the set. It is an incredible sight, seeing the full size engine with the carriages behind, and the fact that you can board the train and walk through the corridor looking at the compartments is a great bonus. There were 8 compartments, one for each film, with props to bring back loads of memories. There is a bit of a queue, but it only took about 15 minutes before we were on the train which is testament to the Studio Tour’s organisation.

Tip Number Three – Look at the props on the train very closely as they are absolutely fascinating. My favourite props were the Quidditch programmes and the copies of The Quibbler.

The other literal ‘Wow’ moment was one I wasn’t expecting. When I walked into Gringotts Bank I was absolutely blown away by the scale, the beauty and the marvellous details. It is a superb set that will be much more of a focus for me next time I watch the films.

Behind the Scenes Demonstrations and Insights

This is something that has improved in leaps and bounds in the last decade. The behind the scenes demonstrations and videos are simply brilliant and they enhance the magic in many ways as you learn just how much imagination and work went in to creating the scenes. There are a number throughout the tour, but I want to pick out two highlights. The first is the ‘walk through’ video that demonstrates the amazing attention to detail and huge work that goes into creating the goblin masks. It is in the second half of the tour, so if your children (or adult fans) are tired or overhyped (!) you may find it difficult to corral them but those children who were watching the videos were just as fascinated as I was. The other video you simply must watch was the explanation of the scene in the Lestrange vault in the final film. In itself, I found that to be just as big a ‘Wow’ moment as the massive sets. The combination of real effects and CGI was mind-boggling.

Food and Drink

I am famously vocal about food and drink at the different places I go to, complaining about price, taste, quantity, quality – you name it! My family turn a deaf ear to me and quite rightly. However, the Harry Potter Studios get a very rare thumbs up from me. Our car arrived a bit earlier than the rest of the party so four of us made our way to the Chocolate Frog Cafe. The Hot Chocolate there was the best I’ve tasted in ages, although it was perhaps a little smaller than expected. The prices on blance, however, are pretty fair for a monopoly provider!

Our other food and drink stop was halfway through the tour in The Backlot Cafe. My son and I headed for the Butterbeer section where there was a short queue, because I wanted the souvenir sundae dish and he wanted the souvenir mini-tankard that were included in the price of £6.95 for the ice cream and the drink respectively. When we got our respective plastic containers we were both expecting to give the contents to someone else remembering the horribly sweet concoctions of ten years ago. Instead we both finished the contents ourselves, since someone with an idea of how to develop the ingredients for anyone who doesn’t spend their lives downing neat Golden Syrup! The ice cream was like a sweet but not overpowering version of Cornish ice cream that I loved. My family who were happier to push the boat out for their lunches (!) were all very happy with their food. The hot food portions are hearty enough to get you through the second half of the tour and beyond.

Tip Number Four – Perhaps budget for at least £10 a head for food and drink at the halfway point as you’ll need it by then, but you do get your money’s worth.

The Gift Shop

Now take it from me, this is a very dangerous place for you and your bank card to enter! The sheer volume of appealing souvenirs throughout the store is just incredible, and the quality of everything is way better than you would expect from pretty much all comparable shops in other attractions. I will get to my (nearly) fool proof tip soon, but suffice to say it is a gift shop that will turn even the most miserly Scrooge into Uncle Ebenezer after he has met the Three Spirits! With young children in tow this will be a shop that will require a huge amount of parental negotiation! Even for adults the sheer amount of choice is almost overwhelming. I spent somewhere near £100 on various items for myself and others and could very easily have doubled that without preparation. What preparation did I do? Read on.

Tip Number Five – Take the time to walk through the gift shop before your tour starts, as that will give you the opportunity to pinpoint the favourite items, leading to less chance of a huge blowout at the end of the tour when you and your children may well be over-excited!

Final Thoughts

This attraction is a must see for all Harry Potter fans, and may well convert those yet to fall under its magic spell. It isn’t an inexpensive place to visit, but you get full value (and more) for every penny you spend.