Special Effects Department...

The special effects department was fantastic! We saw short videos explaining how some of the movie magic was performed. At this point, we didn’t mind waiting the 30 minutes for the green screen experience where we “flew” together in the Weasley’s car and separately on broomsticks. Yes, we were suckers and paid the big bucks for the photos.

Props and More Sets...

There was a large selection of props on display. Here is one of over a dozen copies of Tom Riddle’s diaries; we got to hold one when an employee walked around with one that had the ink spurting out of it.

Dumbledore’s office was actually quite small...

...while Snape’s potion classroom was quite large and contained an amazing number of real glass canisters. Other sets included the Burrow (the Weasley’s house), Hagrid’s cabin and Umbridge’s office in the Ministry of Magic.

The Gryffindor Common Room...

All of the sets on display were the actual sets used in the movie. Here is the Gryfinndor boy’s dormitory. You can tell the bed on the left is Harry’s because of the HP on the trunk at the end of the bed.

The fireplace in the common room was huge and the furniture was rather ratty.

Ironically, when we visited I was reading a fictional book about the making of the actual Lady and the Unicorn tapestries from the 15th century, which adorned the walls.

Also at this stop was the mirror of Erised (desire spelled backwards) from the first book.

More Than Costumes...

In addition to seeing many costumes, we saw the wig department. Here you see Snape’s wig. You also see Veronica watching the digital guide that we opted to rent to enhance our visit with additional videos and explanations of each stop. It also contributed to the extra length of our tour — while the average visit is three hours, we stayed for more than six!

The Great Hall...

Once inside, we watched an introductory movie, then were led into the Great Hall where a guide welcomed us and told us about what we were seeing. This is the only portion of the studios that is guided; we wandered around the rest at our own pace. It really was a huge and impressive room.

Throughout the studios were mannequins donning key costumes from various movies.

Leaving the Great Hall, we entered the first sound stage where we saw how they used movie magic combined with an old fashioned pulley system to simulate candles suspended from the ceiling.

The Making of Harry Potter...

Ever since The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando opened, Ashlynn has “needed” to go there, but logistically it hasn’t worked and won’t  anytime soon. When I found out that Warner Bros. was opening up a studio tour at Leavesden Studios, where all eight movies were filmed outside of London, I jumped at booking tickets months before it even opened.

We got lost trying to find somewhere to have lunch in the nearby town of Watford Junction, but managed to eat a nice meal and still make it to the Studios for our assigned entrance time. The queue in the entrance hall wound past the cupboard that Harry slept in at the Dursley’s house. The Weasley’s flying car hung from the ceiling.

Off to England...

After taking the overnight ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich, we caught a train to Cambridge in order to avoid the insanity of London associated with the London 2012 Olympics. We dropped off our luggage, then caught a bus into the center. We wandered through the market where Jimmy stopped to get a haircut. After grabbing some lunch, we went punting on the River Cam through Cambridge University.

Jimmy enjoyed standing on the end of this flat bottom boat and pushing off the river bottom with a long pole. He nearly fell overboard at least six times, but managed to stay on board. Ashlynn took a turn and also managed to stay on the boat.

We eventually caught a train to Peterborough, where we picked up our rental car. We were shocked when we were given the keys to a BMW. We were also shocked when we arrived at Alconbury Air Force Base to discover that we were staying in a 3-bedroom home that is nicer than our house in the Netherlands.