My 24th Birthday { Warner Brothers Studio Tour } ～ ♪

This blog post is going to be so fun to write because I can not wait to share with you what I did for my birthday! ＼（＾▽＾）／

I've been wanting to do this since the opening of the tour but I finally went to The Warner Brothers Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter! I'm such a huge Harry Potter fan and I could not contain my excitment on the morning of my birthday when I was getting ready to go~ ヽ( ★ω★)ノ

We'd booked the train for 9am so I had to get up quite early to get ready because the look I was going for was like aa huge fusion of different things~ I wanted to do Gyaru make-up, with my purple wig that I use for magical girl and fairy kei looks and to top that off I wanted to dress up in my Slytherin uniform complete with my robe. 

I really loved how I looked when I had finished though~ 

Wig ~ eBay

Hair accessories ~ eBay and Claire's accessories

Shirt ~ Primark

Tie and robe ~ Warner Brothers

Suspender skirt ~ eBay

Bleeding tights (not pictured) ~ eBay

Pumps (not pictured) ~ Primark

Close up of my make-up~ (*^▽^*)

The top false eyelashes are Ageha eyelashes and the bottom eyelashes are a recent pair of eyelashes that I had bought from eBay I really love these bottom eyelashes and I can not wait to incorporate these bottom eyelashes into my everyday Gyaru make-up (^ᴗ^)

After getting ready we travelled to the train station to travel to Watford junction to the tour~ To say I got a few weird looks from people was an understatement. It's not everday you see someone walking around in a robe~ I walked past someone on the train who started singing 'I put a spell on you' (*≧▽≦)ﾉ

We got to Watford Junction a little earlier than we should have really because none of us had ever travelled there before and we did not want to be late. We got the shuttle bus to the tour but we were still a bit early so we sat down to eat before going on the tour. 

Beef noodle salad and chocolate and honeycomb mousse~ 

There were also giant chess pieces outside of the tour from the Philosopher's stone~

They were huge!! (ノ^∇^)

I also collected my digital guide before going on the tour (I ordered the complete adult tour package when I ordered the tickets) and the digital guide was narrated by Tom Felton and his voice was dreamy. The digital guide contains lots of extra content about some of the items on display.

As we waited in the line to go into the tour we also passed Harry's cupoard (*^▽^*)

At this point I was super super super excited and was literally bouncing on the spot in the line ヽ(＾Д＾)ﾉ When we went inside the first room we went into was a little room with eight little screens showing different posters from the Harry Potter movies in different languages. The screens then show how the Harry Potter series became so famous. After this room we went into a cinema room which gave everyone a recap of all of the Harry Potter films, and also contained messages from Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson speaking about making the films and introducing the tour. After the small movie introduction finished the screen rolled up and the doors to the Great Hall were behind it. 

I really didn't expect that and it was a lovely way to start the tour and I was so excited to get in there and be a complete crazy lady ヾ(＠^∇^＠)ノ

Being in the Great Hall was amazing!! I was feel like "omg....omg...omg I'm in Hogwarts...omg"; incredibly excited. We only a tour guide for this portion of the tour and the tour guide went through some fun facts (omg look at how tiny Harry's first uniform was! (≧∇≦)) and about some of the items in the Great Hall. He also went through some rules and what we could expect and about the feature Bludgers and Broomsticks that was also happening whilst we were there. 

After this we could explore the Great Hall for a bit before going on to the rest of the tour~ The rest of the tour was self-guided after this and we were allowed to take as much time as we wanted going around it. It took us about three hours to go through the whole tour. I want to try and show you my favourite pictures from the tour without going overboard with pictures!

 

As you saw with my first Great Hall pictures the great hall was dotted with different characters costumes including costumes from the different houses, and at the main table costumes from the teachers as well. In the centre stood one of Dumbledore's costumes looking like it was going to address the great hall. On either side were Snape's and McGonagall's iconic costumes. The set also included the costumes of Hagrid, Professor Trelawny, Mad-eye Moody and Professor Flitwick. 

And here's the iconic house point hourglasses. The jewels inside are actually coloured beads. 

After exploring the Great Hall the next room we went into was a huge room that's divided into different areas that contain different sets, and there are also miscellaneous items scattered around the room from different films. There is so much to look at and discover! (　＾∇＾)

The ice sculpture from the Yule Ball is stunning

This part was very interesting and was all about the wands of the different characters. There was a guide standing here explaining about all of the different wands and their designs and the symbolism behind the designs. The props department made over 3,000 wands for the films. The guide also said that Daniel Radcliffe used to break his wands quite a bit. There are some really beautiful wands though! My favourites are Narcissa Malfoys, Sirus' and Snapes. 

There was a set of the Gryffindor common room, and it also had a portrait of a young Professor McGonagall. 

The pendulum was actually swinging and it looked so beautiful (・∀・)

 The entrance to Dumbledore's office (*^▽^*)

Dumbledore's office was wonderful. There was a model pensieve, cabinets full of different instruments and the cabinet containing Dumbledore's memories among other items.

There was also a set of the potion's dungeons which included another costume of Snape's and and also a costume of Professor Slughorn. One of the cauldron's on the table was stiring by itself and I stood there watching it self-stir. The classroom was full of bottles and different potion ingredients, some which looked a little gross. 

All of the horcruxes were on display as well. Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem is so beautiful (´ω｀★)

They also had a set up of Hagrid's hut, complete with a costume of Hagrid and a Fang as well. 

They also had Dolores Umbridge's office set up, complete with all of the kitten plates. They also had her costumes on display.

A little fun fact they also had on display was that the more power Umbridge was getting in the Ministry of Magic the progressively pinker her costumes became. I never noticed that in the films!

There were also the costumes of Deatheaters on display. The did also have the costumes of the Malfoy family in the final film on display too. I've always thought Greyback's costume was quite cool and reminded me a bit of punk rock. 

There were also booths where you could take part in some greenscreen experiences. These were the flying car from the Chamber of Secrets, or you could also ride a broom over London and to Hogwarts. We did both of these things and they were so fun and good for a laugh. This was one of the only few places on the tour where you were not able to take photographs though. The broomstick ride was so uncomfortable for me, maybe it was because of my knee problems, but I respect the actors for sitting on them to shoot on because it was uncomfortable for me. I'll show you the pictures later though! (*^▽^*)

There was also an area set up showing all of the different graphic art that was in the film. 

I really loved this area because I love graphic design and it was amazing to see all of the items that had been designed for the films. The Marauders map was handwritten and absolutely beautiful (*¬*) I still need one to put on display in my apartment. The colourful boxes from Weasley Wizard Wheezes were beautiful too. 

Above this area the Black family tapestry hung, completely with the burn marks from when family members had been disowned. 

The area after this was the Backlot and it contained the sets that were outside sets. 

The sets included The Knight Bus, The Potter's Cottage, Privet Drive, Hogwarts bridge and Hagrid's motorbike and sidecar. You were able to have picture opportunities on the Knight Bus and the Hogwarts Bridge too! They also had more chess pieces, and they had two of the pawns from the Philosopher's Stone that were remote controlled and able to move on an area of chess board. 

In this area you were also able to try Butterbeer! I really really wanted to try Butterbeer. My first impressions of it were kind of mixed. I loved the Butterscotch froth that was on top of it, but I was not really clean on the actual fizzy liquid underneath this. You definetly would not be able to drink many of these either because they are quite sweet.

From the Backlot we then went back inside to an area that had a lot of the props and animatronics from the films (*^▽^*)

 

There were models of the cast, including a scale model of Dobby, models of animals, such as Fawkes, Buckbeak, thestrals etc, prosthetics such as Goblin's faces, Greyback's werewolf fur etc and also anamatronic models that moved. There was a Hedwig that moved and also a Mandrake that would pop up out of it's pot and move. The werewolf was so interesting to look at. They also had the model of Aragog in a corner on the ceiling. If ever there were spiders that big..... ヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ The model of Aragog was so complex it took almost 100 technicians to operate it.

After this area you then walked into Diagon Alley~ ＼（Ｔ∇Ｔ）／

Walking into Diagon Alley was so magical and it was one of the highlights of the tour for me ヾ(＠^▽^＠)ﾉ When I was younger and reading the books I'd imagine about walking down Diagon Alley and now I was! It was great to look into the stores and see the items inside, such as all of the books in the windows of Flourish and Blotts. In Weasley Wizard Wheezes this statue advertising Puking Pastilles was made to look like it was really vomiting (*ﾟﾛﾟ)

The tour then concluded with the model of Hogwarts~

 

This model was absolutely breathtaking and an amazing way to end the tour~ ヽ( ★ω★)ノ♡ They used this model when creating the films for shots which they then used CGI for to make them more realistic. 

It looked absolutely beautiful with the small lights in the windows and in the courtyards (♥ω♥ ) The model had been built and rebuilt for the films to include different structures, such as the Hogwarts bridge. There were also screens around the model that showed you how they built it and how they used the model for scenes in the films which were really interesting to watch as you walked around it. 

The scale of the model was absolutely amazing though! I never dreamed that the model of Hogwarts was as big as it was. It was so stunning! (｡♥‿♥｡)

After this you then came out of the tour through the gift shop. The gift shop has every item you can think of and as my honey's best friend said 'if we were Millionaire's we'd buy everything in that shop'. There are everything from clothes, to wands, to replica sweets, to replicas of items from the films. There was a replica of the chessboard from the Philosopher's Stone you could buy but it was £300. There was also really beautiful jewellery which had beautiful little golden snitches on. 

I have to say that this has been one of the best experiences of my life “ヽ(´▽｀)ノ” There was so much on display; so much to see. I felt like I was a child once again and that I was in a candy shop. I couldn't think of a better way to have spent my birthday and with amazing company too. I would completely recomend this experience to anybody, even if you aren't a Harry Potter fan like myself, because it's really magical and even for people like my honey who hasn't really watched the films or read the books, there were areas that he found really interesting. A helpful guide explained to him the rules of Quidditch at one point~ (≧∇≦)

These pictures were only a small small part of the pictures I took, and you're able to see the rest of the pictures on my Instagram account if you would like to follow the link below~

I'm going to post the souvenirs I picked up on a seperate post! (　＾∇＾)