Harry Potter Tour

As my university peers would confirm I am extremely anti fantasy/ sci-fi. There is one pretty major exception for me and that is Harry Potter. I was 12 years old when Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone first went on sale. I bought it for my Mum and only read it because she said it was so good. We were both impressed by the quality of JK Rowling’s writing and to this day my Mum will sometimes say ‘Diagon Alley – I mean that’s genius.’

I knew the magical elements weren’t real and brushed dangerously close to the fantasy genre I spent years avoiding but there was something that made me excited. I think it was a combination of the characters and their stories. If you take out the magic you have people you could actually imagine being friends with. They are witty, decent, well-rounded individuals who are there for each other (if you disregard the death eaters of course). 

Naturally, I enjoyed all of the films and marvelled at how well Rowling’s world came to life on screen. Of course if you compare the quality of the first film with the last two it is clear they are worlds apart (The Quidditch players in The Philosophers Stone are obviously computer generated) but that only serves to show how far we have come on this particular journey.

I was surprised by how little marketing was used for the opening of the Harry Potter Tour. But they didn’t need it if you go by the original waiting lists. We requested our tickets over 6 months ago and I have to be honest and say it crept up on me. I suppose this is because I told myself it couldn’t be that good especially in comparison to the reports coming back from the Disneyworld version. I was wrong.

The shop was the first stop on our journey as we arrived early. It was packed with people all with overflowing arms of merchandise. The most popular item appeared to be a wand – mainly those of the ‘good’ characters. I really wanted Hermione’s wand but at £25 I couldn’t really justify the expense. In fact I’d say the average price of items in the shop is £25. But they were still flying off the shelves and the staff were struggling to keep up with the replenishment as the 200 + people were replaced with another 200 fresh from the end of their tour. I settled on a chocolate frog and 2 Dobby postcards – it’s a shame they don’t  have more Dobby merchandise as I think this would be really popular.

After seeing the shop I have to admit I became unbearably excited. I was practically jumping up and down and repeating I’m soooo excited over and over. I suspect I was rather embarrassing. Shortly we had made it through the queue and into the experience. I am not going to give away what happened because there were a number of fantastic surprises but I will say that I am not easily impressed on days out. In fact I would say I can be quite critical but I found every bit amazing. My Dad commented he could spend 7 hours looking around there. We spent about 3 hours but we were rushing a bit as we were so excited to see what would happen next. 

My favourite parts were Diagon Alley, The Dursley’s House, The Great Hall and drinking Butter Beer – which I would def recommend (£2.95 for a cup). There are 3 areas to look at and you can stay in each one for as long as you like but once you leave an area you can’t go back so make sure you have seen everything before you move on. 

I had such a brilliant time and I am sure we will go back again. In fact I would go back tomorrow if I could.