Butterbeer! Last time Eric and I tried this was in Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Florida. Creaming soda, actual cream, and butterscotch is your flavour profile – it’s sickly sweet and DELICIOUS. There are only two places on earth that serve this – here, at the Harry Potter Studios and in Florida.
We took the 1.5 hour journey out to Leavesdon, taking up the back of the bus like big kids and bounding out to start our tour of the movie set. It was pretty amazing – the Great Hall, Dumbledore’s Office, the Ministry of Magic, the Weasley’s house – the sets are all there for you to wander around.
They also have a stack of props from the films, all piled in everywhere you can see.
We head outside and saw Harry’s house, the bus, and bought some Butterbeer!
Back inside and you walk through the special effects section, and then through Diagon Alley itself – life-sized!
But by far my favourite part of the whole tour was Hogwarts itself. Hogwarts doesn’t ‘exist’ anywhere in life size form – all the sweeping panoramic shots are of this big model, with the characters green screened in. You walk around the corner from the concept art section and are faced with stunning, gigantic Hogwarts, there in the flesh. The lights are set so there is a sunrise, day, sunset and night. Music from the film plays – it is really quite magical.
The Making of Harry Potter
Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, Watford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
www.wbstudiotour.co.uk