{"id":2216,"date":"2017-01-06T21:02:39","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T21:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/?p=2216"},"modified":"2017-01-06T21:02:39","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T21:02:39","slug":"harry-potter-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/harry-potter-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"A Harry Potter Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Months ago when I was still in Texas, I impulsively bought a Groupon for the Warner Bros Studio Tour <\/a>of Harry Potter here in London. It didn\u2019t matter that I hadn\u2019t made friends yet to go with, or that it might interfere with my class schedule. I WAS GOING TO HAVE THE BEST DAY EVER WITH ME, MYSELF, AND I.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Harry
Got the chills seeing the sign<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Groupon was for a special Christmas-themed tour in early December, and included special extras like dinner, Butterbeer in a special keepsake mug, and a secret souvenir. Because it was the holiday season, they also featured special touches like Christmas decorations throughout the sets, and their massive Hogwarts model covered in artificial snow. Harry Potter and<\/i> Christmas? DONE.<\/p>\n

I was able to take the train from central London right into Watford Junction, at which point there\u2019s a cheap shuttle that takes you straight to the studio tour. From the outside, the studio looks like any other backlot, but once inside you\u2019re immediately greeted by the magic and your former 8 year-old book nerd self will squeal and say hey now, hey now, this is what dreams are made of!\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
\"Harry
The first room we saw!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Harry
Even HP\u2019s dorm was decorated!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

\"Harry
My future office<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\"Harry
A tiny sip of Butterbeer<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\"Harry
The HUGE Hogwarts model used in the films<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\"Harry
Diagon Alley<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\"Harry
ALWAYS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

Easily, you can spend three hours looking at everything. I did<\/em> get the audio guide, but didn\u2019t feel it was absolutely necessary unless you\u2019re a diehard fan. What also makes this tour extra special is that everyone there really loves HP, and is over-the-top excited to be present!\u00a0It\u2019s awesome to see so many people come together over HP. And about that Butterbeer? It was SO SWEET and bubbly. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s my favorite thing in the world to drink, but I managed to get it down in the spirit of things.<\/p>\n

Overall, the tour was pricey but definitely worth it. Y\u2019ALL. I teared up multiple<\/i>\u00a0times because seeing some of my favorite sets come to life was seriously so magical! If you\u2019re in London and a fellow HP nerd, check out this tour ASAP. And if you got an extra free ticket, holla at cho gurl, \u2019cause I could honestly spend days wandering through their sets!<\/p>\n

Have you been to the Harry Potter studio tour? What was your favorite part?<\/p>\n

Read this story and more at Monique’s personal blog<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Months ago when I was still in Texas, I impulsively bought a Groupon for the Warner Bros Studio Tour of Harry Potter here in London. It didn\u2019t matter that I hadn\u2019t made friends yet to go with, or that it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":2219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,14,18],"tags":[325,328,424,654],"class_list":["post-2216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-favourite-memories","category-london","category-student-experience","tag-harry-potter","tag-harry-potter-studio-tour","tag-london","tag-student-life-in-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}