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Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Original poster

Harry Potter World ?

28 replies

BeaLola · 26/09/2016 09:36

DS is nearly 9 and really into HP.

Am thinking of taking him one Saturday to HPWorld with DH. Looking online you need to book a slot. As we are some distance I would like to leave comfortable amount of time for travel and am thinking of booking say 11 am slot .

Just wondering, as it's not cheap, if this will leave us enough time to do / see everything else there and if you have been is it really worth it ?

Huge thanks for help

OP posts:
AnecdotallyChallenged · 26/09/2016 09:39

It's great!

That will be fine

NicknameUsed · 26/09/2016 09:40

It is a brilliant day out, and if your son is massively into Harry Potter then he will love it. There is a lot of detail and stuff to read as well.

The butterbeer is vile though. There is a very good reason why there is a large wet waste barrel next to the butterbeer stall. Oh, and the shop is hideously expensive. I bought DD a T-shirt and she wore it a lot so it represented far better value for money than a chocolate frog.

poisonedbypen · 26/09/2016 09:46

Best day out we have ever had as a family. Enjoy.

QuimReaper · 26/09/2016 09:46

You'll be fine, that's heaps of time!

Take water and snacks; the food options stink and the queues can be huge, and there aren't any water fountains or anything.

Take layers if it's even possibly going to be cold; it's basically a warehouse and quite draughty.

Buy a t-shirt, they're great quality!

TheNaze73 · 26/09/2016 09:47

It's a fantastic day & your timings will be fine. Hope you have a fabulous time

Thethingswedoforlove · 26/09/2016 09:57

That is fine but worth bringing food or planning to get lunch half way round- we started at that time but didn't finish til 3.30 and were starving by then!

LIZS · 26/09/2016 10:02

Allow about 3 hours to go round. You won't be hurried through so 11 am slot is fine. Then you can browse in the shop and grab a snack before heading off.

SpaceDinosaur · 26/09/2016 10:08

If you're travelling really far there's some good deals on local hotels in Watford (particularly around the Junction)

Definitely plan your eating. It's a brilliant but loooooong tour and totally worth every minute!

Book. Book now. It fills up fast

PikachuSayBoo · 26/09/2016 10:09

Oh I loved the butterbeer.

Great day out.

Gift shop is expensive.

PikachuSayBoo · 26/09/2016 10:10

Oh and the food options were better at the shop at the start (before you go in) than half way round. You can also go in the gift shop before your time slot.

WaitrosePigeon · 26/09/2016 10:11

It's a great experience. Everything is very expensive for what it is. The gift shop is so expensive it's laughable. I didn't let them have any of my money apart from the tickets.

PerspicaciaTick · 26/09/2016 10:12

I think 3 hours is a bit of a short visit. We took 5 hours to potter (geddit?) round and still felt we could have spent longer.

Clutterbugsmum · 26/09/2016 10:21

I think they recommend 3 to 4 hours per visit, but we have always been more like 5 to 6 hours.

Once you are through the initial bits you can spend as much time looking as you like.

MooseAndSquirrel · 26/09/2016 10:27

11 is a great slot - I second taking food as their options are v.limited and over priced.
the gift shop is expensive but awesome, I've taken my eldest three times now (we are both huge fans) we spend a fortune in the gift shop but the the tshirts are great quality & even my first hoody is going strong after a three years.
definitely would recommend it for any potter fan Grin

NapQueen · 26/09/2016 10:27

The only bit they rush you through is the Great Hall but even then it's not that rushed. The rest is totally at your own pace. I'd say 1 Hour or so for the first building, 45 mins outside in the middle and another 1.5 hours in the second building is probably the minimum. I could have happily spent more time. The chocolate frogs in the shop are the best value as they are solid chocolate not hollow like I thought they'd be.

twinmamma2b · 26/09/2016 18:21

Can anyone advise if there are many places to sit down? I'm taking DN at the weekend and need to sit quite frequently.

ShowOfHands · 26/09/2016 18:25

Plenty of places to sit.

Last time we went for 10hrs. Brilliant place.

bruffin · 26/09/2016 18:29

We spent 6 hours there andbthe food optiom are really not bad. The mac and cheese is lovely.

foamybananasweets · 26/09/2016 18:44

The food we had was awful. We spent £30 on 3 meals and left most of it Shock

We spent £200 (including tickets) all together and were there about 5h (including an hour in the gift shop as DD is a shopaholic and had birthday money burning a hole in her pocket)

The butterbeer is cream soda. (I hate cream soda). Butterbeer ice cream was better,

Very good but so expensive for what isn't even a full day out!

WhatWouldTheDoctorDo · 26/09/2016 18:50

We went this summer - we spent 6 hours there. I'd definitely get some food if starting at 11 - you could easily be 3 hours plus before you get to an eating area and you really don't want to rush through.

Butter beer is grim!

Original poster
BeaLola · 26/09/2016 23:44

THANK YOU ALL For taking time to comment -really appreciated.

The weekend I was looking at only has tours at 430 onwards and I think we need to do your first right ?

Another date I'm looking at is just after Xmas and that has morning plus availability

OP posts:
bruffin · 27/09/2016 10:17

Definitely go in the morning. We went at 9.30. Also are they both winter hogwarts with snow,?

LIZS · 27/09/2016 10:30

The tour is the entrance to the attraction and the Great Hall, so you can only access it from that time (or a bit before if queue isn't long)

nonicknameseemsavailable · 27/09/2016 10:41

we were there for 6hours in total, didn't dawdle, just managed to spend that long in it - could have been longer too.

definitely recommend it - we all had a fab day. butterbeer is yukky yes but the kids like the souvenir tankards. ice cream was better but enormous.

shop is very expensive I agree.

your time starts 10 minutes before it with the queue. your time includes about 20 minutes in the queue before you go in. the initial bit is controlled but once you have left the Great Hall you can take your time and move around as you wish. worth taking your own snacks and drinks although we did have food there before we left to start the long journey home and it was nice but it does add money on to the day. Worth getting a digital guide I think, we got them for us all but to be honest we could have just shared one or two but they do give more info and kept the kids occupied in the queue.

I don't remember seeing many places to sit down to the poster who asked about that. There were some but not many.

IMO it is definitely worth a visit, it IS expensive but as a one off I don't think it was ridiculous and the kids had a very memorable day.

would definitely suggest a late morning/lunchtime slot.

Purpleprickles · 27/09/2016 10:52

I'm sure we went in on a 4ish slot. Doesn't it open until about 8.30? It worked well for us, ds was only 6 so didn't want to read everything but dh and I did. We went about two years ago and I think they may have added more since. Check the closing time to see if 4.30 gives you a good four hours if you don't want to wait too long to go. We loved it, have fun!

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