What were your first impressions on arrival?
Arriving is one of my favourite bits of the tour. It’s like the anticipation of Christmas Eve and seeing a bulging stocking. In reality, it’s a squat, utilitarian, bile-coloured aircraft hangar. What you should rightly feel on rounding the corner is that you’ve somehow been tricked into a day out at the History of British Military Aircraft exhibition but oddly, it manages to tap into some Pavlovian response with just the WB logo, some enormous chess pieces and a couple of blown up pictures from the films. I immediately started humming the Harry Potter theme tune and the children punched the air as soon as they saw it.
The car park was everything you’d expect from an expanse of concrete upon which you park cars. The staff were remarkably chipper given the inclement weather and the frazzled state of most of the people pulling up. With their high vis and appropriate hand gestures, they did a superb job.
Again, the entrance lobby lived up to the description “entrance lobby”. I even rather enjoyed being frisked for contraband. At one point I even hoped they’d find some. Sadly, my bottle of water, half a packet of fruit pastilles, some squashed fudge and a few questionable baby wipes were all I had to offer.
My only small gripe would be the inability to procure tea when I arrived. I’m British and I’d been stuck in a car for a very long time in London traffic. You can pretty much consider me a stereotype at this point. My husband went to queue at the Starbucks kiosk as there were only four people waiting, Twenty minutes later and no closer to liquid refreshment, he gave up. I really feel this needs rectifying. I’d battled the M25, been stuck in a car with two excitable children who’d consumed so much fudge I’m expecting a retrospective, stinging sugar tax invoice and if you saw fit to install a tea fountain in the entrance, I would have dived in head first and never come out. I should point out that there is a café at the entrance which is actually staffed by the same people on the kiosk bit and service might have been better if we’d gone inside but we were so desperate to join the queue for the tour that we didn’t want to waste valuable time.
The staff here set the tone for the whole thing. They were welcoming and either very good actors or seemed genuinely hopeful we’d enjoy the tour. The very nice lady welcoming the Mumsnet group from her little pop up kiosk was particularly lovely and smiled at all of us, even as we muttered about tea and British roads.
The queue was of course long but it moves quickly and even for a misanthropic curmudgeon such as I am, it was rather nice to chat to the other families and watch the excited, dressed up children vibrating with barely concealed anticipation.
How were the facilities throughout the Studio Tour?
I only used the toilets in the entrance lobby and they were large and clean, had sinks with taps, a hand drier which dried hands, enormous mirrors which I couldn’t escape from but no Moaning Myrtle which is a sadly missed opportunity. You’d only need her voice echoing from a sink occasionally but it’d be hilarious.
Anyway, my husband took our son to the toilet inside the first bit (near the green screens) and I’m not sure if the ladies had more, but the mens had only two cubicles and a couple of urinals. Given that most of the men were clutching jiggling children, there was a wait and some leg crossing going on.
The café was clean and spacious, efficient and the staff were really helpful. I personally didn’t feel that the price of the food itself reflected the quality of what we received. The goujons for example appeared to be real chicken which is a plus but they were dry and accompanied by salad only. For a meal, I would have expected something else like a jacket potato or wedges for example which would be more filling. My husband had a hot dog and said it wasn’t very pleasant and didn’t finish it. This man is a human dustbin so for him to voluntarily leave something is quite remarkable. Both children were still starving and we stopped at the services on the way home. The butterbeer tankards we loved though and apparently, the icecream was BRILLIANT. The selection of soft drinks was good too. I have to say, I really liked that everything was recyclable too. Plates and cutlery were helpfully sorted there and then. The feel of the café is lovely, there was no wait to sit down and gazing out across the outside sets whilst eating was a lovely experience.
When we go again we’ll take our own food.
Were the staff friendly and helpful?
Given that their job description must start with “ability to enthuse about everything Harry Potter”, I expected the calibre to be pretty high. I’d kill (only dark wizards, don’t worry) to work there. Of course, I’d have a 4 hour daily commute and I’d insist upon the tea fountain being finished before I started but what a lovely bunch of people. They were knowledgeable, interested and interesting, pleasant, helpful and a couple really went out of the way to help us. One in particular did an extremely sweet thing for our very tired four year old and it made his whole day. They were entirely approachable and seemed very happy in their work. I particularly liked their enthusiasm and patience. I genuinely couldn’t fault the service at all.
Did you and your family enjoy the experience?
Enjoy is quite a mild word isn’t it? We more than enjoyed it. It sounds derivative but we fell asleep talking about it and woke up and started talking about it again. We’re already planning our next visit. Like the protagonist of a 1950s novel, I now fully understand the phrase “I could have pinched myself”. It’s almost not possible to believe what you’re seeing. There are a couple of wow moments. They’ve set it up so that you round a corner to something pretty impressive on at least four occasions. I’m not exaggerating when I say I heard people gasp. It’s everything I hoped it would be. It’s not something you get to experience anywhere else. It takes a world you’ve read about, watched, talked about, laughed about and you get to walk through it and appreciate the sheer hard work that went into creating it for its legion of fans. It was a privilege.
Would you recommend other families visit the Studio Tour for a day out?
Absolutely. It’s a wonderful experience and if you’re a Harry Potter fan or even just a fan of film making in general, it’s a real insight into that world.
We will be going back and we are already actively planning it.
I would recommend that you book an earlier tour where possible as while it isn’t time limited and you are free to spend as much time as you like, you can’t go backwards if you feel you’ve missed something and it did close at 8pm. We rather rushed around the last bit because we were watching the clock. They said it would take three hours or so but we could have spent double that time there.
Next time I will be taking my own food too.
I feel I must just add something about the cost too. It is very expensive, although I think it’s quite easy to see why as it’s a rather special day out and I would be happy to contribute to keeping it open for Harry Potter fans through my entrance fee. It’s a fantastic opportunity and a huge part of me completely accept that it comes at a cost. However, once we had reached the gift shop, my equanimity may have slipped slightly. My eight year old daughter is the biggest Potter fan of us all and given that we are all pretty keen, that’s saying something. She saw a few other children with a Hedwig puppet and I know she would have loved one. My son wanted a wand. At £27 or thereabouts for the only Hedwig toy and £17 for a toy wand (£26 for a replica wand), there was no way on this earth that we could afford them. Now, I accept completely that something from the gift shop is a lovely optional extra and no child has a right to expect a gift. In fact they didn’t expect, they really would have liked. And that’s an important distinction. My daughter saw the price and knew there was no point even asking and that’s a disappointment. I understand that it’s London prices; it’s a massive and superb attraction and you’re paying to keep such a lovely place going. However, it is so prohibitively expensive that as the final bit of a grand day out, it felt sad. I know it won’t change and I know that while there are people willing to pay those prices for a lovely memory, on top of the photo opportunities, the butter beer, the entrance fee and the travel, it stung a little. The quality of the items in the gift shop is high. I sighed over a lot of it. I also sighed because the prices were completely out of our reach.
I would and have recommended the tour to people. It makes me smile just thinking about it.
I really appreciated the opportunity and cannot tell you in mere words what a lovely time was had by all.
“I was picked by MNHQ to review this product/ service, which I received for free. This review is in my own words and reflects my true opinion.”