Monday, April 29, 2013
We were both up well before our 7am wakeup call. Clay well
before me. Of course he went to sleep last night about 6pm while I held out
until after 8pm. Clay had Lance Nabs for breakfast. I had coffee in the room
and a protein bar. We had planned to head over to Euston Station at 8am, but we
were ready early and went on over. We had seen yesterday, when coming off the Tube, a
platform labeled Overland Line to Watford Junction and we had budgeted for that
trip on our Oyster Cards. We bought a postcard stamp this morning in the
station and then went to the Information Desk to find out where to find the
platform we had seen yesterday. The guy advised us that we didn’t want to take the
“local” out to Watford Junction. He pointed us to Platform 11 or 9 ahead and
told us it was “direct nonstop” and that we could use our Oyster Cards and just
board the Midlands Line Northampton train and get off at the first stop in
Watford Junction. I was skeptical, but he was right. It was a nice and
uncrowded train with no stops for us but ours. It left Euston Station at about
8:09am. This meant that we arrived at Watford Junction at 8:20am. The first
shuttle bus operated by Mullaney’s Coaches to the Warner Bros. Harry PotterLeavesden Studio Tour is at 9:20am. We had a full hour to kill. We found the
bus lot to the left where we needed to be, but it was far too windy and cold to wait there.
We walked to the right of the station, where there was also nowhere to sit and
wait. We went down about 2 blocks to the Junction Café. It was a nice, clean
and quiet quick service place, but since they were not busy she took our order
at the table. I had 2 eggs on 2 toast for 2.20 pounds and a latte for about
that much more. (Here's a funny story. While in Ireland we met some Australians who said they couldn't eat fried eggs if they were not served this way and trust me, we didn't see them served this way again! I won't soon forget about it and I hope the 2 women we talked with got to make it to the Studios Tour.) Clay had hot tea and 1 egg, 1 sausage and chips. His was
similarly priced. It was good food at reasonable prices. We used the rest rooms
and paid up and walked back to the bus lot by the train station. There were
about 65 to 70 people there by then, with more continuing to flood out of the
station as trains arrived. There was no queuing, people were just surging and
shoving when the first double decker bus arrived. We were the next to the last 2
people to get on the standing room only bus. I was very glad we had not decided
to wait at the bus stop only to get shoved out of the way when it arrived! It was a longer bus ride than I expected. I am guessing over 15 minutes and we were on what seemed like a major freeway for a good part of that time, so we were covering some distance. We had paid for the Harry Potter tickets online (they are not sold on location
for day of visits, btw – you have to pre-purchase online only and then pick them up on
arrival – for this reason they ask you to arrive 45 minutes early). Our tickets were £29 each and a digital guide each for £4.95 each. But, we had
budgeted double for the train and bus somehow. The train was £4.50 each way on
our Oyster Cards and the shuttle bus was £2 for a return ticket. We did each
have to make a purchase this morning to come up with £2 each in exact
change for the bus. Clay bought a candy bar and I bought a 99 pence postcard airmail stamp.
We got our studio tour tickets from a self-service machine outside and
then went on in to pick up our digital guides. They were like I-pods with audio
and video features. The voice of Draco Malfoy was the narrator. We found them useful, though
some people might just find them distracting. There was plenty of good signage
and lots of videos to watch and listen to throughout as well as lots of
employees talking about things, so you could easily do without. I think we both
thought they enhanced our experience though. We got in line even though our
timed ticket was for 10:30am. They admitted us. We saw Harry’s bedroom in the
cabinet under the stairs from 4 Privet Lane while waiting as well as one of the
Ford Anglias suspended from the ceiling in flying mode. When they let us in the
first video room, there were at least 2 classrooms of little kids in there.
They all had HP Passports! I had read about these and had meant to ask for one.
The guides said they were supposed to look for golden snitches and told them
where to find the first one and to make sure they got their stamps. (I will
break the suspense and tell you that when we left I asked a question at
Information in the lobby by digital guides and a girl there had a stack of them
and a grown woman asked for one and she told her no, that they were only
included in the child’s admission and she couldn’t get one! I think they would
really enhance the experience for any age and I thought that was unfair!)
Next, you sit through a short introductory video with the
actors that play Harry, Ron and Hermione. The screen slides away and there are
the front doors to Hogwarts! You enter through the Great Hall. I will just say
it was all amazing. They told us to allow 3 hours but we were there around 6
hours! We spent most of that time in the first studio, I don’t remember if it
is J or K. This is where I found the stamping machines which were actually
embossers. I had a small pad of paper in my purse, so even without the passport
I collected what I think were all of the stamps anyway. That was cool. I think we
also spotted all of the suspended golden snitches, but since we didn’t have
blanks to fill in a little book, there is no way to know. This first studio was
just jam packed and we got behind on our video viewing until we were in sight
of the exit and found a place to sit. We should have gone another 15 feet and
done the green screen experience first, but we didn’t realize it was there! By
the time we got to it, there was about a 15-20 minute line. Clay didn’t want to
do it, but I told him we will never be here again. I am doing it and probably
buying the photos because they did not allow any photography here. You could
photograph everything else. So, those photos and videos of the green screen
area must have been the real moneymakers here! Clay did the first part with me
and Bob and we got the photo of us in the Flying Anglia. Sadly, they did not
record the flying Anglia video that they did before the still shot! I did the
flying broomstick with Bob. I was in a Hogwarts robe. It was cool. It lasted a
fraction of the time spent lined up in front
and in line to pay for photos on the way out of the green screen area. You pick up
your DVD of video in the gift shop as you really exit the building for good.
We used the restrooms and went outside to the back lot. We
saw another Ford Anglia, Hagrid’s flying motorcycle with sidecar (which we
never were able to get near due to the crowds!), the Night Bus, 4 Privet Lane,
Harry’s destroyed home in Godrick’s Hollow, the wooden bridge at Hogwarts, Lord
Voldemort’s grave (which appeared to state that his parents died 2 years before
his birth!?) and a number of pieces of the Wizard’s chess set. We each had a
small Butterbeer here. They were smaller and a different flavor than the only
other place in the world you can get them at Universal Orlando! They were still
good and it was afternoon by the time we got that far and it was needed. Clay
had some chocolate Oreo-type nabs and they were delicious scooping the
neverending foam heads off our Butterbeers. I also ate a protein bar. Clay’s
digital guide battery died and we had to wait around for a new one to be
delivered here. It was fine and we both got caught up to current on videos
out there.The next building had a restroom that was bigger than the one in the first studio building. I used both! Then we went through the Creature area, the animatronics, etc. as well as walking down Diagon Alley. But the real gem in here is the house-sized scale model of Hogwarts that they used for all the movies. It is incredible and impressive. You can walk all the way around it on different levels from high to low and use touchscreens to learn more. While you are in there (if you linger, it goes from light to dark and the tiny windows of Hogwarts light up). A worker there saw us trying to photograph Bob sitting on the railing in front of the Boat House at the bottom and came over and offered to take a photo of all 3 of us. That was nice! Then we exited through the gift shop. It was incredible. It was much bigger than any gift shop we saw at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. It may have been bigger that all of the Orlando shops put together! It was crazy. Clay found an XXL t-shirt and I got a pair of 07 HP Quidditch pajama pants in XL. They were pretty short legged and sized very small, so we think they were kid’s sizing. We found the same kid’s Dobby t-shirt that I got in Orlando. We picked up our DVD and paid £33 for 2 photos and the video of me on the broomstick and then we returned our digital guides and left. We fought our way onto the next bus and managed to get seats on the upper level for the ride back to the train station. Minutes after we arrived a train to Euston Station left and we were on it. It made about 3 stops before terminating at Euston Station. It was not the Overland Line of the Undergound system either, but another Midlands Line train. It was the same £4.50 on our Oyster Cards.
We came back to the Ibis Hotel. We asked at the front desk for a dinner recommendation thinking of getting dressed up and going out. He gave us a Google Maps printout to his favorite restaurant NOPI. We went upstairs and Googled the menu on Clay’s phone and decided not. Clay asked his phone for Indian restaurants near our location and got about 10 hits on Drummond which is the side street running beside our hotel. We went out and walked along it and it was like Little India. We passed 2 Indian sweets shops, a spice shop, and a bunch of restaurants. I chose Drummond Villa and it was very good and reasonably priced in addition to its very convenient location. Clay had a Kingfisher beer and I had a white wine. He had chicken biryani and I had butter chicken. We also had pappadams and a garlic naan. They brought us each a chocolate with the check but they did not have any desserts evidently, as we weren’t offered any. We were pretty full anyway. We walked back over to Euston Station and bought Clay a Diet Coke, a package of chocolate croissants for the morning and Clay bought himself a bunch of chocolate to eat on the train trip tomorrow.
We have an early start and a tightly scheduled busy day
tomorrow. We have a wake up call for 4am. We have to pack up and check out and
catch a train to Oxenholme at around 5:30am. From there we change to the train
to Windermere. We are supposed to arrive at about 9:30am and we are scheduled
to meet our tour bus for our Lake District tour in our Inn’s lobby at 9:55am. I
think that tour ends around 5 or 6pm. The next morning we have another very
early departure for our train trip to Inverness. But that is later. Tomorrow
is the Lake District. Weather is predicted to be like the last 2 days here.
Partly sunny and starting out in the 30sF and rising to the 50sF. We are
layering! At least there is no rain in the forecast yet. Knock on wood for the
weather to hold just as it is and we’ll be happy campers.
Photos
Photos
