Hi Everyone,

You can read a shortened version of this adventure minus all the cool photographs in my Boxing Day Actifit Report

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Welcome Part 2 of ‘My Year of Shows’. The most exciting part of my year came just a few days before Christmas. My sister (Gemma also known as @vegoutt-travel) and I have been fans of the Harry Potter series of stories for over 20 years. We have watched all 8 Harry Potter movies at least twice, some of the earlier movies we must have watched four or even more times. We have the complete box set of movies at home. We are due another Harry Potter movie marathon soon. We also watched the first three Fantastic Beasts movies as well and we are anxiously waiting for the next one to be released. My sister has Harry Potter books, collectibles, many different wands, and much more. I have the Harry Potter Funko Pops. We have also met several of the Harry Potter cast (Weasley twins, Ginny Weasley, and Luna Lovegood) at Supanova events in Brisbane and at the Gold Coast.

The best place to get our Harry Potter fill is London. They have the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Tour, which is always booked out and the Harry Potter play, the Cursed Child in its original theatre. These shows are normally booked out very quickly. In July 2022, someone in our family boldly suggested we should indulge ourselves by flying off to London to enjoy both of the above. In a heartbeat, my sister looked up the Harry Potter Tour. It was booked for the next few months, roughly until around October. She noticed that December was available and that the tour has a special Christmas theme that differentiated it from any other time of year. We were both sold on the idea of taking the tour in December. She also looked up the Cursed Child Play. She wanted to find a day that had both parts. It turned out that on December 22 both parts were being shown and that they were both available. Therefore, she booked the tour for December 21 and the play for December 22.

We had an early 6:30am flight booked that would get us into London Luton Airport before 8am. Leading up to that day we had a few concerns. Many flights were being cancelled due to lack of staff. Cancellation problems appeared to improve as we moved closer to the day but we were becoming concerned about airport and transport strikes as well as a possible war with Russia. Luckily Luton was not affected by strikes and transport options were still available for us when we landed. War did not break out with Russia. Days before we left, UK was hit with a cold spell. London had thick snow, we were concerned that would be a problem. Two days before we left, the weather greatly improved.

As the flight was very early we needed to get up very early to get to the airport on time. Instead of sleeping or just snoozing, we stayed up all night. We watched the final two episodes of a Netflix series (Murder in the Courtroom) and a movie about a Black Cadillac. That took us to about 2am. We made our final preparations that involved changing into our Harry Potter gear. I wore a Hufflepuff jumper, hat, and scarf. My sister put on her Gryffindor Hogwarts uniform. We were ready to hit the road just after 3am.

The airport is about an hour’s drive. We booked a parking spot for the three days. The carpark was a little hidden away but we eventually found it. We took a shuttle to the airport. We got through airport security in less than 5 minutes. We had some breakfast. About an hour later, we boarded the plane. The flight arrived on time. The airport was empty, we hopped on a bus that took us about 3 quarters of the way to the Harry Potter Tour Studio. Then we took a ‘Bolt’ the rest of the way. ‘Bolt’ is like ‘Uber’, taxi service in a private car.

Harry Potter Studio Tour

We arrived at the tour around 9:30am. Our tour was booked for 2:30pm. They were nice enough to let us in much earlier. We had High Tea booked for 1:30pm. The staff said we just needed to ask any member of staff and they would take us to the café and then return us to the tour once we finished. Before we entered the building we took some photographs outside the tour studio. Lots of cool statues, massive images from the movies and a really big Christmas tree.

We entered the main lobby where we picked up our audio guide for the tour. I botched my audio guide up twice and was given a replacement. We then entered the Hub. Here there were several displays and moving images. In the middle, there was a huge dragon hung directly above us. At the end of the Hub was the café and food hall. This is where we were going to have our High Tea in a few hours.

It was now time to begin the tour. We joined a queue, which was not that long. As we moved along the queue to the entrance, we could see the timeline for all eight movies as well as a few scenes from each movie. They had a mini set of Harry’s first bedroom under the stairs.

Just before the tour kicked off we had a brief introduction from talking pictures. They were from people who had previously experienced the tour as well as the Weasley twins.

Next, we moved into a theatre where we were shown a brief introduction video to the tour; this included the three stars of the series (Harry, Hermione, and Ron). Next, the doors opened up to the Great Hall at Hogwarts and the tour had officially begun. Below is a map of the tour.

The Great Hall had been decorated especially for Christmas. The tables contained lots of Christmas food items.

At the end of the hall was the Yule Ball ice sculpture display from the movie Goblet of Fire.

After taking a few photographs and some quick filming we moved into the interior sets section of the tour. The sets were of various places around Hogwarts. These included the boy’s dormitory, Gryffindor common room, Slytherin common room, Dumbledore’s office, Hagrid’s hut, Quidditch props, and school classrooms. They contained mannequins wearing the costumes worn by the characters on those sets.

Costumes of the main characters

The Boys Dorms

Nice selection of wands

Common Rooms

Time Turning

Dumbledore's Office

Triwizard Cup

Spells Classroom

Pictures of famous wizards

Hagrid's Hut

Quidditch Time

Catching the broom

Self organising

Next up were the green screens. They had several props set-up in front of green screens to create the impression of movement and a much bigger area. Gemma and I had a go on a broomstick which involved us flying around various places. Movies and pictures were added to make it appear real.

Time to Fly off with our own brooms

We continued our tour to some sets from outside of Hogwarts. These included the Weasley’s kitchen, Ministry of Magic, and the meeting with Voldemort at the Malfoy house.

Inside the Weasley House

Chamber of Secrets door is closed

Evil lurking in the Malfoy Home

Ministry of Magic

Our tour took us to the Forbidden Forest. This is a reasonably new exhibit. It was dark and full of creepy creatures like giant spiders. Buckbeak (white hippogriff) was in the forest and appeared friendly enough.

Gates of the forest

Buckbeak welcomes you in

Spider wants you

It was out of the forest and to platform 9 ¾. The full size Hogwarts Express was waiting on the tracks and open to explore. Before jumping on board we took photographs pretending to push trolleys through the wall as well as posing in front of the train.

Through the King's Cross Wall

Hogwarts Express

The compartments inside of the train were decorated based on themes from various years.

Next up was the backlot but before we could explore further, we needed to head off for our High Tea. It was just before 1pm. The staff took us through a shortcut to reach the café at the start of the tour.

The High Tea was surprisingly big and very filling. We had cups of tea, sandwiches, savoury treats, little cakes and sweets, and scones. We took our time eating. Then we let our food settle a bit before heading back to the tour.

Our first stop back was the backlot. We both bought a tankard of Butterbeer. Butterbeer is a drink served up at Hogsmeade village just outside of Hogwarts. The tankards were gifts with the drink.

Looks yummy

The backlot, a large outdoor area at the back of the studio, contained lots of large props and some additional sets. These include a giant model of the Weasley house, the knight bus (triple-decker bus), Harry’s former home at Privet Drive, Professor Sprout’s greenhouse, vehicles from the movies, and Hogwarts Bridge.

Inside Harry's old home

Time to pull up a Mandrake

Professor Sprout’s Greenhouse

Driving a Weasley car

Fountain from Hogwarts

On the bridge to Hogwarts

We then returned indoors to view the costume effects used in the movies. They had many different masks, models and creature props.

Creature looking pale

Fantastic Beasts

Skinny Voldemort

More amazing creatures

Best of Warwick Davis

Models of Gringott's

The tour continued with the Gringott’s bank and vaults. This included the bank when it was operational as well as after it was destroyed.

Visiting the vaults to pick up some treasure

Another satisfied customer redecorates the bank

Next up was Diagon Alley, the famous alley where Harry did most of his shopping in preparation for his school year. The alley included essential shops such as wand shops, broom shops, magical pet shops, and the joke shop.

Next up was the Art Department. This area contained sketches, and mini models of various props and sets used in the many movies.

The last and possibly the most amazing part of the tour was the giant model of Hogwarts. I believe the model was used for many of the amazing aerial shots of Hogwarts used in the movies. We could walk round the model and take photographs from various angles. As it was Christmas, the school was covered in snow. Just for a bit of fun, the staff hid two tiny snowmen on the school building. I managed to find one of them.

The little model

The big model

We found a snowman

The end of the tour took us through the gift shop. It was packed with Harry Potter merchandise. We had prepaid for a guide book, which we could pick up at the desk on the way out. We did not buy anything on the spot as the queue was incredibly long and we were incredibly tired as we had not slept in two days. However, we are allowed to buy merchandise online if we do so within a month of visiting the tour. I suggested we did so when we got back. There was a very cool looking Hagrid Christmas ornament we both liked.

Hagrid and Luna arrived by mail

When we got outside, we took a few more photographs before we headed to our hotel for a much needed rest.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

After a good night’s sleep, we woke up ready and excited for our next day of Harry Potter adventures. We were going to the Palace Theatre to watch both parts of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play. We began our day with breakfast at the hotel. They had a good range of food that catered for a plant-based diet. After breakfast, we set-off. Part One did not start until 2pm, so we had plenty of time. We decided to take a long scenic walk to the theatre.

We walked through Kensington Park and then Hyde Park. We saw Kensington Palace, the home of the young royals.

We then saw the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland from the outside. We did not have time to enter.

We then continued our journey up to Buckingham Palace. After that, our journey took us to Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column. They had a small market but nothing else that would indicate Christmas was just a few days away. There was no tree or carol singers.

After walking a little further, we finally reached our destination. A singing security guard invited us down during the interval to take our photographs.

We entered the theatre. We bought the guide for Part One and headed up the stairs to take our seats on the second floor. We were a few rows back from the front of the balcony. We had a very good view of the stage. The theatre is quite small, so everyone should be able to see the stage clearly. The seats were very close together. I had to bend and tuck my legs under my seat, as there was close to no leg space. I had to stand every time someone needed to get to their seat in our row. Once the play started, people were very good and did not get up.

In the interval of Part One we headed back outside for our photograph by the singing guard. He was friendly and took a couple of good photographs. He was impressed by our costumes. I added Harry Potter glasses from my previous day’s attire.

Part One ended on a cliffhanger. I think the people who did not pay for Part Two were seriously regretting not doing so. We had two hours before Part Two started. We wanted to be back with 30 minutes to spare. So we went out to look for a place nearby to have some dinner. We went to a Japanese Café where we both had Katsu Curry with Tofu. Then we headed back to the theatre for Part Two. When we arrived back, the theatre had changed some of the merchandise to reflect Part Two and how Part One ended. There was also a new guide book for Part Two. We bought the new guide and then headed back up to our seats (same seats as Part One).

Almost three hours later, Part Two ended. It was an amazing two part play. I think it was the most enjoyable play I have ever watched. I found Part One particularly good. It was a very enjoyable story with plenty of twists. Many may enjoy Part Two more as it had some amazing special effects. The effects throughout both parts were great. They made very good use of some of the dark areas on stage to create many different types of illusions. I do not want to give away too much about the plot details of the play as it could spoil the experience for people who have not seen it yet. The story was based around Harry Potter’s second son and Draco Malfoy’s son. It essentially starts where the eighth Harry Potter movie ended. Harry and his friends were now adults and their children were about to board the Hogwarts Express. To know more, you need to watch the play or read the books.

We got out of the theatre around 10pm. We decided to go for another walk to see the Christmas lights in London. We were a little disappointed as there were not that many and what they had were not particularly brilliant. We walked past Harrods (Large department store in London). It was lit up but the decorations and lights were focused on their sponsor ‘Christian Dior’ rather than Christmas. We arrived back at the hotel just before 11pm. It was a tiring but yet another exciting day.

Going Home

Day 3 had arrived. We had completed our Harry Potter activities and it was time to go home. Our flight was not until 6:30pm so we had a bit of time left. We took another walk around London. We visited Harrods to see if they had nice unique gifts. We were again disappointed to find their stock to be bland, low quality in appearance, and very expensive. We got a penny coin with a Harrods bear pressed on to it and did not buy anything else. We walked a bit further. We felt a bit tired so we went into Starbucks for a light lunch and drink. After that, we went to the bus stop to catch the bus to Luton Airport.

The airport was quite busy and this was made worse by how disorganised everything was and by the extent of checks on hand luggage items. Some people needed to empty half their bags. We took well over an hour to get through security. It did not matter too much as we arrived with plenty of time to spare. Luton Airport is the second worst airport I have experienced. The worst is Stansted Airport (also a London airport). At least the flight left on time. It appeared the plane was short on staff. We only had three cabin crew instead of the usual four for this size plane. This meant they could only use one of the two trolleys. No problems, we still arrived home safely. After we picked up the car, we headed home where we ended our day with a spicy curry before bed.

This trip was awesome. It was the first time I have travelled anywhere since 2019. It may have been a short domestic trip but it was a chance to getaway and do something fun for a lower price than a longer overseas trip. I am not sure when I will travel again. While the price of crypto (Hive in particular) is low, I need to be more cautious with money. There are also many other uncertainties in the world where I feel I need to be cautious. In 2023, I am sure I will still be able to indulge in some simple things to keep my inner nerd satisfied.

I wish everyone an awesome 2023
Happy New Year

----End of Part 2----

Click here for Part 1

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