Harry Potter in London: The Cursed Child

We went and spent the day watching Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.  Kevin and I heard that it was an amazing show and totally worth every penny, so we secured tickets and seats for the entire family for part 1 and part 2 back to back.  We were a little early, and had to walk through China Town to get to the theatre and we were so excited to see a restaurant that had the custard filled breaded fish that we super loved from Korea.  We went ahead and got a few things for lunch from the restaurant, and walked and ate on the way to pick up our tickets.  Other then knowing that the show is in two parts and being told it is not to miss, I actually didn't know anything else about the show.  I didn't know how long it was or the time the second show started, all I knew was when we needed to be there to pick up our tickets, which was at 12:15.  We got to the theatre and all our spirits were high and extremely excited.

We went through security, got our programs and found our seats.  We had some pretty great seats, they were about half way up the ground floor.  For the most part, all the kids could see the stage.  The theatre provided these cool child boosters for Little A and Monster, so they were excited to be just as tall as everyone else in the family.  After looking at the program, we realized that Part 1 was three hours with a small intermission in the middle.  We dug a little deeper and found out there is a two hour break from 4:00-6:00, then Part 2 starts at 6:00 and ends at 9:00.  Kevin and I looked at each other with our mouths open and had the exact same though, "How on earth are we going to keep Monster quiet and seated for 6 hours?!?"  We did bring some snack food for him, candies, and suckers to bribe him with silence, but we doubted it would last 6 hours.  With a silent plea to the heavens and promises to Monster of endless candy and toys if he was good, the lights flickered and everyone took their seats. 

For the first hour and half,  Monster was very interested in the show and sat in his seat and watched the show.  It was phenomenal.  I'm not going to go into details because I don't want any spoilers, but I will say the special effects were pretty spectacular.  They were spectacular enough to keep the attention of my wild little 3 year old.  There was about a 20 minute intermission, so we took the kids to the bathroom and opened up the snacks we brought in our backpack.  After the lights flickered and the show started again, we were able to keep Monster in his seat and quiet by giving him suckers.  He was beginning to loose interest in the show as a whole.  Every once in a while he would regain interest in the show because how amazing it was.  There was a scary part with some amazing dementors, so he just covered his eyes and I held him during that part.  I was so impressed, because just like that Part 1 was over and Monster had made it through 3 hours and everyone was able to enjoy Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Part 1.

We had two hours to kill before Part 2 started, so we decided to search for dinner.  We didn't know what restaurants were around the area, so we decided to try to find China Town again and just go back to the restaurant we had lunch at.  As we were walking around, we turned a corner and walked right up to the store, House of MinaLima.  When we went to Warner Bros Studio: The Making of Harry Potter, one of the workers in the blue shirts told us that if we can make it to the House of MinaLima, that we definitely needed to make a stop.  MinaLima are the two people who designed pretty much everything paper related for the Harry Potter Movies.  They designed all the papers product designs, such as the Dailey Prophets, Marauders Map, all containers and boxes in the joke shop, all the wrappers for the candies, you name it.  

The store was more like a museum then it was a shop.  There were four stories to the shop and each had something amazing.  The bottom floor had replicas for sale.  There were daily prophets, Azkaban wanted posters, maps, and educational decrees for sale.  The next three levels had a few things for sale, but for the most part it was glass cases with original products that they designed for the movie.  The entire stairway was plastered with Daily Prophet newsprints and wanted posters.  We really loved seeing the original Marauders Map in the shop in one of the glass cases.  The shop even had a fireplace with letters all spilling out on the floor.  It was such a cute and fun store to walk through. 

We left the House of MinaLima and found The Shake Shack and decided to make this our dinner stop.  We haven't ever eaten here before, but our friend, Holly Rust loves Shake Shack and has mentioned how amazing it is multiple times.  We were lucky to find a seat where we could all fit.  We ordered food, and sat down and enjoyed some super amazing hamburgers and milkshakes.  We brought a few games, and had a fun time playing game and talking about how incredible the first part of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was.

After filling up our tummies with super yummy food, and playing some games, it was time to return to the theatre for Part 2. It was 6:00, which is 7:00 our time.  Monster usually goes to sleep about 7:00, so I was super nervous about how he would act, since we knew he was tired.  We sat down and just hoped for the best and waited for the curtain to rise.

For the first 15 minutes or so, Monster moved from his seat to my lap and back to his seat again.  He was getting antsy because he was so tired.  He kept sitting down and standing up then climbing all over me.  Luckily, he wasn't being loud, just restless.  He finally sat on my lap and in a matter of minutes, he was twitching and fast asleep.  I couldn't believe our luck.  All the kids passed their coats to Kevin, and he took everyone's coat and made a big pile on the floor under Monster's seat and between me and him.  I laid Monster down on the coats, and he didn't move, he just slept on.  Kevin and I looked at each other in total disbelief and relief.  Monster ended up sleeping through the next 2 and a half hours of the show.  Even when they turned the lights on for intermission, even when the sound effects were super loud, even when the chair in front of him hit his face when the lady stood up during intermission,  and even when the people around us were talking, Monster slept on.  It was a small smile from heaven, and Kevin and I were both able to enjoy the entire performance.  Everyone was right, it was phenomenal and worth every single penny.  The kids talked about it the entire ride home. The performance was funny, witty, had amazing effects, great acting, and great costumes.  I'm so glad we got to take all the kids to see it and they thanked us so many times and I'm very positive they will talk about the show for hours and days and months to come.

Harry Potter in London: Muggles Tour of the City

Since this was a trip designated to all things Harry Potter in London that we could squeeze into three days, we decided to see London from the eyes of Witches and Wizards, and went on a Muggles tour of London.  We took off our wizard robes and donned on our muggles clothes, with the exceptions of the house scarves that the girls decided to covertly wear.  We met our tour guide,  Lukas Lestrange for a tour of London.

Our first stop was at the Leaky Cauldron in the Borough Market. This exact store was what was turned into the Leaky Cauldron in the movie.  The top left window in the picture below was the window used to take the shot taken of Harry looking out the window in the fourth book.  It was fascinating to learn that the doorway was made of styrofoam.  

I think one of my most favorite facts that I learned about the Borough Market was that the film makers made the Knight Bus off site and then brought the bus to the market.  However, someone must have been fired that day because it was too tall to fit under the bridge we were standing under.  The film makers only had one night to film this part of the movie, so on the spot the bus was re-done while the cast had to sit and wait, which is why there was a shot taken out of the left window.

We continued to walk through Borough Market and walked past the fish & chips restaurant, The Anchor.  This actually wasn't Harry Potter related, but it was super cool to learn that it is the oldest pub in Britain.  William Shakespeare even wrote some of his famous writings in this exact pub.

We walked past some ruins in London and Lukas took a second to explain that this is how the wizards hide in plain site.  A normal muggle would just walk past this and just simply ignore the building as an old run down rotting ruin, when in fact it is enchanted and in truth is a wizard shop or home.  I loved how Lukas was always in character.  It made the tour simply delightful.  He also kept the kids attention the entire time.

We stopped at The Golden Hinde, which is a copy of the first English vessel to circumnavigate the globe. This ship was the inspiration for the Durmstrang Ship that was created for the fourth movie.

We had a fun stop at the Millennium Bridge with another super great story. This is the bridge that was used in the sixth Harry Potter movie.  The bridge in the book was a fictional bridge according to JK Rowling, so she said they could use whatever bridge they wanted in London.  This particular bridge was actually made super bad and it swayed and had massive issues.  The designer of the bridge was so prideful that he said it wasn't the bridge but the way the people walked on it.  As a joke and a mockery to this situation, the Millennium Bridge was used in the movie and notice the next time you watch how they make it sway.  I so loved this.

While at the Millinium Bridge, Lukas pointed out that St. Paul's Cathedral, which is the big church at the end of the bridge is where the spiral staircase is located that was used for the staircase to Professor Trelawney's Divination classroom.  The tour didn't have time to go to the church, so we ended up going to it on our own.  We had plans to go in the church, but it was going to cost about $80 for our family, so we decided just seeing the church was good enough.

And this is what we had to say about it costing $80 to enter a church... What?!?

As we made our way back to Borough Market and to the tube station, we walked down Clink Street and passed through the tunnel by The Clink, we stopped to learn that this location inspired the Prison of Azkaban. The unsavory people that walk this street, the dark shadows that fall over the tunnel and the prison itself all have the feeling of Azkaban.  The location wasn't used for the filming, but parts of it was used as inspiration in the actual set. This made us laugh, because the hotel we were staying at was right at the end of the tunnel, so we joked that we would see a dementor out of our window one night.

We got on the tube and stayed together in our tour group and took the tube to Westminster.  We had our Oyster cards ready and made it to Westminster without a hiccup.  As we were walking out of Westminster, we passed down the same escalator that Harry and Mr. Weasley went down to get the the Ministry of Magic in the Order of the Phoenix movie. It's like Big Sis is right in the movie.

As we were exiting, Lukas even showed us the exact entrance/exit that was shown in the movie when Mr. Weasley couldn't get the arms to open.  I asked if any kids wanted to walk through and get a picture and Big Sis willingly volunteered.  She laughed the entire time she walked through.  This is the epitome of a Potterhead.

Our next stop was the Ministry of Magic.  Lukas showed us the very spot where Harry, Ron and Hermione hid before they went into the Ministry of Magic under polyjuice potion in the seventh movie.  We were told the doorway where Kevin is standing was transformed using, yet again, styrofoam.  I guess the design was so poorly made that Harry didn't dare move or else the entire thing would fall on him, that is why he doesn't move much in this part of the movie.  We then looked down the street where the telephone booth was made and where the Ministry of Magic would have been.

Our last stop was probably my favorite, Knockturn Alley.  This is actually Goodwin's Court in London and it had the most magical feeling than any spot we went today.  The story here is that this is the place where 11 publishers were located that turned down JK Rowling when she was trying to get her manuscript published.  She used Knockturn Alley as a 'stick it to you' to those chum publishers.  I could have spent all day here, it had darkly painted buildings and amazing real street lanterns that just added so much magic to this little easy to miss alley.  There were even a few window that had broom sticks and stuffed owls peeking out. The last bit of information Lukas shared with us was that the alley was too small to do the filming, but JK Rowling insisted on using it, so they took pictures of the entire thing and made an exact replica in the studio so they could still use the location for filming.  Even the skylight window at the top of Borgin and Burkes is in this alley.

By this point, poor little Monster had fallen asleep and the kids were exhausted and hungry.  We all loved our day and loved walking through London as wizards dressed as muggles.  It was great seeing film locations and inspirations for the book and the movies.  I highly recommend Muggles Tour London.  It was a day of magic making memories.

Harry Potter in London: Warner Bros Studio Tour

This is M&M and I am going to tell you about my experience at Harry Potter Warner Bros Studios : The making of Harry Potter. We are such big Harry Potter fans so this was one of my most favorite places that we saw here in London. We woke up and had an amazing breakfast down at the restaurant. We then went to the subway and took a train to the studio tour bus pick-up. We were afraid that we had missed the bus, but we got lucky and made it just in time! The bus took us through the city and then we got to the studios.

The bus dropped us off and we saw the building. Near the front of the Harry Potter Studios, were the chess pieces used in the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. It was super cool. We also got Wizarding Passports! There was spots all in it to put stamps from around the studios and we were so excited to start looking. Also, there were golden snitches that were hidden all around the studios so we kept our eyes peeled.

We walked into the studios and saw the dragon that was used in the seventh movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The cool thing is that the dragon was huge but it would be 3x larger in real life. It was so big. We took some pictures then set off towards the entrance to the tour.

We then walked to the start of the tour. There was the cupboard under the stairs and we also saw Harry Potter's first pair of glasses. Then we walked into a room with a lot of people and watched the actors of Fred and George Weasley talk to us about the tour. They were super funny! Then we went into a different room and sat down. There was a big screen in the front just like a movie theater. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger talked to us about the studios and walked through the door to the great hall. Then the screen lifted and there was the real door!!!!

We then walked through the door and saw the real great hall used in the movies. We saw all the outfits of the teacher's and some students outfits like Harry Potter's and Draco Malfoy's. We learned that this was one of the only permeant sets that stayed the way it was because it was used in so many movies. The floor was not wood but stone and the house tables were all set up too. It was super cool.

We then walked into the prop and set designers room. We got to see all the real props inside like the goblet of fire, golden snitch, quidditch supplies, brooms, and we even got to see all the real outfits of the characters and the wand maker ( not Ollivander ). One part was super cool. There were people in blue jackets and they were soo cool because they were total Harry Potter whizzes. They told us all about the sets and outfits. We also got the opportunity to get close to some of the actors clothes. One person was super cool and helpful. He let us see the outfits of Luna Lovegood and we learned some cool facts about her too. Did you know that she made most of her own clothes and props? They were so good! Big Sis wore her Radish earrings that she made herself to match her Luna Lovegood outfit. She got a complement about them from almost every helper in blue. There were so many props that they were countless. We had fun walking through and saying stuff like " Oooo! That was in Lupin's office in the third movie." or " Look! It's the mirror of Erised!"

Want to know something CRAZY? There was only one real moving staircase out of the 140 in the movie and only one part of the bridge was real! It was a ton of fun hearing all of these fact from the people in blue and telling them what we know.

We saw the props for the Yule ball. There was so many things to see. The ice sculpture was huge! It wasn't made of ice because it would have melted, so it was made of plastic. We also saw the bath faucet from the 2nd task in the fourth movie, The Goblet of Fire. It was cool because there was coloured water going down the tubes of the faucet. There was plastic tubes going down and the water was inside it.

We also saw the Gryffindor Common room. It is a lot smaller than you think. There was so little room! The beds were super tiny. It makes me wonder if they had to make a bigger room to shoot when the actors were growing. But the helpers in blue told us that the beds were made when they were all little, so when they are up they had to change the camera angle and they were all squished in the bed, or they had their feet sticking out the end.  We got the stamp for that room and sadly, I messed up, so whoops. You were supposed to put only one page in the stamp press, but I put the entire book in, so that one got messed up but I got the others right. We also saw the invisibility cloak. It had a green screen inside so that was super cool. We were watching the movie of the first book and Big Sis thought she saw the green screen. I am still now sure. We even saw the big clock in the clock tower. It was the one that was used during the test of O.W.L.s. It was cool to see it rock back and forth and back and forth. It was HUGE!

We also saw the triwizard cup. It was very tiny but it was lit up. The Sorcerers Stone is tiny. It looks like rosin that you use for the bow of cellos and violins but a little different. The Deluminator was super cool to see. It had some kind of green gem design on it. It was super cool to see. Dumbledore's office was also pretty big. Did you know that his telescope had a huge chair on the back. It was so cool to see all the big gadgets and stuff that was in his office. The Sword of Gryffindor was on one of the shelfs in his office too. It was cool. The Horcruxes were in a case too. It was cool seeing the locket and other horcruxes like the Ravenclaw diadem. The Sorting Hat was also there. It was so ragged and it was cool to see it on the shelf.

The Mirror of Erised was cool to see. According to Dumbledore, the Mirror of Erised shows "the deepest, most desperate desire or our hearts. " and when we looked into the mirror, we saw us all together! Did you know that Erised is desire spelled backwards? Have you ever been able to read what's on the top of the mirror of Erised? I found out that it is the same as it's name. It says "I show not your face but your heart's desire" backwards, with the spaces rearranged. Did you know that? Super cool fact! Behind the Mirror or Erised was the potions room. There was so many yucky things in the jars. It was so gross to see what was inside but cool at the same time. We also saw the outfits of Snape and Slughorn. We didn't get a picture of Slughorn but that's ok. It was sad that the actor of Snape died a little after the movies were filmed. He was my mom's favorite.

The Chamber of Secrets door was also pretty cool to see. It was made of metal and it was SO cool to see it move like it did in the movie. It moved the snakes heads and the big snake slithered across the edge. It was so cool to see! The Flying Car was also super cool. It was funny too. They made the Whomping Willow's branch hit it too. The car also looked super small. There was dents all over it. The car was also bouncing all around like it did in the movie.

The Death Eater's masks were cool to see too. There was not one that was like another. They were all unique. We also saw the room in Malfoy Manor that had all the death eaters around a table. Nigini was so big. She was probably like 100 feet long! The people in blue talked about the teacher that is hanging from the ceiling, they said that they used the real prop that was used in the movie. When the studio first opened they had the electrotronics turned on for the teacher, and she would move her neck and head.  They said that they had to take it down because it was soo scary and too lifelike. It looked pretty scary in the movie.

We also saw the tomb of Tom Riddle. The people in blue said that they messed up the date. It said that his mom died on a date like 1888 and that he was born on 1890 by his mother. That made no sense. So the people in blue blew our minds yet again and told us that the person that made it messed up the dates. Whoops! So in the movie that had to use this prop, but had to cover the dates with a green screen and put more accurate dates through the green screen.

The Forbidden Forest was all cool. Did you know that all of the giant spiders were made of coconut shells because of their furry outside. Monster was scared in the forest part with the spiders but we thought it was super cool. They even had the Aragog thing jump out at us. Poor monster got so scared that he had to stay in Dad's arms the whole time. I personally also got scared at it when it jumped out at me but I thought it was super cool.  We even saw BUCKBEAK!!! It was so cool because he was not all computer animated. They could make him run, kneel, and even screech like he did in the movies. It was super cool. They just had to use an animated model for the flying parts in the movies.

The Hogwarts Express was super cool! We even got a chance to walk inside. It is a lot smaller than  you think. It's a wonder that the trolly lady fit. We saw all the compartment for each of the movies. In the first one from the first movie, Scabbers was there and there was candy all over the seats like in the movie. The second looked like it too. The third had the hand mark that Ron made when the dementor came. His hand was on the window and it froze so there was his hand mark. The water that Lupin had also was frozen over. It was super cool to see. The forth and the fifth also had special things that went with the movie.

We also got to take a picture going into the wall. We never got to go to the real Kings Cross Station but we still got a picture running through the barrier of platform 9 3/4. Yes, it wasn't the one from the movie but it was still cool.

After the Hogwarts express room, there was the lunch room with a big cafeteria and then and outside place with all the outside props. We had lunch and we had Butterbeer ( BEST DRINK EVER!!! ). We all got one and it was delicious. I have had one before at the other Harry Potter studios in California but this one was so good and much better since it didn't make our heads have instant brain freezes. After lunch, we went outside to see the props out there.

We saw Number 4 Privet Drive. One of my favorite rooms in the house was the living room because there was all of Harry Potter's letters flying around. Its was so tiny. It again made me wonder how some people like Dudley and Uncle Vernon fit. We only got to see the dining room and the living room but we did see the cupboard under the stairs at the start of the tour.

We saw the Night Bus too. Man, things are so much tinnier than they look in the movies. It was so squished and tiny inside, We only got to see it and not go inside. We also found out that it had to get rebuilt when they tried to make it through to the leaky cauldron. Mom told all about that in her muggle tour post. So I would encourage you to read that first before this post. We also saw more vehicles like Hagrid's motorcycle, well it was originally Sirius's motorbike, but he gave it to Hagrid in the first movie to take Harry to the Dursley's. Monster went crazy when he saw all the vehicles and he wanted to get in each and every one.

The outside area also had the bridge of Hogwarts and the Potter's house too.  The bridge was so mis-shaped like in the movies. We learned that this was the only real section of the bridge and the only part that was used for filming.  The real bridge was short, but with the help of computer animation, they made it look so huge in the movie.  It was fun to walk on. We saw the Potter's house too. It was sad to see it all broken down, like after Voldermort had destroyed it, but it was nice to see all the same.

We then went into the second studio building. The first part of this building had all the creatures and animals from the movie.  Did you know that the dementors were used by the top part of the body being a backpack and the people underneath being covered by the black cloak. Also, the werewolf also had a person inside monitoring it and moving it. That was cool. The Gringotts bank was so neat. We found out from the people in blue that they used a real bank somewhere for the first movie but they had to make their own for the 7th movie. They made it all from scratch and it was cool learning all about it. We also found another golden snitch on the stairway. Just before we exited the bank, we saw a room that had a computer animated dragon that moved around the bank. There was real stuff in there from the movie like the broken pillars but the rest was computer animated. They replayed it after it flew off and it was always different. It was cool to see the dragon stomping toward you and it looked like it was actually there but the people told us it was computer animated. It was not its normal size because I told you about the dragon at the start of this post. 

We also saw Diagon Ally, which we learned was also the same set for Hogsmead. All the shops were there and had things that moved in the window like in the movies. The joke shop was so cool. It was so sad because the people in blue said that they spent like a full two months making all the boxes and signs for the joke shop but the director made them start over. That must have sucked. Also, in the window of the shop, did you know that there was an eggplant, it was a green plant that had cooked eggs on it. That was funny and awesome to see. We found another golden snitch near the broom stand. Sadly we were almost to the end of the tour.

Hogwarts was last. It was a mini/huge model of Hogwarts that was used for the outside shots like when Hedwig flew over it in the snow. We walked all around it and learned some more fun facts about it from the people in blue. It looked super cool to see.

And lastly, the Wand of Fame. On all of the boxes, there was a name of someone that was either an actor, director, helper, maker, or designer. There was so many names! There was person in blue that showed us some of the names like the actors of Dumbledore, Luna, Lupin, the other Dumbledore, Harry Potter, ect.

After the Wand of Fame, we got into the store and we bought some souvenirs. Big Sis, Little A, and I all got scarves and I got 2 shirts and a poster. I didn't need any nick nicks because I already had some from the other studios.

We were sadly done and we got on the bus then the train all the way home .  We ended up spending 6 hours at the Harry Potter Studio.  We loved every second of it, but we were all completely worn out.  Everyone fell asleep on the train back to the apartment.  We got home a little late and we just had food from a restaurant on the way to the hotel.

It was sooooooo amazing going to Harry Potter Warner Bros Studios : The making of Harry Potter. I would HIGHLY suggest people ( Muggles ) to go see this amazing place. You get to see all the real props and how they made all the sets and how they filmed.

We also learned some super mind blowing facts about Harry Potter. Like, The actor of Moaning Murtle was 40! The director had to get Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy's robe pockets sewed together because they kept hiding and eating chocolate frogs through the movie filming. It was an amazing experience going to Harry Potter Warner Bros Studios : The making of Harry Potter. I loved it so much.