4
A magical look behind the scenes
If you are a fan of the wizarding world of Harry Potter, you will love this!
Tickets sell months in advance, but we got ours for during the goblet of fire event (though it wasnt intentional, it was a welcome surprise!)
There are lots of disabled spots close to the entrance, as well as charging points for electric vehicles. You dont pay for disabled parking with a blue badge. When we got to the queue, we were let through the side so we didnt have to wait and navigate the crowd, then after scanning our tickets we were sent to a security guard who checked our bag. There is a scanner like at an airport, byt I was let through a side door and didnt need to go through this.
Once inside, I did queue for the start of the tour, but it moved reasonably quickly, lots of things on the walls to look at. At the actual entrance queue, a staff member let me through to the front where the doors were so I didnt get stuck behind everyone. There are 2 cinema parts, the first is standing, the second with proper cinema seats. You are then let through to the doors to the great hall. Unfortunately it is one of those places where people are quite rude to disabled people in the sense of rushing to get in front of you and block your view of everything, which was a theme for the day. You are warned at the beginning that there are strobe lighting effects in places, loud noises, flashing lights and water based smoke effects. If you speak to a staff member they can guide you around these parts.
The part of the tour where you go around yourself is flat and even most of the time, only some uphills and not so steep that I couldn't self-propel up them. There are so many cool things to see, and it gives you a real sense of wonder and nostalgia as you explore. There's tons of behind the scenes facts which was all really fascinating to see and read about. I couldn't access the inside of the train as it had steps.
There is a cafe, but we instead went to the butterbeer bar at the back. I couldn't say I was a fan of butterbeer but the ice cream was good, and it was awesome to try something so iconic from the harry potter world.
We visited the disabled toilet by the butterbeer bar and it was okay. It was very clean and the red string was present and reachable, but I was faced with the nemesis of every wheelchair user in a bathroom: bins. If I wasn't alone I would've really struggled but my partner was there to help and was able to move them for me so I could reach the dryer properly in my chair.
The outside is great, you can go inside the house on privet drive and see the Knight bus. Unfortunately you cant go on the bridge in a chair as there's steps and it's very uneven, but it was one of the only places I couldn't go, which was very good.
The next part of the tour was great too, but then we got to the diagon alley part, which is a cobbled street. I could not manage this part alone at all, it was impossible. My partner essentially had me do a wheelie the whole way! I read online that you can skip this part but we chose not to.
The shop was chaotic, but I could easily see everything. When we went to pay, a staff member immediately took me over to the till so we skipped the queue, then they also took me over to where you can get a wand engraved, which was very helpful.
One thing to watch out for is that there are a lot of lips where carpet meets hard floor or between wood and hard floor. My front wheels caught on them a good few times but they were manageable to get over.
Overall it was a magical day out, and I would definitely go again.
If you are a fan of the wizarding world of Harry Potter, you will love this!
Tickets sell months in advance, but we got ours for during the goblet of fire event (though it wasnt intentional, it was a welcome surprise!)
There are lots of disabled spots close to the entrance, as well as charging points for electric vehicles. You dont pay for disabled parking with a blue badge. When we got to the queue, we were let through the side so we didnt have to wait and navigate the crowd, then after scanning our tickets we were sent to a security guard who checked our bag. There is a scanner like at an airport, byt I was let through a side door and didnt need to go through this.
Once inside, I did queue for the start of the tour, but it moved reasonably quickly, lots of things on the walls to look at. At the actual entrance queue, a staff member let me through to the front where the doors were so I didnt get stuck behind everyone. There are 2 cinema parts, the first is standing, the second with proper cinema seats. You are then let through to the doors to the great hall. Unfortunately it is one of those places where people are quite rude to disabled people in the sense of rushing to get in front of you and block your view of everything, which was a theme for the day. You are warned at the beginning that there are strobe lighting effects in places, loud noises, flashing lights and water based smoke effects. If you speak to a staff member they can guide you around these parts.
The part of the tour where you go around yourself is flat and even most of the time, only some uphills and not so steep that I couldn't self-propel up them. There are so many cool things to see, and it gives you a real sense of wonder and nostalgia as you explore. There's tons of behind the scenes facts which was all really fascinating to see and read about. I couldn't access the inside of the train as it had steps.
There is a cafe, but we instead went to the butterbeer bar at the back. I couldn't say I was a fan of butterbeer but the ice cream was good, and it was awesome to try something so iconic from the harry potter world.
We visited the disabled toilet by the butterbeer bar and it was okay. It was very clean and the red string was present and reachable, but I was faced with the nemesis of every wheelchair user in a bathroom: bins. If I wasn't alone I would've really struggled but my partner was there to help and was able to move them for me so I could reach the dryer properly in my chair.
The outside is great, you can go inside the house on privet drive and see the Knight bus. Unfortunately you cant go on the bridge in a chair as there's steps and it's very uneven, but it was one of the only places I couldn't go, which was very good.
The next part of the tour was great too, but then we got to the diagon alley part, which is a cobbled street. I could not manage this part alone at all, it was impossible. My partner essentially had me do a wheelie the whole way! I read online that you can skip this part but we chose not to.
The shop was chaotic, but I could easily see everything. When we went to pay, a staff member immediately took me over to the till so we skipped the queue, then they also took me over to where you can get a wand engraved, which was very helpful.
One thing to watch out for is that there are a lot of lips where carpet meets hard floor or between wood and hard floor. My front wheels caught on them a good few times but they were manageable to get over.
Overall it was a magical day out, and I would definitely go again.
