Thursday, June 9, 2011

OverJOYed in Harry Potter World Part 2: A Peek Inside


You're still here? Come visit me on the new blog HERE!





Part 1: The Village

Last time I showed you around the outside of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. Today, I'm going to give you a glimpse of the insides!

I mentioned before that JK Rowling wanted to keep the village "to scale", so all the shops were tiny. And by tiny, I mean tiny. Sure, they were cute, but it's hard to browse comfortably, let alone take photos of anything. I did what I could, though.

So, here we go!

Zonko's from the outside...
...and the inside! Did I not say it was tiny? This is the middle of the shop. Yes, it's the whole middle. There's a narrow section that wraps to the left of this, and that's it.

Look up! You can see how narrow this section is.

The shop is stocked with a fun variety of jokes--some you'll recognize from the books/movies, and some fun merchandise that just fits right in.

Boxing Telescopes (from the books) next to Comb-a-Chameleons (haven't heard of them, but love!)


Screaming Yo-Yo's and Fanged Frisbees

even Pygmy Puffs!

From that small middle section I showed you, Zonko's is connected to Honeyduke's. It looks pretty big from the outside, but the closely set shelves/displays coupled with the large number of people always inside makes it feel much smaller than it is.

It was hard to take pictures inside due to the crowd and my being shorter than all the shelves. :-P Instead, you get product shots! They had large displays of Bertie Bott's, of course.

Candy Floss. THough I know some places call cotton candy "fairy floss", I still imagined Candy Floss to be something else. I was hoping for candy in the form of tooth floss, I think.

Pepper Imps--Not sure what I imagined it to be, but this wasn't quite what I expected.

Chocolate Cauldrons.

Fizzing Whizbees. I totally imagined Fizzing Whizbees to be something like Pop Rocks or Zots, where they pop or fizz in your mouth. Bug shaped chocolate was a huge let-down.

Ton Tongue Toffee. Technically, this shouldn't be stocked in Honeydukes, since it's a Weasley Wizarding Wheezes product, but I was excited to see it anyway. I wish I bought some. I did buy a bunch of Chocolate Frogs, though (and of course, I didn't take a picture of them. They look exactly like the movie).


I've got another eeny meeny shop for you. This is outside Olivander's...

...and the inside. Boxes and boxes everywhere you look....

...and the only place to look is up because what little space there is will be taken up by the group wanting to watch the wand choosing.


Now for what I think is the tiniest "store" of them all--Owl Post on the outside...

...and inside. The shelves are covered in a mix of owls, parcels, wand boxes, and poop.
The whole "shop" is probably only about 10x10 or something. It could have been bigger, but it really didn't seem like it.

Owl Post is actually connected to Ollivander's (it's a dump spot for people exiting from the show) and Bourgin & Burke's. I actually didn't get a shot of the B&B sign since we accidentally entered through the wrong door. Apparently Owl Post is supposed to be the exit room for B&B, too, but we were somehow able to enter that way without getting yelled at.

Anyway, B&B was probably the most crowded of all the shops. It's the easiest accessible shop for WWoHP memorabilia (though some items are exclusive to Filch's Emporium, which we'll get to later), so people line up just to get in. I was only able to get a couple shots of the inside due to the crowd.

This thing was growling and snapping away inside its cage. I was honestly a little afraid to get too close. It wasn't until after I took this photo that I realized it probably wouldn't actually bite me. :-P
On a space to crowd ratio, Hog's Head gives you the most wiggle room since younger patrons can't hang around here. On the outside...

...and inside! This was one of my favorites. The butterbeer barrels really hold butterbeer, and the hog's head moves and snorts.

The shelves are lined with dusty bottles of Fire Whiskey and other liquors that aren't really mentioned in HP (White Rat Whiskey, Daisyroot, Knotgrass Mead...)
While you can't purchase the liquors, there are a bunch of beers on tap. Hog's Head brew in the foreground (HP World's own brew) followed by Strongbow, Bass, Guinness, Boddington's, Newcastle, London's Pride, Stella, Budwiser, and Bud Light.

Through the Hog's Head, you can also access the Three Broomsticks.
This is the view from inside Hog's Head. You can get to Three Broomsticks from either side of that large fireplace.

Although it's by far the largest "shop" in WWoHP, there's not a lot to see inside Three Broomsticks except for people eating. In fact, I felt like the place had more of a lodge feel than a wizarding world feel. Except for the ceiling. It looks like it never ends.

I think that's all I have for the insides of shops. I have shots of the ride lines, but this ended up longer than I thought it would. I'll just save the ride lines for another time!

1 comment:

Joanna said...

I still don't get why it has to be in the US, since Harry Potter is a british invention...:( Well, I live in Europe and it will be very hard for me to visit the wizarding world but maybe someday the dream will come true! Thank you so much for sharing:)