Warner Bros. Studio Tour - which day - any advice

sherilaine

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
My DD15 wants to do the Warner Bros tour. I am thinking just so she can see Central Perk (she's watched the entire Friends series like 4 times on Netflix).

We have two non Disney days - a Sunday and a Wednesday - would it matter which we do?

I am leaning to the Wednesday as we will be at DLR much later on Saturday than Tuesday so getting up early on Wednesday might be easier to do.

Also - is this a good tour - worth it - not worth it? It's certainly not expensive.
 
I did this in June 2017. Warner Bros Studio Tour is located in Burbank. You havent said where you are staying in Anaheim, so I did a Google search for the distance between Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim and Warner Bros Studio Tour in Burbank. According to Google it is approx 38 miles. If you are driving I would expect it to take about 70 minutes each way. If you do not have a car I would not even attempt it on public transport as you are probably looking at 2 hours each way. Uber could work very expensive.

Sundays you would have a better chance of seeing more of the backlot. It is a working studio and most shows shoot Monday to Friday. They shoot on the backlot so the tours work around the shooting schedule. So you could be unlucky and be there on a Wednesday when half the backlot is closed.

The tour is in 2 parts, the first part is the van ride around the back lot sets. Its a lot better than Universal backlot as they park the vans in the different areas and take you on a walking tour though the buildings. The focus a lot on Pretty Little Liars and Gilmore Girls as these were the most recent high profile shows. But the guide's know their history and will focus on older films and shows if you ask or recognise a set.

The second part is the Batman cars exhibition.

The third part is the DC and Harry Potter exhibition. When I was there, it was Suicide Squad, but it might be changed for 2018

The last part is the Friends and everything Warner Bros area. They have a real Central Perk coffee shop, with branded coffee cups and other merchandise. They also have the Central Perk set with the sofa which is an interactive area. The interactive area is where you can play a member of the cast. They get 4 people to sit on the sofa and some others to be background extras. The ones on the sofa read some real dialogue from the show off screens. This is taped and then through the magic of TV the real people are "in" the the real episode.

After the Friends area there was a Pretty Little Liars exhibit, more interactive Harry Potter areas, some Warner Bros down though the years exhibits and at the very end a merchandise shop.

This is how the tour is laid out

1. At the main entrance building you watch a 5 minute into show and then get loaded into a van with a tour guide.
2. The tour guide drives the van to the backlot area where you spend about 40 minutes to an hour. There are about 3 stops where the tour guide parks the van and everyone gets off for a walkaround in different areas and buildings
3. Once done on the backlot everyone gets back on the van and the tour guide drives to different buildings on the property.
4. One building is where the DC and Harry Potter exhibitions are. The DC costumes and props are on the ground floor and the Harry Potter exhibition is up the stairs. You get about 30 minutes to walk around this building. There are restrooms in this building.
5. Another building is the set for The Big Bang Theory. It is located in a soundstage. The actual set is behind a glass wall but you can see everything from the audience bleachers to the camera positions. Everything is left as if the cast, crew and audience had just left after a day of filming.
6. Once everyone is done, everyone gets back on the van and the tour guide drives to another building. This is where the Batman cars exhibition is.
Once everyone is done seeing the Bat cars, about 20 minutes, I think, everyone gets back on the van to the last building, which is where the Friends set, Central Perk coffee shop, Pretty Little Liars, Harry Potter Interactive areas and the merchandise shop are.

The Harry Potter Interactive areas are broom flying photo ops and House Photo photo ops.

You cant just go to the Friends set and Central Perk or just to the Batman cars or just to the backlot, you have to do everything. There is also a ton of merchandise in the shop, but again the shop is only accessible from the tour, its not in the main entrance building.

We spent about 4 hours there. We bought tickets in advance online. They time the tours to leave the main building every 30 minutes, so that the different areas and buildings dont get over crowded. They have a limited number for each time slot, the number of people they can fit on the van.
 
Not the original poster, but I too have wondered about this tour for years. Even though it doesn't interest me a lot, I think it would really interest my younger son. This is a great detailed description of what to expect.
 


We were thinking of doing this next month on a Saturday. Thanks for the details!!

Has anyone booked through this company? We won't have a car, so this was appealing to me. Any recs. on what to do in Hollywood?
https://www.starlinetours.com/warner-bros-studio-tour/

You are welcome

I had a look at that. Starline are charging $89. On Warner Bros website the advance online ticket costs $65 so Starline are charging approx $25 to transport you from Anaheim to Burbank round trip

The 9am Anaheim departure gives 3 hours in Hollywood, the 11am Anaheim departure gives 1 hour in Hollywood.

The arrival back to Anaheim says 6pm for both

I would say they are allowing 3 hours for Warner Bros

Knowing the distance involved and how complicated the public transport between Anaheim and Burbank, I would more than likely do this tour if my base was Anaheim.
 
We did this a couple years ago and really liked it a lot. I didn't care about the more recent (Pretty Little Liars and Gilmore Girls etc.) stuff though that was still interesting. Just being on the backlot where all these classic old movies were filmed was great. And each soundstage you drive by has a list of the movies that were filmed inside. We also went into the sound stage where they film Ellen and got to sit un the audience area while the guide told us about the show. We went during the week and saw Anna Faris when driving buy one sound stage. Our guide yelled over to her and she was friendly and came over and said hello. There were spots we drove by where they were prepping something for filming or were done and tearing it down but we did not see any live,outdoor sets. We did the longer (more expensive) tour where you get lunch in the full service dining room. It was a very nice lunch and two ladies sitting next to us were discussing a film deal. A bit later Jon Cryer came in with a group and had lunch. If you are a fan of movies and, in particular old movies this is a great tour. I would definately do this again.
 
Sundays you would have a better chance of seeing more of the backlot. It is a working studio and most shows shoot Monday to Friday. They shoot on the backlot so the tours work around the shooting schedule. So you could be unlucky and be there on a Wednesday when half the backlot is closed.

Thanks very much for all of that detail - that is very helpful.

We will have a vehicle and are staying across the street on Harbor. We've driven up to and past L.A before and it seems traffic is there pretty much all the time. Sunday does sound better from what you have explained for the tour though.
 


You are welcome

I had a look at that. Starline are charging $89. On Warner Bros website the advance online ticket costs $65 so Starline are charging approx $25 to transport you from Anaheim to Burbank round trip

The 9am Anaheim departure gives 3 hours in Hollywood, the 11am Anaheim departure gives 1 hour in Hollywood.

The arrival back to Anaheim says 6pm for both

I would say they are allowing 3 hours for Warner Bros

Knowing the distance involved and how complicated the public transport between Anaheim and Burbank, I would more than likely do this tour if my base was Anaheim.


I'm on the fence because the reviews of the drivers aren't great. I'm traveling solo with my kids, and I can't do a driver that is reckless, late or doesn't show up. So now I'm going to try to find another company that has a similar tour!
 
We've done the tour SEVERAL times. It's definitely worth it. I say to pick a weekday only because more shows are filming then and you have an increased chance of seeing some stars;)
 
We've done the tour SEVERAL times. It's definitely worth it. I say to pick a weekday only because more shows are filming then and you have an increased chance of seeing some stars;)

Okay so I am confused - one person said that if they are doing any work on the sets you don't get to see anything but you are saying that if they are filming or working you could see someone? Isn't the set closed if they are filming?
 
Okay so I am confused - one person said that if they are doing any work on the sets you don't get to see anything but you are saying that if they are filming or working you could see someone? Isn't the set closed if they are filming?

if they are filming on the backlot, that section or street will be closed and you wont be able to go there. The guide will get a message through their headset from base control that xyz street is closed and to divert. However the backlot s just one section. They also film in the sound stages. What @dragonflycurls is saying about the weekdays is also correct. If they are filming on the sound stages you may see famous people out and about, going into a soundstage or building or coming out of a soundstage or building
 
if they are filming on the backlot, that section or street will be closed and you wont be able to go there. The guide will get a message through their headset from base control that xyz street is closed and to divert. However the backlot s just one section. They also film in the sound stages. What @dragonflycurls is saying about the weekdays is also correct. If they are filming on the sound stages you may see famous people out and about, going into a soundstage or building or coming out of a soundstage or building

Ahhh - thanks, that makes sense now. I honestly couldn't care less about seeing anyone famous - my DH and my DD might though - so something to consider.
 
Ahhh - thanks, that makes sense now. I honestly couldn't care less about seeing anyone famous - my DH and my DD might though - so something to consider.

no worries
backlot = outside sets= outside streets/ houses/ parks/ lawns etc
soundstages = inside of buildings

if your DH and DD are interested in seeing famous people, do some research on what shows are filming during the time of your planned visit. That could be another way to decide on which day is best for your party.
 
My brother and sister-in-law just did this tour in December. They did it on a weekday and they said they still enjoyed it BUT there were a lot of places they were not allowed to go and kept getting detoured because of filming. We are heading out for spring break and, because of their feedback, I scheduled our tour for a Saturday.
 
I’m so glad to hear all this info. We are thinking of flying out of the Burbank airport and it seems like the Warner brother studio is pretty close by. Is that right?
 
if they are filming on the backlot, that section or street will be closed and you wont be able to go there. The guide will get a message through their headset from base control that xyz street is closed and to divert. However the backlot s just one section. They also film in the sound stages. What @dragonflycurls is saying about the weekdays is also correct. If they are filming on the sound stages you may see famous people out and about, going into a soundstage or building or coming out of a soundstage or building
Not entirely true- we've been there a few times where they've held us off to the side while they were filming. We've seen Emilio Estevez, Lauren Graham, and a few others from waiting off to the side. Although for more "top secret" projects they will avoid the area entirely. We have seen folks going in and out of soundstages too- Emma Roberts, George Lopez, Ben Stiller, Denzel Washington. I will say though, keep looking around the tour guides are VERY good at pointing out things on the left while things are happening on the right ;)
 

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