MyWorldReviews.com

Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour

Burbank, California, United States

The Warner Bros. VIP Tour is a tour of the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, CA (located near Hollywood). Overall, I was pretty pleased with the 2-hour tour. Your chances of seeing any stars are very low, as the tour is a "typical tourist experience" that is well scripted. The tour guides try to make you feel like a VIP, but it's a pretty standard tour. Nevertheless, it is still neat to see some props and the outside of buildings where "movie stuff" happens.

After parking, we entered the visitors building through the statues of Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. There was a metal detector at the entrance, but the security guards just looked through the bags and purses that members of our group had.

There was a desk inside where we picked up our tickets (which we had reserved the day before). The desk was located in a gift shop where you could buy Warner Bros. related merchandise. There was also a Starbucks and ice cream store inside this area.

Our tour guide provided lots of facts about each of the things we saw, and the tour sounded very scripted. She wasn't the nicest lady - she seemed a little bit stressed during our tour.

Tour Itinerary

The Central Perk from the TV show Friends

The trams we rode on during the tour

Our tour started with a 10-minute introductory video showing famous clips from Warner Bros. movies and TV shows. The movie was pretty enjoyable. Our group of 13 people was loaded onto a tram. All our bags and cameras were put in a lock box on the tram.

We were taken to the "Warner Bros. Prop Museum", which was a 2-level building that had some props from Warner Bros. movies and TV shows. The first floor had items from an assortment of productions, while the entire second floor was devoted to Harry Potter props. They had the sorting hat and stool from the first movie, and it was set up so it could "sort" you. (There was a speaker overhead making the announcement). I was sorted into Gryffindor, with other members of our group making it into different houses. There was a lot of neat stuff in the museum, and it would have been nice to have our cameras. Unfortunately, they weren't permitted. Our group spent 15 minutes in the museum before moving on.

We then walked around an area that was built to look like the streets of New York City. Here, we were permitted to take out our cameras (but not our bags) to take some pictures of the "city". Our tour guide spent some time telling us facts about the area, and what movies some of the buildings were used in. The building was in a "neutral state", meaning there weren't any doorknobs or other items that could allow a visitor to "date" the set.

We went to see a big empty soundstage (number 16). It was completely empty, so we didn't see anything, but it was a very large building. We weren't permitted to have cameras in this building.

We got to walk around an outdoor set from ER that included the loading bay of the hospital. We then went by an outdoor set area used in the Gilmore Girls. One part of this set was currently being used to film another TV show. Our tour guide told us that we would get to see some filming in action if they were filming at the time, but they had just finished and seemed to be packing things up.

We visited a room full of prop cars. We were allowed to bring our cameras in here. They also took a picture of our group in front of a green screen. They gave us a picture at the end of the tour with us standing in front of the Hogwarts train from Harry Potter. It was a cute picture. The car room had some neat car props, such as the Batman car, and the flying Harry Potter car.

The tour also took us to several outdoor areas on the Warner Bros. lot, where a variety of movies were filmed. Our tour guide told us some information about each of the areas, and what they were used for.

Estimated Visiting Time

The tour takes approximately 2 hours, from start to finish. Since you should get there a bit early (to allow for parking, and to pick up your tickets), allow 2.5 hours. If you go around meal time, there is also a pretty good cafe in the main visitors building.

Parking

The batman car

There is plenty of parking in a large lot specifically allocated for the Warner Bros. VIP Tour. The parking is located right across from the visitor building (gate 6). Parking costs $5. The area was very well marked, with plenty of signs leading you to the correct entrance and lot.

Cost

When we went, the tour cost $45 per person.