Warner Bros Studio Tour – Is It Worth It?

The Warner Bros Studio tour is located in Burbank CA.  Myself and my sister recently took a visit to the studio and went on the tour.  I had questions about it and some hesitation to it prior to buying my ticket.  So I did my own research and I even gave the customer service line a call to ask some questions.  After speaking to someone I decided to make the purchase of the tickets and move forward with the visit.  Here were some of my concerns:

  • Is the studio worth visiting?
  • Is it safe?
  • How long does the tour average?
  • Will I need to prove my vaccination status?

For this blog entry I am not going to spoil or ruin the tour for anyone who is thinking of visiting.  What I am going to cover are some highlights and how I felt about the entire experience.  So let’s get started.

Waiting or queueing area before the tour begins

The tour starts out with a. short film about the studio’s history and what you expect to see when the tour begins. When you leave the visitor center to begin the tour, your tour guide will escort a small group to a golf cart vehicle that seats about 8 to 10 adults. The group I was in did not feel packed, as we all were seated comfortably as the tour begins. This is the guided part of the tour. We drive around the backlot getting a up close view of different parts of the backlot. Soundstages, practical sets and other type of sets are viewed as we drive around the backlot roads. This part of the tour will stop and then everyone gets off the car to walk to a destination that has some significance to either a show or movie. For example the tour will stop so people can visit and take pictures of the fountain from the show Friends. This is the fountain at the opening credits of the show. Other stops will vary on what is going on that day for the studio. When I went we stopped but the Ellen studio set, as well as the famous jungle area on the lot. The tour guide is very knowledgeable and will talk about specific landmarks during the tour. It is a open question type of tour so if you have questions it is okay to just shout them out for the guide to answer. I enjoyed this part of the tour as It was the beginning and setting the tone of what is to come. Plus I felt very safe. Yes it is required to wear a mask all the time on the tour but I would do that anyways. I would say the guided part of the tour takes about 2 hours easily. We never felt rushed or bored. It was all very interesting and I would credit our wonderful guide to that. She did an excellent job and if all the guides are like this then you can’t loose.



As the guided tour completes, the golf cart pulls up to a building as it is explained that this is the place where the show “Friends” set has been rebuilt with a gift store to shop and purchase all the Friends merchandise you can handle. Also in this building is a self guided tour that will take you through the process of film and television show making. There will opportunity to take lots of photos, as well as take photos from the professional photographer that will be there. Also in this building is the restaurant named “Central Perk” from the show Friends. Here is where you can purchase food and sit down and eat and take as much time as you want in this area. If you are a fan of the show Friends then this is pure heaven for you. Just about all the merchandise you can think of from the show is here for you to purchase. I found this part of the tour just about as awesome as it gets. I think the entire trip was worth it at this point. What was yet to come just made the whole tour experience even better.



After leaving the Friends area you hop back on the golf cart for a quick ride back to the visitor center. Here is where the DC comics and Harry Potter exhibits are. And let me just say that this is by far the best part of the tour. As you can see from my picture gallery, the DC comic gallery is just awesome. Beautiful presentation, all the goods from Zack Sender’s films along with Wonder Woman and Aquaman are here to enjoy. Along with that the tumbler from The Dark Knight trilogy, the BatWing and the Batmobile from the 1989 Batman movie is there to see. I must admit, I got all the feels as a Batman fan, this was just so enjoyable. I loved every part of it and the biggest win of it all was the video presentation of the Batcave. I posted the video here to watch.

After leaving the DC exhibit, the self guided tour ends with a nice visit to the Warner Bros merchandise store. Lots of merchandise from all of the WB properties and animation are here to look and shop for. Shirts, jackets, toys, and everything you can think of like pillows, Christmas ornaments, coffee mugs, travel cups, etc. It was very difficult to not overspend but at the same time if you are a fan then you know it is not money wasted. I picked up some shirts and purchased some pictures that my sister and I took while on the tour.

In the end we had a great day and experience at the Warner Bros Studio tour. The staff was super nice and very helpful. I felt very safe and never felt rushed or uncomfortable. I made a few friends along the way and it was just overall a great day. I would highly recommend any movie fan to go on this tour. It took us about 5 hours in total to do the entire thing and we did not rush any of it. We did leave out some stuff like the Harry Potter stuff but it was a full day of fun to say the least. Would I go again? YOU BET! It is totally worth it and I would love to return.


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