LA - Universal Studios or Warner Bros

[Jimjam68]

Help, we have 5 days in LA at the start of our trip. I’m considering Universal but research suggests fast track tickets are a must and it’s just so much money for one day. DDs are 14 and 11. We did the Florida one but it was years ago and they were much younger then. Warner Bros Studio tour looks good and cheaper but from the website I’m not sure DDs will know many of the shows featured. Anyone shed any light which is better? Is Universal worth the money?

Wasn’t impressed with Universal.

We did a two day tickets complained on day 1 got lots of free fast track passes day two. Day two was so much better.

For me I’d not bother. Cedar point in Ohio is so much better and cheaper.

My ds did both last week , he had the fast pass tickets for universal and a day was more than sufficient . The friend he was with , who did universal Orlando last year preferred Warner bros .

We loved warner bros. It's a studio tour though, not universal with rides etc. I've not done universal in LA though so I'm comparing WB w universal Florida and I'm aware the universal parks are different. WB is smaller and is a guided tour in small groups.

The thing that makes WB is if you know all the tv shows and films that have been filmed on the lot. We went about 6/7 years ago when I was fully into friends, Big Bang theory and pretty little liars and these were all filmed there so it was amazing. To DP who wasn't as fussed about the tv shows, it was less exciting so it really depends on personal preference.

Overall it was amazing to see the sets in LA, if you go during the week they'll be filming and that was exciting and really what you go to LA to experience!

Yessss Warner brothers tour was one of my LA highlights and I'm still churning out movie and TV set facts. Also we saw actors cycling around the lots. It was actually reeeally interesting to learn a few tv and movie secrets and trickery would highly recommend over and over again!

In LA at the moment & went to WB on Sunday & Universal on Monday.

Universal more rides & whole day is enough.

WB more informative & not like a theme park. It is a studio tour lasting a couple if hours.

Did WB studio tour 3 years ago when DCs were 12 and 15. Absolute highlight of our time in LA. We knew very few of the shows currently filmed there, but loved all the SFX bits, seeing how a set works, general insights into the industry and sitting on the Friends sofa!

Our other LA highlight FWIW was the science museum and seeing the space shuttle. Truly awe-inspiring.

We did both and they are very different.

Universal Studios is a theme park though does have a studio tour as part of it. This is mainly a sit on tram ride with a couple of special effect parts such as the Fast and Furious section. The rest is the theme park with a range of different rides, and Harry Potter area etc. It's a full day out.

The Warner Bros studio tour is a shorter day and not a theme park. There is a team ride around some sets. It stops and you get off to walk around and look at different sections. There's also another walk through area and some stage sets to go round. No roller coasters etc.

We enjoyed both. We've been to several theme parks and enjoy coasters and rides. We also enjoyed the film studio day too but it wasn't the same kind of day out, so not really comparable in that way.

We didn't have Express for California iirr. We normally do for Orlando and have done in Singapore and will have for Japan later this week.
We went in the summer and the queues weren't bad at all except the studio tour ride. We decided to wait and see when we got there as you can but then in the park for no additional cost on the day. Glad we didn't bother. Very few queues and not overly busy. That was in the summer holidays 2 or 3 years back.

Thanks all. We went for Universal in the end. The kids loved it, I thought it was good but not as good as Florida in terms of rides. The Express passes were essential I thought, we just walked on all the rides and the queue for one ride was over 2 hours, and most were at least an hour (DH doesn’t like queuing!)