We usually take a couple vacations each year, one in spring, and another in the fall. Our last vacation was a crazy trip to Las Vegas last October. I might be old, I might have sciatica, but I run this kid ragged. “Can we please go to the hotel room to rest?” “NO! We have to go to the Eiffel Tower. I hear there’s a nice lobby to see! Then we are having sundaes! Tie your shoe and walk faster!” He’ll be in therapy for years over these things. This is acceptable collateral damage. Why should I be the only one in the family paying a shrink over childhood trauma?
After spending six very long hours at the Warner Brothers Deluxe Tour and then prime rib dinners at The Smoke House, the next day my youngster, Mrs. Peel, and I went to Universal Studios for their VIP Experience tour. This is a completely different type of tour than the Warner Brothers one, to the point where the two barely have anything in common.
Warner Brothers is a studio tour. Period. They have a few small side entertainments that are movie and TV related, but you go to the Warner Brothers studio tour to tour a studio. Universal Studios, on the other hand, is a theme park that has movies as its theme. It’s not really a studio tour, although it has some similar elements. Years ago, the Universal Studios Tour would take you around and show you how movies were made. The tour is no longer that. While they take you past some sets from movies, the “tour” is essentially a string of theme park attractions that you ride through on a tram. That is the regular tour experience.
The VIP Experience tour is much more extensive. You see all the same things as you do on the regular tour, but the VIP tour takes you into a prop house, and usually lets you walk among some of the exterior sets. Each time we have done this tour, the sets have been different, based on what’s being used for filming that day.
This was the third time my son and I have done the VIP Experience tour. This tour is such great fun that even though the price is quite high, we have found it to be well worth the expense. The tour started out that morning at 7AM, with us arriving at the valet parking station (The tour includes valet parking which is up at the top of the hill by the entrance). Checking in, we are escorted to an upstairs lounge that has a breakfast buffet waiting for us. It’s the waiting area until the tour starts.
The lounge has overstuffed leather chairs and a balcony to look down at the folks walking in to the theme park. The food and the workers are wonderful. It really is a very nice relaxing place, and they treat you very well. Because there were so many people at the studio that day (first weekend for Harry Potter) they had people double up on the VIP tour of the studio, with two groups of twelve. The VIP tour took us into sound stages, let us walk around a studio set (the crashed jet from War of the Worlds) and, like at Warner Brothers, let us walk through part of the prop house. The prop houses are lots of fun to look at, because there is just so much stuff all over the place. Millions of pieces. After the tour, the guide takes you to the front of the line on rides and shows while walking you around the park.
As with Warner Brothers, lunch is included. It’s a fantastic buffet that is very high quality. But here is where you see the stark contrast between the Warner Brothers and Universal Studio tours. During lunch at Warner Brothers, we ate in the actual studio commissary and folks working there may have been famous, or not. But at Universal, we ate in a private VIP Experience restaurant consisting of just us tourists. As we entered we were greeted by person dressed as Count Dracula. Doc Brown from “Back to the Future” came by to say hello, too. It’s a totally different mindset. Both are executed very well, and both are a great deal of fun.
But it’s just different.
The Simpsons area that Universal expanded looks chiefly the same to me. A few extra buildings, but otherwise the same. All the park areas are nice at Universal. There never was a lot of cohesion to much of it, as it always was just an area themed to different movie settings. This started changing with their Jurassic Park area, and blossomed with the Simpsons section that created a true Disneyesque land to the area. And now they have The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Two words, “It’s amazing.”
I have not yet been to Universal in Florida, so I can’t compare, but they have truly done a terrific job on this fully immersive new land. They have recreated Hogsmeade from the books and movies and it truly feels like you’re walking into a different world. I haven’t felt so good about a themed area since I first walked into New Orleans Square in 1967. Gorgeous. Hogwarts itself is a terrific looking edifice, and everyone was taking pictures of it. Everyone was taking pictures of everything.
The crowds were deservedly huge. This was the second day it was open, and everyone wanted to go in and see it. The wait for the wand shop was over an hour long, but because we were on the VIP Experience tour, we just went right in and got to see the little show they have there with no waiting at all. In fact, they held a show open for us, which was great. VIP Experience paying off!
After purchasing an interactive wand that works with certain window displays in the area, we went around and tried several of the magic tricks. They were difficult to get right, and there was a person posted at each spot to help folks. The tricks were OK, but unless you really want to do these tricks, I’d get a non-interactive one, and just watch others do the tricks. A lot of the kids looked a bit frustrated with them.
The food looked great, and people were loving it. We tried the butterbeer, and it was a yummy concoction of sugar and…more sugar. I don’t eat a lot of sugar so I only had a few sips. But it was good. The candy shop, Honeydukes, had a wonderful variety of sweets that looked fabulous. In fact, the food throughout Universal was very good. The food available is definitely a cut above Disney’s, and Mrs. Peel said the food was better even than at Knott’s and cost less on top of it.
There is one word of caution about the rides in this area. Unless you are short, and skinny as a stick, you might have some trouble getting on the rides. I am 6’4” and weigh 280. I’m a bit larger than most people. I flat out could not fit on the little roller coaster they have there called “Flight of the Hippogriff,” as my legs were too long. I had a great deal of trouble fitting in the main ride, “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” as well. Mrs. Peel had to SLAM down the safety bar over my chest and shoulders for me to be able to get in it, and that was only possible because I took off my jacket. I could NOT move, and could just breathe. Ouch. I have never felt so bolted into anything in my life. Thank goodness I’m not claustrophobic! When it earlier seemed like I could not get into either ride at all, I got a little annoyed about the situation. They have built two rides that a significant number of people are not going to be able to fit into. After dropping a huge wad of cash to go there because of this new addition, and then not being able to get on either ride because they designed them improperly? Whoa, I got mad. But it worked out, as I was shoehorned into the main attraction. If you’re slightly bigger than me? Good luck. They need to fix this.
For whatever trouble it was to get on the ride, it was worth it. Without question it is the single greatest theme park ride I’ve ever been on. The line to get on the ride was the most elaborate line I’ve ever seen. The ride itself is for everyone. It’s not a roller coaster, and it’s not that harsh. No real dips or any such thing, it’s good for anyone, as long as you fit into their stupid little harness.
At night, the area emptied out quite a bit, and the lighting was lovely. I can’t tell you how good this area is; you have to just go see it. The combination of the movie props that we saw at Warner Brothers along with the Universal theme park made for a great combined Harry Potter experience.
When I was a kid, Universal Studios was a three hour experience at most, and a bit weak. You never went there unless you had people visiting from out of town. Now, it’s a wonderful place, and we spent 15 hours there! We didn’t repeat anything, and we didn’t do everything, either (we did go on a second tram tour, but it was the night tour which was supposed to be different). There was so much to do there, that our all day front-of-the-line passes didn’t help very much after the tour was over and we were let loose to maraud the park on our own. We did get to the front of the line for a couple things, but there was so much we didn’t get to do because we ran out of time. We were there from 7AM to 10PM. We could have stayed until closing and still had more things to do.
But it is not a studio tour. Don’t even think that it is. If you want a studio tour, go to Warner Brothers, or maybe Sony and Paramount (I have not been to those, but they are next). If you want a movie-based theme park, go to Universal. With the Harry Potter addition, you will not go wrong.
The takeaway for me from these two locations is that if I feel that I’m getting acceptable value for the money I spend, I’m ok with it costing me more. Even a lot more. Between tickets, the room at the Sheraton Universal, food, and other expenses this two day Potter tour cost close to $3000. That’s as much as a trip to Europe. I’ve complained in an article or two about the cost of Disneyland and the value received. Some people have suggested I get a cheaper park ticket. That’s not the point. I don’t mind paying, provided I get something that I feel is of value in return. The price I paid in this instance was much higher than a day price at Disneyland, and yet I feel I got an acceptable value in return and therefore I don’t mind that much. While Disney is supposedly all about customer service, I found the employees at Universal to be much nicer overall, more vested in me enjoying myself, and more attentive to us as individuals.
At Warner Brothers the day before we were treated like royalty, or at least like Andy Richter. We saw production facilities, got to hold an Academy Award, saw props from some favorite movies, and learned so very much about the movie industry.
So, even though I paid a lot more for these places, I feel that I didn’t really get ripped off. Not like I have felt at Disney. Sure, they’re grifting the public a bit, they all do, but at least I didn’t feel like a complete sucker in the process. Both places are worth your time and trouble, and I’d go back and do it again in a minute. I just need to let my bank account take a bit of a breather first.
This is the second part of a review of the Warner Brothers Deluxe/Universal VIP Experience Tours. The first part, which takes place at Warner Bros. can be found embeded in Fab News HERE.
You must be logged in to post a comment.