Thursday 2nd August 2018

Ok, so, if I’d thought pre-travel day had started early, it had nothing on today! We were all awake by 2.30am - and I mean awake, not waking up and then dozing back off again but proper, full-on “let the day begin, we’re ready to go” awake. We kept ourselves amused for the next 4 hours catching up on social media, having showers etc, and I turned my notes from the previous couple of days into something more coherent for this report!

Our room at The Tangerine was really nice and in a great location. Another benefit of staying here is that parking is free and breakfast is included - a selection of pastries from a local bakery (Porto’s Bakery). The bakery is quite famous and we could see why - the pastries were excellent. Unfortunately the girls called dibs on the impressive looking Pain au Chocolat, so I settled for a Cherry Danish, and Melissa had a Blueberry Muffin. The latte I had from the coffee machine was less impressive. Photos don't do them justice.




As we were all now ready, we set off on the short walk to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour, which was a little over 5 mins away. Our tour was booked for 9am, but we figured we’d kill some time when we got there with a drink at the on-site Starbucks.




As it was, we just got placed in an earlier group and by about 8.15am we were heading into the studio for our tour.




I won’t say too much as I don’t want to give any spoilers, but the tour was excellent. We saw exterior sets from a lot of movies and tv shows that we’ve watched, including a street set that has featured in Annie, the Batman films and Friends, and another set that has formed the town of Rosewood in Pretty Little Liars. The girls particularly loved the latter.








Cafe from La La Land.




My particular favourite was the DC Heroes exhibition, which displayed a lot of the costumes used in many of the recent DC superhero movies.




We also got to visit the sound stage used for filming the Ellen show.






It took about 3 hours in total, and then we finished up having drinks at the Central Perk themed coffee shop.






We then enjoyed our time on the friends sofa!






After the obligatory look around the gift shop, and the purchase of a couple of items, it was time to go. We’d all really enjoyed the tour, particularly E who wants to be a screenwriter. This was one of the highlights of the girls holiday. It was a perfect start to our west coast adventure.

We took the short walk back to The Tangerine, had a short rest and then headed out to our next destination - lunch! Melissa had read about a British themed pub that used to be a favourite of Walt Disney - The Tam O’Shanter, so we set off on the relatively short drive there. About 20 mins later we were pulling up in the car park. It was a quirky place, looking a bit like a Tudor building, complete with a red phone box in the grounds!






Inside was quite dark, but we found a booth in the bar area. There is also a more formal dining room, but we didn’t want a full meal. In the bar area is a “carving station” where they hand carve hot meats for sandwiches. These looked really good but we weren’t hugely hungry so we ordered a couple of portions of fries - one plain and one chilli cheese - and some Scotch Rarebit. It was all really good, but the portions of fries were massive!




Walt apparently had a particular table that he liked for meetings with his imagineers - table 31 - and it wasn’t being used today so the staff kindly let us go and have a look.






The walls of the pub are also adorned with numerous photos of him. We also discovered that it has been used in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Great place and really glad we went.







The next stop was Griffiths Observatory - it was very busy, but we found some roadside parking (about $8 for an hour) and had a 10 minute walk up the hill to the observatory itself. The views of LA were fantastic, and it was a great spot to see the Hollywood sign. We all kept saying it felt a bit surreal to finally be here, seeing these sights that we’ve watched so many times in films and on tv.








On the way back to The Tangerine we suddenly remembered that we’d wanted to find the Carousel where Walt used to take his daughters, where he’d originally had the inspiration for Disneyland but, unfortunately, we were already back on the freeway, and given the size of Griffiths Park, we weren’t entirely sure where to find it. We did, however, take a detour to see the Disney studios themselves - although you can’t go into them, we drove round the perimeter.








Back at the hotel, the girls went for a swim - I may have had a little nap! At about 6pm we headed out for dinner at In ‘n’ Out Burger. As we’d had plenty of fries earlier in the day, we opted just to have a Cheeseburger each - They were really good - cooked fresh, and very tasty - and at about $12 in total, good value too.






Our final stop of the day was Universal Citywalk - we weren’t visiting the Universal parks themselves this trip but just thought we’d go and soak up some of the atmosphere. We looked around a few of the shops but by about 8pm we were all ready to leave. We love Citywalk in Orlando but didn’t get the same feel for this one, although that may partly have been down to tiredness by this stage.

We headed back to The Tangerine and were soon all in bed - we’d packed a lot in today and it had been a great first day in LA. Lots of happy memories made.

Tomorrow - a whistlestop tour of downtown LA.

Thanks for reading.

An LA hotel with free parking?! And free breakfast?! What an amazing find!

I'm so sad we didn't find the time to do the Warner Bros. tour when we were there, I have heard many a time how good it is... another excuse for another trip over to the West Coast in the future! Loved the photo of you all on the Friends couch (as a huge fan of the show this would have been a trip highlight for me!)

We felt the exact same about CityWalk... it really doesn't have the buzz that you get from the one in Orlando!

A fab first day!

Lovely day, you packed a lot in!

The tour sounds great fun. My kids would enjoy it as they have just started watching Friends! The pub/restaurant where Walt and the Imagineers used to meet looked really interesting. Not surprising you were so tired by the end of the day and didn't enjoy citywalk as much.

A great day with plenty achieved. Another couple of things to put on the wish list. Never knew about the Tam O'Shanter looks good.

That was a great, full-on first day! I've never done the Warner Bros studio tour, but it looks fantastic. I've also never heard of the Tam O'Shanter and it's connection to Walt Disney- and I grew up in California and thought I knew most everything about Disney! I will have to fix that now. Looks like a fun place and I know which table to look for, so thanks for sharing that tidbit

Really enjoying your trip report thank you for all the info! We are heading out at the end of September and The Tangerine is one of the hotels we have booked - good to hear it was good!

I know - and the breakfast pastries were fab.

Hope you get to go one day. Big fans too!

Oh, we did!

The tour was really great, and getting on one of the early ones was good, as it was getting a bit more crowded later.

It was a really quirky place.

Our pleasure.

Not a problem - The Tangerine was great for our needs. If we were ever heading that way again, would happily stay there. Lots of places to eat in the vicinity as well.

Thanks for reading all!

Great first day! The Warner bros tour looks great, fab photo on the couch
That looks a quirky place for lunch

Phil here - you went to a pub and there are no "pointing at a pint" pics or details of the ales therein ? ! I am disappointed !