Duration: 12 Days 11 Nights (Feb 23~Mar
05, 2016)
Day 6: A Day of Movie Magic
I had to check out early today
and left my luggage with Westlake Village Inn since I would be going for some
sightseeing before driving to LA airport for my regional flight to San Jose. I had the leftover fries from
last night as breakfast and surprising likes it even though it was soggy.
LOL!!!
After that it was another 50mins drive to Warner Brothers Studios at
Burbank. I bought the package for a studio tour at 9am from the website (link)
and were supposed to be there 15mins beforehand. Funny thing was the traffic
was really smooth and I ended up arriving super early!
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| Almost finishing the 2.5 gallons water... |
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| Sammy says goodbye to Westlake Village Inn |
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| Checking out from Westlake Village Inn |
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| The Building my room located in... |
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| Nice place to take picture! Tuunel of Love? |
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| Goodbye Westlake Village Inn! |
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| New York Film Academy across the street |
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| Warner Brothers Tour Parking - Not yet open |
Since I was early, there were
tons of free parking around the area so this saved me USD10 to park inside the
Warner Brothers Studio car park. I took my time to take pictures and finally
went into the waiting area for the tour. I ended up buying hot chocolate from
the Starbucks inside the waiting area - did not buy other stuffs though as I
was still full with the leftover fries earlier. In hindsight, I should've
bought more foods since it's claimable! Ugh!
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| End up parking at the Street - FREE OF CHARGE! |
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| The Studio Tour Building |
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| Sammy making new friend |
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| Sammy with Bunny! |
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| You may buy the ticket directly here or online |
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| Famous Movies from Warner Brothers |
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| Oscar Winning Picture |
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| The Warner Brothers Studios Map!!! |
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| Sammy licking Sherlock! |
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| Starbucks |
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| Let's have some Hot Chocolate! |
Our tour finally started and we
were ushered in to a room to watch a short introduction of the studio before
getting on the cart for our tour. =) The tour guide introduced us to many
interesting spot where certain movies took place like Tom Cruise's The Last
Samurai. There was also this so-called creepy alley where Tobey McGuire's
Spider-Man had the upside down kiss with Mary Jane.
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| Let's Rumble!!! |
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| Sitting just beside the tour guide! |
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| The Street where they transform into Japanese town in "The Last Samurai" |
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| They love fire escape stairs! |
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| This is where Tobey Maguire's Spideman & Kristin Dunst's Mary Jane had the upside down KISS! |
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| They also call it Creepy Alley! |
There were also some locations
for Ocean's twelve Las Vegas scene and Argo. There was also the building model
for 'Pushing Daisies' but most of them were basically unrecognizable due to CGI
or renovation.
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| Imagine they transform this place as Las Vegas in Ocean's Twelve |
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| The Famous Water Tower |
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| The Central Park Stage in "Friends"! |
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| The Building Model for "Pie Hole" from "Pushing Daisy".. & the fake subway! |
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| Inside the Building - no ceiling! This is Air Condition Vent and they only switch it on when absolutely necessary between takes since the noise interferes with filming |
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| Basically it's empty in the building! |
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| This is one of the most used cinemas in firm i think... |
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| The Friends Stage! Full House was here too! |
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| IKEA! |
After that we had a stop at the
Bat Lair where they exhibited the mobiles! We were missing the Batman vs
Superman mobile though and Ben Afflect did not show up in a surprise
appearance. =p
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| Tons of Batmobile! |
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| From Michael Keaton's Batman Movie? |
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| This is definitely from the Christian Bale's series |
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| Bat - tank?! |
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| Bat - Jet?! |
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| From George Clooney's Batman movie |
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| Sammy & the Bat Sign! |
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| BATMAN!!! *carton theme song* |
We were then ushered into a
soundstage for '2 Broke Girls' series. No camera was allowed inside the stage
though. Basically there were the stands for spectators to record their laughter
(with mics) and the main stage for actors. Apparently an episode of the series
would take 1 week to complete from script reading until actual filming.
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| I think this may be the stage they film Ellen Degeneras show? |
Did I mention that they are
filming Gilmore Girl revival series in the studio as well? But everything was
kept under hush hush on where exactly it was filmed in the studio. Darn! There
went my chances of accidentally bumping into Jared Padalecki! *pout* Warner's Brother Archive was
another stop where Harry Potter & more Batman stuffs were displayed.
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| Let's have a look at the Archive |
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| More Batman Stuffs! |
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| Joke |
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| Michael Keaton & Jack Nicholson's Version |
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| More Batman Costume |
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| It's time for Harry Potter! |
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| Sherlob? Hmm.. wrong movie! |
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| More Harry's Costumes |
Our last stop by the cart was
stage 48 where more interactive activities were provided from scripts to
screen. Basically one may stay in this stage as long as you like and simply
take the shuttle to get back to the exit. The best thing about this stage?
There was the Friends stage setup there we would take picture with it!!!
Hooray!
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| It's Casting Time! Interactive Audition Clip! |
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| Model... |
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| Superman! |
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| FRIENDS set!!! |
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| Sammy was there too! |
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| 2 and a half men set |
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| Mad Max Fury Road Costumes |
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| Lego Movie! |
There were also this green screen
thing where visitor could ride on a bike or broomstick and they will film it.
There were some interactive motion capture stuffs where the creature on screen
imitate your movement.
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| Who wanna fly on a Broomstick? |
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| Or drive the Batmobile? |
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| Gravity... |
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| Motion Capture! |
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| Hi!!! |
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| This is me waving there! |
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| Lot's of trophies! |
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| Let's imagine this is a red carpet! LOL!!! |
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| I love Friends! |
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| Central Perk!!! |
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| Merchandises |
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| Hi Big Bad Wolf! |
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| A Trailer! |
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| It's time to leave Warner Brothers Studios! |
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| Even the driver is HOT! |
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| It has been FUN! |
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| Our little Cart for the tour! |
I drove back to The Commons at
Calabasas to take daytime picture and had my lunch at the patio area of the
King's Fish house by ordering blackened swordfish. I was served with bread
& butter and somehow I was seduced by this combination until I finished
more than half of the big size bread! *facepalm*
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| The Commons at Calabasas during day time |
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| With King's Fish House at the back |
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| From another angle |
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| Overlooking the view from King's Fish House |
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| Care for some fishes? |
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| Condiments |
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| Sammy taking a peek |
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| I love the bread & butter! |
My main course was finally served
and I found the whole thing salty! The fish was salty, the spinach was salty,
the only thing not as salty was the ratatouille. Kind of disappointed actually.
The Alaskan Cod Fish burger I had last night was so much nicer! This meal cost
USD24 with tips.
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| The main course was really salty though... |
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| The Clock Tower during Daytime |
My next destination was the
Western town in Paramount Ranch. The town was used in some filming in some old
western movies buy it was quite small though. I was only there for like 30mins
before leaving as the sun was scorching hot and there was nothing else to see
unless I fancy a hike on the trails. Seeing that I was practically roasted by
the sun and had to get to the airport later, hiking didn't seem to be a bright
idea huh?
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| At Paramont Ranch! |
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| Here is the Western Town |
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| Where Gun Fight takes place! |
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| Care for a Hike |
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| Lovely Trees |
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| I dub this "the Big Fish Tree"! |
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| A Small Hut |
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| Coyote Trail?! Is there any coyote?! |
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| Bridge & Town.. |
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| I love the Big Fish Tree! |
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| Tons of Poo Poo on the ground |
I ended up driving to Vons
instead to get some cold pressed juice to quench my thirst and did some survey
on some groceries.
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| Let's have more cold pressed juice! |
If was finally time to leave
Southern California so I drove back to Westlake Village Inn to get my luggage.
It took me more than 1 hour to reach Hertz return office near LA airport. The
Hertz shuttle then took us to the airport terminal. I did my luggage drop with
Delta.
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| Leaving Los Angeles |
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| Taking the Shuttle to Airport |
I was not assigned with a seat
and was told that I should refer to the counter at gate for my last minute
assignment. Since there were still time until boarding, I had my dinner at
Ford's Filling Station and ordered their pulled pork grilled cheese sandwich.
The waitress asked whether I wanted it with fries or salad and what a dilemma
it was! My heart wanted fries but my brain said salad. *cry* Anyway I really
liked the sandwich as it was not as greasy as i anticipated. =p
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| Delta Airlines |
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| At LA Airport |
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| Ford's Filling Station |
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| Menu Anyone? |
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| Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese Sandwich with salad |
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| Sinfully Delicious |
I finally got my seat number at
the gate before boarding. Lo & behold! It was the window seat at the last
row with no window! =D This was also my 1st time taking Delta in a Boeing 717
aircraft with seating arrangement of 2-3. I'd imagined the engine was right
beside me as there was this loud vacuum cleaner noise blaring in my ears during
the flight. *sigh*
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| At the end of the plane! |
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| Window Seat with no window! |
Thankfully it was a short flight
and we landed in San Jose airport terminal A in one piece. I had to take
another shuttle to get to the car rental area. I got myself a Toyota Yaris
again - not without some hu-ha on my credit card display name again. *facepalm*
I guess I should drop Hertz and rent Avis next time if I have the chance.
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| Renting a car again |
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| Toyota Yaris again! My ride for next 4 days! |
The Hert NeverLost GPS in this
car was crazy! It would asked me to go straight for like 4 miles and suddenly
recalculated itself and asked me to make a u-turn before I even complete the 4
miles! WTF! It just kept recalculating and asked me to go different directions
in different minute! During my confused state, I actually managed to find
Fairfield Inn which I stayed last year (link) and I was secretly cursing that
why couldn't I stay in this hotel instead. LOL!!
Anyway I finally found Plaza
Suites after more than 30mins (no thanks to the GPS!!). What I did was ignore
the always changing instruction from the GPS and remembered the 1st instruction
and the street name to counter-refer to the street sign. Really WTF! And I had
to do this at 10pm++ at night all alone!
By the time I checked into my
room, it was already 11pm++. I'd stayed in this hotel before during my trip in
2013 (link) and I think I still prefer the room in Westlake Village Inn as
Plaza Suites room seemed to be too gloomy for me. Anyway the room did have
separate living room & bedroom and they provided a microwave.
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| Bed! |
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| TV in Bedroom |
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| Bathroom |
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| Dry Section of the Bathroom |
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| Living Room |
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| TV in Living Room |
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| Coffee? |
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| Working Desk |
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| Toiletries |
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