Recently we have been talking about attending some show tapings to see what it’s like, so I signed us up for the taping of Celebrity Family Feud. Our tickets were confirmed instantly, the only problem is, the show is taped in Los Angeles. Instead of giving up, I decided to look at other tapings that we could sign up for and how much it would cost to go to LA.
There are a number of shows taped in the LA area, most of which did not interest us. I signed up for the Jimmy Kimmel Live and the Late Late Show with James Corden (no longer on air). Neither could confirm our tickets right away but it was enough for me to book our airfare to LAX.
By the time I booked our airfare, the tickets for Jimmy Kimmel Live was confirmed and this LA trip is shaping up really well!! We booked our car with Hertz and our hotel with Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills through American Express Fine Hotels. A lot of people like to compare the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills to the next door Beverly Hilton. Both are Hilton properties, both are 5 star hotels, and both seem to have great service, however, looking from the outside, Waldorf Astoria is so much more stunning. The rates we got with American Express Fine Hotels were competitive. It also came with free breakfast and $100 hotel credit. What I didn’t know prior to check-in was that all of this was COMBINABLE with our Hilton Gold benefits, which gave us $25 credit/person/day. Definitely a nice perk to combine!
Day 1: April 20, 2023
We had to fly in on Thursday because the taping of Jimmy Kimmel is Monday through Thursday only. We caught an early flight, ran straight to the lounge after landing to grab a bite, then off to the Hertz rental car center we go. LAX is crazy like always. You have to take a shuttle for everything (even if you were catching a Uber, you’ll have to shuttle). After we got off the shuttle at Hertz, we saw tons of people and the lines moved extremely slow. My name was on the Gold board but next to it said “GO TO COUNTER”. So did everyone else’s say the same thing. An employee told me I could take the car and go straight to exit and explained that their system was down. We found a nice brand new Ford Edge and headed to the exit. At the exit, the lines were long and not moving. Once again we were told the system was down so everything had to be done manually. Lovely. We had hoped to check into our hotel first before going to the taping, but after sitting in this line for an hour, we knew that option flew out of the window. We headed straight to Jimmy Kimmel Live studio and got in line.
The taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live is in the heart of Hollywood, next to the TCL Chinese Theater.
For the taping, we were each ID’ed, they checked us for metals, then we were lead into the studio and we were told where to sit. After we sat down, we were given a brief time to take some pictures, then someone came in to instruct us on how to act for the camera (scream when Jimmy Kimmel or his guest came in, laugh at all jokes and everything etc.). Then they asked some audience members where they are from, did a couple of trial runs on screaming and we were told how special of a group we were, etc. etc. Next, Jimmy Kimmel came in, everyone stood up and screamed and clapped like we were instructed to earlier, then Jimmy did his monologue and introduced the guests. Then he did a segment of “Who’s High?” which involved asking some random people outside the studio on the streets some questions and guess which one out of 3 people was high. Then it was time for the first guest, Jake Gyllenhaal. Of course we clapped and hollered. They talked and made a few jokes, then did another segment of “Who’s High?”, since our taping was on the weed holiday of the year, April 20th. Next was the second guest of the day, Whitney Cummings, there to promote her new comedy roasting series titled, “Whitney Cummings Presents: The OnlyFans Roast of Whitney Cumming.” The taping was really fun and both guests and Jimmy were really funny.
We were not allowed to touch our phones during the taping but they never took our phones from us like what I’ve heard they used to do. There was a musical guest, but apparently they must be performing after the live audience is gone because we did not see them.
After the taping, we checked into our hotel. We had booked a Superior King Room with Terrace, which is the basic level room at Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. We were upgraded to Deluxe King Room with Terrace and View, which is essentially the same room but on a higher floor. The room was gorgeous and everything could be controlled with voice commands through Alexa.
Our room was next door to the Corner Suite. Looking at their balcony made me jealous.
Next up was dinner time. We had a reservation for the hotel restaurant, Jean-Georges, a Michelin restaurant. We chose the seasonal menu called Taste of Spring, which was $180 a person with 6 courses.
The first course was called Toasted Egg Yolk Caviar, made with Kaviari Kristal caviar. The caviar tasted amazing. The eggs were perfectly soft but not runny. This was the best course of the night.
The second course was Madai Ceviche, with rhubarb juice, red onion, and avocado. Madai is a red seabream fish from Japan. This course tasted great – it was light and delicious, but nothing particularly special about it. It tasted like an upper end sushi restaurant’s yellowtail ceviche.
These Spring Pea Potstickers were so tasty, but it was a little too salty for my personal preference.
The striped bass is accompanied with spring garlic-lemon nage, silky fava beans and artichoke hearts. The nage broth and fava beans were amazing. The striped bass was average because the skin was overfried. The artichoke hearts had many unchewable pieces, which should not ever happen at a restaurant of this caliber.
Course 5 was a roasted wagyu beef tenderloin with white asparagus and buttery hot sauce. At least that’s what the menu says. The beef was very tender, as expected, but it had VERY little flavor. I don’t like my beef to be seasoned much, but this beef had almost no flavor at all. The sauce was not buttery or hot, it was very citrusy.
Last course, the dessert, Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla bean ice cream. This was amazing.
The restaurant was beautiful and the service was impeccable. Compare to most other Michelin level restaurants we’ve partaken, some of the courses felt a little lacking, but the first course definitely was Michelin level.
Day 2: April 21, 2023
Today we woke up to a beautiful sunrise, then enjoyed a fancy breakfast at Jean Georges, then headed out to our Warner Brothers Studio Tours. I booked it through undercovertourist to save a little money.
The studio tour exceeded our expectations. We were assigned to a group and the tour took us from stage to stage and explained how the filming worked and what movies or shows were filmed there. We were taken to the Friends fountain and given an opportunity to sit on the couch and get pictures taken.
It was so interesting to learn about how the sets work and how they film these shows. We have done a studio tour at Universal Studios in LA before and that was a lot of fun, but this does not pale at all in comparison.
The end of the guided tour is in Central Perk Cafe from Friends. It was a full working cafe. we ordered a cupcake, then took the shuttle to go to the next two parts of the tour, which is self-guided. The Cafe also has a gift shop attached, with lots of Friends merchandise.
Next, we were at the Interactive Soundstage. We got to read the scripts to the screen and it would play back with our voices. Pretty fun! Next, we got pictures taken at some different sets, like Friends and Big Bang Theory.
Next we went to the DC Super Heroes and Villains, and the Harry Potter area.
The sorting hat is also here so you can find out which school you belong to. Teddy was sorted to Gryffindor.
Plan to spend about 3 hours for this tour, which is a great value in my opinion. This was definitely a must-do and I’m so glad we signed up for this.
Next, we went to lunch at a Russian restaurant nearby called Kalinka. We wanted to come here because it’s something different and it was conveniently located between Warner Brothers and the Family Feud taping which we were going next. The restaurant was very authentic – I could hear the server talking in Russian with some people. I ordered the Chicken Kotleti, Solyanka Soup, and homemade Kompot drink. Everything was delicious!
For dessert, we got the blintzes cake. It tasted as good as it looked.
Teddy got the Beef Stroganoff. Which he said was very good.
After lunch, we still had some time to kill before making our way to the taping, so we decided to make a stop at the Griffith Observatory.
Griffith Observatory is a public observatory that is free to enter and free to park. It’s also a great place to view the Hollywood Sign, which requires a hike that we didn’t have time for. (It’s not possible to walk up to the Hollywood Sign.)
Next it’s time for Family Feud! Our tickets had instructed us to eat lunch before taping, but once we got there, we realized there was catered food provided. The food was really good too! We got some salmon and water – we couldn’t really eat much since we just ate.
Like Jimmy Kimmel Live, we were lead to the studio, then told where to sit. We were given some time to take some pictures, then we were told to put our phones away. There were several celebrities present for the show but the only one I recognized was Tiffany Haddish.
The taping was really fun and Steve Harvey was pretty funny and humble. I can’t say which taping was better – both were fun and worthy of a trip.
Now we had some free time so we drove back to our hotel and decided to grab a couple of drinks on the roof top and watch the sunset. We didn’t plan for this ahead of time and the Rooftop is a popular spot so we weren’t able to get a seat, but there was plenty of room to stand around.
The drink prices are steep here, and honestly, you are paying for the view, not the drinks. Two drinks set us back over $50, but our daily resort credit helps pay for that.
Next, the chauffeur took us to our dinner spot in the fancy house car, a Rolls Royce Phantom. This car costs over $600k.
The Rolls Royce Phantom is the weekend house car, and will take you anywhere within 3 miles for free. During the week, the house car is a Cadillac Escalade.
Tonight, we ate dinner at a Bib Gourmand Michelin restaurant called Kazan. It’s a noodle shop where noodles are made in house. The broth was very tasty but too salty in my opinion. I ordered the dumpling truffle noodle soup. The dumplings’ fillings were surprisingly small. I expected something more substantial. The truffle flavor was great – I wasn’t so sure how well it would go together but it worked really well. The price has gone up significantly since they received their Bib Gourmand star which made the locals not too happy.
When the dinner was over, our chauffeur was waiting for us outside the restaurant door. Luxury doesn’t get much better than this.
Day 3: April 22, 2023
Today we had a quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant, then drove to the dock at Ventura Harbor for our private boat tour of Channel Islands.
We booked this boat tour with Captain Randy from Blue Ocean Charters. To see Channel Islands, you have to either book a private boat or take one of the ferries from Island Packers. Island Packers wasn’t an option for us because our trip was so last minute – the ferries we would need were sold out. Blue Ocean Charters is a small outfit with a small boat called Blue. I comparison shopped and this was definitely the cheapest option.
We were given a menu beforehand to choose drinks and lunch. We also brought some beer with us. The boat had fresh chopped strawberries, orange juice and pastries waiting for us.
Our boat Blue was very cute and relaxing. Everything was in great working order.
Captain Randy also does multi-day excursions- the boat has cute beds in it, but he said he doesn’t really enjoy doing them that much.
On the way to the island, we saw two beautiful whales that put on quite a show!
Next, we came to Anacapa Island. Due to the wind, we weren’t able to dock so we weren’t able to step foot on the island. This was a major let down for me because I really wanted to walk on the island, but safety number one.
We anchored at the Anacapa Island and enjoyed lunch here. Lunch was shrimp tacos and guacamole freshly prepared by Captain Randy. There was so much food.
After lunch, Captain Randy circled around Anacapa Island so we could enjoy the beautiful view from all angles especially since we weren’t able to get off the boat there.
The view was incredible anywhere you turn. We soaked in the view and enjoyed some dessert next.
After our boat tour was over, we drove back to our hotel. The boat tour was nice but I was surprised how choppy it felt. Walking on the boat was quite difficult and if I come back to Channel Islands again, I hope to be able to book with Island Packers so I could actually be sure to get on the islands.
Time for rooftop drinks again. This is also a great place for people watching. In Beverly Hills, every server is an aspiring actress or model. I have never seen such a big concentration of good looking people before.
Since we weren’t able to get a seat the day before, they saved the best seat in the house for us this time. We were given the corner table which overlooks the corner of Wiltshire, with the view of the beautiful Electric Fountain that changes color.
Is it dinner time again? Jeez we are not hungry. But we had plans to meet up with a childhood friend of mine at Northern Cafe. We got some soup dumplings and barely ate them. They were really good though!
Day 4: April 23, 2023
All good things have to come to an end. We are leaving this morning to fly back home. We had a great trip and our final breakfast at Jean Georges was amazing as usual. Until next time.
