- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
CNN Studio Tour
Rating Details »
Categories: Television Stations, Tours
Neighborhood: Downtown190 Marietta St NW
Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 827-2300
- Nearest Transit:
-
Dome/GWCC/Philips/CNN (North-South, Northeast-South, East-West, Proctor Creek)
- Hours:
Mon-Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun. 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
15 reviews for CNN Studio Tour
The tour of CNN is pretty impressive. Riding the elevator to the top of atrium into a giant globe is very cool. You get to see reporters/anchors doing funny things like checking their teeth, hair, voice, etc before going live.
It does get a little old walking up/down all these stairs..there is no air condition so it gets stuffy quick.
I mean it's not the most amazing thing but it's worth the money and time to see it.
I was reading through past reviews, and I'm shocked that so many people gave this tour either a 2 or 3 star...because I thought the tour was very worthwhile! Maybe because the tour guide we had was young and cute that made my tour more enjoyable...anything that is good to look at for 55 minutes is worth my 12 buck admission price.
You start the tour by going up the "tallest free standing escalator" that I guess was put there when the location used to be an amusement part back in the 70's. The tour itself started out kind of dull after that; we got to listen to the "director" give orders on how he wanted the news to look going out to the public. Then we went into a mock newsroom that wasted about 5 minutes of the tour with peole getting to take pics like they were newscasters. After that...the tour got pretty cool. We got to see a newscast in action and what people do behind the scenes. To me, seeing what goes on behind the scenes is worthwhile.
All in all, I thought the tour was packed with good info and the tourguide was very knowledgable.
For a multinational company, what are they thinking. It is fairly boring, I will agree. Worst of all they do not indicate that their tours have no bathroom breaks what-so-ever. I am not a person with bladder problems but we took our Mature Adults group here and there were problems. There needs to be clearer instructions about this when registering. It is a 30 minute to hour and a hals tour with not bathroom break, not even for senior citizens. Should you need to use the restroom, you will have to leave the tour and not be allowed to rejoin the group. Everyone knows 60 year old jewish women are extremely dangerous. :x
The man at the front was obnoxious. I had to ask him if he could please hold a ticket for our bus driver and he said sure then nothing else. I stood there for a minute wondering if he was going to ask her name or anything else so he would know who the person was when she came up to the desk. He looks back at me, after having looked away after my request, and asks me if I need anything else. And not in a nice way at all. So I said don't you need the woman's name, he said sure but it was quite evident he was annoyed to have to be taking her name and did not give a shit. Please take care of the attitudes.
It was nice to see into the news room but it was not worth the time, money or effort to attend this tour.
Wow. CNN could learn something from Disney on how to give a tour. This was definitely one of the most lame tours I've ever been on. (Even worse than the Washington DC tour I took where the guide was fascinated by HOV lanes and thought we would be, too.)
First, you supposedly ascend the "world's tallest free-standing escalator." That was the best part of the tour; it gets worse from there. We were then taken into a small theater. We sat and the tour guide turned on the speakers so we could hear people speaking "live" from the studio room, deciding which images to use on-the-air. We couldn't understand any of their jargon. We were then asked by our tour guide if we had any questions. Um...yeah. When does the tour begin?
After that, we were taken to a mock newsdesk room. Here, we could wait and watch each INDIVIDUAL person sit behind the mock newsdesk, hold up some papers, get their photograph taken (sold at the end of the tour for a mere $20!), and pretend like they were delivering the evening news, if they so wanted. That was about 10 minutes of our 55-minute tour.
Next were a couple of newsrooms where we could peer through the windows. First, CNN, then HLN (headline news), and we would have been able to peer into the window of CNN en espanol, but they had the blinds closed. I imagined it looking like the last two newsrooms we viewed, but a lot more festive. Or perhaps they were taking their siesta. At that point, I wanted to join them.
That's the end of the tour, folks! Any questions?
The tour guide, Chris, was telling us how the location of the CNN newsrooms used to be a Sid and Marty Krofft amusement park thingee back in the 70s. The main newsroom was a human pinball machine ride. Can we bring that back and skip the CNN tour?
All in all, the CNN Studio Tour was quite lame, especially for the money. We had a better time riding the MARTA (subway), and it was cheaper.
I have come to accept that this is a "must-see" for when family/friends are in town, as this was my umpteenth time on the tour, in three years.
The good news is that I have learned and/or seen somethign different each time. I was provided an explanation, but I still do not see why they do not accept AAA or a student ID to go towards the $12 admission!
After going through security and climbing the tallest escalator in the world (per the tour!), our tour began in small theater, where we witnessed the "behind-the-scenes" in the control room.
There are a number of flights of stairs to conquer while on the tour, so keep the stiletto heels at home!
You will be shown various newsrooms (we saw Fredericka Whitfield and Don Lemon), including CNN espanol and Headline News. They also provide an opportununity to do a "mock" weather broadcast. Go for it!
There are several photos of Anderson Cooper adorning the walls (Go AC 360!), as well as they have the "M" from the Saddam Hussein Airport in Baghdad, on display. Pretty neat!
The tour lasts about an hour. Have fun!
I like anything where I can behind the scene and get a special pass.
I did not think the price was all that expensive.
My favorite part was overlooking the newsroom where all of the research is done for the news stories. I wanted to get closer to see what databases and sources are being used. I wanted to see how the work is doled out and what takes priority.
Security was everywhere. Somehow it felt like more security than the now defunct NYSE tours. Blame 9/11.
I wish they would offer a more detailed tour for information nerds like myself.
As others have said, if you have a good guide it can make all the difference and that made all the difference between two stars and none.
Two things made it interesting and one was a rare mishap; #1: in the control room when our guide turned on the audio, we got to overhear the producers making fun of someone's outfit while they were rolling pre-recorded film...not really supposed to happen, but made for a good laugh.
#2 was the behind-the-scenes look at the studio, but honestly for how far back from the anchor you are, you're really just watching a bunch of people working at their computer. The only difference between that and having an overhead view of your own office is...well...nothing.
Save your money and take your kids to Little Shop of Stories in Decatur or have a pint at Little 5 Points...
This was a pretty decent tour if you don't know anything at all about how TV news works. If you've ever worked in the field, the only point of interest is how freakin' massive CNN is as an outfit. Be sure to go before 1:00 or so on a weekday, so you can see into the studio while they're live.
Also, the CNN tour has harsher security than Hartsfield-Jackson, seriously. I think the fillings in my teeth set off their metal detector...
We went on the Kid's Tour. I think they have a kids' tour once per hour but make sure to ask if you go with kids.
They said it was basically the same tour as the normal tour but geared for elementary school aged kids. Our 7 and 8 year olds liked it and our 3 year old tolerated it. It was roughly 55 minutes, so our youngest didn't get too antsy and there was lots of walking around and looking at things.
The older kids learned a bit. Definitely worth it. I would recommend it for elementary school aged kids.
Pretty cool but fairly short. You do get to ride the world's longest free-standing escalator. I guess that's cool. It's $13, which is tad too much for what you get access to (which is not much at all). The tour is a little but too "behind the scenes" to the point you are always seperated by glass walls from any/all actual activity or CNN employees. It's kinda like visiting an aquarium and instead of fish, there are news anchors and interns running around.
Since my major in college was journalism and I came of age in 'the age of information', I felt like a trip to Atlanta would not be complete without a trip to CNN to take the new and improved "Inside CNN Atlanta studio tour" (the studio tour was retoolled in honor of CNN's 25th anniversary in 2005).
You need not feel so compelled.
The tour is pricey - $12 for a 50-minute walking tour. The tour itself is pretty sterile; in fact I think the most interesting thing I learned on the tour was that the escaltor is the largest/longest free-standing escalator in the world.
After riding the escalator up - up - up, you enter "the world of CNN", where you see how the world has become interconnected, thanks to CNN. There's a short film, and then visitors are taken into a studio mockup, to see how greenscreening (formerly known as bluescreening) works. After this point, you must turn off your cameras because then you pass into the working areas of CNN.
If you watch CNN, you see the news anchor up front, then a busy newsfloor behind. At the top of the screen, you'll see a ticker and clocks. As part of the tour, you actually walk above where those clocks and ticker are, and look down into the newsroom, which is kind of cool, but you can't take pictures there.
Along the way, you learn more about CNN's history and its other networks (such as CNN Espagnol). The tour ends where else but the CNN/Turner store, where you can then spend money on Turner Network shows' items.
If you're really a big fan of CNN or have a media connection that makes the idea of a CNN tour compelling, then the tour can be worth it. Otherwise, save your money for the Coke Museum or something!
Adult $12 (AAA discount available)
Youth (4-18) $9
Senior (65+) $11
Group (20+) $10/person (ages 19+) - $8/person (ages 4-18)
Call 1-877-4CNNTOUR or 404-827-2300 for reservations.
Maybe it's because I'd just come from the World of Coca-Cola tour, so anything would have been an improvement, but I thought this tour was pretty solid. My parents had gone when they were in Atlanta last year and had recommended it. It would be a great "Parents Activity" for when guests come from out of town.
The promotional materials "highly recommended" reservations, but I walked up to the counter and was able to get on a tour leaving in three minutes. The first thing I noticed was the amount of security. I was intrigued by the way they've built the tour so that you can be staring down without it being intrusive. The other thought that came to mind was "No one can Yelp at work if there's a tour coming through every ten minutes, watching what you type on the screen." Did you know that Headline News is CNN in thirty minute segments? Or that the CNN at the airport screens out plane crashes, based on an agreement with the FAA? Interesting stuff. The tour guides are young people recently out of school who want to work for CNN and it's used to feed the newsroom. In my mind, this was completely worth the $12.
It's a good tour, the tour guides give you a lot of information. It's fun to do once, and then never again. You get to take a picture behind a mock news desk (which you can later purchase for a nice - read expensive - price). They show you how the green screen works (if you don't know already), and you get to look over various newsrooms (headline news, cnn espanol etc). And the big escalator is kinda fun to ride up. Cross your fingers that you get a guide with personality - mine was really serious and never cracked a smile. Unless you're a huge CNN and/or news fan, there are much better, more fun things for you to do in Atlanta.
Piece of shit tour, don't waste your time...the best thing about the whole damn thing was taking the escalator ("the longest free-standing one in the world!" Wow.) up into the huge globe on top of the CNN Center, but from then on its all downward. You don't get nor feel ANYWHERE close to being "Inside CNN", and when you do cop a view into the studios, its akin to being inside a zoo, only you're the animals trapped, not them (it also doesn't help that you're hounded and followed wherever you go by heavily-armed security guards, lest you waste your life by trying to interrupt a broadcast of "Headline News"). Save the time you'll never get back and lounge in the Centennial Olympic Park across the street instead.
This was just boring. It was comparable to going to a zoo just watching people through the glass. Our tour guide was a big tool and not helpful for answering questions in fact he was rude to my buddy. Everything is overpriced. This was not fun and not entertaining. Anderson Cooper is my boy, but this was awful.
