The FRIENDS Experience Review (The One in Seattle, Washington)
This month, my friend Mandy and I went to Seattle to explore The FRIENDS Experience - the international touring exhibit available through the end of April in Seattle, Washington. I wanted to share some of the highlights of our trip as well as our general The FRIENDS Experience review!
The Friends Experience Review
The Scenes
I will say, overall the scenes within The Experience are quite plentiful. The exhibit includes the opening credits fountain, the “Pivot!” couch, Monica’s kitchen and balcony, Joey & Chandler’s apartment, Central Perk coffee shop, and more. Lots of opportunities for awesome photo ops!
The Content
I was kind of bummed out by the lack of authentic props and displays throughout the exhibit. I would say “the experience” was a very smart choice of words - it’s more of an experience or photo opportunity vs. an actual museum-formatted exhibit with real clothing or items the cast members used. There were a couple authentic props, such as the turkey head, but most were replicas. They did incorporate really cool elements like “Science Boy” complete with drawings, a readable showcase of The Letter (Rachel and Ross), original episode scripts, and more interesting pieces.
The Cost
Mandy treated me to The Experience for Christmas and she purchased regular GA tickets for us. You can opt for higher level tickets to gain priority access but we felt like GA was very much sufficient and the wait on a Saturday late afternoon wasn’t bad at all. However, I suppose the fine print got us because we didn’t realize you had to pay for your professional photos on top of your ticket to access the exhibit!
The tickets are already $40 per person, then you have to purchase all of your digital images for another $30 per group (or more for printed photos). There’s an option to pre-purchase your digital photo package and save $5 when purchasing your tickets - we’d recommend doing that because why not save a little!? You are also allowed to use your own cell phone for photo ops, but there are three distinct professional photo ops throughout The Experience and it’s nice to have these extra high quality photos in these iconic scenes: the fountain, the “Pivot!” couch, and the Central Perk couch.
They also have a lovely Gift Shop at the front of the entrance and we grabbed some souvenirs to take home (I picked a cute Central Perk ornament)!
Overall, we were pleased with The Experience and do recommend adding it to your bucket list.
Was it perfect? No, but it is a FRIENDS fan’s dream, and we don’t regret it!
Come along with us in this video on Instagram:
Will you be seeing The FRIENDS Experience before it leaves Seattle?
