Long Beach, California
 

I tried the search option but didnt get much luck so.

We were supposed to travel to Long Beach in late March this year staying for two weeks to see the filming of battle bots (basically a reboot of the old robot wars). Obviously covid prevented this and as gutted as we were we kind of got on with it. They announced the other day they will be filming battle bots with no audience in October but hope to resume filming for a new season with an audience for 2021. This hit home with us that we were still so desperate to go so we've started relooking to budget and save for next year.

Has anyone been and can recommend hotels in the long beach area? Battle bots is filmed in an airplane hanger near the airport, we want to be close like 10-15min drive away. Preferably near a few food outlets and no more than half hour drive from the town Center. (We are biting the bullet and uber(ing) as partner isnt willing to drive in America).

There seems to be some less friendly places around long beach (sure it's no different to most places), where should we avoid completely?

Ideally we want something for about £100-£130 per night, wifi is a must, including breakfast would be a bonus. We arent bothered about a pool or anything.

I know that we may not get there at any point next year, there are no concrete dates for it and theres no guarantee it will even be in long beach. However I wanted to get an idea so we can start to save and let the fiance down gently if needed! I know we did planning for this years trip but the hotel has soared in price and I feel like I've forgotten all our research 😂

You could stay on the queen Mary? We were meant to stay there this month ☹️ More expensive than a normal hotel but not by much.

I've stayed on the Queen Mary and whilst the history is amazing the rooms aren't!
It was advertised as a beautiful inside, king bed room but what we actually got was the most claustrophobic, hot (no AC), bleak and small room with a queen bed in it.
We complained and were moved to The Queen Elizabeth Suite! Yes! That Queen Elizabeth Suite! It did have portholes and it did have a King bed but no AC and it was hot!
It seems the company that own it don't do much to it and it lives by its history. We did a ghost tour and that was good. I wouldn't stay there again and I wouldn't recommend it unless you just want the history. I was so disappointed. :(

Oh that’s interesting, what a bummer!
We were only booked for one night so it was more the experience rather than luxury but the no ac is not good !

Yeah, sorry.
I've just read through the ship/room amenities in case things had changed but nowhere does it state AC.
It's lovely to look round. You can book tours.
I went looking for the Paranormal Room B340 on my own. It was like walking down the corridors in The Shining. For a ship that was full, at the time, there was nobody to be seen. :erm:

We stayed on the Queen Mary for 1 night and had a bog standard inside cabin, but it was the end of October so the lack of A/C didn't bother us particularly. It was a typical cruise ship room, didn't expect it to be big, it was just the novelty of staying on it really.

We stayed on the Queen Mary for one night last June, and absolutely loved it for the history and the haunted bits! Yes, the décor was straight out of an art deco time, and there was no A/C, but you could just feel the luxury and history as you walked around. The bed was fine for us for one night, we were a bit thrown as it was very secluded with no food outlets within walking distance and nothing on offer on the ship, we couldn't find anything other than a bar open that night so had to survive on snacks we had with us.

But like Whitequeen, we went to look for B340 which is allegedly a very haunted room; a long, musty corridor where we were completely alone, no room number on the door so we had to work out which room it was. There was an icy feel to the door when I placed my hand on it, and a feeling of unease there - we loved it! Sadly, lots of areas of the ship did not open for visitors at the times they stated - we waited by the disused indoor pool door for half an hour past the stated opening time, to no avail. (The pool area is also supposed to be very haunted).

I'm not sure the OP will get as much out of the stay as we did, as we wanted to experience the ship rather than just having somewhere to sleep, though, and after we had explored to our heart's content we moved inland and on to Indio, so we didn't stay in the Long Beach area.

There isn't much round it, that's for sure. We go for Dark Harbor around Halloween so able to get food there but there's nothing else going on.

Thanks for your replies. We will look into the option of the ship perhaps although the lack of AC is a bother. I've found a few places along the way and then theres some reviews about it being in a somewhat dodgy area and I go back to rethinking 😂. It all seems rather difficult I think

Hi Stitchbounce, small world - not sure if we've chatted about this before, but my son Tom is captain of Team Monsoon :wavey:

You must go to the filming if you get the chance again. We had full pit access as the unofficial team support - great fun, but you get a much better view of the fights from the audience! You're right though, the venue might well have to change for next year (the building has actually been sold and I believe the new owners take possession at the end of October), I know Greg would like to keep it around that area if he can but Vegas has also been suggested for the future - but who knows at this stage.

Up until this year the teams stayed in the Norwalk DoubleTree. My husband and I stayed there in 2018 as we flew out for the weekend when Monsoon was confirmed as being in the final 16 (they reached the final 8 in the end). However that's quite an expensive hotel and isn't actually very close to the filming venue.

Last year we decided to take our daughter and go out for the whole of filming so had rather more time to plan. I did a lot of research and settled on the Pacific Inn at Seal Beach. I was so glad we did, it was great. Nothing fancy, just a good family-friendly hotel, a short walk from the beach in a really nice neighbourhood - largely residential with lots of small shops and restaurants, a proper small holiday resort. It was quite a bit closer to the filming venue than the team hotel.

Breakfast was help-yourself, quite simple but there was always fresh fruit, muffins, a waffle machine, cereals and some hot options.
There were free cookies and a coffee/hot chocolate machine in reception.
It also has a small pool (outdoors in a courtyard but nice and warm, even in April) and plenty of parking under the main building. We had a deluxe room for the three of us with two queen beds, a balcony, fridge and microwave.

There were several families of fans who stayed there for a few days at a time for filming as well. We'd gladly stay there again.

I always take far too many photos and I run their website, so there are lots of photos and videos on the media page of their website, so maybe some of those will help to tide you over. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to answer.
Unless things change very quickly, like most of the international teams they've had to pull out this year, but Monsoon Mk3 is ready and they'll be back next year.