I got to run around Disneyland Resort's highly-anticipated Avengers Campus for 2 hours of uninterrupted bliss. Here's what it was like.
Disneyland Resort's long-awaited Marvel-themed land, Avengers Campus, opens June 4 in California.
I previewed the food, entertainment, and a new Spider-Man attraction inside the Disney California Adventure theme park expansion for roughly two hours.
Marvel fans of all ages will love appearances by their favorite heroes and discovering hints at the future of the MCU.
ANAHEIM, California - I initially toured what was to become Avengers Campus on March 6, 2020.
Then set to open last July, press carefully navigated the six-acre area in hard hats, boots, long sleeves, and gloves as construction was well underway.
The ground wasn't even paved yet and all of the walls to an "Ant-Man"-themed restaurant weren't up yet, but as I listened to Walt Disney Imagineering's Scott Drake, Brent Strong, and the rest of the Disney team as they spoke excitedly about their vision for the land and its food, it felt like it was going to be something special that would continue to evolve as the Marvel movies and shows continued.
Then the world shut down and Disneyland Resort closed its doors for over a year.
Fifteen months later, I re-entered Avengers Campus for the first time to see it completed.
The wait was well worth it.
It's like stepping into a natural extension of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Typically, when I visit a theme park, it's a full day affair. Wednesday, I was given a little over two hours to roam through Avengers Campus freely to soak up as much of the new land as I could.
With the help of a Disney guide, my new friend and I ate our way through a few meals, snapped photos with Spidey, watched the Dora Milaje in action, spotted some very cool Easter eggs, and even got a high score on the park's very fun new Spider-Man attraction. (Not too shabby.)
Marvel fans are going to be very satisfied with Avengers Campus. If you love the attention to detail on the Guardians of the Galaxy attraction queue, the same care is felt in every corner of this land - if you know where to look.
There was no way I was going to uncover every secret upon one short press trip. But did I make the most of my short time there? Absolutely. I'll return later this weekend for a longer visit. For now, here are my initial takeaways and tips on conquering Avengers Campus.
So how do you get there? Avengers Campus is located to the far west of Disney California Adventure. Here's how it looks on the park's new map:
This map was given to me when I first arrived at Disney California Adventure (DCA) on Wednesday morning.
There are two main entrances into Avengers Campus. Most people will probably enter near the current Marvel attraction, Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout!
This is the way I entered on Wednesday with media. Though it's a natural entrance into Avengers Campus, I think there's an even better way that Marvel fans should enter the land on their first visit.
I recommend marching straight into Disney California Adventure and making a left before you reach Cars Land for a prime photo opp into the main entrance of Avengers Campus.
Once you see the giant Avengers Campus sign, look down. You'll be standing on a giant arc reactor, the very device that powered Iron Man's suit.
Iron Man sacrificed himself to save the world in "Avengers: Endgame," so this entrance may make you a little emotional when you spot the reactor.
Walking around, I started snapping as many photos as possible. You start seeing the Stark Industries name a lot. That's because it was once owned by Tony Stark's dad, Howard.
According to the land's lore, Tony inherited this land and decided to use it to build Avengers Campus to recruit and train the next generation of superheroes.
The centerpiece of the land is Avengers headquarters, modeled after the one we see in "Avengers: Endgame."
The Disney Imagineers worked closely with Marvel Studios to ensure they got it just right. If you're walking around, you may see a few heroes walking around on the upper decks of Avengers HQ.
During my visit, Black Widow was on patrol.
Naturally, it is topped with the Quinjet.
It's the Avengers' main way to get around.
With about two hours to explore, I made a beeline to the main attraction of Avengers Campus - the Spider-Man ride. (It's actually called Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, but I'm sure kids are going to call this the Spider-Man ride.)
Let's be real.
When you visit Disney California Adventure and Avengers Campus, one of the first things you're going to try and do is get a reservation to ride this, so it felt like a good first place to start. (Plus, my rule of thumb is that you don't eat before you go on rides.)
Wednesday, I had the unique fortune of being able to walk right up to the attraction without any wait, which I'm aware is not how most people will experience Web Slingers.
When guests visit, you'll have to try and reserve a spot in a virtual queue to ride at either 7 a.m. or 12 p.m. The process sounds similar to acquiring a boarding pass to ride Disneyland's pretty great Rise of the Resistance attraction.
The ride takes guests on an open house tour of the Worldwide Engineering Brigade (WEB), a place where Stark brought together Parker and other young inventors in the MCU like Cassie Lang and Harley Keener.
Tom Holland reprises his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man on the attraction as he takes you through the open house. Naturally, things go awry as Peter's giving us this tour.
One of the experiments, a spider-bot, escapes and starts self-replicating and destroying Parker's lab. When they get loose into Avengers Campus, guests have to help Parker and his friends round up all of the bots and that's where the ride kicks into gear.
Guests receive 3D glasses and are guided into giant vehicles where you're able to just reach out and automatically shoot webs like Spider-Man.
If you're familiar with Disney rides, Web Slingers reminds me a lot of Toy Story Midway Mania. Instead of using a blaster or interface, you simply just reach out and use your arms, without holding onto anything, to sling webs that magically appear on a screen in front of you.
It's unreal.
Last year, Insider was told the Disney Imagineers invented a gesture recognition system that they built into every slinger vehicle; 60 times a second, they're able to determine the location of a guest's eye position, shoulders, elbows, and wrists so that when they reach out, a virtual web can be rendered coming right out of the palm of your hand.
The new attraction doesn't have any height limitations. Everyone will be able to try this.
Read more about ride in my full review, here.
The ride is really fun, but it's a workout on your arms if you're trying to get a high score.
I'm very competitive, so, naturally, I was trying to get my score on a board.
On my own, I scored over 300,000 on my first attempt. (I really had no idea if that was good or bad.) With my Disney rep, we managed to score over 500,000 at one point.
In order to get a higher score, there are web power bands and shooter accessories for purchase to help aid you on the ride with power-ups. Yes, there are add-ons to heighten your ride experience.
I did not acquire one of these... yet.
After making your way out of the ride, you may stumble upon Spider-Man himself performing a live show.
It's one of several live entertainment shows that take place at various times throughout the day in Avengers Campus, making it worth sticking around for a few hours.
Spider-Man, voiced by Tom Holland, appears on the top of the WEB building where his attraction is located to do a few flips, swing around, and then climb down a wall.
Yes, you can meet and pose with Spider-Man.
He may even wind up speaking or interacting with you. During the two times I caught the Spidey act, he interacted with a few guests in the crowd and noted how he liked one person's shirt.
Also, make sure you take a moment to appreciate the fine Spidey-themed artwork on the wall. You'll want to check the artist's name.
It's made by none other than Miles Morales, who becomes another version of the web-slinger.
He's not the only hero you can see in action. You can visit Doctor Strange in his Sanctum.
Doctor Strange teaches guests the secrets of the mystic arts in the ruins of the Ancient Sanctum seen above.
Among the heroes (and villains), you'll get to see inside of Avengers Campus are Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Ant-Man, The Wasp, Captain Marvel, Thor, Loki, Taskmaster, and Iron Man.
If you're wondering how it's possible to see Iron Man here since he clearly died in "Avengers: Endgame," I was told last year in a statement that, "We know now that there's a vast multiverse with an infinite number of timelines and dimensions; we live in one where the Super Heroes have assembled from across time and space to meet with us at Avengers Campus."
The badass Dora Milaje from "Black Panther" made a show-stopping entrance in the center of Avengers Campus during my visit.
I was able to watch General Okoye leading out two of her Wakanda warriors. Okoye then leads a training session with the Dora Milaje.
The three women had the longest and most interactive live entertainment segments I watched. When they entered, no matter where you were standing or eating in Avengers Campus, all attention went straight to the trio.
With about an hour left to go, I thought I should finally start eating some of the food Avengers Campus has to offer. I booked it right over to the Pym Test Kitchen, the area's main restaurant offering, which is inspired by "Ant-Man and the Wasp."
The menu is supposed to make you feel like you're a part of the "Ant-Man" world, which involves Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) using Pym Particles to both shrink and grow into a superhero.
Using that logic, the Pym Test Kitchen plays with combinations of large and small-sized food, ranging from chicken sandwiches to pasta dishes with large and small meatballs.
Press was offered a limited number of items to try off of the menu. After the past year, I figured I may as well live my best life and chose most of them to try.
I ordered a Not So Little Chicken Sandwich, a Pym-ini, and a Cosmic Orb. They were all quite tasty.
Of course, I was on a limited time schedule so I also had only budgeted myself 10-15 minutes to try and eat as much of this smorgasbord as I could. I made every bite count.
My recommendations? The Not So Little Chicken Sandwich and the Pym-ini (a play on paninis). I also tried a meatball and pasta dish and salad last year. While I enjoyed the former, I'm not sure that's something I'd want in the very warm California sun.
I'm not a huge soda gal, but the fan in me couldn't resist trying the Pingo Doce soda, a nod to Bruce Banner. I found myself sipping it until I needed to move on to my next food adventure.
You can see all of Avengers Campus Food offerings here.
One of the best Marvel nods in the land is the Shawarma Palace cart.
Any Marvel fan will smile when they see this cart. It's a nod to the end-credit scene in "Avengers" where the heroes gather after saving New York City and eat shawarma.
The Middle Eastern dish usually consists of sliced meat (i.e. chicken, beef, or lamb) from a rotisserie. The meat is then rolled onto a pita or flatbread with tahini sauce, vegetables, lettuce, tomatoes, maybe pickles, and more.
The Avengers Campus cart offers a regular shawarma wrap with chicken and a plant-based item with cauliflower and falafel. I sampled and enjoyed both. As someone who has some dietary restrictions, I greatly appreciated that both the cart and Pym's Test Kitchen had alternative options, which used to be tougher to come by at Disney.
You can read more about the Shawarma Palace cart here.
If you need a bathroom break, you won't need to leave the land.
There's no special Marvel design inside that I could find. It's just a pretty standard bathroom.
Terran Treats wasn't open for business during my visit, but the sweet treat cart is located right outside of the Guardians of the Galaxy attraction.
If you're familiar with Disney California Adventure, Terran Treats has a humorous backstory, connecting it to the park's Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout attraction.
Terran Treats is centered around "GOTG" character Taneleer Tivan, the Collector. As his name suggests, he likes to collect rare and unusual things. A bunch of them are on display inside the Guardian's attraction, but Taneleer's always looking to add to that collection. That's where the park guests come into play.
Terrans is another word for humans. So Tivan is essentially running a "human treats" cart to try and add park guests to his growing collection inside the Guardians' attraction.
The cart will sell a Sweet Spiral Ration (essentially a churro) that will be available in six different colors — red, blue, purple, orange, yellow, and red. If they remind you of the Infinity power stones from the Marvel movies, that's the idea. Each color donates a different flavor of churro.
The cart will also offer a crispy cream puff called the Cosmic Cream Orb. That's meant to look like the purple power Infinity stone seen in "Guardians of the Galaxy." I was able to try this and enjoyed it. It's probably big enough to split with one other person.
As you're walking around, you may notice purplish/blue splotches across the ground near Terran Treats and the "GotG" attraction leading towards Avengers HQ.
I couldn't remember those ever being on the ground outside of the Guardians attraction.
A Disney rep later clarified to me that the droplets on the ground (sorry, I don't have a more technical name for them) are supposed to be disruptions in the ground created after The Collector decided to land his fortress in the middle of Avengers Campus.
The goo-like substance (completely non-sticky to walk on) connects the older "GotG" attraction to the newer additions of Avengers Campus to create a common thread between the two areas. I thought it was a clever way to retroactively tie-in the remodeled 2017 attraction to the new land.
When you're all done, you may want to pop by the Web Suppliers shop to pick up some souvenirs.
I did not budget time to even consider going into the store. I was on a mission to make sure I saw and ate everything else before heading to a Q&A session to round out my whirlwind morning.
For what it's worth, in addition to clothing and Web Slingers gear, you'll be able to purchase exclusive Spider-Man and Iron Man Funko Pop figurines here along with your very own Spider-Bot, those pesky little critters I was successfully taking down on the Web Slingers attraction earlier.
However, unlike the ones on the attraction, these ones behave and can interact with other bots.
Pro-tip: If the shops inside Avengers Campus are a bit busy, head over to Stage 17.
The giant hanger inside of DCA is also selling Avengers Campus merchandise and is a lot roomier to navigate. If you're having a tough time finding the entrance it's behind the old muppet theater.
What didn't I get to in my two-hour spree? Not too much, but I would have enjoyed experiencing everything across a full day's time to appreciate it more.
Two hours is definitely not enough time to see and do everything in Avengers Campus to its full extent. The much-anticipated outdoor bar, the Pym Tasting Lab, with a reverse beer tap wasn't open when I visited so I didn't get to try any of the cocktails that I've been hearing about since last March. (Then again, I don't think that would have been the best idea in the morning.)
When I return opening weekend, I hope to enjoy the area at a tempo that's a bit more my speed and savor a complete Not So Little Chicken Sandwich.
Read the original article on Insider
