Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure - Media Preview!

[ILoveRides]

Avengers Campus is a brand new land at Disney California Adventure (DCA) that brings the greatest Marvel super heroes to life!  An all-new ride: “Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure,” joins fan favorite: “Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout,” immersing guests in their favorite Marvel stories.  There are new shows and character interactions, delicious themed foods and drinks, and tons of fun and unique merchandise offerings.  Last week TPR was invited to preview the new land, so check out our report below to join us on the adventure!

 

We’re at DCA for a preview of the brand new Avenger’s Campus!

First up, let’s head straight to the new ride - Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure!

Here’s the entrance area.  WEB (aka The Worldwide Engineering Brigade) is a new organization that sets the stage for this attraction.  We’re invited to the WEB Open House where they’re showcasing super-powered technology created by the world’s brightest young inventors.

Web fluid is SUPER sticky, VERY strong, and has REALLY long range.  Noted!

Some web fluid sprayers sit in the queue, with webs sprayed on the building behind.

There’s lots of signage throughout the queue that invites guests into the story line.  Here, we learn about the ride vehicle: the web slinger superpowered autonomous vehicle.  The vehicle allows anyone to sling webs like Spider Man!

Here’s the entrance to the WEB Open House.  Similar to Haunted Mansion, there are 2 pre-show rooms to help with capacity.  You’ll be guided into either the right or left room to experience the pre-show.

Here’s the pre-show room, one of the labs at WEB.

There’s lots of inventions and fun stuff sitting around.

Roar!

Billboards with all sorts of science line the walls.  We spoke with Casey Ging, the Art Director for the attraction, and he said these billboards were his favorite thing he worked on.  You can learn the actual real science of spider bots and web flinging!

Peter Parker welcomes us and introduces the web slinger vehicle that we’re here to help test.  He also shows off the spider bots they’ve invented, with a neat self-replicating feature.

Unfortunately the spider bots get stuck in self-replication mode and keep self-replicating.  Again, and again, and again.  This might end badly!

As the spider bots keep replicating they begin taking over everything.  This sounds like a job for Spider Man!  But he needs our help!  He asks us to head to the web slinger vehicles - together we’ll team up to stop the spider bots and help save Avenger’s Campus!

The doors open and we head past these lockers towards the slinger vehicles.

Here are the web slingers!

Ooooh, ahhhh.

Bonus points to Disney for making the vehicles 2-sided, which should double the capacity of the attraction and make wait times shorter (yay!)

Once inside, we pull down the lap bar and we’re off!  Time to sling some webs!

There are several scenes, all bursting with spider bots to shoot!  Eat my webs, spider bots!

Spider Man swings through the scenes as well, helping us get all the spider bots!

Thanks Spider Man!  Great work!

There are lots of fun scenes from around Avenger’s Campus.  If you look just over the quinjet you can see the top of "Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout" in the background.

In-between game scenes there are some web covered sets.

Spider Man swings down at the end to congratulate us on a job well done!

Strike a manly pose!  We did it!

The scoreboard displays all the stats, including your individual total and the vehicle total.

This is the exit hallway as you leave the attraction.

The scoreboards display the top scores of the hour and the day, and highlight the most recent additions to the board so you can easily see if you made it to the leaderboard.  We got 2nd place for the hour!  We’ll have to try again for #1!

A few spider bots may have escaped our webs.  This one waves bye as you leave the attraction.

Thanks for visiting WEB Open House!

Next up we’ll check out Pym Test Kitchen, the main restaurant at Avengers Campus.

At PYM Test Kitchen, they utilize the revolutionary shrink-and-grow technology of Pym Particles to shrink and grow foods.  In the main entrance area you can see pretzels being shrunk and grown before your very eyes!

There’s signage on the wall explaining the concepts behind the restaurant.

The imagineers played with scale throughout the whole restaurant.  These giant ketchup and mustard bottles are from “Bountiful Valley Farm,” a nice nod to the original farm area that occupied this space when DCA first opened.

The soda comes from giant cans overhead.

Everywhere you look there’s oversized theming.  Adjacent to Pym Test Kitchen is Pym Tasting Lab, featuring an oversized beer can, where you can order some delicious adult beverages.

Even the bar taps are fully themed!

But let’s get to what you’re really here for: the food!  The “Not so Little Chicken Sandwich” would qualify as a great “Meat Monday” item.

But for those who celebrate “Meatless Monday,” they’ve got you covered as well.  The “Impossible Spoonful” is a vegan meatball and pasta dish that’s every bit as filling and delicious as the real thing!

The Atomic Fusion Pretzel takes the standard amusement park pretzel to a whole new level.  It’s loaded with buffalo chicken, hot sauce, ranch dressing, blue cheese crumbles, celery, and dill-pickled carrots.

A cast member I spoke with said the “PB3 Superb Sandwich” was their personal favorite item.  It’s a warm PB&J with banana and candied bacon on Pym Particle bread, served with a micro banana smoothie and crispy potato bites.

For those who want a more traditionally flavored pretzel, the “Quantum Pretzel” weighs in at 453.8 grams and comes with a cheese-beer sauce for dipping.

Wash it all down with some Pingo Doce!  Or if you want to avoid the calories, you can even get Pingo Doce Zero Sugar!  I tried both variations, and both were superb!

The “Pint-Sized Pints Mini Beer Flight” from Pym Tasting Lab features four mini beer steins served on an enlarged ruler that can be kept as a souvenir.  There are also several beer cocktails served at Pym Tasting Lab that looked delicious, and the beer cocktails are poured using a reverse draft system that fills the glasses up from the bottom!  How cool!

The Shawarma Palace cart is another great food option that offers hand-held savory wraps.  From Disney: “Fans may recall that after the Battle of New York, the exhausted Avengers took Tony Stark up on his offer to try the food at the “shawarma joint” about two blocks from the battle zone. There at Shawarma Palace, the Avengers discovered their new favorite food. The Avengers loved the food so much that they invited the Shawarma Palace crew to open a food cart at Avengers Campus.”

Shawarma Palace offers “New York’s Tastiest,” filled with chicken shawarma and garlic spread, and served with coconut yogurt-tahini sauce and pickled vegetables.

The “Impossible Victory Falafel” is a plant-based falafel and cauliflower wrap with garlic spread and hummus, also served with coconut yoghurt-tahini sauce and pickled vegetables.  I tried this one and it was great!  The yoghurt-tahini sauce is fantastic, and it can be drizzled on the wrap or eaten as a side!

Defeat your thirst with “Iron Man’s Infinity Gauntlet!”  This awesome souvenir can be purchased at Shawarma Palace and comes with your favorite Coca-Cola beverage!

After all the food, you may or may not have room for dessert.  But if you do have room, you’re in luck, because there are several great desserts available at Avengers Campus.  This is the “Choco Smash” candy bar from Pym Test Kitchen.  It’s a giant candy bar consisting of peanuts, nougat, caramel, and chocolate brownie covered in dark chocolate.  It’s huge, and could easily be shared by several people.

The “Cosmic Cream Orb” is a crispy cream puff with whipped raspberry cheesecake mousse - available at Terran Treats, a food cart near Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout!

Also at Terran Treats is the “Sweet Spiral Ration.”  This is a spiral churro with unique colors and flavors that will change seasonally.

Now that we’re stuffed, let’s check out the merchandise!

The “Web Tech Power Band” with various attachments is the star of the show because it changes your abilities on the Web Slingers attraction.  It’s so cool that you can buy a toy that actually changes how you’re able to experience a ride!  You get different powers depending on which attachment you purchase.  Additionally, the attachments have fun playability features in the real world - they either sling string webs or float balls in mid-air.  I love that these are fun in both the real world and the virtual world of the ride!

This is WEB Suppliers, the main merchandise location for Avengers Campus.

Let’s check out the inside!

This is the best place to get Spider Bots and other WEB merchandise!

The walls are themed with science drawings just like the ride!

There are also lots of fun items sitting around the store.

Here’s a potato gun that’s a reference to Harley’s invention in Iron Man 3!

Snacks for Tippy Toe, the squirrel companion of Doreen Green.

They had a table set up outside to show off more of the awesome merchandise.

The spider bots come in different variants, and if your friends or family get one too you can battle with each other!  There are lights on the controllers that indicate how many lives you have left.

This attraction vehicle toy was pretty neat!

There are lots of new pins and patches.

Use the Gamma Goo kit to make your own glow-in-the-dark slime!

Avengers Headquarters is where you’ll see live shows starring your favorite super heroes!  This will also be the site of a future E-ticket attraction where you will board a Quinjet and head to Wakanda, fighting alongside the Avengers.  I can’t wait for that!

There’s a full-size Quinjet sitting on the roof!  This is the only place in the world you can see a real, full-size Quinjet!

There are lots of photo ops throughout the land as well!

Next we’ll check out the Ancient Sanctum.

Here you can see Doctor Strange in a show with some magic and mystery!

They say this area comes to life with magical energy at night.  I imagine it’s beautiful after dark when everything lights up!

There’s another great photo op in this area that’s a neat illusion!

Over at Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout, a cosmic disruption has caused splashes of space remnants to warp the ground around the attraction!

There’s lots of colorful space goop all over!

It’s a fun new addition to the otherwise boring pavement.

If you look closely you may even find some hidden mickeys!  I was able to spot 3 of them, but I heard there may be even more!

Guardians isn’t brand new, but since it’s also part of Avengers Campus (and an amazing attraction), let’s take a ride!

Just inside, the Collector’s prized possessions are on display.

Cosmo is always our favorite!

A portrait of The Collector hangs in the entrance.

Due to Covid, the pre-show with Rocket isn’t running right now, so you just walk through this room.

But we took a few moments to admire some of The Collector’s artifacts on our way through.

We're almost there!

We always say “Hi!” to Harold, the old yeti from The Matterhorn that The Collector has snapped up for his collection.

New plexiglass has been installed in the ride vehicles to allow for higher capacity.

Here we go!

Guardians is always so much fun!  It’s a musical, special-effects-filled free-fall ride with unpredictable drop sequences that change depending on which song you get!

And of course, all your favorite characters from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are there!

After the ride you exit through The Collector’s Warehouse, where lots more Marvel merchandise is available.

This is a great place to get Marvel clothing items.

Pin collectors should check this store out too!

Groot fans will be in heaven here.  This Groot attaches to cords, cables, or wires, such as your headphone wires!

We love the Guardians themed plush toys!

And the Groot Loungefly backpack may just be a “must have” item.

That concludes our first look at Avengers Campus!  This was a small media preview that showed some aspects of the land, but we weren’t able to see many of the characters and shows during our visit, so know that there’s MUCH more to see and experience when you visit.  We hope you enjoyed this taste of Avengers Campus as much as we did!  We’ll end with this final image of the entrance area - which is no longer closed off because the land is now OPEN!  Be sure to check it out for yourself!  Thanks to Disney for inviting us to check out Avengers Campus, and thanks to you for checking out our report!

[KarlaKoaster]

Although Web Slingers looks really underwhelming, it's great they have a more cohesive Marvel area now that includes Guardians. Great work on the report, really enjoyed your photography!

[Baffles]

Great report! Can't wait to visit.

Will be interesting to compare the version at Paris next year, and what they do with the Iron Man coaster.

[tinaalsgirl]

Self-replicating spider bots, huh? I think Peter needs to lay off the Stargate for a while, LMFAO.

Seriously, though, this report was awesome! You got some really amazing photos! I love all the giant stuff in the Pym's Kitchen, especially the resizing pretzels. And the new pavement details around the tower are so cool!

Thanks for posting this!

[Nrthwnd]

Great coverage of the whole place! Especially all - that - awesome - food!

But ...... it might be nice to have a non-buffalo chicken Atomic Fusion Pretzel. But keep the blue cheese!

For myself. I just can't do Buffalo Chicken in any style/form. (And yes, I am a {Very} Hot Sauce Wuss. Bite me!)

[cfc]

Great job, David! I'm hoping to see this for myself in November (I understand it was crazy busy on opening day).

The food does look great, and the Web Slingers is a nice "upgrade" from Midway Mania.

[Hilltopper39]

Seems like there was quote a bit of criticism towards the new ride but I think it looks fantastic for what it is. The whole land really looks great, especially some of the live entertainment they have going on. I love those little pop up shows with various super heroes and how the land is built for those shows to randomly occur throughout the day, super fun. 

 

Now lets get that Avengers attraction under construction....

[cfc]

^Yes, they're using the same strategy as they did for Galaxy's Edge: Get the land open with a "D ticket" ride, and get traffic and revenue, while they build the "E ticket" ride.  (At least that seems like what they're doing.)

[jarmor]

wait? What avengers attraction?

[dreynolds1982]

I'm psyched to check out the new land when we head out west in August. I know people are let down by the new ride, but like some others have said, it looks like they're taking the same approach they did with SGE. Get it open with an introductory lower-ticket attraction then work on the e-ticket. Almost like a soft opening for the entire land. 

Of course I haven't been to DCA in years so all of the Marvel stuff, Cars Land, etc. will all be new to me, so I'll take whatever I can get!

[Hilltopper39]

 

On 6/8/2021 at 9:18 AM, cfc said:

^Yes, they're using the same strategy as they did for Galaxy's Edge: Get the land open with a "D ticket" ride, and get traffic and revenue, while they build the "E ticket" ride.  (At least that seems like what they're doing.)

I think with Galaxy's Edge the intent all along was to have it open with both attractions, but things might have happened during construction and delayed that a bit. Rise of the Resistance was already built when SGE opened so it was only a matter of how long until it opens. The Avengers ride is most likely years away at this point, not months so it feels like a little bit of a different scenario. Similar, but different. I would guess an E-Ticket Avengers ride opens in Paris or Hong Kong before it does in California.

[cfc]

3 hours ago, Hilltopper39 said:

 

I think with Galaxy's Edge the intent all along was to have it open with both attractions, but things might have happened during construction and delayed that a bit. Rise of the Resistance was already built when SGE opened so it was only a matter of how long until it opens. The Avengers ride is most likely years away at this point, not months so it feels like a little bit of a different scenario. Similar, but different. I would guess an E-Ticket Avengers ride opens in Paris or Hong Kong before it does in California.

Good point--that seems more likely.

[Baffles]

So where would they put an Avengers E-ticket ride? Looks like there is plenty of room behind Avengers HQ - currently the tram maintenance area and a parking lot.

[KarlaKoaster]

4 hours ago, Baffles said:

So where would they put an Avengers E-ticket ride? Looks like there is plenty of room behind Avengers HQ - currently the tram maintenance area and a parking lot.

Yes that's right, you can see the Quinjet showbuilding here:

[KBrylczyk]

I'm curious if it'll be another Millenium Falcon style ride or something different.