I don’t know about you, but my food and wine adventures don’t generally coincide with Super Heroes flying on buildings or fighting crime on ledges. But on my recent trip to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, that is exactly what happened. California Adventure, Disneyland’s second park, has received a few upgrades in recent years including the additions of Pixar Pier as well as Cars Land and most recently with the opening of what this is going to focus on: Avengers Campus. While I have already been to both of these parks in the past, Avengers Campus was brand new to me and I was very excited. As were my friends, David and Matthew, who told me before they even moved out to LA, that they were going to wait to go to the Disneyland Resort with me. With them being massive Marvel fans themselves, we knew where the very first place was going to be that we wanted to experience.
Something I haven’t talked on her about much is my love for Disney. When I was a teenager and fully in the throws of my dancing years, I wanted to be a Disney Performer/Dancer. As I moved into Culinary, I wanted to work as a chef there. My dream came true in 2011 when I got a job with Patina Restaurant Group working in Epcot. My love before that was very strong for the Disney Parks, movies, and everything else attached. Since leaving in 2013, nothing has changed. My love for Disney Magic is still strong and I have even more admiration for what goes in to making it happen. I’ve been to the Parks in Florida countless times, Disneyland Paris once and have made two trips to the Disneyland Resort in California.
This trip was planned a little over a month in advance. My dear friend and former colleague, David, knew of my Disney love and told me that he HAD to experience Disneyland for the first time with someone who knew their stuff. I looked at my calendar for my school’s spring break, scored an incredibly priced flight and we booked our park tickets. It was ON! Two days of planning in the parks, one for a day in Disneyland and one for California Adventure. David right off the bat told me that he wanted to check out Avengers Campus first and that was perfectly fine with me! Possibly me more so because I’m always amped to see new Disney additions and this was one I had not yet experienced with my last trip to the Disneyland Resort being in 2013.
A little back history to the park is that California Adventure opened on February 8th 2001 with the park being dedicated to the Golden State, featuring different “lands” or areas featuring prominent areas of it. Originally, a second park was supposed to be built on the space that was originally the Disneyland Parking Spot. “WestCot” as it was to be called, was supposed to be a West Coast Version of Epcot. However, the realization came to be that most Disneyland visitors were locals to California or visiting from near by states. Therefore, a California themed park was conceptualized. Hollywood, San Francisco’s wharf, the Santa Monica Pier, Napa Valley and the Redwood Forests were just a few of the places featured. Truth be told, the park was not received well at all. Many felt that the park did not have the same “Disney Magic” as other parks and felt that it took a backseat to Disneyland itself. Fast forward to the last 12 years and the Disney company adding Pixar Pier, a night time show (World of Color), Cars Land, the reworking of Buena Vista Street and the latest addition of Marvel, the park is now on the upswing. I will be doing a separate blog focusing on the rest of California Adventure, including our experience with the Food & Wine Festival that was going on at that time in the near future.
We arrived early, parked and took a quick tram ride to the park entrance. Following new Covid based procedures, you must not only have a park ticket but a park reservation as well. You will not be let in with just one of those things so if you are looking to go anytime soon, make sure you secure both. And yes, they are closing reservations if capacity reaches a certain level. So always check your days.
After entering California Adventures main gates, you’ll find yourself on Buena Vista Street. This area is home to the biggest merchandise locations in this park as well as stroller rentals, rental lockers, guest services and first aid. You will also find other goodies like the park’s cleverly hidden Starbucks as well as an ice cream shop for your last hit on the way out. I’ll go more into detail in the next blog but you have to go past all of this in order to make it to Avengers Campus.
We at this point headed down to the Hollywood Land area of the park. This area highlights the golden age of Hollywood with the look of sound stages, art deco buildings and trolly cars. You can also find Mickey’s Philharmagic here (a 3D musical celebration), Mike and Sully to the Rescue (an adorable ride through ride featuring Monsters Inc) and some amazing shops. This area also houses a massive Marvel super store that offers all merchandise that can be found in the park relating to it. At the end of this area though, you will find one of 3 entrances to Avengers Campus.
Avengers Campus, dedicated completely to the world of Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the MCU) opened last year, after being delayed like much of us were to Covid. It took over the area that was once A Bug’s Land, an area primarily focused to smaller children. With the popularity of the MCU only growing more and more, this seemed to make a lot more sense. The Pier area of the park, which I’ll get to in a bit, has been turned into a more child based area now.
Upon first entering, we were greeted with Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, a ride that was once the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This structure remains similar but the rest of the attraction has been completely rethemed.
We headed in and checked the queue, which if you are a Guardians fan, will really impress you. So many little Easter eggs through the entire entryway.
After getting the run down from the Collector and Rocket the Racoon, who’s animatronic is AWESOME, you are ushered away to your elevator. Truth be told, I took the chicken exit here. There are few rides at Disney Parks that I will not do. That list includes Mission Space in Epcot, Tower of Terror in Hollywood Studios and this. I do not like drop rides. I can handle drops on rollercoasters because you keep moving. But even those I’m not terribly crazy about. I have been told that the drops in this ride are not so big and dramatic as they were before or are in the Florida attraction, but that may be worse. I do NOT want to feel like I’m on a yo yo.
David and Matthew absolutely loved it. From what I have also heard, there are different songs that can play while you are in the elevator. And every song, has a different adventure that will unfold. So you could ride it several times in a row and not get the same experience each time. That end of things is pretty cool!
After you pass the Guardians area, you come into the heart of Avengers Campus. This is where you come across the actual Avengers Campus building, the one that has been featured in several MCU films.
But next up for us was Web Slingers: A Spiderman Adventure. This ride was really impressive with the technology. Basically, it’s a game where you need to sling your webs at Spiderbots that are out of control. The more you get, the higher score you earn. But there’s no gun, no machinery. You are literally throwing your arms out like Peter Parker does to sling his webs. We had so much fun with this!
This ride incorporates riding in an actual vehicle alongside 3D video projections on screens. It’s not fast moving but it is action packed.
Now the elephant in the room. At this point, it wasn’t even 9:30am and we had done two major rides after getting in the park around 8:30a. We were able to do this with the new Disney paid for advantage, Genie + which then gives you access to the Lightning Lane on certain major ticket rides. That’s right, for those of you who are Disney nerds like me or had visited Disney Parks in the last 20 years, this is the new Fastpass. The service that was once included with your park ticket, you now have to pay over $30 or more dollars for. AND… it doesn’t even get you on all the big, hot attractions. YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY MORE FOR THOSE. As someone who loves Disney, and the Parks, this is a major downgrade in the Disney name.
I won’t get into my whole rant about it. But all I’ll say is that while I completely don’t agree with having to pay extra for this now, we were wholeheartedly glad that we bought it. Both parks were mobbed the days we were there. And we would not have gotten nearly as much done as we did if we did not have it. If you want to learn more about Genie + and how it works, click here for more details.
After Webslingers, we checked out a few of the merchandise kiosks and gift shops while waiting for the actual Spiderman show, which I had heard so much about. Finally, the time came for it and we eagerly stood with a bunch of other folks who seemed just as excited as we were. Honestly, the first show was a flop. Spiderman didn’t do much but hop around and do some cartwheels.
When we swung by later though, he was ready to go. Highflying tricks including a very high, very impressive Spidey leap into the air. While many thought that it was an acrobat doing this amazing flight, it’s actually an animatronic that has been impressively crafted to look just like the friendly neighborhood Spiderman that we have come to love. If you want to see him in all his glory, check it out right here.
Something that really impressed us about Avengers Campus was that at any given time, without being scheduled, different Heroes would be out and about or would randomly break out in fight sequences. At the beginning of the day, Ant Man and the Wasp were out interacting with different guests. We happened to catch Black Widow engage in a very cool battle alongside Black Panther. Later on, we saw Iron Man making appearances as well as Loki.
The Warriors of Wakanda also lead a show teaching different battle methods as well as finding new members to join their team.
We took time out to see Doctor Strange’s show in the Sanctum as well.
First off, the Sanctum, or Doctor Strange’s home area, is incredibly done. With a courtyard and garden like setting, you definitely know what character you are about to visit.
His show included a lot of audience interaction and fun tricks. Thor also made an appearance here but was by far the Marvel character that they spent the least amount of time on. I don’t know if it was regular Thor’s day off or this guy is new to the role but there was no accent, no mannerisms and no costume details like there was to the other heroes that we had encountered.
This show is definitely meant for the younger audience, so if it’s just adults you are with, passing by and seeing Doctor Strange out might be all you need.
This area is however a must see at night. The sanctum was absolutely stunning to see lit up and shining once the sun went down.
Let’s talk about food! There is one counter service, or fast casual, food option in Avengers Campus and that is the PYM Test Kitchen. This is themed around the Ant-Man movies so the food is super fun and sized in all different ways. Some items, like the soft pretzel, are massive, resembling how Ant-Man can become the size of a giant. Others represent the smaller representation of him like in their Chicken Sandwich, which happens to have a much smaller bun then normal. Either way, if your kids like the idea of playing with food or having fun with it, then this is a must do stop for you.
We did not have lunch here, but we did stop by their bar area, the PYM Tasting Lab, that featuring several fun themed cocktails. Of course, there were a few with honey in it, representing the Wasp from these movies. Many of these came in a plastic, keepsake scientific beaker cup. We saddled up and decided to try one since we were such huge Marvel fans. We clinked our glasses, yelled cheers and took our first sip.
I was really excited about this. Real talk: this could be used as lighter fluid. This was so incredibly tart and sweet, that we didn’t even get through the beverage. Throughout the time that we did drink this, you could audibly hear us each separately grunting and trying to get past the potency and hoping the ice would water it down. Now, I can’t say they are all like this, as all three of us got the same drink. This location also has beer and some other options. These cocktails were on tap so they were already pre-measured. So unfortunately, I can’t even say it may be different if you try it or maybe it was just our bartender. It was so disappointing, we actually threw them out with a third of the drink left and did not even keep the cup.
If you are looking for something quick or something to walk around with, there are two locations offering Sharwarma, and they would both be the Sharwarma Palace. If you are not a Marvel fan, this is a direct reference to a line Robert Downey Jr’s Ironman says in the first Avengers movie. I’ll leave that scene here if you’d like to see it.
I actually quote this line fairly often and it’s popular enough to have not one but two stands in the area as well as a Sharwarma t shirt that you can buy. Truth be told, I would have loved to have tried one but we had our sights set on the Food and Wine Booths. More on those later.
Another bonus to this area is that there are Disney Photo Pass photographers stationed throughout Avengers Campus to capture moments for you. Disney Photo Pass is a photo service offered through Disney where these stationed photographers take professional photos of you that you can opt to buy or download.
To me, the best part, is that they will have fun with your poses based on the location that they are shooting you at. We had a few taken around the campus and did several super hero poses. You can find them at the main entrance to Avengers Campus, which is right behind Carthay Circle as well as in front of the main Avengers building.
Another small but noticeable thing that is done in this area is playing the instrumental musical scores from several of the MCU films including the Avengers and Black Panther. Say what you will, but this really enhanced the area. I literally walked around feeling like I was ready to kick some ass and be a hero myself!
I will say that I truly, truly enjoyed Avengers Campus. I thought it was so well done and did not disappoint 3 adult Marvel fans. If we felt like little kids being there, actual little kids and young adults will truly feel like they are in the center of the action. Anyone who has Marvel fans in their household should make the trip here. While I do feel that this is a concept that can only grow with more MCU films coming out and more Heroes being introduced, the possibilities are endless. The only bad part is, their land is not. So it’ll be very interesting to see what happens moving forward.