Monthly Archives: June 2021

Avengers Campus – Night and Day

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Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure is a completely different experience by night than it is by day.

During the day, it’s a bustling urban landscape, filled with guests, characters, and entertainment.  And there are definitely pockets of charm – especially the area around the Ancient Sanctum and the tons of Easter Eggs hidden around the land as nods to the diehard Marvel fans.

Before there was S.H.I.E.L.D….

But at night… it’s just beautiful!  And yes, again, especially around the Sanctum, but at other spots in the land, too.  From the bold reds of the Web Slingers building to the bright blues of the Quinjet and Avengers Headquarters to the multi-color tones of the Collector’s Fortress – Avengers Campus is awash in happy hues that warm and please in their composition.  And they provide a tremendous opportunity for photographers!

Below are just a few pics I snapped on Opening Day.  Hope you enjoy this small taste of Avengers Campus – by day and by night!  Click on the thumbnails to view the larger versions of the images.

The land’s entrance:

Web Slingers: Continue reading →

Avengers Campus – Opening Day

Posted in Attractions, Characters, Food, Performers, Shows, Theme Parks by

June 4th, 2021 was the official Opening Day of Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure.

I was there.  And it was… an experience!

The capacity-limited entrance to Avengers Campus on Opening Day.

Let’s get the two criticisms out of the way first:

Getting into the land on opening day was a PAIN.  Literally.

I hit the “Join” virtual queue button on the Disneyland app the second it went live only to see it immediately reply “the queue is full – try again at 12pm”.  There wasn’t even a second to this filling up.  Not surprising on opening day when interest was higher than the land’s capacity.  But that capacity was an issue all day long.

All of the mobile food order time slots for the day filled up by 9:30am.  They’d said in advance if you weren’t in the land already, you couldn’t come in to get your food.  So I didn’t try to mobile order first thing.  That turned out to be a mistake.  Everyone who made a mobile food order was allowed to cut the line and enter the land whenever their food order was ready.

Those of us unable to get into the virtual queue or who hadn’t placed a mobile food order had to stand in a physical line that wrapped halfway around the park. 

Unlike Galaxy’s Edge’s opening, there was no virtual queue to enter the land.  This meant I stood in the blazing sun on the concrete of Disney California Adventure for 5 ½ hours before finally entering a land where I couldn’t order food and only managed to get an ice cream bar from a snack cart that the line passed and a soda from the one standby snack cart available inside the land that didn’t require mobile ordering.  By the time I left, I was starved.  And very badly sunburned.

Which brings me to concern number two, mentioned previously in my post about the Cast Preview day I attended in the land: lack of shade.  I was badly sunburned from the line to get into the land, then once inside the land, there was equally no respite.  While the queue of the Web Slingers attraction is partly covered, none of the rest of the land is.  Keep slathering on that sunscreen, folks.  You’re gonna need it here.  Equally, there will be no place to escape on rainy days.  I hope this gets updated with some shaded structures added overhead.

When you first step foot into the land and realize… THERE’S NO SHADE. IT’S ALL CONCRETE AND HEAT.

Now on to everything I LOVED. Continue reading →

A Visit to Avengers Campus – Cast Preview!

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Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! prior to the park closure. The attraction was part of Hollywood Land, but as of June 4th, 2021, gets absorbed into the Avengers Campus!

Thanks to an awesome friend, I was lucky enough to attend one of the cast preview days last week to see the new Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure!

We were not allowed to use cameras throughout the preview, but that actually let me to take in the details the old-fashioned way – by looking around!

On our way in, we passed a few characters (Black Panther and Spidey) out greeting guests, and gasped at seeing the Quinjet in person atop the Avengers building as we headed first for the new Spider-Man attraction – Web Slingers!  We had about a 20-25 minute queue to get through, but it kept constantly moving through the thankfully covered with fans blowing regular queue then out to the extended ‘parking lot’ queue behind it.  I actually liked that view from the back as you got to see some of the Easter Eggs they posted on the buildings and walls. I won’t give away specifics, but keep an eye out for numbers throughout the land!

Note: WEB SLINGERS ATTRACTION SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Continue reading →