Avengers Campus at Disneyland: Complete Guide, Tips, & Strategies

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Marvel Comics fans have been waiting a long time to see their favorite characters get a permanent place in the US Disney parks. Finally that moment is here! A brand new land built around Marvel’s Avengers franchise, Avengers Campus, opened June 4, 2021 at Disney California Adventure Park in the Disneyland Resort.

After getting a sneak peak at Avengers Campus for a media preview before it opened that first summer summer, I’ve now returned to the land many times during normal park days to see all the Super Hero attractions, characters, entertainment, and food. Operations within the land have changed several times in the last many months. So I’ve also been testing out new strategies and investigating all the details to bring you the very best tips to make the most of your time in the land and avoid stumbling points that may trip up others.

What is the verdict on all things Avengers Campus at Disneyland? Read on to find out.

Last updated: December 5, 2022.

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Avengers Campus Basics

As the name suggests, Avengers Campus is themed to be a training center for new Super Heroes. Many of your favorites from the movies are there to train new recruits. The Campus itself isn’t something you’ll see in any of the movies, but is instead a clever Imagineering construct to explain why all the characters would be together in one place. Naturally, Tony Stark funded it all.

(Aside: Wondering why Disney always talks about Super Heroes and not superheroes? The answer: trademark lawyers. Yes, my former profession. But I digress.)

The land is located in Disney California Adventure park in the space formerly occupied by A Bug’s Land. Entrances into and exits from the land are located in the following places:

• Just beyond Cathay Circle Theater before you turn into Cars Land
• As you pass the Hyperion Theater and head towards Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
• The path from Cars Land that passes Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters

While not all of these entrances were open when the land debuted, there is no longer any special access required to get into Avengers Campus. Guests can freely enter and exit just like any other land in the parks these days.

Avengers Campus Attractions

Avengers Campus opened with two attractions – one old and one new.

There have been details about a third attraction circulating since Avengers Campus was announced back at the D23 Expo in 2019. Initially, the ride was described as an e-Ticket attraction that would have guests boarding a Quinjet flying over Wakanda and engaging in an epic battle with a variety of Avengers.

Whether this attraction was off the table post-reopening was unknown for quite some time. But at the 2022 D23 Expo, Disney announced that a third attraction was indeed still in the works, albeit with a revised storyline and likely as a different type of ride. Details are still sketchy but the attraction will prominently include the concept of the multiverse with characters battling King Thanos – a new version of the villain who beat the Avengers. Stay tuned for more, but this attraction is still several years off (if it does happen) at best.

For now, here’s what in the land as we know it today.

WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure

WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure is an attraction where guest battle Spider-Bots, a well-intentioned Peter Parker experiment gone wrong that self-replicate and threaten to take over the Campus. The ride has no real villain, making it a less scary choice for those with young kids. And since the ride has no height limit, that’s a smart and thoughtful choice by Disney that truly makes it a family-friendly ride.

While in some ways WEB SLINGERS is another shooter attraction in the vein of Toy Story Midway Mania or Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, its technology is definitely a step up. Instead of a slingshot or ray gun, guests use their hands to fling webs at Spider-Bots. Sensors and cameras read riders’ body movements and hand gestures and then render them onto the screen. If you have a competitive streak, you’ll likely definitely get into it – I do to the point that that my arms are usually pretty tired afterwards (tip: don’t turn your wrists up like Spidey does to fling webs or you’ll be extra sore. The cameras can read your hands throwing webs just like you’d throw a baseball.)

The battles themselves are screen-based but there are physical sets the WEB SLINGERS vehicles travel through too. Vehicles seat four and scoring is kept both at the individual and vehicle level. Tom Holland makes an appearance in the pre-show and voices Spidey in the attraction itself.

The ride is interoperable with new WEB Tech for sale at the various stores in the land. Devices called Web-Shooters, Power Bands, and Repulsors are available for sale within retail locations within the land as well as in the Backlot Store outside the land at Stage 17. They change the gameplay on the attraction, unlocking different Super Hero strengths and abilities for guests using them.

These devices are an upcharge, although the price is not as bad as I feared – under $30 for all three options. Superfans and frequent visitors will likely find them fun. Since our family has only casual interest in the Avengers (and my Disney parks day bag is always pretty packed full of other essential stuff), this isn’t something we have found a need to invest in. The attraction is engaging enough without the extras being necessary.

Best Strategies for Riding WEB SLINGERS

When WEB SLINGERS debuted, guests could only ride it by using an elaborate and sometimes confusing virtual queue signup process that happened twice daily in the Disneyland app. Thankfully the virtual queue is long gone! If you want to ride WEB SLINGERS today, you now have three options (see my guide to riding WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure without the wait for all the details):

1. Standby line
2. Single Rider Line
3. With Disney Genie+’s Lightning Lane

The standby line is pretty self-explanatory. Lines for the ride can be on the longer side, but they are nowhere near as long as the lines for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. If you are an early riser, it’s entirely possible to rope drop the attraction successfully for minimal waits. Otherwise, just monitor the wait times in the Disneyland app and look for potential shorter ride times. Or if you are okay splitting up from your party or are flying solo, the Single Rider Line usually shortcuts longer lines too.

If you are really determined to ride with a shorter wait, then the other option is to pay to play. In late 2021, Disneyland recently introduced some new Fastpass replacements to the parks. WEB SLINGERS was initially a ride sold separately with paid Lightning Lane. But as of October 2022, the attraction was moved to Disney Genie+, so it is one of many rides guests can reserve return time for by paying a single fee. See my guide to Disneyland’s Lightning Lane and Disney Genie+ for all the details on how this service works.

Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!

While it has been around for several years, there is already an E-ticket attraction not to be overlooked in the land too. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! has now taken its place within the campus walls in a location that now makes (somewhat) more sense. Formerly the Tower of Terror, this ride has a 40 inch height minimum to ride and is definitely only for thrill ride fans.

I have complete ride details on my Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! post. Even though it’s approaching 5 years old now, this is one attraction that never gets old in my book. The six different songs and different drop sequences keep things interesting and fun every time. Plus it has a special overlay during Disneyland’s Halloween Time season and Halloween party Oogie Boogie Bash – Monsters After Dark.

Standby lines and Lightning Lane are both available for this attraction. It is also one of the attractions on the Disney Genie+ system (that is pretty similar to Fastpass and MaxPass). For a single fee of $25+ per person per day, guests can book Lightning Lane return times to up to 19 attractions in both parks with Genie+ – including Guardians. Guardians is one of the most popular rides on the system, so I’d recommend making sure you make you’re booking earlier in the day (and certainly no later than the afternoon) to ensure you get a return time. (See my Disneyland Genie+ FAQ for more details or check out my advanced Genie+ strategies and tips for even more!)

Avengers Campus Food

Food in Avengers Campus is almost as much of an attraction as the new ride is. It’s innovative and whimsical and generally very well done. What I have loved about the food overall is how it brings quite a few new flavors into the mix you can’t regularly find at Disneyland.

But it also has some kid-friendly safer favorites for picky eaters. A critique I had of the last land that opened at Disneyland, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, was that the food was generally too innovative for my kids to like anything on the menu. Avengers Campus walks that fine line between keeping adults intrigued but kids satisfied a LOT better.

I have now tried just about every food on the menu in Avengers Campus (but some of the drinks still elude me). I’m not going attempt to comprehensively cover each dish. Disneyland’s Foodie Guide to Avengers Campus does that job quite well. But I’ll highlight some of the most interesting I’ve tried as well as current tips for getting food in the land.

Mobile Ordering

Before we get to the restaurants and the dishes, there is an essential part of the current food experience at Disneyland to discuss first. If you want to eat almost anywhere without waiting too much, you should really plan to mobile order your meals (for locations where mobile ordering is offered). There are now more restaurant locations that offer in-person ordering again, but you’ll wait longer for that privilege.

Because Avengers Campus is still new, the demand for mobile ordering is higher – but nothing like it used to be in the first few weeks the land was opened. If you plan at least an hour or so ahead on regular crowd days, you’ll usually be just fine. For example, I recommend placing an order before 11am if you want to secure a pickup time for lunch around noon.

In Avengers Campus, mobile ordering is available for both Pym Test Kitchen and Pym Tasting Lab, but not for all of the carts in the land (more on all of these locations next).

Pym Test Kitchen

The largest restaurant in the land is the Pym Test Kitchen, where Ant-Man and The Wasp’s pym particles are used to grow and shrink foods. The menu features some super sized items as well and some extra tiny ones, often in combination for a fun visual contrast. Is it a little gimmicky? Yes. Do kids (and adults) get a major kick out of it anyway? Yes.

I have tried the Impossible Spoonful, a dish with pastas of several sizes topped with plant-based Impossible meatballs – one big and one small. The Impossible dishes at Disneyland are usually pretty tasty, and the meatballs almost fooled me into thinking I was eating the real thing. But I found the pasta sauce a little bland – I prefer a tad more spice and kick.

I really loved the Not So Little Chicken sandwich topped with cole slaw and have ordered that again several times on return trips. The sauce combination (teriyaki and red chili) has a perfect mix of flavors. The chicken has a crunch that I always expect and appreciate as a Southern girl. There’s a kids version on the menu that omits the sauces and slaw.

The drink superstar at Pym Test Kitchen that I highly recommend is the Pingo Doce – an Avengers Campus exclusive lemon-line soft drink based upon a movie reference. It’s available from the freestyle Coke machines on either side of the counter in both a regular and diet version.

Pym Test Kitchen also has extra large pretzels, paninis (Pym-inis) and quite a few kids dishes. Breakfast is available as well – and is pretty much the only place other than Starbucks where you can get a substantial breakfast in Disney California Adventure. I highly recommend stopping there after an hour or two of riding attractions with short lines at rope drop.

Seating at Pym Test Kitchen is hard to come by at peak lunch and dinner hours unfortunately. There is overflow seating for Pym Test Kitchen in the queue area for Hyperion Theater, just past Guardians of the Galaxy. This area has some shade as well.

Pym Tasting Lab

Adjacent to Pym Test Kitchen closer to Guardians of the Galaxy is Pym Tasting Lab, where grown-up Super Heroes can whet their whistle. There’s an innovative system that fills beer glasses from the bottom up (see my Instagram stories for a visual demonstration). This is a fun place for a cocktail in the evening hours.

Shawarma Palace

Taking a cue from the movies where Tony Stark recommends a shawarma joint, this Mediterranean and Middle Eastern inspired dish makes an appearance in the land at a shawarma cart near the entrance to WEB SLINGERS. I tried the standard chicken sharwarma and it was delicious – perfect for splitting as a snack or as a light meal. There’s an Impossible version for guests who don’t eat meat as well as a breakfast version.

There’s also a second shawarma cart located near the extra seating area for Pym Test Kitchen, Shawarma Palace Too, to allow more DCA guests to try the dish. This location (but not the original) offers mobile ordering if you want to snag a snack without as much of a physical line.

Terran Treats

The final food location is a snack cart near Guardians of the Galaxy that serves brightly colored themed desserts. Churro lovers will find a variety of flavors of nearly every color of the rainbow. I still haven’t brought myself to taste these treats yet (the colors are a little alarming), but I’ve been assured by several friends that they were happy customers. This location is currently walk up only as well (no mobile order).

Marvel Characters & Entertainment in Avengers Campus

So enough food – let’s talk everything else in the land. Probably the greatest strength of Avengers Campus is the characters and entertainment offerings. The land truly feels alive with Super Heroes.

Character Interactions & Shows

The more compact layout of the land really does it a service, creating lots of little nooks and crannies that create more intimate experiences with the various Avengers. Look especially for the following shows and character experiences:

• General Okoye and the Dora Milaje training recruits in more than just fighting – talking wisdom, courage, and compassion.
• Dr. Strange at the Inner Sanctum demonstrating the mystic arts. At night, the area is lit creating a whole new mythical backdrop to experience.
• Spider-Man flying near the entrance to the land in a stunt spectacular.
• Black Panther, Black Widow, and Captain America battling villain Taskmaster above Avengers Headquarters.

Several characters made their debut in the land, including Ant-Man at The Wasp. Tony Stark’s Iron Man debuted a brand new suit, the Mark 80. The villain Taskmaster appeared for the first time. The complete list of characters from opening day included:

• Spider-Man
• Doctor Strange
• Black Panther
• General Okoye and the Dora Milaje
• Black Widow
• Iron Man
• Ant-Man
• The Wasp
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Captain America
• Captain Marvel
• Thor
• Loki
• Taskmaster

After seeing the opening day offerings, I had high hopes for the character and show part of the Avengers Campus experience, and Disney has not disappointed. In fact, Disney continues to exceed the expectations of many an Avengers fan – innovating by bringing new characters to the land the very same week new shows are released on Disney+ or new movies debut. Nearly every variant of Loki has shown up when that show’s first season ran on Disney+. Agatha Harkness from Wandavision stole the show with her treat trail at Oogie Boogie Bash the last two years, and Zombie Captain America had rave reviews for his special appearances. Characters like Shang-Chi, The Mighty Thor, and Scarlet Witch have all made appearances as well, and more characters are surely coming in the future.

Other Entertainment and Interactive Features in Avengers Campus

The land has a few other fun entertaining interactive features, including some cute Instagram walls and photo opps. I still haven’t even taken the time to test the options available in the Play Disney Parks app for the land, so let me know if you have tried them!

There’s also plenty of merchandise for this new land. WEB Suppliers is the store within the land (there’s also one outdoor kiosk Campus Supply Pod), but it’s small and tight and often runs a long line. Disney is making the same merchandise available – and much more – at the Backlot Premiere Shop in Stage 17 next to Monsters Inc. outside the land.

Avengers Campus Tips

So if you are headed to Avengers Campus, what are the tips you need to know? I’ve sprinkled a lot of them in the sections above, but have distilled the essential ones here in one place.

1. The virtual queue for WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure is gone. Ride it either by waiting in a regular standby queue, using Single Rider, or paying extra for Genie+. Or all of the above!
2. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! is part of Disney Genie+ and is probably one of the two most popular attraction on that system in DCA. Book it earlier in the day before the available return times offered are pushed out or it completely runs out.
3. Want Avengers Campus food? You need to mobile order from Pym Test Kitchen and Pym Tasting Lab early for peak meal periods or high crowd times.
4. Make time for the shows, characters, and entertainment offering – truly a standout in the land. Check the Disneyland app for show times – most of which are clustered around mid-day hours.

Final Thoughts about Avengers Campus

So what do I think about Avengers Campus as a whole now that operations have normalized and it has had a year and a half plus to show its stuff? It’s a very solid addition to Disney California Adventure.

While we all would hope that the land could open with more than one new attraction, multi-phased openings are pretty much the new normal for Disney. WEB SLINGERS itself is highly entertaining and an attraction the whole family can ride. And in that vein, it serves a broader audience than did Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run did when it was the sole attraction that opened with Galaxy’s Edge. While it certainly has its critics, I think WEB SLINGERS shoulders the load of being the only new attraction in the land fairly well. My kids both still really enjoy the interactive game play and want to ride it each visit.

The land isn’t as visually arresting as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge although it is highly detailed with lots of Easter Eggs to explore. The Quinjet atop Avengers Headquarters doesn’t quite hold the star power to a massive Millennium Falcon. And the viewing angles for the stunt show on top of that building are awkward.

On the food front, Disney’s chefs have wowed me more than they did at Galaxy’s Edge. The food is innovative and exotic without being so weird that my kids turn their noses up at it. In fact, my kids have asked to return multiple times to Pym Test Kitchen, which has now firmly established itself as one of the best counter service restaurants at the Disneyland Resort.

Finally, the entertainment team really hit it out of the park. I’m not a Marvel superfan and even I was fangirling seeing Dr. Strange in the flesh and making jokes with a sheepish Spidey after his stunt show. The additions in more recent months, like Loki, keep things fresh and keep giving guests a reason to come back for all that’s new.

Did you know? An Avengers Campus opened at Disneyland Paris in Summer 2022 as well. And my family was there recently to see it! Check out all my tips for visiting Disneyland Paris for American visitors.

Disclosure: I visited Avengers Campus as a media guest of Disneyland on June 2, 2021. Since I always want to give this site’s readers real world expertise and not just experiences available only to media, I have returned numerous times as a regular guest to the land at my own expense, including several occasions with my family.

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