Avengers Campus at California Adventure

Avengers Campus opened in June 2021 on the site of a bug's land, with the rethemed Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! folded in from Hollywood Land next door. The premise is that this is a working Avengers recruitment and research facility, and the design commits to it: no ropes and photo backdrops, but doorways heroes come out of and rooftops they appear on.

The character work is the best in the park. Spider-Man performs a rooftop aerial stunt several times a day on an unpublished schedule, Doctor Strange runs a live show in the Ancient Sanctum, and the face-character performers stay in universe through anything you throw at them. The Groot puppet is one of the better pieces of engineering Disney operates.

The land's weakness is size and shade. Two rides is thin, the plaza is unshaded pavement, and it congests badly from mid-morning. The announced expansion — Avengers Infinity Defense and Stark Flight Lab — should fix the first problem. The 2027 to 2028 window attached to it in coverage is a projection, not a Disney-stated date, and no official opening has been announced.

Do not miss

Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! and its single rider line
WEB SLINGERS, where your arms are the controller
The Spider-Man rooftop stunt, unannounced and thirty seconds long
Doctor Strange: Mysteries of the Mystic Arts in the Ancient Sanctum
Pym Test Kitchen and the Tasting Lab attached to it

Avengers Campus tips

If cast members start clearing the central plaza for no visible reason, stop and look up. That is the tell for the Spider-Man rooftop stunt.
Use the single rider line at Mission: BREAKOUT! — it is the best one at the resort and the ride runs randomized drop sequences, so riding apart costs you nothing.
There is essentially no shade here. Do this land before 11am or after 5pm and it is a different place.
The Pym Tasting Lab has the best beer list at the resort and stays quiet because guests read the Marvel theming as family-only.

Attractions in Avengers Campus

Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!

40"102cm

Simulator · 3 min · Multi Pass

A randomized free-fall drop tower through a collector's fortress, with a soundtrack that fires on every ascent.

Mission: BREAKOUT! took over the drop tower that had operated as The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror since 2004 and reopened in May 2017 with a completely new exterior, queue, story and ride profile. The premise: the Collector has the Guardians of the Galaxy locked in his private museum, and Rocket wants your help springing them.

Tips for Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!

Use the single rider line without hesitation. It typically cuts a 60-minute posted wait to well under 15, and because the ride profile is randomized you are not sacrificing anything by splitting your group.
Do this first or last. Posted waits build fast after 10am and stay high until the final hour, when they collapse.
Empty your pockets in the queue lockers area — loose phones do not survive vertical airtime, and there is nowhere to secure them in the vehicle.
The 40-inch requirement is measured with shoes on at the stick outside the entrance. If your child is borderline, get measured at the park entrance in the morning and take the wristband, which stops the re-measure argument at every ride.
Repeat visitors: the songs are tied to specific ride profiles, so if you are chasing a particular sequence, listening for the opening bars in the loading area tells you what you are about to get.
There is a seasonal overlay version of this attraction during part of the year. The permanent, year-round version is the one described here.

Full guide to Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! →

WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure

Any height

Interactive game · 4½ min · Multi Pass

A trackless 3D shooter where you sling webs with your bare arms instead of a trigger, and your score is entirely a function of technique.

WEB SLINGERS opened with Avengers Campus in June 2021 and is the only ride at the Disneyland Resort where the control input is your own body. There is no blaster. A gesture-tracking system reads your arm motion, and a flick forward launches a web on screen. Spider-Man has lost control of an army of spider-bots and you are recruited to sling them back into containment.

Tips for WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure

Sling with both arms simultaneously, at chest height, with a short sharp flick. Big windmill motions register worse than small precise ones and wear your shoulders out by the second room.
Target bots that are attached to or near objects. Knocking one into a stack triggers a cascade worth many times a direct hit.
Sit on the outside seats if you care about your score — the inside seats have a person's arm in your throwing lane.
There is no single rider line here, and standby builds early because the land opens with the park. If you are not doing this in the first hour, use Lightning Lane Multi Pass or accept a long afternoon wait.
Repeat visitors: the ride tracks a cumulative score if you keep the same account linked, and wearing a WEB Suppliers suit jacket enables extra in-ride effects. Neither is advertised anywhere on the ride itself.

Full guide to WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure →

Doctor Strange: Mysteries of the Mystic Arts

Any height

Show · 12 min

A live stage show in the Ancient Sanctum where Doctor Strange teaches sorcery to recruits and something goes wrong.

The Ancient Sanctum sits at the back corner of Avengers Campus, and several times a day it becomes a classroom. Doctor Strange appears and runs a short lesson in the mystic arts, drawing on volunteers from the audience and demonstrating spellwork with a combination of practical illusion, projection mapping, fog and lighting.

Tips for Doctor Strange: Mysteries of the Mystic Arts

Check showtimes early — there are only a handful per day and missing the last one means missing it entirely.
Take the first show of the day. The courtyard is in shade at that hour and the crowd is a third the size of an afternoon show.
Kids who want to be picked should be at the front and visibly enthusiastic; the performer chooses from the front two rows of standing guests.
Repeat visitors: the performer varies and the between-effect patter is largely improvised, so a second viewing with a different actor is a meaningfully different show.

Avengers Campus Character Encounters

Any height

Character meet · 3 min

Spider-Man, Black Panther, Thor, Captain America, Loki, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Doctor Strange and Groot appear across the land on a rotating schedule.

Avengers Campus was designed around the idea that the heroes are staff, not attractions, so they arrive and depart from the land's buildings rather than standing at a marked photo spot with a rope line. Some do form a proper queue — Spider-Man and Black Panther usually do — while others simply appear, do something, and go.

Tips for Avengers Campus Character Encounters

If cast members start clearing the central plaza and you cannot see why, stay put. That is the tell for the rooftop stunt, and it is over in half a minute.
Ask any Avengers Campus cast member which hero is out next. They generally know the next thirty minutes of the rotation and will tell you.
There is essentially no shade in this land. Do these encounters before 11am or after 5pm and you will have a much better time than the people doing them at 2pm.
Repeat visitors: the performers here improvise heavily and stay in character through anything, so bringing a specific in-universe question rather than asking for a photo produces a much better interaction.

Spider-Bot Battles

Any height

Interactive game · 5 min

Remote-control spider-bots bought at WEB Suppliers fight each other in arenas set up around the land.

The spider-bots sold at WEB Suppliers are not just toys with a Marvel logo on them. Each is a small remote-controlled robot with an attack mode, and Avengers Campus has arenas where two owners can face off. Cast members referee, other guests gather to watch, and the whole thing takes about five minutes per bout.

Tips for Spider-Bot Battles

Ask a cast member at WEB Suppliers to demonstrate the attack trigger before you leave the shop. The instructions are minimal and half the kids in the arenas never work out that there is one.
Carry your bot around the land — it reacts to specific spots in Avengers Campus that are not signposted anywhere.
Battles are free once you own a bot, so this is a way to get repeated value out of one purchase across a multi-day trip.
Bots go through batteries. Buy spares in the shop rather than hunting for them later, because nothing else in the park sells the right size.

Eating in Avengers Campus

Quick service · Avengers Campus

Pym Test Kitchen

Avengers Campus's flagship quick-service, built entirely around food that is comically too big or too small.

$$Mobile order

CuisineAmerican with a scale gimmick
ReservationsNo reservations

Lounge · Avengers Campus

Pym Tasting Lab

The bar attached to Pym Test Kitchen, themed as a laboratory and pouring the park's best beer list.

$

CuisineCraft beer and cocktails
ReservationsWalk-ups usually fine

Food truck · Avengers Campus

Shawarma Palace

A shawarma cart in Avengers Campus, born from a post-credits joke and better than it has any right to be.

$Mobile order

CuisineMiddle Eastern
ReservationsNo reservations

Snack cart · Avengers Campus

Terran Treats

A snack window outside Mission: BREAKOUT! doing novelty desserts and cold drinks.

$

CuisineSnacks and novelty treats
ReservationsNo reservations

Snacks worth stopping for

PYM-ini Sandwich

Pym Test Kitchen

$16.99

Salami, capicola, provolone and Italian dressing pressed into an oversized pretzel roll roughly the size of a football.

Our take: A properly good sandwich hiding inside a size joke. The pretzel roll is the best bread at the park after the sourdough, and one of these genuinely feeds two people.

Near the top of the list Savory

Not So Little Big Pretzel

Pym Test Kitchen

—

An enormous soft pretzel served with cheese and mustard dips, sized for a group and priced accordingly.

Our take: Overrated. It is a photograph, not a dish — the outside is fine and the middle is doughy, and it costs several times what four separate pretzels would. Buy it if the picture matters to you.

Snack Vegetarian

Plant-Based Meatball Sub

Pym Test Kitchen

$17.49

Plant-based meatballs in marinara on a sub roll, part of the standard menu rather than a special-request item.

Our take: One of the few vegetarian quick-service items at this park that was clearly designed rather than substituted. Ask about vegan modifications at the counter — the cheese is the variable.

Savory Vegetarian

Chicken Shawarma Pocket

Shawarma Palace

$14.49

Spiced chicken in a pocket bread with garlic sauce and pickled vegetables, from a cart built around a post-credits joke.

Our take: The best non-American food at this park and a real relief on day three of burgers. Portions run small for the price, so order two if it is your meal.

Near the top of the list Savory Walkable

Rotating Craft Draft at Pym Tasting Lab

Pym Tasting Lab

$12.50

A rotating California-weighted draft pour from the laboratory-themed bar attached to Pym Test Kitchen.

Our take: The best beer list inside either gate, and almost nobody drinks here because the Marvel theming reads as family-only. Ask what went on most recently.

Drink Vegan Walkable

Nearby

Disney California Adventure map See where this land sits All attractions Every ride in Disney California Adventure Buena Vista Street The park's entrance street, rebuilt in 2012 as 1920s Los Angeles as Walt Disney would have found it. Hollywood Land The park's studio district, now thinner than it has ever been and built almost entirely around theaters.