Disneyland in a Pandemic + Avengers Campus
I went to Disneyland for my cousin Millie's birthday the day before California's reopening- and at 35% capacity it was pretty sweet!
The emptiest I've seen Main Street at noon.
I got to ride Rise of the Resistance (ROTR) and the new Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure at Avengers Campus on the same day! But a lot has changed: no fastpass for now, reservation only at certain restaurants and rides, and no shows or parades (but tentatively some set in July). Below are some tips if you are interested in Avengers Campus/navigating the virtual queues.
- Download the Disneyland App
- The App is where you can reserve the date you go, buy your ticket, link tickets with your group, virtual queue for ROTR, Indiana Jones, and/or Webslingers, make mobile food orders, and check out wait times.
- If you have a park hopper- be strategic about which park you reserve first
- I.e. if you just care about seeing Avengers campus- go to DCA first and queue for Slingers first
- Wake up at 7 AM to virtual queue on the app
- Even if the park opens at 9 AM- you get the change to reserve a spot on ROTR or Slingers at 7 AM (depending if you do Disneyland first or DCA).
- The virtual queue allows to join a "boarding group" and is basically the only way to go on one of these rides. The spots fill up in seconds to minutes.
- The queue should show up on your other group members apps:
- Make sure all tickets in your group are linked on the Disneyland app. Then multiple group members have a chance to queue and get your group on the rides.
- Check your phone's internet speed via a speedtest app. My cousin got the ROTR queue at 60 mbps, and I got the Web Slingers at noon even though my LTE is only 30ish mbps.
- You get another chance to queue at 12 PM noon- Disney only lets you hold one queue at a time and queue for ROTR and Webslingers once a day.
- Essentially this only affects park hoppers who do not complete ROTR or Webslingers by noon. If you do one-park one-day, you have better chances of doing the ride of your choice.
- We were group 18 - but the ride broke down for about maybe an hour so we didn't get on til around 11 or 3 hours after park opening. I'm still glad that we completed it by noon so that we got to go to Avengers campus.
- Try to get dropped off at Downtown Disney parking/near the Disneyland hotel
- If you aren't parking at Mickey and Friends (there was no tram and you have to walk a long path to the parks)- the security line/wait to get in via harbor has been 2 hours long.
- We stayed at a nearby hotel and took an uber to Downtown Disney, where security took less than 10 minutes!
- If you go to Disneyland, try to get on Rise of the Resistance!
- Disney spent $$$ on this ride and the experience is pretty epic!
- Expect it to break down, and check the app to see when it is back up
- There were many plastic barriers throughout the ride to separate groups. Seating is for up to groups of 4 in a row, with 8 maximum in a car.
- In Galaxy's Edge - Mobile order the Ronto wrap- or you can order in person and get food just as fast! The iced tea drink was also really good.
- Character photo ops were changed to social distance and masked required - also photopass photographers will not touch your phones - so ask randos for group pics
- Ohana:
- Character photo ops were changed to social distance and masked required - also photopass photographers will not touch your phones - so ask randos for group pics
- Avengers Campus
- In the middle of the day- took one hour to queue. You can go in without having a webslinger pass, you just won't go on the ride.
- Essentially- it's:
- Webslinger Ride
- Ancient Sanctum with Dr. Strange Show
- Pym's Tasting Lab (with drink options!)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout (formerly Tower of Terror)
- Various photo ops with Avengers (socially distant for some)
- The Webslinger Ride is essentially Toy Story Midway Mania with a different interface. Cast members were not impressed with it when we asked them how it was. SPOILERS BELOW:
- my favorite part was the AC in the vehicle
- Mobile order food at Pym's - we didn't get to try it because we cancelled our order- but you can just postpone your pick up
- Order the Honey drink and Mango Boba Drink and Pym's, tasting flight was way overpriced at $35 [but I had to do it for the Steven video]
- in DCA - mobile order alcohol to go!
- It passed time when we queued for Avengers Campus, and Cove Bar and other places are doing drinks to go also now.
- A black pearl
- Overall thoughts:
- I felt like even with things not being completely open, there is a lot to do at Disneyland/DCA- especially if you are really into Avengers and/or Star Wars. I was able to see most of the new things I wanted to see (minus trying Pym's food), but Disney is facing staffing shortages and it'll be interesting to see how they adjust as capacity increases. If you can go while capacity is still limited, don't expect to be able to ride everything, as some waits were over an hour.
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