And now for the land, I'm going to start with a quote from my friend: "Star Wars Land looks way better."
I should note that my friend does not care for Star Wars (I don't think she's seen most of the movies) but is a big fan of the MCU, and that was her main takeaway. And I agree with her - Avengers Campus absolutely suffers in comparison to Galaxy's Edge. Say what you will about the choice to place the land on a new planet rather than a known location like Tatooine or Naboo, but at least they establish a sense of place for the land, and the level of detail put into everything honestly places the land into the grand tradition of great Disney lands. Avengers Campus....does not have that. It is more in the grand tradition of Pixar Pier, with buildings just slapped together without rhyme or reason. It really did remind me of the terrible "neighborhoods" concept Pixar Pier uses, in that this is the Spider-Man area, this is the Ant-Man area, this is for the Guardians, etc. There's a huge lack of cohesion in everything going on here that is to the detriment of the land.
I should add on top here that the setting and buildings are boring to look at. Again, to compare this to Galaxy's Edge, there is no wow moment like rounding the corner and seeing the Falcon, and there's not even a lived-in moment like walking down the bazaar or the transition to the outskirts of the town where the Resistance is. Avengers Campus is just a bunch of square buildings with little to differentiate them beyond some signage. It's night and day stuff, and creates a land that my group was very excited to leave.
I mentioned it in the Spider-Man ride review, but the characters are the clear best part of this land, and the sheer volume of characters available to interact with is the biggest selling point here. Like I've mentioned before, some of the costumes were really good, the Iron Man one was bad enough that I wondered why they even bothered to go with a setting where he's still theoretically alive, and everyone did a good job embodying their characters. My one detracting point is that the shows just grind the land to a halt, and they clearly have not figured out a way to run those shows yet while also moving people through the land in a good way.
Pyms.....Pym's was the biggest disappointment for us as a group. I mentioned earlier that mobile order is a train wreck in its current form, but the food and drinks left a lot to be desired as well. We got all three of the cocktails to try, with the X-Periment being fine if not extremely sweet with no kick despite saying it has habanero syrup, the Particle Fizz being an absolutely-terrible attempt at a hard seltzer, and the Honey Buzz being the clear best option and one I would actually consider ordering in the future. The food was ok as well; I had the PB3 which was the best of the group though messy enough that I'd hesitate ordering it again, one of our group had the Pym-ini which he described as a "poor attempt at a muffaleta" and with a single serving that was half of what I got with my sandwich. Another of the group got the Atomic Fusion Pretzel, of which the buffalo sauce was the clear best part of a disappointing dish.
Here's my overall takeaway: this land is disappointing in a bunch of various ways that are much harder to fix than what we got from Galaxy's Edge. At least with that land, there were solid bones that just needed a few additions (the opening of RotR, a larger restaurant/cantina, entertainment) to really shine as an exceptional land, but having a generally-strong underbelly to work with. Avengers Campus....doesn't really have that. It's a bland land that is carried by the sheer volume of characters, which means that when Disney eventually decides to cut the entertainment budget here, you're just left with a boring, bland land with not much going for it. This isn't even a situation where a rumored Avengers E-ticket would fix things, but merely act as a band-aid. For as much money as Marvel brings into the company, for them to trot out an offering that is barely at the same level of what Universal made over 20 years ago is embarrassing for all parties.
