I rode Disneyland's new Spider-Man attraction 4 times in 2 hours. It's an addictive game ride that doubles as a workout.
- Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure is Disney Parks' first attraction featuring the Marvel hero.
- Located in Disney California Adventure, the ride lets you shoot webs like Spidey.
- It's a great interactive video game ride with no height restrictions so the whole family can enjoy.
ANAHEIM, California - Disney's first Spider-Man attraction opens at Disneyland Resort on Friday at Disney California Adventure. It's an incredibly fun and immersive game ride that you'll immediately want to go on again once you get the hang of how it works.
It's also quite a workout on your arms, if you're trying to land a high score.
I was able to try out Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure four times in a two-hour span during a preview visit to Avengers Campus with a small group of press. It was the first time I stepped on a theme-park attraction in over a year. After my initial ride, I jumped right back on the attraction without going through the queue. That's how much I enjoyed it.
Why?
The ride gives you the ability to shoot webs just like Spider-Man simply by aiming and extending your arm forward with a flick in any direction. You don't have to wear any type of equipment. For about three minutes, it feels as if you're Spider-Man while you're firing away at interactive environments on digital screens.
Keep reading for my full breakdown of what to expect on the ride as well as tips on where to sit and how to get a higher score. Also, Easter eggs and hints at the future of the MCU you should keep an eye out for while waiting in the extremely detailed queue, and how to land a reservation to ride the new attraction.
What the ride's about: You're aiding Spider-Man as you try to save Avengers Campus from a bunch of tiny spider-bots
When you enter Web Slingers, you'll make your way through an outdoor queue. Once inside, you'll enter the lobby of the WEB, or Worldwide Engineering Brigade.
WEB is a workshop area Tony Stark built to bring together bright young minds from across the MCU, including Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Cassie Lang (Ant-Man's daughter), Harley Keener (the young inventor Tony meets in "Iron Man 3"), and some new faces who will enter the MCU soon, including America Chavez/Miss America and Riri Williams/Ironheart (more on them in a bit). There, the engineers work on developing new technologies.
After a short waiting period, you're ushered into one of two rooms on the left or right. Once everyone is inside, you're welcomed by none other than Parker (a delightful Tom Holland reprises his role for the attraction). He's supposed to take us on an open-house tour of WEB to show off some of the tech they're working on, including a pretty cute spider-bot, which has the ability to self-replicate.
Here's the preshow:
Naturally, things go awry. A spider-bot escapes, starts self-replicating, and destroys Parker's lab. When the bots get loose into Avengers Campus, it's our job to help Parker and his friends round up the bots before Stark can find out you're destroying his expensive land.
From there, you make your way into a third, larger room where you snake around a queue until you reach the boarding area to get in your very own Web Slinger vehicle, another invention of the WEB kids, which allows you to shoot webs like Spidey to stop the bots, break boxes, and more.
The ride queue: Keep an eye out for Easter eggs, a tribute to a former Disney Imagineer, and hints at the MCU's future
Starting outside the WEB building, there are nods to Spidey, the MCU, and more inside and out of the attraction to keep your eyes peeled for. An art mural outside WEB is created by another Spider-Man, Miles Morales. Not far from him is a parking spot for Howard Stark and his butler, Jarvis.
Inside the preshow room, you can spot "Star Wars" references and the Lego Death Star Ned and Peter were working on in the Spidey films. Depending on which preshow room you enter you'll spot either Groot in a crane machine alongside Baymax and a "Toy Story" alien (The Claw!) or Captain Marvel.
There are also two whiteboards filled with equations and inside jokes. There's no way you can see and read everything in one visit.
If you wind up entering the left preshow room instead of the right, you'll miss some important hints at the future of the MCU. When you exit the room on the right, a wall of lockers shows off 17 names in addition to Peter Parker.
A Disney employee pointed out one locker in the center of the top row. It honors Grisol Ramirez, a young Disney Imagineer who had worked on the attraction but died in 2019.
The other 16 names belong to current or future MCU characters or characters who, currently, exist only in Marvel comics, animated series, or other forms of entertainment.
Here's the full list: Anya Corazon/Spider-Girl, Amadeus Cho/Brawn, Harley Keener ("Iron Man 3"), Onome, Cassie Lang ("Ant-Man"), Miles Morales/Spider-Man, Dante Pertuz/Inferno, Shaun L., Bruno Carrelli (super-smart friend of Ms. Marvel), Doreen Green/Squirrel Girl, Lunella Lafayette/Moon Girl, America Chavez/Miss America, Riri Williams/Ironheart, Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman, Takeshi Matsuya/Wiz Kid, and Rick Jones (friend of the Hulk, who becomes A-Bomb and then Subject B).
Before you shrug this off and say it's just for the attraction, I was told last March during an Avengers Campus preview the land would continue to evolve and grow in conjunction with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Things in the films and shows could influence the land, and the reverse could also be true. Things from the land could appear in the MCU.
With that in mind, there are two main takeaways. Marvel is most likely setting up a "Young Avengers" group (something I've considered at length for years based on Marvel's Disney Plus lineup along with Avengers Campus teases last year). The other is that Marvel and Sony may be planning a live-action Spider-Verse movie with Peter Parker meeting other Spider-Men - something that's been discussed online a lot for December's coming Spidey sequel.
Know before you go: There are no height restrictions. The ride vehicle seats four guests per row and eight per car. Practice your web-slinging as you wait in line.
Web Slingers was made with all ages in mind. There's no height requirement, so even the youngest Marvel fans can ride the attraction.
If you're looking for the best seat on the attraction, there really isn't a bad one from what I could tell. I preferred either of the two center seats because they put you right at the center of the web-slinging action to have easier access to try to hit anything on the screen.
I recommend using your time in line to familiarize yourself with how to sling a web. Granted, it's not difficult, but if you're competitive, there are a few advanced moves to master to get the most out of the ride. Signs inside the attraction show advanced techniques that include gesturing down to "pull webbed objects in different directions." Another tip notes that webs can push buttons and pull levers.
The ride allows you to shoot webs like Spider-Man. How does it work? Disney Imagineers invented a gesture-recognition system.
Infrared cameras are attached to each vehicle to track and analyze guests 60 times a second to track a guest's eye position, shoulders, elbows, and wrists so when anyone moves their arms the attraction can map out the geometry of their web sling, creating a 3D web that appears on the screen as you play.
All you have to do is extend and launch out your arm and a colored web flies out. The result is seamless and may leave you stunned the first few seconds of the attraction trying to figure out how Disney pulled this off.
The actual ride: It's 3 minutes of nonstop exhilarating fun
Once you're in a Web Slinger vehicle, you're assigned one of four colors depending on where you're seated: blue, red, yellow, or purple. The color you're assigned will be the color of the web that "shoots out" from your wrist during gameplay.
Similar to Toy Story Midway Mania, the attraction takes you to four different "rooms" (aka giant screens) where you're given a certain amount of time to try to capture as many spider-bots as possible. The more you capture, the higher your score.
You start off in a hanger before moving to the Pym Test Kitchen (a restaurant located in Avengers Campus). Afterward, you head to the Collector's fortress to denote the "Guardians of the Galaxy" ride. Finally, you face off against a giant spider-bot near Avengers headquarters, located in the center of Avengers Campus. The attraction goes by incredibly fast, so it's easy to miss something that flies by as the screen pans forward or down to move you through an environment.
In three of the rooms, you have an objective to try to complete: Fight giant bot, rescue Spider-Man, and destroy giant bot. You're awarded points for each task.
I'm competitive, so I wanted to try to get the highest score possible. Unfortunately, for me, that also meant I was shooting both of my arms outward at a rapid-fire pace to sling as many webs as possible each round. Though I had scores of over 325,000 by myself the first two times riding, this was not a great strategy.
By the time I got to the fourth room every time, my arms were exhausted (and a bit sore the next day). It was a repeated comment I heard throughout the day from Disney employees and other media members who tried the attraction. It's not a bad thing, but I wasn't expecting a workout from a Disney ride.
Tips on getting a higher score: Aim at gold spiders, access a magical book, and make a game plan if you're riding with others
Want to impress your friends by getting a higher score than them on your first go-round? Don't waste your time hitting any old bot. Aim for the gold spiders. Each one gives you 6,000 points.
Instead of knocking out one spider at a time, look for items to hit or pull down that will eliminate more spiders at once. In the first room, I was told to hit open a box to reveal a tractor you should then target. In room two, I was advised to hit the turbine until it gets going. In room three (the Collector's fortress), look for a glass box housing a magical book, which looks as if it belongs to Doctor Strange. Break that open and you'll unlock what I'm referring to as a small hero moment. (Strange doesn't appear on-screen, but you see a bright orange magic symbol).
If you've been on Toy Story Midway Mania, completing certain tasks or hitting certain items unlocks or enables bonuses. The same rule applies here. Look for levers to pull, doors to open, and lasers (in the fourth room) to activate.
Pro-tip: If I had four people in my party, I would divide up the screen and give every person a different section of the screen to work on - left, right, bottom, and top. Maybe have someone focus on the center.
My only gripe: You shouldn't need to purchase add-ons to get the highest score of the day, and it's a little tough to play with a mask
After my first two runs through the ride, my higher solo score was over 344,000. I saw the highest score of the morning at that point was over 700,000. A Disney employee working at the attraction told me that to get a higher score, you would need one of the three devices sold outside the attraction.
Steps away from Web Slingers, DCA sells three items: a Web tech power band ($29.99), a web-shooter ($24.99), and Iron Man's (or Pepper Potts) repulsor ($24.99) at either a supply cart or a store called Web Suppliers.
Each device gives you special power-ups on the attraction to help you destroy more spider-bots at once and, effectively, gain a higher score.
I don't really want to spend at least $25 to get the most out of an attraction at a park. Disneyland Resort already canceled its popular (and rather inexpensive) annual-pass-holder program in January. Anyone attending Disneyland Resort right now is paying full price (a one-day adult ticket to Disneyland or DCA starts at $104) every time they want to enter the park. If you have a family, the last thing you want to do after shelling out a lot for a Disney trip is needing to purchase something to experience an attraction to its fullest extent.
The other issue I had, which others may run into, was that my 3D glasses kept fogging up because of the mask I was wearing. This may not be an issue for everyone, but it wasn't ideal for me.
The bottom line: Get to the park early if you want to try to get on this attraction. Acquire a power band if you want a shot at getting on the scoreboard for bragging rights.
DCA has something special here. After riding I immediately thought that if Disney wanted to make Web Slingers a VR experience for people to purchase and play at home, people would buy it. After all, Sony's excellent Spider-Man game is one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games of all time.
This ride is such a blast that it's a shame you'll probably get to ride it only once a day right now when you visit. The first time you ride, you'll probably be so in awe of the technology and then focused on mastering your technique to shoot a web that you won't fully notice and activate all of the little bonuses in each round. But that's the point. The attraction is designed for you to return.
Like Galaxy Edge's Rise of the Resistance in Disneyland, I predict it will be tough to get on the actual attraction. Disney's made a virtual queue for the attraction. You can't just walk right up to it and get in line. According to press materials I received, reservations for the ride will be made available each day at 7 a.m. and noon. With Rise, you needed to be at the park at a certain time to wait to press a button in the Disneyland app to hope you pressed it fast enough to acquire a boarding pass for some time that day. (You can read more on that process here.)
One last piece of advice: Maybe stretch out your arms before riding. If you're competitive, your arms may be a little sore afterward.
Grade: A
Want to know more about Avengers Campus? Take a look at our food guide and take a tour of what to expect in the rest of the land here.