A Visit in Pictures

Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT!

It was the announcement that was heard around the world for all theme park and especially Disney fans. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure would be closing forever to make way for a Guardians of the Galaxy ride. I think it would be an understatement to say that the unanimous reaction was negative. Nobody wanted this nor asked for it, so why take away such an iconic attraction that has made an indelible mark on all the parks its in? The answer is simple, cross promotion and marketing. After everything is said and done, Disney is a business and this was a majorly smart move on their part to incorporate Marvel into the park. There might still be some people who are on the fence about the attraction, so here is a Visit in Pictures of the queue and a video of the attraction at the end! Here we go… (SPOILERS AHEAD)

One major thing we noticed was the dominance that Mission Breakout (*MB) has on the skyline. It is just so drastically different than anything else that we have seen. This isn’t a bad thing, just something so different. We personally do not mind the way it looks. 

Summer of Heroes is in full swing in Hollywood Land in DCA!

As you round the corner after Animation Academy, there it is! MB looms over the street attracting all those who approach.

What I really like about the sign for the attraction itself is that it already starts the story. Clearly Rocket is trying to help his fellow Guardians. This is also continued through the queue. Strong story telling is a must for a good attraction.

The attraction was at a 90 minute wait when we got to the park. So we quickly hopped in line thinking this was actually great! Recently the line has gotten upwards of 300 minutes!

This is the much talked about Avengers hatch that was placed here during the media night. I think it is so fun that Disney did that but it sucks that it took so long for the public to catch on. It is a fun visual teaser for the incredible future of DCA. It is almost like the post credit scenes Marvel is known for in its movies. I think if that was the idea of this, then it should have been near the exit of the attraction outside the gift shop.

These signs adorned the extended queue. I appreciated the attempt to theme the queue but man they are just so clearly tacked on. I feel the same way when you see them in the main portion of the attraction.

Even dogs were bonding in line.

At this point in line, we knew something was wrong. It had been almost 90 minutes at this point and the line was not moving as fast as it was earlier. We found out later that one of the shafts actually broke down. So our wait actually went from 90 minutes to 150 minutes. With the added time of Fast Passes and a broken shaft, the wait times for this attraction get crazy!

Once you get past the actual entrance for the attraction, you are greeted by a golden statue of The Collector himself.

The story continues as you see the footprints of Rocket on the other side of the attraction sign. It was too dark, but also on the side of the building you can see that there is a rather large size whole that was blown out of the building. We could only assume that this was done by Rocket as well.

We found that there really wasn’t much change to the outside queue before entering the building. Some metal was added, new light fixtures and some fresh paint. I think they could have done something much more fun here to make it stand out. I do appreciate that during your wait outside, they have very fun music playing. After each song, it is announced that it was a specific piece of the Collectors…collection.

Finally we enter the building. We see so many different things The Collector has added to his fortress. There are so many different Marvel and Disney easter eggs here. It is a dorks dream! At the back of the room (where the fireplace use to be) there is a giant screen showing The Collector and his new additions The Guardians of the Galaxy. This gives us moments of the type of humor we all know and love from the films. Starlord, Drax, Gamora, Groot and Rocket all banter back and forth. I wish we could have stayed there longer because I heard there is a fun Stan Lee cameo they shot.

People might notice this purple FIGMENT of your imagination that some how ended up here in California.

The Collector is a rather big fan of himself…

We then make our way to The Collectors office. This use to be the library/study for ToT. The room is filled with even more items and call backs to Disney attractions and Marvel properties. If you look even closely, you can see easter eggs that are call backs to Tower of Terror and even Alien Encounter!

The Collector comes on screen to invite you into his fortress but we are rudely interrupted by Rocket himself! The AA figure in these rooms are truly impressive. It is so fun to see one of our favorite characters come to life right in front of us!

Rocket briefs us on his plan to use us to help set the other Guardians free. The story continues and then we add a bit more to it. We are told that only we have clearance because the systems set in place to protect the fortress can only read our hands. The systems cannot read Rockets paws.  So we need to raise our hands at different points through the queue and attraction. This is SO smart! I will elaborate later.

Once in the boiler room, things haven’t really changed much. Obviously the soundscape has changed MAJORLY, but as for decor and theming, its very light. There are some monitors on the pipes as well as other alien items strewn about. Overall it just feels too similar to ToT.

There is one more MAJOR easter egg for those Disney fans.

In this picture you can see that everyone is raising their hands for clearance into the gantry lift. Once in the attraction, you are told to raise your hands again, this is great because it gets people to raise their hands during drops and builds it into the storyline. I think this is genius of the Imagineers.

Overall, we LOVED MB but we will be going into detail of our review for the attraction in an upcoming episode of the podcast! If you will not be able to visit anytime soon, here is the full video of the attraction thanks to our friends Attraction Faction! This has to be our favorite song that is used on the new attraction. Enjoy!