Marvel’s Avengers Shares a Lot of Similarity to Marvel Day at Sea on Disney Cruise Lines, and That’s Awesome November 23, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Editorials.
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On December 8th, the first expansion character for Marvel’s Avengers, Kate “Hawkeye” Bishop, will be added to the game for free. With her addition, a new expansion is coming to the game which promises to continue the game’s story past the events of the game’s conclusion. More new heroes, including Clint “Hawkeye” Barton and Peter “Spider-Man” Parker, are also coming to the game over the next few months. That’s going to be a lot of waiting, especially if you really liked the game’s story and haven’t had much of a reason to play the game since initially beating it. So why don’t we spend the next few days that would otherwise be spent waiting, to do a little bit more discussion of the game’s story and try to determine what could’ve inspired it?

Since Disney acquired Marvel, everyone’s first desire was to see the roster of Marvel’s superheroes brought into Disney’s parks, particularly Walt Disney World. Unfortunatly, that isn’t possible. Prior to Disney’s purchase of the entire Marvel company, Marvel sold the theme park rights to many of their most popular characters and teams (as well as the use of the “Marvel” name) to Disney’s main theme park competitor, Universal Studios. Universal’s theme park rights for the Eastern US includes all of the characters from the Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic 4, and Avengers roster and they are able to use the Marvel name in all promotional material for their parks throughout the entire US. Internationally, Universal licensed the Spider-Man theme park rights for their theme park in Japan. Oddly enough, the rights to Guardians of the Galaxy were not sold to any park, and Disney has the right to use them in any of their parks worldwide.

But don’t be sad, everyone. Universal’s theme park rights to Marvel’s characters do not extend to worldwide use (except for Spider-Man in Japan), and Disney is in the process of putting Marvel characters wherever they legally can. While the highly anticipated Avengers Campus initiative has not finished completion in California’s Disneyland, American tourists who want to see Marvel characters on Disney property would do well to get their sea legs on. That’s right, Disney has a fleet of cruise ships at their disposal and since they sail international waters, Disney can bring Marvel’s entire roster of superheroes and villains to their cruise ships. Let me introduce you to the Marvel Day at Sea.

Author’s Note: Disney’s Cruise Lines are currently grounded due to the recent pandemic. It is unknown when their fleet will resume sailing, or if Marvel Day at Sea will be a part of their activities when they resume.

Marvel’s Day at Sea was a special limited time themed event which brought exclusive Marvel events onto the cruise ships. Disney will occasionally host limited time events like this throughout the year, either at their parks or cruise ships, either to bring in new guests who might be interested in the event, or to bring back former guests interested in a new and different experience from their old one. I’ve never been fortunate enough to go on a Disney Cruise myself (due to cost) but I’ve been following many travel enthusiasts over the past few years who have been lucky enough to go. On a normal ship, a themed event might mean some decorations and maybe a limited-time stage show. On a Disney Cruise, they go all out.

What’s a Marvel Day at Sea like? Well, if what I’ve seen can be believed, it is the ultimate Marvel fan experience. It goes without saying you’ll get the opportunity to have meet and greets with plenty of Marvel’s superheroes in their costumes, but that’s not all you’ll be able to do. For the first few days of the event, there are exclusive in-universe Marvel-themed stage shows (with different shows geared towards different ages), free access to a digital lending library of Marvel’s comics, and the ability to watch movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the ship’s top of the line movie theater. It all culminates in an incredible stunt show on the ship’s main deck on the final night where the Avengers must team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to stop the legion of Hydra from stealing Tony Stark’s newest invention, the Core Reactor.

If you’re looking for a full video log of the entire multi-day experience, I recomend checking out the videos of YouTube travel vlogger Michael Kay. He and his sister did a fantastic multi-part video of the Marvel Day at Sea experience, and it really is something that has to be seen to be believed.

When I first saw how the story of Marvel’s Avengers kicked off, I immediately thought back to the storyline of the cruise ship’s main show. If you’d like to watch a high quality version of the complete show, known officially as “Heroes United”, here’s a look at it in glorious 4K. You might want to be sitting down while you watch it, as it will make your inner fanboy scream.

Great show, huh? I certainly thought so, and I wasn’t even there to watch it in person. On the other hand, I did play Marvel’s Avengers when it launched back in September, and as I played through its opening hour of gameplay…I started to feel like I was playing something…familiar. In the game’s first hour, you are put into the shoes of a young Kamala Khan, an Avengers fangirl who’s FanFiction won her the chance to witness the maiden voyage of SHIELD’s newest Helicarrier, the Chimera. What’s so special about this new Flying Fortress? It’s powered by Tony Stark’s new power source, the Terrigen reactor. Fans of Marvel’s Inhumans might recognize that item. Here’s a uncut version of my first hour playing the game. Be aware, there’s some quality loss in the last fifteen minutes of the video, but you’ll still be able to make out what is happening in the video.

After playing this opening from Marvel’s Avengers I can’t get over how striking the storyline matches up with Disney Cruise’s stage show. While it is likely their similarity is just a coincidence (Tony Stark releases new stuff that bad guys want to steal all the time, it’s a running trope throughout the Iron Man comics) I can’t think of a better opportunity to feel like I lived the experience from the game than to take a cruise on Marvel’s Day at Sea. Hopefully, after the world begins the post-pandemic healing process, Disney will resume sailing their fleet, and the Marvel Day at Sea will become an option once again. Hopefully by that time, I will be able to set sail with my heroes.

Marvel’s Avengers is out now for PC, Xbox One, Stadia and PS4. It is coming to the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S next year.