Crochet Grogu and Disney Visit

After two years of pandemic, we finally got to go back to Disneyland/California Adventure. I dusted off my Baby Yoda, put him in his harness and loaded him into the car.

Squee! I’m ready!

I also made a crochet lovey and he got to go too.

Don’t forget me!

My husband got us a reservation at Paradise Point, a Disney hotel, and we were super excited. He said every room had a nice view, either of the pool area or the parks. We packed our bags and were off on our adventure.

The Hotel

When we arrived, I carried my doll in his sling to check in, and the nice lady who helped us loved my Baby Yoda. That was a really nice start to our day.

During the check in process, she informed us of some “things”. She let us know that none of the hotel’s restaurants were open, but we could have room service from the other hotels. We probably weren’t going to eat there anyway, so no big deal. She then proceeded to let us know that the pool was under construction and that we could use the pool at the Disneyland Hotel instead and could take a shuttle. We probably weren’t going to use the pool anyway and certainly not if we had to take a shuttle to get to it.

THEN she told us that because the pool was under construction, there would be noise between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. She then offered to upgrade us for a charge to a room with no noise and a view of the parks. We politely said no. None of this was mentioned when we booked the room, and now they wanted to charge us more to avoid all the inconveniences?! They should have been offering us discounts and not trying to charge us more!

We get to our room, which was very nice, but one look out the window showed us our view of the construction site. Construction of the pool was right outside our window! She did mention it, but we didn’t make the connection that the construction was literally right outside our window. We were on the fourth floor and we assumed the construction would be below us and not at eye level.

This is the first thing we saw when we walked into the room.

This was the view from our window on the fourth floor. I did not zoom at all.

Now I understood why they were trying to upgrade us. We had a lousy and noisy view of the pool area. As we weren’t going to spend much time in our room, we shrugged it off and we didn’t give it too much thought.

The other thing we thought was odd about the room were the lamps that were placed over the beds. Who decided having lamps directly over the beds was a good idea? I was worried I was going to bump my head during the night if I forgot they were there. Luckily that didn’t happen.

Don’t pop up in the middle of the night!

Next time, I think we’ll stay at a nearby hotel for less. It wasn’t worth paying extra for staying at a Disney property, at least not with this experience.

The Parks

We had two days at the parks. My agenda for Disneyland was simple: get on Rise of the Resistance at Galaxy’s Edge, which we had not experienced yet, and eat a Chile Mango Dole Whip. Anything else we did would be a bonus. My husband had a different agenda, but that’s all I needed.

We headed straight over to the ride and got in line. We were willing to wait for as long as it took. We waited in line for an hour and a half. We were up next to get on the ride…then it broke down. Of course it did. They cleared us all out and told us they would give us a Lightning Pass to come back later which was loaded onto our Magic Key pass on our phone. They said they didn’t know when the ride would be working again. We waited outside the ride for about 20 minutes but decided to try another ride.

We went to Indiana Jones, which also had a long line. There were long lines everywhere! We were surprised it was so crowded considering it was a Wednesday. We kept hearing from friends and family how great it was when they went. Anyway, I digress. We were in that line for about 20 minutes when we noticed on the Disney app that the Rise of the Resistance was open again! We made the decision to abandon that line and head back over and try again. We headed for the Lightning entrance.

The passes were supposed to have been loaded on our phones as everything is done digitally now. Mine worked, and I went through. My husband tried his, and it didn’t work. I went back, and the cast member had me do mine again, and it didn’t work that time! Then he had us wait a few minutes because his equipment was slow. Meanwhile, tons of people were passing us as they headed through. Gurr!!! He proceeded to tell me that nothing was loaded or linked to our phones. I pointed out that mine worked initially. He said some nonsense about how the green was for the person who went ahead of me. I won’t go into the details about why that wasn’t true, but it was definitely green for me the first time I scanned it. We explained that we were supposed to be able to go through because the ride broke down right as we were going to get on. After much discussion and explanations on our part (and tempers rising), he let us go on, but acted as if he was doing us a favor. We were very frustrated but remained in good spirits. We were in the fast line and were looking forward to getting on the ride.

We were there all of two minutes when the ride broke again! As long as they didn’t kick us out, we were determined to wait. My husband watched some Netflix and I listened to music for 30 minutes when they decided to clear everyone out. Ugh! This time, we made sure our return passes were loaded properly on our phones. We couldn’t decide if we should wait outside the ride or go eat. We were hungry after spending hours trying to get on the ride. Hunger won out, and we went to get something to eat. A few minutes after we got our food, you guessed it, the ride opened again. We wolfed our food down and hightailed it back.

Third time’s the charm and we finally got on Rise of the Resistance. It was fantastic! All was forgiven once we actually got to experience the ride. I can see why it breaks down a lot. It’s very complicated engineering that apparently is all controlled by Bluetooth technology. When it breaks down, they have to reset all the components, and it takes at least 45 minutes and sometimes longer. After that, we went over to the Millenium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. We got to be the pilots. Then it was time for my Dole Whip. It was delicious! And that was it for Disneyland after being there from 1:30 pm to 9 pm with only two rides and a Dole Whip to show for it! 🤣

I can’t speak for my husband, but I got what I wanted. I also got to take pictures of my Baby Yoda and interact with people who liked him.

Next day was California Adventure and all I wanted was to get on Web Slingers in the Avengers Campus and eat an elote (Mexican corn with fixings). Even though there were a few hitches, I got to do both those things so I was very happy. The line for Web Slingers was an hour long, and you guessed it, it broke down for half an hour before the line started moving again. We liked the ride, but it definitely wasn’t worth the 1 1/2 hour wait time. At least I had plenty of time to get some shots of my crochet Baby Yoda Lovey.

Next was the Radiator Springs ride, which broke down after we got on. We were on the track for 15 minutes before it resumed. The Incredicoaster was a long wait in line, but that one was totally worth it, and it did NOT break down. We headed back to Disneyland and rode Star Tours, which also didn’t break down.

So six rides over two days with three problem free rides and three breakdowns. I got to take lots of pictures of the crochet Baby Yodas, so that was a win. Overall, even with the problems, we had a great time. Anytime spent with my honey is a good time. 😍

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