St. Augustine onto Orlando days 8/6-8/7

I now present the final full day and departure day of our Florida trip! Monday August 6th- Tuesday August 7th. We slept in a bit since we were at Magic Kingdom so late the night before. I think Ryan and I were up by 8:30am. We got showered and ready for the day. Teri was up and had gone for a run. Kailey was still sleeping! Even when she’s up late, she’s not one to sleep in. So we let her sleep! Teri let me borrow her car and Ryan and I drove to Dunkin Donuts a couple miles down the road. We picked up drinks and some donuts. We started our drive back to the house and Kailey texted asked if we would get her a drink, we had already gotten her some Munchkins. So we turned around and went back for it. When we got back to the house, she was almost ready to leave. I think we left the house around 11 or 11:30am and drove to Hollywood Studios. We had thought about going to watch Christopher Robin this day, but the times for the movies just weren’t working in our plans.

We were hungry for lunch when we got to Hollywood Sudios. So we went straight to PizzaRizzo! I had a gluten free pepperoni pizza with a side Cesar salad. Ryan had a meatball sub! Teri and Kailey split a pizza. We love sitting upstairs here because it’s usually pretty quiet, it’s air conditioned and there’s a restroom upstairs! FYI, they offer FREE refills here! They will give you a new cup, just take your cup to the side counter and they will give you a refill!!! With full bellies, we went to Muppets 3D since we were right there! On our way in, we found the key under the mat! We then went into One Man’s Dream to check out the new displays for Star Wars Land. They also had some Incredibles 2 stuff on display. We headed outside and a storm was rolling in, so we quickly got into Launch Bay. We met Chewbacca with about a 20 minute wait. Ryan and I then met Kylo Wren with about a 5-10 minute wait. By then time we left, there storm was gone! We then went to see Toy Story Land! Teri and Kailey have already seen it, but it was Ryan’s and my first time. As you enter, there is a giant Woody by the Toy Story Land sign! He actually talks! We got lots of pics and just wandered around a bit. It is so cute!! We went ahead and got in line for the Alien ride since it was less than a 40 minute wait. The first 10-15 minutes were rough because it’s direct sun with no shade in that section. They do have fans blowing, but it was still hot! So I broke down and put my hair up, pulled out my neck cooling cloth and used the umbrella until we got to the shade part of the line. Once we were under the shade, it wasn’t too bad. We could see the Slinky coaster from the line! So cute! The alien ride was a lot of fun!!! You get gently whipped around a bit. We did a bit more exploring before heading to Starbucks for a caffeine pick me up and a toffee cupcake!! So yum!! But it was strange because they only had one side of Starbucks running, the other side was shut down. And there were managers working the line. So we have no clue if there was a scheduling issue or what! It was jam packed full of guests in there! It took a good 20 minutes or so to get our drinks. Ryan and I then went to Star Tours to use our fast passes, but the line was virtually a walk on. Then over to see the Frozen stage show. Ryan and I had never seen it. But it was hot and this was air conditioned! So the 4 of us got there just before the next show started. It was a full house! This show is actually really funny and cute!! The two hosts are hilarious! They really made the show awesome. It’s a sing along show, so of course you get to hear and sing many of the Frozen songs. Ryan and I had fast passes for Rockin Roller Coaster that we went and used. Always a great ride! We then went back to Toy Story Land in hopes of riding Slinky dog as stand by. The wait time had been just over an hour. We got in line and were standing there for about 5 minutes or so when we realized we hadn’t seen the coaster running. A cast member started walking the line and letting everyone know that it was down and the reset takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes. And once that’s done, double what the wait time that was listed due to all the fast passers they will have to let in. So we debated staying in line or just bailing. We waited a bit and then saw people leaving the queue up near the loading area. So we took this as a sign that it would be a while. Since Ryan and I will be back in October for a full Disney trip, we said we were fine skipping it this time. We then went and got in line for Toy Story Mania for less than an hour wait time. Again, the beginning of the queue is outside and the shade was at the wrong angle for this time of day. So it was pretty warm at the beginning. But once we reached inside, it was perfect! The new queue is really cute and they have Mr. Potato Head entertaining guests in the queue! Ryan beat me, of course! But the surprising thing was that Kailey won best in vehicle! I think she’s been practicing! We had a FP for Toy Story Mania that would start in a bit that we had gotten yesterday, but we were all getting tired and hungry. So we went to Backlot Express for dinner. On our way in, a woman and her kids were leaving and gifted Teri and Kailey their giant chocolate peanut butter cupcake! They received it free from a cast member but knew they wouldn’t be able to eat it! So we had dessert ready to go! Ryan and I both got burgers and they were yummy! We also like to eat here because of the free refills as well! It was after 8pm and the park was open until 10pm. We started working our way to the front but told Ryan I needed a Mickey Bar to finish our trip! We stopped at the first cart and they were already closed up for the day but said others should be open. Every single ice cream cart was closed! It was 8pm and hot out! What are they thinking?! We reached the exit and I looked at a snack shop and I saw a freezer with a glass door and could see Mickey bars!!!!!! So I got one on my way out and Ryan and I shared it on our walk to the car!!! It made my day! As we got to the car, we saw some of the fireworks from Illuminations! We drove the short 30-ish minutes to Teri’s house. Ryan and I got ourselves packed up, besides our bathroom stuff. I think we were to bed by 10-10:30pm.

Tuesday morning we got up around 6am. And out the door around 7am. It’s literally a 10 minute drive to the airport. Teri parked and walked us in. We said our super hard goodbyes. Ryan and I were through security in all of 10 minutes. We grabbed Starbucks for caffeine and then some protein for breakfast. Our flight was at 9:25am and right on time. We intentionally took an early flight home because it’s August! And weather is so unpredictable in August! We had weather delays a couple of Augusts ago that caused us to miss our flight and we had to stay the night in Houston. Teri’s friend from Arizona had been out to visit a week or two before we were there and her late day flight was cancelled due to weather and she had to stay an extra 2 days because they couldn’t fit her and her daughter on a sooner flight! So we were so thankful we opted for the early flight! There were no weather issues or delays! We landed in Austin and were supposed to have a 3 hour layover. I was having a hard time believing that they had that big of gaps in flights to El Paso. So while we were still on our plane waiting to get off there, I pulled up flights and there was one leaving to El Paso in 45 minutes! So we got off the plane and check with the gate agent to see if there was a way we could get on that flight instead of waiting 3 more hours. He said there would be fare difference fees and was looking it up (Southwest doesn’t charge to change flights). He said he would wave the fare difference and printed us boarding passes! Thankfully we just had carry on bags, otherwise we wouldn’t have bothered since our luggage wouldn’t have made it with us. So we did a quick potty stop and then our flight was boarding! We were the last to board the full flight, so we didn’t get to sit together. But we knew that would happen. We landed in El Paso at noon instead of 3pm!!! We ate lunch and had an hour drive home. We picked up a few groceries. Then got Winnie from the dog sitters house. She was so confused and excited to see us! They usually drop her off at our house, but since we got home early, we went and picked her up! We got home, did laundry and got everything put away. It was nice getting home that early!

So to recap. We had an absolutely amazing trip. It was nice to be able to see and spend so much time with my sister and niece. On our recent Disney trips, we’ve only been able to see them for a few hours due to their school/work schedules. Ryan and I absolutely loved St. Augustine and already want to plan another trip back! I could totally see us living there! And I would love to spend more than just a couple of days there on our next trip for sure! We liked the quieter end of Daytona for relaxation purposes. And of course, Disney was fun, as always! It was so different to come home feeling relaxed! We are so used to go, go, go for a Disney trip with long days and tons of walking! This was a much slower paced and relaxing trip, I really liked it! But have no fear, in October, we will have a week of non-stop Disney World fun!