DISNEY WORLD!! Day 1

Today was the day! The day we, well, I have waited for!! 7 1/2 years in the making. Lon and I are going to DISNEY WORLD!! In Florida!  We had to get up super early to make it to the airport by 4am.  Two hours before our flight. Getting through security was not that awful,  it was slow but that left us only a half hour to wait at the gate.

We are taking photos of Flat Stanley. We are going to make a book of him to share with the class when we get home
We are at the N gates, ready to leave!

First class is the ONLY way to fly. Thank you so much!! WE loved it. Lon does not want to fly any other way from now on.

In Houston, we had a small lay over. Lon thought the freeze dried ice cream sounded good. Well, not so much after he tasted it. Good thing we only bought one

ON THE BUS going to Disney. It was so easy, we went to the Magical Express lane and they looked at         my tickets, told me which line to be in. Waited about 2 minutes and got on the bus. Away we went!

Mickey Mouse left a present for Lon in the room welcoming him to Disney. Goofy left a phone message too, saying how much  magical fun he was going to have.
When we checked in, the man who checked us in, Junior, was from Brazil.  We were taking about the names of the 7 dwarfs, and he told me he could say them in Portuguese, but not in English. SO in Portuguese I ask him to say them. He was so surprised that I could speak Brazilian Portuguese!  He said that was his surprise of the day.

First stop, Epcot. Lon wanted Pizza for dinner, so we decided to go to Italy.
We stopped to get our photo pass worked out. Got yelled at by some other tourist. I asked this one cast member if I needed to stand in this line with the people looking at photos just to get the pass and she says, well.. come over here and I will take care of you. And she did, but another lady got all upset about it. Oh well, not ever going to see her again.  It pays to be nice.
Right after that we ran into the driver from our internal bus (not the magical express from the airport, but the one from the check in desk to the actual room complex) His name is Bill. He was so nice to Lon, he remembered his name and he is introducing him to all sorts of other cast members.  He is making Lon feel special without being creepy.

It is the flower and garden show at Epcot. They have some wonderful topiary all over the park.

The Pizza place was crowded, a line out the door. Lon was so hungry. I knew he was not going to eat much and that was okay. But I knew he could not wait much longer to eat. The FANCY Italian restaurant, Gusto,  had no line. We got right in and ordered. Lon tried foccicia bread and mozerella di buffalo.  He ate some of his pasta all panna. It was very rich, so a little went a long way. I had spaghetti with meatballs. SO good, but so much.  We were able to use the dining plan. So our meal was prepaid. NICE.

The dining plan included dessert. It is a use it or lose it plan. So of course we ate dessert. Chocolate Gelato for Lon a cannoli for me. Our very nice waiter Vincenzio, from Naples is pictured carrying the wine bucket behind Lon's head

Lon got a Mickey Mouse rice krispie treat in his welcome pack. Vincenzio, gave us our reciept to sign for the dining plan early so we could get a good spot for the fire works show. Earth Illuminations.  We only had to wait 10 minutes

Space Ship Earth all lit up. Lon thought that as cool. The poles are in front of Italy, and there are gondolas parked there too.

Fireworks!! The show was amazing! It lasted about a half hour.

They float a giant globe out to the center of the lagoon and it spins and the countries light up with different pictures and colors and lights are shooting up from all directions and fireworks are going off. It is pretty spectacular!!

Yes, it was dark when we left. This is in front of the garden railway in Germany. We will see it in the daylight tomorrow

Lon in front of China. We will explore all the countries in way more detail tomorrow. Walking back from the fireworks, they were all closed.

On the Epcot side, these were the coolest part of the walkway. They lit up at different times with different intensities.  Lon and a few other kids were having a ball stepping on them.
As we headed out to the bus, Bill was there directing folks which bus they needed to take. He took the time to talk to Lon. Lon wanted to show off his Agent P hat, and tell him about the fireworks.  It was very nice.
My knee did fairly well. So far so good!
Now to get some sleep. This was only 4 hours in Epcot!! Tomorrow is full day of Disney Fun!