It was May 1 and sometime before dawn everyone in my room woke up. The group in my room included: myself, my sister Katherine, her friend Felicia, and my mother Chris. To try and get a nice advantage at getting to and from Disney's Hollywood Studios we chose to stay at an Epcot resort and ended up staying in a Beach Club Villa. This plan almost worked out well as we could use the boat transportation to get to the park and back to the resort with little to no trouble. Unfortunately we did have a little trouble as the boats didn't begin operating until 7:30 a.m. on May 1. This made getting to the studios by 8 a.m. a little difficult but still possible.

The view out of our villa.

The calm waters before the boat arrived.

The boat transportation was actually fast that morning and we made it to the gates by 7:45 a.m. Decorating the walls around the turnstiles were new banners celebrating the occasion. At 8 a.m. sharp the rope drop ceremony began, and despite being a few rows deep to the side we could enjoy the ceremony. My sister snuck into a store to get a better view through a window, while I snapped pictured in one hand and recorded audio in the other.

Entering the park, they had the wrong times posted

The celebration banners

These are a nice touch

Click Here for larger photos : http://gallery.figmentsmedia.net/gallery/8109821_B7xYp
Figments Media and Florida Thrills are not affiliated with WDWCelebrations in any way or form.