Gondola Aerial Transportation System

This new transportation system is getting close to being ready. You know things are getting close when Disney puts it on the maps (ie. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge appeared on Disney maps earlier this week). Well, the Skyline stations have now appeared on the Walt Disney World Resort digital maps.

Disney's Hollywood Studios station:

The station at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is located between the bus loop and bag check, right next to the parking lot. The station will take guests across the parking lot and to the main hub for the system at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. The trip will take about 5 or 6 minutes.

Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort hub station:

This station serves as the hub of the system. It’s the only station that has three lines connecting to it and it contains the muscle of the system that moves the gondolas to every station on the system.

The Hollywood Studios line comes in from the left, the Epcot/Riviera line continues to the top, and the Pop Century/Art of Animation line to the bottom. Here are the various travel times from the station:

 - Disney’s Caribbean Beach to Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 5-6 minutes

 - Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort to Disney’s Pop Century Resort or Disney’s Art of Animation Resort: under 6 minutes

 - Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort to Disney’s Riviera Resort: 5 minutes

 - Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort to International Gateway at Epcot: 15 minutes

Hourglass Lake station:

The Hourglass Lake station is one of the most unique stations on the entire system, as it’s situated over the lake that separates Disney’s Art of Animation Resort and Disney’s Pop Century Resort. The only place you’ll be able to directly travel to from this station is the Caribbean Beach Resort hub station.

Disney's Riviera Resort station:

This station will actually serve both Disney’s Riviera Resort and portions of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. This station is located next to the Aruba section of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. Disney’s Riviera Resort has not been added to the map yet, but it will be located in the green space in the upper right of the image below. Guest will have two options at this station, to either disembark or to use it as a turn station. Guests can make the 15 minute trip between Epcot and Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort by staying in their gondola cabin through the station.

Disney's BoardWalk Resort turn-station:

While you won’t be able to disembark here, this "station" does serve an important purpose of redirecting the Epcot line towards the Disney's Riviera Resort station.

Epcot International Gateway station:

The final station on the line is the Epcot station located at International Gateway.

The hours of operation for the Disney Skyliner have been revealed for the three distinct lines, with all three originating from Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.

EPCOT LINE:
The Epcot Line which originates at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort with a stop at Disney’s Riviera Resort (opening December 2019), has the following hours:

September 29-30: 8 AM to 10 PM

October 2019


November 2019


December 2019


HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS LINE:
The Hollywood Studios Line, which goes from Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort to the entrance to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, has the following hours:

September 29-30: 5:45 AM to 11 PM

October 2019


November 2019


December 2019


DISNEY'S CARIBBEAN BEACH TO DISNEY'S ART OF ANIMATION / DISNEY'S POP CENTURY RESORT LINE:
Hours for the Caribbean Beach to Art of Animation/ Pop Century Resort route was not announced.

On September 29, 2019, the Disney Skyliner had its grand opening and over the (October 5, 2019), the new transportation system had to be shut down due to its first accident. Luckily, no guests were involved in the crash, which occurred within the Riviera Resort station, but some guests were stranded for up to 3 hours while the Reedy Creek Fire Department performed emergency evacuation procedures.

According to Blog Mickey, "Reports began to surface shortly before 8pm that there was an incident at the Riviera Resort station and that the Disney Skyliner gondola system had stopped. It took Disney hours to get all of the guests off of the system.

A Disney spokesperson reached out and said that an “empty car was delayed, a second empty car bumped it. No Guests were involved”."


(photo courtesy of Blog Mickey)

By the very early morning of Saturday, October 6th, all guests have been evacuated from all Disney Skyliner gondola cabins and Doppelmayr is on site to assist. Doppelmayr is the company that built the Disney Skyliner gondola system.  Disney was able to take the Disney Skyliner gondola cabin in question off of the line and continue movement to let most guests exit from the stations.

As of today, October 7, 2019, the Disney Skyliner gondola system is still shut down until further notice.

I was never a fan of this means of transportation, I can only hope it improves guests means to get around. Gondola's are used all over, especially in the mountains for skier's. They will eventually fix the problems which should have been fixed prior to public use.