Skyliner Gondola Update – February 2019

Our Walt Disney World construction updates for February 2019 continue with photo progress reports the Skyliner, including video of the first testing of real gondolas! We also have current photos of all Skyliner stations: Art of Animation/Pop Century, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Caribbean Beach, and Riviera Resort. Before any of that, we’ll begin with a semi-brief rant…

As is by now plainly clear, the Disney Skyliner gondolas are a bottomless well of controversy. The latest outrage percolated when news came out of SeaWorld San Diego that passengers had to be rescued from the Bayside Skyride after being stuck for hours. Naturally, this provided “evidence” to the anti-Skyliner crowd that the forthcoming Walt Disney World transportation system is unsafe, ill-advised, and should be cancelled.

Contending that you shouldn’t use a state-of-the-art Doppelmayr gondola due to the breakdown of a circa 1967 bucket system is the equivalent of saying you shouldn’t drive a Tesla Model X because Ford Pintos are known to explode. The criticism of the Skyliner is just becoming farcical at this point. If you’re apprehensive (or worse) about the Skyliner, I’d strongly encourage you to read up on Doppelmayr gondolas being used elsewhere. As I’ve said numerous times, this system is a known quantity.

Now, I realize that I’ve been a fairly breathless defender of the Skyliner. Nevertheless, I can appreciate that the gondolas just aren’t for everyone. People have fears of heights, enclosed spaces, or other legit qualms. I totally get and respect that. Personal anxiety isn’t remotely the same as claiming, “this idiotic system is doomed to fail; I can’t believe these fools wasted so much money when they could’ve expanded the monorail!”

To some extent, my commentary in these posts is possibly an over-correction because I’ve seen so many zealously bad and premature opinions about the Skyliner. I’ll be the first to admit I’m really excited about the Skyliner (of all Walt Disney World’s current projects, this is #2 for me in terms of my hype level), and that enthusiasm probably colors my perspective a bit.

I’ll also concede that the way the Skyliner is being implemented is far from ideal; I have plenty of quibbles with it. I also don’t expect everyone else to be nearly as excited for a mode of transportation as me. I just can’t comprehend those actively rooting for it to fail, and assuming they’ve thought of all these potential ways it will fail that Disney never considered. It’d be the equivalent of Walt Disney World announcing they were adding double-decker buses to the fleet, and fans theorizing that they’d tip over on stormy days.

Anyway, we’ve got plenty of actual ground to cover here, so I’ll step off my soapbox…

We’ll start at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as that seems to be SKYLINER CENTRAL, where all the excitement is happening.

This was actually our fourth stop of the day, after Coronado Springs, Caribbean Beach/Riviera Resort, and Art of Animation/Pop Century.

I mention this not to “disclose” that we’re going out of order here, as I don’t think anyone really cares.

Rather, because I was pretty disappointed that prior to this, the only gondolas we’d seen on the lines were in the road over Caribbean Beach’s entrance. I was super stoked and ended up going out of my way to take a ton of photos at that intersection, only to arrive at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and see an endless line of them parked.

I was super excited by this, and spent way too long taking photos of a bunch of stationary gondolas.

My overly-long fixation ended up being a good thing, as loitering around this area for ~20 minutes gave us a chance to see this:

We were both beyond stoked to see the gondolas in motion, and had a general sense of it’s really happening!

My favorite thing about riding Slinky Dog Dash right now is looking to the right and seeing Galaxy’s Edge taking its final exterior form, which gives me that same feeling. The difference here is that these were gliding by right over head, giving a greater sense of immediacy to that it’s really happening sensation.

Again, I’m cognizant of the fact that a transportation project isn’t even mildly exciting to a lot of you. So, this enthusiasm might seem…misplaced?

However, I’m not exactly enamored with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster, or a handful of other projects about which others are hyped. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

In terms of visible progress on the Disney’s Hollywood Studios Skyliner station, there really isn’t any.

The finishing touches still need to be put on the Pan Pacific Auditorium (I’m assuming) style columns, but the rest looks pretty much good to go.

Walking between Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot, this turn is visible from the pathway.

This has been done for months, and I’m not really sure why I’m still taking photos of it. To confirm that it hasn’t become…undone?

From there, we head to Epcot’s International Gateway.

It’s hard to ascertain any progress on this Skyliner station, but that’s mostly because it’s the only one that doesn’t afford any over or around the wall vantages.

Over at the resorts, we’ll start with Caribbean Beach for a look at its “major” Skyliner station. This will be the largest of the bunch, and handle the most traffic.

Some progress has actually been made on this station, which shutters and some trim work added since we last visited.

The cupola mirroring other architecture around Caribbean Beach is now taking more of a finished form.

This should end up fitting into Caribbean Beach’s existing style pretty nicely.

Across the way at Disney’s Riviera Resort, here’s what the progress looks like.

That beach on the left side of the frame is part of Caribbean Beach, so it’s more like a shared station that’ll be a short walk from both the Riviera and the Aruba section of Caribbean Beach.

We’ll finish up with Art of Animation and Pop Century, where there’s no visible progress since our visit last month.

As we commented then, progress on this station is incredibly far along, to the point that if you told me it was opening next month, I’d find that totally plausible.

Obviously, it’s not opening next month, but the point is that the station is nearly done…or perhaps completely done?

Work does continue on the structure across from the Skyliner station, which I’m 99% sure is a restroom. Or a DVC kiosk. Or a stand for selling wall-colored spirit jerseys. It’s literally gotta be one of the three.

Before you “worry” that this visit to Art of Animation was a total waste of my time (because I’m sure my time is your utmost concern), I was able to wander through Art of Animation and get some new photos of the resort–it had been a while since I got some nice blue sky day photos of this resort. It’s not for everyone, but I still enjoy Art of Animation for what it is, especially outside in the Cars section.

I also got photos of (what I believe is) a bunch of new Art of Animation merchandise. So stay tuned for that in the upcoming “sequel” to our New Walt Disney World Resort Merchandise post.

That’s it for this update on the Walt Disney World Skyliner gondola transportation network. Given that the system is already doing full speed testing with the final gondola cabins, what we’ve been saying about the Skyliner being ready to go well before Fall 2019 sure seems accurate. Perhaps we’ll see a lengthy soft opening well before the official debut…or perhaps Walt Disney World will deem that unnecessary without Riviera and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge open, and elect to wait on those.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

What are your thoughts on the Skyliner? Does the video of the gondolas in motion have you more excited to see and/or ride the finished Skyliner? Or have you already sworn off the Skyliner after the SeaWorld incident, or for some other reason? Thoughts on construction progress? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!

96 Responses to “Skyliner Gondola Update – February 2019”
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