Skyliner Gondolas June 2019 Update: Evacuation Boat, Sunset & Night Photos
Our June 2019 Walt Disney World construction updates & photo reports continue with the Skyliner gondolas. This month, we take a look at all of the lines testing and every station in close to finished form. We’ll visit Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Caribbean Beach, Riviera Resort, and both Art of Animation & Pop Century to check out the work!
As you can see from the photo above, the Disney’s Hollywood Studios Skyliner station has had its final details and signage revealed, show lighting is on at night, and cabins are in the station. That construction wall could drop tomorrow and the station could begin operations. It’s that close and I’m really hyped.
I know I share this enthusiasm every month, but I’m serious. Now that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is open (well, one version of it), this is the next big thing about which I’m excited. For me, the Skyliner is up there with Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and above Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Tron Lightcycle Power Run, and the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster…
This should dramatically improve the transportation at two of my preferred resorts, and also make leaving Disney’s Hollywood Studios for a good meal easier. Additionally, I’m entering my “I’m getting too old for long lines; I’d rather sit and watch things” years. I’m looking forward to grabbing a lounge chair at Banana Cabana and watching the Skyliners glide above Barefoot Bay. It’s sort of like watching the monorail circle the Magic Kingdom resorts, but with a constant stream of vehicles.
In fairness, I don’t think the Skyliner is going to be perfect, and do have some worries about it. Not about the cabins being too hot or unsafe, but how they will handle crowds at peak times. If there are any lines whatsoever, I also anticipate going between Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be more hassle than it’s worth.
There are a lot of rooms at Art of Animation, Pop Century, and Caribbean Beach, and although the gondolas have a pretty high, constant capacity, I could still see backups and lines developing right as the post-Fantasmic or Epcot Forever surge hits. Although I’ve been doing my best to encourage people not to be scared of the Skyliner, a small part of me is secretly (well, I guess not anymore) hoping that a lot of people continue to use the buses for whatever reasons.
Over the weekend, we made several sunset visits to the parks to capture the Skyliner in all of its glory. We’ll start by continuing with Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where there really isn’t much more to say…
As you can see from the last photo, the signage has been revealed and this station is more or less ready to go.
While the Skyliner station at Disney’s Hollywood Studios could conceivably open tomorrow, that’s obviously not going to happen. Primarily because the other stations aren’t ready.
Although testing has begun at Epcot (you can see cabins in the station here), it’s not ready–and probably won’t be for a couple of months.
The problem here isn’t the station itself; it’s the new bag check area that’s being constructed.
In this photo taken from France, you can see work on the new turnstiles and bag check area.
They’re still moving dirt at this point.
On the walk between Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the turn station can be spotted.
This has been in finished form for almost a year, and has moved on to safety testing.
Moving on to Caribbean Beach and Riviera Resort.
Here, we won’t see any gondolas overhead, and that’s basically they’re all in the storage bay behind the main Caribbean Beach station. You’ll see this area if you look right as you enter the resort, and it’s truly a sight to behold when full.
Some minor work still to be done at the Caribbean Beach station, but it’s more or less good to go.
To reiterate, this will be the main Skyliner station, connecting to Art of Animation/Pop Century, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Riviera Resort.
In this closer look, we see how that’ll work.
On the far left are gondolas from the AoA/Pop loop. It’s difficult to see, but in the back middle there are gondolas from DHS. On the right, Riviera Resort.
Over at Riviera Resort, things are pretty far along.
That path in the foreground will connect the current walkway around Barefoot Bay that passes the Aruba buildings. On the other side, there’s another pathway connecting to the Riviera. That one is covered, which is how you tell that the Riviera is a Deluxe. 😉
From across the water over by Banana Cabana and Sebastian’s Bistro.
It’s interesting that the show lighting/lamp posts are already illuminated here. Looks nice, though.
This is a new photo of the Art of Animation/Pop Century station, even if it looks exactly like what we’ve been sharing the last several months.
Suffice to say, this is another one where the walls could come down tomorrow and this would be ready to greet guests.
The top section being illuminated at night is a nice touch.
I’ve said it before, but this is the best fit for the Skyliner. The station fits the surrounding architecture, the Skyliner doesn’t go over or near guest rooms (so no visual blight from the support pillars), and there will be great kinetic energy from the path around Hourglass Lake.
Finally, we do have something new from Art of Animation and Pop Century–this evacuation boat.
This just appeared recently and, to our knowledge, no evacuation tests have been conducted with it yet. Some land evacuation testing has occurred over by Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but we’re assuming more still needs to occur before the Skyliner is ready for prime time.
Between that and Cast Member training, we could still be looking at a while before the Disney Skyliner gondolas are ready to roll. I remain hopeful that the system is online by August 29, 2019 (or at least the lines that connect to Disney’s Hollywood Studios), but there are a few hiccups at this point that we’ve noted here that could cause that opening date to slip into September or October. We’ll continue to monitor the Skyliner progress around Walt Disney World and will keep you updated!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
When do you think the Skyliner will debut? Thoughts on evacuation testing, training, or anything else that needs to be done before the system can debut? Do you expect a park closing exodus leading to long lines at the Epcot and DHS stations? Any other thoughts on the Skyliner? Will you be using it, or sticking to buses? 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!
Thank you for the interesting articles. Since the Skyliner is at Cb and it is to serve Pop and Art, I wonder how those at Pop will be able to take the ride? Does this mean, one must walk to Art? Seems to me, it would be faster to take the bus. Imagine after a night at HS and you catch a ride and have to do more walking, especially if you are in the very last building at Pop. Just curious
The station is on the bridge between POP and AOA, a few minutes walk. So no issue if staying at POP.
A friend has recommended this blog, please send me updated info. Kind regards , Lisa
We got a mailer about the Riviera Resort, and the flyer stated a projected open date of December for the Skyliners.
I want to be excited for these, but I’m very nervous. My family was trapped on a Six Flags gondola for nearly two hours before the vehicles were “manually” tugged into the station. The sun went down while we were stuck, we missed dinner and were desperate for restrooms. I always expect Disney to have better customer service than Six Flags, but the prospect of being stuck up there without air conditioning, or in a Florida rain storm, may be too much for me to overcome!
These SkyLiners are something I am most definitely NOT interested in. I probably will never Ever EVER get on one. Heat, no AC (something Disney opted not to add), the most certain breakdowns and delays. The fact Reedy Creek Fire & EMS has voiced concerns (and Reedy Creek is Disney’s very own Govt entity – if they speak up when they are technically a Disney entity, you got to be concerned), the Florida Safety Council has chimed in… I will stick to land and water transportation. Better yet, I will just stay at my house in Windsor screens and just drive!
If you could provide a link to these statements by Reedy Creek or the Florida Safety Council, I’d love to read them. Thanks!
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-bz-disney-firefighters-reedy-creek-20190517-wuin256jerdohkngcufsdsltnu-story.html
This might be the story he was referencing, but sounds like bad grapes by the FF Union in a negotiating window…
It’s also only about staffing, and if Reedy Creek is understaffed (and based upon historic numbers in that versus new offerings, it sounds like they are), that’s going to be a problem at some point in *any* emergency.
And which transportation system is more likely to have an emergency: the aging monorail fleet a decade overdue for replacement, or the brand new Skyliner gondola fleet?
Thought we saw you taking sunset photos at CB over the weekend – they turned out great!
Watch for more Caribbean Beach sunset pics coming very soon! 🙂
has there yet been any word from disney as far as exactly how the station at CB will work? let’s say as an example, you wait in line at the PC/AoA station and board for CB. while i get that all transfers go to CB, will you then have to wait in lines again at CB, or will you be in an airport security type situation where you won’t have to go out and then get back in another line? i wish that info would be publicized. if you debark at CB and can immediately get into the boarding area for your final destination, that would obviously be preferred to having to go to the end of what could be a long line a second time.
I’m curious about that as well.
EPCOT to Hollywood — This will sell more park hopper tickets for sure!
Tom, once they are up and running, what is your expectation to be the fastest route between HS and Epcot? Boat, Skyliner, or walking path?
I’m not Tom, but walking will almost certainly still be faster if you move at a reasonable pace. That said, a day at WDW is a whole lot of steps already and it might be nice not to walk.
True! Then let’s just say do we think boat or skyliner would win?
What does Sarah do when you are taking all these pictures?
I’m guessing the Skyliner will be faster by about 10-15 minutes but that is assuming there is no line when you exit at Caribbean to get on the gondola to Epcot. I am basing this on 25-30 minutes for the boat trip. The gondola ride from HS to Caribbean is ~3:49 and then from Caribbean to Epcot is ~9:13 (I am assuming these ride times that I found are accurate or reasonably close). Adding a couple minutes to exit the HS gondola and getting on the Epcot one puts the trip at ~15 minutes.
I’m excited about the Skyliner! Wondering if it would be feasible to take the Skyliner from hotel to Epcot and then grab the Monorail to Magic Kingdom to avoid the buses. Are the Epcot Skyliner and Monorail stations close to each other?
They’re on opposite sides of the park. Skyliner station is at the International Gateway. Monorail station is at the main gate. You’d have to walk through Epcot (I don’t think you can walk around without going inside, but I could very well be wrong) to get from the Skyliner station to the monorail.
Whit is right – the isn’t a way to get to the monorails from the IG without going through the park, and it’s ~2/3 of a mile from the gondola station to the monorail station cutting through the park. Then there is a monorail change at the TTC as well to get from Epcot to the MK. While you could certainly do this, I’d just take a bus!
We are staying at CB the last week of August and very much hoping they would do some tests/soft opening runs while we are there so we can ride them!!
Going to WDW in 2nd week in Nov. staying for 6 days, but intend to visit Universal Studios on one day..gotta see Harry Potter and friends. Love your blogs and your suggestions for where to stay, what to eat and what rides are best. This is my 10 yr old grandson’s 1st visit and my 2nd (well over 30 years ago tho). Cant wait to ride the gondolas from Pop Century . Thanks again for all your wonderful advice.
What is the evacuation boat for?
A simple Google search defines evacuation as either “1. The action of evacuating a person or place, or “2. The action of emptying the bowels or another bodily organ.”
While I fully support Disney’s efforts to expand access to restroom facilities, I’m going to hope and pray that this boat serves purpose #1 in allowing emergency access to rescue people from any gondolas that have stopped over the water.
Allowing #2, figuratively or literally, is probably frowned upon. Disney can be so uptight some times!
To evacuate the gondolas over the water at Pop/AoA if ever necessary. The other lines could all be done over land…if I recall correctly.
We will be at Disney July 31/Aug 1 and are hoping they will be doing real people test runs by then to get ready for the big land opening late that month. If so, we will take a round trip spin on them from Pop. But realistically, probably not opening til later. If they are basically ready- I hope they want to get some practice in and not wait. Very excited they included our favorite budget hotel in the mix. We love staying at Pop!
Thanks for the pictures – these stations look far better than I had expected them to, in all honesty!
We decided to make a quick trip in August (pre-Star Wars) and are staying at Pop. I hope these are open! I know the original timeline was that these would be done well before Star Wars, but that seems to have slipped.
We are booked at CB 9.18-9.22, and so hoping these are up and running!!! I will look into requesting a building in Aruba. Thanks for the info!!
Heading to WDW in December and counting on the Skyliner to be operational by then; I actually want to ride in those gondolas more so than (almost) any other attraction! Anyone who’s visited knows lines are an inevitable part of the entire WDW experience… especially around the holidays. But I’d much rather wait in line to ride the Skyliner than a bus. Can’t wait!
Evacuation boat ???? Do other resorts have evacuation plan ie busses boats cars. Does this mean there is no other transportation? So if you stay at pop century and you won’t take Skyliner you don’t have transportation?
Bus transportation is the main form of transportation at WDW and of course, will continue even after the skyline opens. Boats will also continue at resorts they are used at. Many resorts use a combination of transportation options increasing their appeal to visitors. (Of course, Tom can chime in too.)
There are also evacuation lifts for the monorails.
Alternative transportation will be available, but one of Disney’s main motivations for this system is getting buses off the roads. Meaning that there will be fewer buses running from those hotels to DHS and Epcot. If I weren’t going to use the Skyliner, I’d definitely avoid all of the Skyliner resorts.
Good stuff Tom- My wife wants to head to Disney World JUST to ride the Gondolas. That should make the vacation more affordable!
Ohhh, I’m super stoked for Skyliner! I took your advice and booked the Caribbean Beach Aruba requested buildings 52-54, just in case it’s operational when we are there 8/21-8/28. I deliberately booked so we could avoid Star Wars hoopla — not because we aren’t into SW, but because it’s my family’s first WDW trip, and Toy Story Land is more of a draw for our kids than SW. I’m really hoping the gondolas open early. I think these are going to be so nice, especially for leaving the park when your feet are toast.
I would think they’d want them operational and tested before 8/29. Will they be perfect? No, probably not. Is it going to be cool beyond belief to soar silently overhead? You betcha!
I can assure you evactuation using the new boat uas taken place. The fire dept has done several drills using the water craft on the lake. Training is ongoing trying to fit it in w the rest of the fire schedule.
TSL is amazing. Be sure you go during the day and at night. It’s beautiful lit up!!
I’m so excited about the gondola.
What is the current way to request specific buildings? I’d love to be close to the hub.