Disney Skyliner (Gondola Transportation System) Read Post 1 Now Open!

[mickeystoontown]

I have to tell you, I watched youtube videos yesterday of the skyliner - all runs, day and night.

I'm dying to ride this!!!!!!!!! I wish it was at other resorts, the only one we would want to stay at is Riviera and that's too expensive.

But it looks wonderful. I love the chime sound before the "voice" starts speaking!

I am extremely afraid of heights and I didn't mind riding the Skyliner at all and am looking forward to our two week stay at Caribbean Beach and utilizing the Skyliner as much as we can.

 

[cpdisney]

I rode the Skyliner in both Nov and March. I loved it, but am very curious now that we are experiencing the hot/humid days of FL summer how comfortable the non air conditioned cabin is? Would love to hear from anyone there now. Thank you

 

[Mamiamjo]

I rode the Skyliner in both Nov and March. I loved it, but am very curious now that we are experiencing the hot/humid days of FL summer how comfortable the non air conditioned cabin is? Would love to hear from anyone there now. Thank you

We were there 3 weeks ago and the cabins were comfortable, not "air conditioned cool" mind you, but definitely comfortable with good air circulation while the Skyliner was moving. It was a lot better than I thought it would be for late July with temps in the mid 90's outside.
On the other hand, I wonder how cold it is in the winter when you're that high up and a brisk January wind blows through the cabin (maybe they close the louvered vents a bit?).

 

[Spartan86]

Rode Aug 3-6. Perfectly comfortable when moving. Didn’t ger to experience an extended stop. Thankfully

 

[joelkfla]

We were there 3 weeks ago and the cabins were comfortable, not "air conditioned cool" mind you, but definitely comfortable with good air circulation while the Skyliner was moving. It was a lot better than I thought it would be for late July with temps in the mid 90's outside.
On the other hand, I wonder how cold it is in the winter when you're that high up and a brisk January wind blows through the cabin (maybe they close the louvered vents a bit?).

All of the windows except 1 can be closed or opened by the riders. The default setup seemed to be closed in the winter, and half closed during cool autumn mornings. There are vents below the seats that provide some air circulation when the windows are closed.

 

[dina444444]

The windows can be closed or opened by the riders. The default setup seemed to be closed in the winter, and half closed during cool autumn mornings. There are vents below the seats that provide some air circulation when the windows are closed.

Yup. I’ve had to open/close them before. When I went in January, it was like 80 the first day I was there, by mid week it was in the 30s and then it went back up to 70s/80s so there was lots of opening and closing of those windows that week.

 

[fla4fun]

I rode the Skyliner in both Nov and March. I loved it, but am very curious now that we are experiencing the hot/humid days of FL summer how comfortable the non air conditioned cabin is? Would love to hear from anyone there now. Thank you

I was very skeptical, but I was at Pop for three days last month, and they were running with all the vents open. So long as it was moving, it was comfortable. It did get warm while going through the Riviera station and the turn station, when it slowed down so much.

I have also been there in December and January, and they were not excessively cold either.

 

[mamaofsix]

Curious as to others thoughts on the amount of downtown for the skyliner recently due to summer storms? Seems to have a good amount of offline time every day / evening. Leaves one to wonder about the practicality of the skyliner in a location that gets such frequent storms.

 

[Tigger's ally]

Curious as to others thoughts on the amount of downtown for the skyliner recently due to summer storms? Seems to have a good amount of offline time every day / evening. Leaves one to wonder about the practicality of the skyliner in a location that gets such frequent storms.

Would have to check full year availability. I am sure summer afternoon storms were considered. IF they are good to go 9 months and are down a couple hours in the afternoons in the summer, that is probably fine. The boats on property are probably the in the same boat so to speak...

 

[fla4fun]

Would have to check full year availability. I am sure summer afternoon storms were considered. IF they are good to go 9 months and are down a couple hours in the afternoons in the summer, that is probably fine. The boats on property are probably the in the same boat so to speak...

Yes, they are. I remember boarding a boat at DHS just before a storm. They brought buses and offered to let people off to take the bus, but the storm was so bad most of us stayed put until it was over and the boat was cleared to move.

I would not want to be on the Skyliner in a bad storm, especially when there is a lot of lightning. I just wish there were notifications on the app when it goes down, since they take it down prior to the storm arriving.

 

[detroitdad]

We will be at Riviera Sep 5-10th. Hollywood Studio day is Sep 8th. Have others staying at Riviera felt comfortable taking Skyliner to HS in time for trying to be in the park by 10a for RoTR boarding groups? Just curious how busy transferring at CBR gets in the morning.

 

[Christy1988]

Is the skyline the best transportation option to get to Hollywood studios in time to get a boarding pass? Staying at Pop Century for the first time!

 

[yulilin3]

Is the skyline the best transportation option to get to Hollywood studios in time to get a boarding pass? Staying at Pop Century for the first time!

people line up at 8am to get on thee skyliner at 9am when it opens, then you have to transfer to another line at CBR, that line can get pretty long, I've seen reports of people who have made it and who have not.
I've also seen reports of people getting in line only to be told the skyliner was not opening at 9am and then they have to go take the bus.
If RotR is important to you I wouldn't risk it and just drive or uber/lyft

 

[NashvilleMama]

people line up at 8am to get on thee skyliner at 9am when it opens, then you have to transfer to another line at CBR, that line can get pretty long, I've seen reports of people who have made it and who have not.
I've also seen reports of people getting in line only to be told the skyliner was not opening at 9am and then they have to go take the bus.
If RotR is important to you I wouldn't risk it and just drive or uber/lyft

Ditto the above advice...I've been researching this for weeks based on current experiences and it definitely sounds too risky if that 10am boarding pass window is important to you.

 

[alliecat726]

Per Riviera to DHS (to make 10am BP attempt)... Has anyone tried walking from Riv to CBR and waiting in that line vs waiting in the Riv line & having to transfer @ CBR? How do they "merge" Riv transferers to the CBR line/does that add time? Or maybe the walk over to CBR cancels that out. Just wondering if one is faster from beginning to DHS.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Per Riviera to DHS (to make 10am BP attempt)... Has anyone tried walking from Riv to CBR and waiting in that line vs waiting in the Riv line & having to transfer @ CBR? How do they "merge" Riv transferers to the CBR line/does that add time? Or maybe the walk over to CBR cancels that out. Just wondering if one is faster from beginning to DHS.

Hopefully someone will answer here but you may find asking this of the Riviera thread in the Resorts Forumn helpful also. I know we get a lot of Skyliner questions on the Pop thread.

 

[LizzyDragon]

Per Riviera to DHS (to make 10am BP attempt)... Has anyone tried walking from Riv to CBR and waiting in that line vs waiting in the Riv line & having to transfer @ CBR? How do they "merge" Riv transferers to the CBR line/does that add time? Or maybe the walk over to CBR cancels that out. Just wondering if one is faster from beginning to DHS.

Each Skyliner route has its own queue line at CBR. So whether you're walking or coming off of another Skyliner, you'll end up in the same line to get to DHS. There's no "merging" of queue lines or anything like that. I'm not familiar with the wait times at Riviera in the morning, so can't say if walking to CBR would be faster or not.

 

[ned911]

We were there Sept 10-18 staying at the Swan and rode the Skyliner multiple times and loved it. Used it 1 day to resort hop and another to get home from DHS, rode to Epcot and walked. With as large as CB is I would suspect that the queue could get quite long in the morning going to DHS.

 

[MeridaAnn]

A bit of trivia, since it came up on my FB Memories today - today marks a full year since the incident when the gondolas got stuck for 3 hours (I was on board with 4 of my friends, so we've been texting about it today, too). I'm glad to see that the system has run smoothly for the rest of its first year of operation other than that - it's still my favorite mode of transportation on property and I'm looking forward to my next chance to ride it whenever I'm there next.

 

[Weedy]

I live in Orlando and we went out and rode the Skyliner this evening and then had dinner at the Swan. So much fun