Move along. Nothing to see here. Ah, you weren’t gonna ride anyway!
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This makes me so sad for everyone - the poor folks stranded. What a shame!!!
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That was my first thought when I saw the pics.
and this on the heels of the monorail rescue a couple weeks ago. NOT GOOD. I had told DH that we would be taking UBER from BLT to Epcot. But was excited to take gondolas from EP to HS. Looks like I will be walking from Epcot to HS.
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We’re at AoA this December too and, after hoping everyone got off the Skyliner safely, I was wondering if it would even be running again by December. I think this will require an investigation by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board).
When selecting our resort for this trip I was between AoA and the cabins at Fort Wilderness. I landed on AoA for theming and for the Skyliner. Normally I tell my husband every little bit of Disney news that relates to our travel plans. This one I’m not being quite so forthright with given his fear of man made heights.
I really hope they get to the bottom of this and get this system up and running safely and effectively. I know they tested them for months but it seems like they simply didn’t volume test with the right conditions - all ages, distracted users, ECVs, strollers, wheelchairs, etc. I imagine running that kind of testing for any real duration would cost serious money but this black eye to the Disney brand will probably end up costing more.
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Tom Bricker is reporting it was caused by a gondola not attaching to the cable. If this is accurate it seems it was not caused by any human error. It is possible that this was just a mechanical failure.
That made me gasp really loud. I think I would almost rather believe it was a human error than the thing not being attached. That’s the stuff of my nightmares that goes back to riding a particular ride at Six Flags Great America when I was a kid.
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The worst part of this whole thing is that I might have been wrong.
A lot of people were anti the Skyliner from the beginning and I defended it, saying that Disney wasn’t stupid and that we should trust them.
What an idiot.
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I have read the cable runs at constant velocity unless there is a stoppage for some reason. The gondolas detach from the cable to slow down and enable loading/unloading.
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You’re not an idiot. You had reasonable expectations.
My DS33 has been anti-skyliner from the beginning based on our experiences with the monorail. I was hesitant about the skyliner because of lack of AC but after the reports was going to just give a try. Now, I will not. Just like I will not get on the monorail anymore.
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In theory, the monorail is lovely. In practice it smells funky and is unreliable. The views can be nice, but I’m not sure it’s worth the risk of getting stuck on it. So I, too, will be avoiding it.
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This is an unfortunate accident both for the people who were involved / stuck and for Disney. Nobody wants an incident like this to happen. Those of us who wondered why they were running tests for months before letting guests on know why they took their time. But apparently it wasn’t enough.
Once Disney figures out what went wrong, fixes it, and reopens the Skyliner, I will happily ride. An incident is always possible - we don’t live in a risk free world - so I will make sure me and my kids use the restroom and get a drink before boarding. It is highly unlikely you will be the one stuck, even if it happens again someday (which it probably will).
Still safer than a car or a plane, and I get on those all the time.
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Same here. Accidents happen.
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They will have to develop a failsafe precaution in the case this failure happens again. Right now, the system keeps moving regardless of whether the previous gondola “made it” properly. So this may actually involve some design changes…or in the very least process changes. I might see them choosing to run fewer gondolas at once as well to have protective gaps within the stations themselves.
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By the way, how deep is Hourglass Lake?
I doubt it’s very deep. Are you thinking about jumping in if you’re stuck over it?
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I think Hourglass lake might be the safest place to be. They have a special boat that can reach the gondolas to evacuate you. You wouldn’t even have to wait for the fire department to arrive with the cherry picker.
I say “might” because we have yet to see the boat in action (that leg wasn’t involved in last night’s incident) so it may not be as smooth as it looks. Also, if you are a afraid of heights a boat with an extending bucket on top may not be reassuring.
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It smells like nostalgia! (Also I live in New York City so everything smells funkier than the monorail…)
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I’m of the same mind – if it’s back up next month when we’re there, I’ll probably ride it (though I’ll probably make sure my water bottle is fulled before I get on…).
But OOOOF what a bad PR day for Disney. I can’t imagine what a bad weekend the higher-ups must have had. (And I really hope they’re continuing to be extra, extra nice to the poor people who were stranded. A $200 GC wouldn’t have done it for me.)
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