Our first day of a WDW trip and we had four Skyliner rides planned. We got stranded once, redirected to buses twice and made it only in “limp mode” the last time. This was the day after it formally opened. I certainly got lots of apologies from staff! Hopefully they can work out the kinks pretty quickly, but at least from our experience yesterday can’t count on it for anything that is critical timing wise.
They really (and unfortunately) need something giving live status on what lines are up and down until it is safe to just assume the entire system is up. We got stranded at CBR once in between transfers and just missed getting stranded a second time by one car. We were the last to board, got stuck just past the loading zone, and everyone after us got re-directed to HS to get buses to AofA/Pop.
It is great when it works to be clear, but it just needs to be a lot more reliable before it can be counted on. We missed the first 30 minutes of EMH due to one of the mishaps.
Agreed. It is really not a good look for this highly touted system. And I am not buying the “It is new” because of all the testing they have been doing - from running and running them empty for months to all the cast member trials, media events, soft openings… There should not be bugs like these happening already.
And yes, it does seem to be the shortest line - the AOA/Pop to CBR one - that is having the most issues. I was in the massive crowd that got stranded to wait on busses last night after the final Illuminations. And then while yes, they converted the CBR Internal Shuttle to a bus to use, they were packing the busses to both resorts rather than one bus Pop and one AOA. Which meant at Pop either people were having to squeeze through or AOA people had to get off and reboard. Not the most efficient way of doing things.
Ouch, we just missed that mess you had last night. We had a similar event though at our attempted rope-drop in the morning Made it to CBR, but the HS line was down, so from CBR got bused to HS. At least there, we all got off together. That does sound like a mess! They certainly do need to do a lot more work more on how to better handled all the different failure modes!
Only one Skyliner ride in today’s plan after the first Epcot Forever show and we’ll decide on the fly if it is worth risking or not.
I’m not familiar with CBR, but is the Skyliner station near where buses normally load to go to the parks? Or did they bring buses to the station? Or did they just make you walk to the bus stop?
Well, this is not good to hear, and I’m surprised considering these things are used all over the world, including in hot climates, and do just fine. I wonder if it’s just the sheer number of cars and passengers multiplied by long operating hours? Disney never does anything in a small way. They might be pushing the envelope of this particular design.
But I guess we’ll see. I am surprised, though. As @lizzieanne771 said, it sure underwent a lot of testing.
I just rode it back from EEMH at HS to Pop and had a great experience. No wait, smooth ride and super quick. But I heard it only opened about 10 minutes before I walked up to ride to Pop so I guess I lucked out in my timing!
I was told that line (between Pop/AoA and HS) did not start running until 9 today. I know it wasn’t running at 5:45 as I walked into HS but don’t know more first hand. I later rode Pop to Epcot and it went smoothly except for two one minute stops between Riviera and Epcot
I don’t count the short stops as I figure that is normal interruptions due to us park guests not following cast member instructions! There were a lot more than usual last Tuesday evening but that was because the handicap loading area was not working, so they had to load folk with ECVs and wheelchairs with the regular line and stop it briefly so they could load. To me that is the Disney I expect: Yes, things break, but they have a good backup plan. The “more down than up” is where I’m disappointed where there isn’t (and can’t be) any decent backup plan at all. We have another Pop-HS run planned for later today, so hoping I get to say it was just startup issues and now better…
It’s unfortunate that they are having so much downtime in these first days. But I suppose it makes sense - even during the testing and previews they didn’t have to deal with the issues that come with crowds and human error, such as people waiting too long to board and having to stop the cable, which might mess with the cadence of adding cars and disrupt the flow and balance of the system. I’m sure once they encounter all potential problems, they will come up with protocols that will prevent future disruption for similar issues. I’d give it a couple of weeks before making any judgments.
Yes. Having dealt directly with people and the consequences of their decisions for decades, I can tell you that no troubleshooting department can EVER come up with the things people will think of doing! Never. It just blows your mind what people can dream up.
Do you have any information about what time the Skyliner should be running each morning? We are staying at CBR later this month, and wondering about rope dropping HS with the early morning opening.
I understand that the Skyliner is new and will give Disney time to work out the kinks, but during my last trip in May of 2018, I was disappointed in the ride reliability.
During our short trip the following went down, usually first thing in the AM when we were RDing — Space Mountain (twice on separate days); Expedition Everest (again at rope drop); and 7DMT twice. None of these outages were due to weather — they were just not up and running at RD. This indicates to me that Disney is cutting maintenance to save money which is affecting reliability.
From what I can glean, it seems at least some of the constant stoppages are due to issues with the CMs trying to coordinate the wheelchair loading.
Plus sometimes not getting guests into the cabins in a timely fashion. And the narrow doorways are causing issues with some double strollers, which usually need to be folded.
Some of that should be sorted out with just more practice. Like letting a cabin go rather than rushing to try and get people onto it if it’s close to the end of the platform. And directing people with double strollers to the end loading area rather than having them block others getting to cabins.
The double loading system is unique and that seems to be the cause of most of the longer stoppages. At Riviera they may need to stop for a short time for loading; alternatively they could start directing people with ECVs especially to the CBR station where they will have more time.
There were a lot more than usual last Tuesday evening but that was because the handicap loading area was not working, so they had to load folk with ECVs and wheelchairs with the regular line and stop it briefly so they could load. To me that is the Disney I expect: Yes, things break, but they have a good backup plan. The “more down than up” is where I’m disappointed where there isn’t (and can’t be) any decent backup plan at all. We have another Pop-HS run planned for later today, so hoping I get to say it was just startup issues and now better…