In the wake of the Disney Skyliner accident and evacuations that took place Saturday night, Disney has released an official statement regarding what happened:
“We have a team diligently looking into the cause of the malfunction on the Epcot line of the Disney Skyliner. We have been in contact with the guests, many of whom were on the Skyliner for more than three hours until we were able to restart the system. We express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and continue to work with each guest individually.”
Originally billed as merely “unexpected downtime”, Disney is now regarding the accident a “malfunction” of the Epcot line. The Disney Skyliner has yet to reopen and will remain closed until further notice.
If you are unfamiliar with the events surrounding the Disney Skyliner accident, around 9:00 PM on Saturday, a photo of piled-up gondolas began to circulate, with many guests taking to social media to divulge that the Disney Skyliner system had unexpectedly stopped, leaving guests trapped for hours. Evacuations then began along the line, but it was a lengthy and tedious process, with some guests requiring medical care upon evacuation. Disney reports that no guests were injured.
If you’re new to the Disney Skyliner system itself, it opened on September 29th to mixed reviews. Early images of inside emergency black box kits inside each gondola revealed that the kits contained glow sticks, packaged water, and human waste containers.
Featured Image: @Ada58974405 on Twitter
Well , Rome wasn’t built in one day !!! 🤪🚠
This is an egregious offense, innocent families were left trapped in those flying deathtraps for hours with little hope for survival. The best that Disney can do to explain it is with a statement that lacks any sincerity and is chock full of homilies, that is no doubt written by a former Trump speech writer. My partner and I are still quaking in fear, knowing that we spent an entire day riding the gondola system and survived the ordeal. The system should be dismantled immediately and replaced with an updated monorail line. That is the only possible way that Disney could redeem itself in the wake of this terrible tragedy. My partner and I commend the reporting of WDWNT for bravely reporting this story that Disney would love to censor in ways that would make Orwell proud.
I agree
You know you can always walk
Haha…master class of baiting
Please get a grip. It sucked, yes, but nobody died. Life continues……
“…with little hope for survival”? Seriously?
You spent an entire day riding it? Seriously? Why? I guess y’all were having fun?
survived the “ordeal”. WTF? What ordeal? Fun?
bravely reporting? What, do they send Goofy to beat up reporters?
Thank you for that amazing example of hyperbolic improvisation.
Clearly people were injured if they needed medical care so why did they lie right to our faces??? Lol
I work there. And there were NO injuries. There were NO guests in the few units that made contact with eachother. P
People can require medical attention for ressons other than injury. So there may have been no physical injury from the incident. They did not lie to anyone.
Wow, quite the speech there. And of course you had to somehow bring politics into this. This was definitely an unfortunate event, but you are definitely overreacting.
Deathtrap? Little hope for survival? Tragedy? I must have missed some crucial point of the whole thing.
Imagine they were trapped in It’s a small world for hours, that could have been cruel.
Progressive Music Lover,
You should be censored for being a moron. Tragedy, seriously?! You probably quake with fear on the egregiously terrifying It’s A Small World. Why don’t you walk between the parks instead if you’re afraid. How many times has the people mover/tram at Orlando International Airport stopped working? I suppose you think that should be closed too, so you can walk to get your luggage or get to the next terminal.
These fools are looking for compensation- obviously- sad but true
“terrible tragedy”? They had a few gondolas bump into each other at the station. This is not like they were falling off the line. People were just stuck in their gondolas for longer than they would like. The real tragedy is how long people wait in line at flight of passage. You are seriously expecting Disney to replace this gondola system with an entirely new monorail? How would that be economically sound? It’s not like a similar event couldn’t happen on the monorail.
Somebody died on the monorail…
It did a few years ago. one monorail hit into another parked one killing the young operator. Now that was a tragedy. But people still ride it. The person who wrote the comment above should never go to disney again. Attractions are gonna break down. They were made by imperfect humans.
@Music Lover, congratulations on making this story all about you and your “partner”. People were trapped for hours, of which you experienced none of that situation. Yet here you are writing about some pseudo-traumatization. Well done! I suggest the two of you have a glass of merlot in your matching pajamas cuddling with your identical shitzus.
Little hope for survival? Are you joking? You’re more likely to die in a car on property surely with the amount of bad drivers there are around? If you’re still quaking in fear, i would advise against petting zoos, the tower of terror, and books containing clown photos as well. Getting stuck on a ride is no fun and I’m sorry that happened but honestly. ‘Redeem itself in the wake of this terrible tragedy’ – ???!?!?? Get a grip.
‘left trapped in those flying deathtraps for hours with little hope for survival.’ – Progressive Music Lover
What the hell do you think you were experiencing? The sinking of the Titanic again?
Really, calm down. I mean the way you are talking you would think they were pumping poison gas inside It’s A Small World. It was an accident and accidents happen. Of course as soon as I saw you had to make a dig at Trump I knew you were a cry baby millennial. This wasn’t a terrible tragedy and nothing about the entire thing is Orwellian in any way. Go drink a soy latte and snack on some non-meat meat, find your safe space and consider growing up!
Agree about the monorail…but you turned this political ..so all I can say is toughen up SNOWFLAKE!
You’re ridiculous. You know there have been monorail accidents, right? That have killed someone. This stinks and they haven’t handled it well but it will get fixed.
Wow, flying deathtraps, so do you quake in fear every time you fly or get in a car!!!!
Who the Hell do you think you are? Mindless millenials who bash Disney with no clue. You probably don’t even know any classic characters. Can you name the classic 5?
See Song Of The South.There is not one racis thing in that movie. Dumb uneducated assholes
What if I told you the monorail train crashed One time with another and killed a cast member? You act as if nothing ever goes wrong. Disney handled this situation well and is doing everything they can to make it right with the guests individually. And the way they worded their official statement is to avoid being sued as someone is always trying to get over on the system on a technicality.
Lol
I think your overreacting just a lil lol if these things are floating death traps then so are monorails and yet your 100% ok with them if your this petrified over a incident and saying your shacking knowing you and your partner survived the lil ride I can’t imagine what your like on any ride lol
213 people with zero sense of humor
You mean 400! Lol
Get a grip there is no tragedy no one died no horrific event. A tragedy is a deadly plane, car, or train crash. Fyi people have been stuck on the monorail for hours no power no ac, the skykiner is a mechanical device which can have issues. Let them work out the kinks before screaming the skykiner is falling, get it skykiner falling. I crack myself up.
So sorry you got stuck on the gondola. Must have been terrifying!!
She didn’t get stuckion a gondola. She “survived” riding all day. Real drama queen over reacting to a mechanical failure.
You go on about a Mono rail, has Disney not had simlar problems with the Mono rail that is in place now ?
Censor ??? How could they censor anything when thousands ofnquests are carrying Mobile phones.
I assure you, I knew some of the families trapped up there. They’re not so innocent.
Congrats on the record number of “thumbs down” votes, by the way.
Triggered snowflake.
Yikes you should probably stay inside your house at all times just to be safe.
No one forced anyone to go this now or in the future. There is risk with everything in life, take it or leave it. Grow up
You people do realize that this person isn’t being serious. 🙄
If this was intended as sarcasm, as some people are suggesting, then it obviously doesn’t sell itself as intended, as the 300-plus “thumbs down” votes seem to attest.
What a moron…you weren’t even on them when the situation happened.Tragedy ? Little hope of survival…ummmmm again you are a moron…if you are so traumatized by something that you werent even a part of….maybe you should never leave your home
Don’t be so dramatic, its bound to have teething problems
You are insane
Get a grip using your logic they should dismantle the monorail because about 10 years ago at least one person got killed. Accidents happen go wrap yourself on bubble wrap go to your safe place.
Apparently people no longer have a sense of humor or know what sarcasm is……
You’re a moron!
I don’t know you or your partner, but you’re clearly dramatic.
Some of you need your sarcasm meters adjusted.
Rofl, love the sarcasm and bait. I’m still laughing as I type this up 😂
Have you reached out to guest services to share how this made you feel?
The fact you brought political nonsense into the situation makes your point invalid. Cry me a river!!! Go find your safe space and eat a big bowl of shut the hell up.
Karma.
Emergency kit includes a human waste container.? On great idea Disney! Excuse me while I take a 💩 in this cube that’s not moving with zero air flow in front of total strangers! Great idea! 🤦♀️
At least Team Disney Orlando made an official statement (after consulting their legal department 1st, of course).
Let’s see if they actually DO find every Park Guest involved and DO the right thing (to avoid any further bad p.r.).
Skyliner is a brilliant idea – on blueprints – but it’s not going to be efficient, nor move the same capacity as the Monorails (now Team Disney Orlando has 2 separate forms of public transportation they need to repair and / or update the infrastructure).
There have been few successful moments for Walt Disney Theme Parks this year, but they are all overshadowed by Corporate decisions that have turned into Epic Fails! 🤷🏼♂️
The gondolas were meant to ease the access to the parks,but the poor ventilation was a concern for many of us since the begining, and Alas!!! The worst fear happenned a couple of days after opening.
I just can’t believe that the designers of the system did not foresaw the worst case scenario, or maybe, as the Titanic designers did, they were so confident of their design, that did not planned for the worst. And the worst did not happenned, because if this would have happenned at the peak of heat during daylight, the consequences would have been worst!!!
Well!!!!, Back to the drawing board!!! And please, consider guest’s well-being and safety, because as Murphy’s told us, the worst will happen!!!!
I want to ride them next year!!!
Things happen, people were inconvenienced, some were frightened (it was dark and late at night), injuries were minor. Overall things worked out because Disney had a plan in case this happened. There are kinks in the system and they will take care of them before opening the gondolas back up to the public. I feel for those that were stuck in the gondolas. I had lots of questions for the cast members before I got on. I rode knowing full well that this was a NEW ride and probably would experience delays and stops along the way (which we did). If you are afraid of getting stuck, don’t ride. Do your research people. New cars have flaws too, yet you get into them daily.
Word on the streets is that Disney World and Land are more like carnival experiences now. That from folks who used to go regularly 20-30 years ago. We’ve all been stuck at the top of a ferris wheel for longer than we should have. Crowds should be still and consider their past amusement choices.
It’s a new ride it’s going to have it’s issues like everything else that is man-made. No body was killed or what not. Some people love to hype things up. Did it suck for the people, sure it did but we all continue to go knowing that anything can break down at any given moment. It’s a learning process for Disney if it happens again they might be more prepared due to this incident.
Wonder how long the research is going to be until its resolved and ready to reopen. There had to be human error involved in the process, like pulling a cart aside and returning it to the line for people who needed more time, etc. The spacing of these units has to be precise.
One key lesson, there are no ID numbers on the outside of the cabs.
This was a key issue with someone who had a medical incident, likely claustrophobia. Responders could not easily identify which cab they were looking for.
As far as a break down, it’s bound to happen especially on such a new system. Born and raised in South Florida and have spent just about every one of my 41 year’s going to Disney at least once each year. Have been on numerous rides very Popular rides that have stopped and been delayed including the time I was on a middle school trip and stood up on splash mountain. It stop rather quickly as there where telling me to sit down. Yes shame on me. What is most concerning to me regarding the this situation, is just how long it took to evacuate the guest. Any who lives or has been to Central Florida especially during summer months. Knows severe storm’s can pop up very quick. I have read probably on this site that Disney plans on shutting down the system if lightning is within 20 miles and winds reach 20+mph. I have seen pictures of a land and amphibious rescue vessel. Seems Disney may need to invest into a few more of those or get there rescue plan down to a more practical time frame. Getting stuck in one of those during a nasty storm. Could end up being Disney scariest ride yet!
This isn’t true. Both the interior door and exterior (on the door side of the gondola) have the Cabin # on them.
I see Nick won’t be lacking for psychotic comments this week. If he remembers.
Now I definitely want to ride this he made it sound fun and dangerous . Do I need a fastpass like Rocken Roller Coaster or Yeti
You all need to calm down….
You’re being to loud.
What’s a tsum tsum ?
Well that’s one ride I won’t be going on anytime soon…now or ever…. btw what’s a tsum tsum ??