In the wake of last night’s gondola accident and subsequent guest evacuations, it appears that the Disney Skyliner gondola system will remain closed until further notice.
Cast Members are informing guests at the gate to Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort that the transportation system is currently down for the day, but that there is the bus service to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot available.
Disney Security is currently posted at all Skyliner entrances and areas to prevent guests from meandering into stations, as they are likely under investigation given last night’s accident.
At Epcot, signage is displayed showing that the Skyliner is “temporarily unavailable”, directing guests to take a bus or boat to their respective hotels and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or otherwise take the existing walking path between the two resorts.
If you are unfamiliar with last night’s events, around 9:00 PM last night, 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 in the accident, and claims that the cause of the issue was merely “unexpected downtime.”
If you’re new to the Disney Skyliner system itself, it opened just this past Sunday, September 29th, to mixed reviews. Early images of inside emergency black box kits revealed that the kits contained glow sticks, packaged water, and human waste containers.
Featured Image: @Ada58974405 on Twitter
I’d hate to work for Doppelmayr Garaventa Group this morning.
One would think…but then again.
I’m under the assumption that Disney requested bids for the design and construction of the Skyliner. If so then wouldn’t it be safe to say that Disney chose the lowest bid.
Do you really want to be riding or in this case dangling high above fast moving traffic in something constructed by the lowest bidder.
Doppelmayr/Garaventa is known worldwide for their gondola and funicular systems. They have a good track record of safety and reliability, but accidents still happen. This is a major investment that isn’t cheap at all. Calling this a low bid seems a bit ill informed
I don’t think anyone has enough info to say it wasn’t. A low bid would force cheaper materials and such though.
Big contracts have Designs wins potential flaws. GM, XEROX, & NASA. What some companies factor into their design risk is an estimate of lost GOOD WILL, and loss life. This is itemized I dollars per the design. The human cost trade off grows with the risk of the part failure vs cost of a human death(s) reimbursement. Ultimately Disney would handle such an incident as the prime contractor.
Ohh -Well !!? ✨😎✌🏼
Just think if it were 95 deg. High humidity.
This could be a huge problem.
A huge problem for who? Disney or the paying customer?
If two hour attraction wait times are OK with Disney then maybe they considered this event part of guest allocation and crowed control.
The real question is were riders required to use a Disney Dining Plan Snack Credit to access the water in the black box kit?
Though I do feel this is interesting and I’m sure that I the moment it was terrifying, I can’t help but feel that there is a large cloud of hype forming g around d this story.
Exactly how may hours were the guest stuck? How many guests were stranded? What type of medical care was needed? How many gondolas were piled?
I’m sure the issues will get sorted. Systems like this are used all over the world. Hopefully this was just a fluke of a situation and they can figure out how to prevent this in the future. Thankfully nobody was hurt.
Just think Disney gets paid by the guinea pigs, I mean guest, to test out the Skyliner.
A win win for Disney.
If the doors and parts fall off, it will be more Epcot and more Chapek Disney then the fancy air conditioned monorail. Crashing into each other, scary elevated cherry picker evacuations and stopping every few minutes. Check! Check! Check! All in just 6 days of operation a new Chapek record! It’s already saving money by not operating another goal met. Don’t worry I’m sure Walt’s Rivera roundup BBQ will be added to the station next year to cover up the “temporary closures” not accidents in sweet brisket smoke. Plus people will be hungry and willing to pay any price as they are forced to smell cooking meat for hours as they wait to be rescued/seated
Aww yes. Disney once again putting profits over people. This should have been ironed out long before guest use it. Plus it’s a stupid idea especially with no air conditioning. With prices rising now this and the star wars Galaxy edge flopping I think Disney is finally on the decline
Seth, Disney has always been about money.
However there was a time when Disney sweated the small stuff especially at Walt Disney World.
To insure a magical vacation at the happiest place on earth Disney put the show center stage and made the guest experience top priority.
Cast members were well groomed, courteous and guest focused.
Streets, venues, hotels and restrooms were pristine and spotless.
Maintenance was conducted after hours and out of sight of guest. It was as if the Oompa Loompas had relocated to Disney World.
Napkins, cups, coffee stirrers, matchbooks and other such items had Walt Disney World printed on them along with location specific branding.
Everything was a magical E-Ticket escape from reality.
Unfortunately that version of Walt Disney World is but a memory and has morphed into the generic profit centered “Disney Parks“ that customers experience today.
Not exactly sure what marked the start of the decline but whatever it was it happened long before the opening of Galaxy’s Edge.
Walt Disney World, once a blank canvas for imagineers to build unique, creative, magical experiences for guest, has become nothing more than an outlet to repackage and sell overpriced food, alcohol and souvenirs.
Back in September Jessica wrote an article about the opening of the Skyliner.
Made the comment that Disney could have offered a better alternative than the Skyliner. Furthermore stated concerns regarding the safety and comfort of the Skyliner.
For that my comment was down voted at least six (-6) times.
Well…
It’s time to take those rose colored glasses off.
The Skyliner was built by bean counters and not imagineers.
Disney should cut their losses and go back to the drawing room and not the boardroom and come up with a transport system worthy of E-Ticket status.
Bean counters rest easy the Skyliner is so generic that it could be disassembled and sold.
Well, nobody was injured so thats a plus in knowing that ppl are still safe. And i really havent heard much about it being uncomfortable ride. The monorail has problems, busses have problems, ect. Nothing is 100% guaranteed safe and reliable. Time will tell if the skyliner will be worth it or not.
Is there any reason, other than trying to grab attention, that the headline reads “Accident”. The monorail sometimes has issues and is delayed, there are times the boats or trams don’t run timely for various technical issues. Are you going to start writing articles about each of those incidents as accidents? Present facts, don’t sensationalize, or you lose credibility.
They are smushed together and glass is smashed…
Look at the pictures. Multiple gondolas hit each other. That sounds like an accident to me.
It wasn’t a crash. Just a malfunction with the handicap cars on the line from Epcot to Riviera. They did hit each other, but it wasn’t very fast. It took place on the station, so it had to have been a slow squish.
This shouldn’t have happened though. They’ve tested this thing out for months before opening it. To have it happen six days after its grand opening, it has to be some fluke or something else.
I TOTALLY agree with Chris! My husband, daughter and I flew in from Illinois for the weekend just to be there for the grand opening of the Skyliner and we loved it! No one was hurt, a bunch of inconvenience, but in the end, everyone is fine. Do we forget the monorail ACCIDENT where the driver was killed when one hit the other? I’ve personally seen the cars in Fast Track break down and all of the riders (including my husband and his uncle) had to walk from the middle of the ride due to equipment failure. There are rides in amusement parks world wide that break down. Fix glitch and move on!!
Nothing says magical like a human waste container
Even less magical without one!
Ha ha. Good one.
While it’s certainly better to have it available as an emergency option, I imagine many people will feel more inclined to hold it as long as possible rather than use a waste disposal container while sharing a gondola with perfect strangers.
ok, they are charging more the the resorts on the gondola line. Since they are not working will the rooms be discounted. Since Disney raised the prices for the “attraction” of being on the gondola line