Disney Skyliner operational information

Sep 19, 2019 in "Disney Skyliner"

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Disney Skyliner flight

Posted: Thursday September 19, 2019 3:28pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The 6 mile long Disney Skyliner opens at the end of the month in Walt Disney World, and we are now starting to hear confirmation of some of the operational details.

As expected, lightning will be addressed by the Skyliner system closing when lightning is forecast. The system does feature lightning protection, but Disney will obviously be keeping guests out of the sky during bad weather. Bus service will be available during weather closure of the Skyliner.

Disney Skyliner flight

Disney Skyliner is able to carry 10 guests per cabin, and guests may also travel with strollers, wheelchairs and service animals.

There are five stations in total covering the 3 lines - at Caribbean Beach, Pop Century/Art of Animation, Disney Riviera Resort, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Epcot International Gateway. Caribbean Beach is the main gateway and you will transfer there to each destination.

Although Disney Riviera Resort doesn't open until December, the Riviera station will be available for guests staying at Caribbean Beach on September 29.

Travel time is between 5 and 15 minutes deepening on the specific route.

Disney Skyliner flight

The Caribbean Beach Resort station features a Joffrey's kiosk. The menu of coffees, pastries and specialty items will include the new “Toffee Flight Latte” found initially only at the station. The latte blends sea salt caramel toffee and dark chocolate, topped with toffee and chocolate crumbles and whipped cream.

The official opening date is September 29 2019.

Discuss on the Forums

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JoeCamelApr 28, 2025

Well I'm glad you survived to tell the tale. July/ August may be a different story but still viable at the moment

Chef idea Mickey`=Apr 28, 2025

Thing is the Hollywood line would either be beside the Epcot line or beside the Pop Animation line which wouldn't looked appealing. The Hollywood whichever way it went would then have a turning section like the Epcot line has.

DisoneApr 28, 2025

Agree. They should have placed the main three line station where the Rivera is. Could have served both Rivera and Caribbean.

TiggerDadApr 28, 2025

Eight years down this rabbit hole I finally had a chance to ride it this weekend. I loved the feeling of cruising around above the tree line. I didn’t love inching along when they had to slow the line, and I really didn’t love the full stop in the air. Adding Riviera to the Epcot line was just too much given typical Disney clientele. All in all, I think it works well to provide unique transportation and be a different experience.

GoofyernmostFeb 20, 2025

If you had to compare the two, the gondola's will win the race for low cost operation when empty. Imagine a couple engines as opposed to a hundred running all day long.

mmascariFeb 20, 2025

I'm thinking of the line path and turn wheels. The turn stations are already essentially two end stations plus extra turn pullies to guide the cable around the turn. There's a diagram somewhere in this thread. Having two actual end stations would eliminate the extra pullies with it's additional cable routing and complexity plus two shorter instead of one longer cable. Adding an extra drive motor instead. Everything else would be the same. That extra motor may cost more to drive 4 motors instead of 3, or not since 1 of those motors is moving less stuff now. Definitely some trade offs. They could transfer cars between two end stations. Just like the 3 end stations share a yard now. In this scenario, cars would be unloaded from a Riviera/CBR line first, then cars on an Epcot/Riviera line unloaded at Riviera and be transferred to the Riviera/CBR line destined for the same storage yard. Probably a manual push instead of driven rollers for the entire switch at Riviera. Knowing the operations impacts now, after they've been running, I wonder if they would have decided differently than they did. Maybe that extra motor costs so much, or the guest experience of making a transfer would be so much worse than the current impacts that the same decision would still be right. We'll never know. 🤷‍♂️

Chef idea Mickey`=Feb 20, 2025

How will the waterway connect from Coronado Spring's to Swan and Dolphin. They just built Swan Reserve and unless you rip out the Golf. If the Skyliner Turn station was a station even like Riviera you could easily have another skyliner run straight and it would cross the highway straight on to Coronado Spring's a solution much easier than a waterway where how will it cross World Drive.

Chef idea Mickey`=Feb 20, 2025

so Riviera is a hub station. 🙂 Thanks!

UNCgolfFeb 19, 2025

Yeah, despite me not being a big fan of the Skyliner for a variety of reasons, the fact that it's continually moving is a benefit in this regard. Buses and boats can't just sit and wait until they're full (although they do sometimes wait a few minutes before leaving if they're mostly empty) because it would make guests furious -- what if you have a dinner reservation, get on the bus with plenty of time, and then the bus doesn't leave for 30 minutes because there aren't enough guests and you miss the reservation? -- so they're not remotely optimized. An empty Skyliner cabin has very little effect on anything. Buses/boats running mostly empty is definitely a bigger hit to optimization/efficiency (and more importantly, costs) than empty Skyliner cabins.