VIDEO - See more of the Disney Skyliner gondola including ride times for each route

Apr 18, 2019 in "Disney Skyliner"

Posted: Thursday April 18, 2019 10:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has been revealing more details this week on the upcoming Disney Skyliner - here is a quick summary.

Disney Skyliner gondola on-stage at Destination D

Ride times will range from 5 to 15 minutes, with the shortest route being Caribbean Beach to Disney's Hollywood studios, and the longest being Caribbean Beach to Epcot.

Disney's Caribbean Beach to Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 5-6 minutes
Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort to Disney’s Pop Century Resort or Disney’s Art of Animation Resort: 5-6 minutes
Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort to Disney’s Riviera Resort: 5 minutes
Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort to International Gateway at Epcot: 15 minutes
Disney's Riviera Resort to International Gateway at Epcot: 9 minutes

Skyliner gondolas will come in 8 colors, and will feature 22 different graphics, including favorite characters and attractions. In total there are more than 300 gondolas on the system. Seating will be for up to 10 guests on two wooden benches, and they are capable of handling wheelchairs. Busses will continue to be offered on the routes to provide alternative transportation, especially during poor weather when the Skyliner cannot operate.

Air conditioning will not be offered, but the design of the cabins includes reflective windows and mesh panels to provide ventilation.

See the video below for a look inside a Disney Skyliner cabin and hear Walt Disney World Resort Senior Vice President Thomas Mazloum and Walt Disney Imagineering Principal Architect Dean Huspen talk about some of its design points.

Testing of the Disney Skyliner system continues, and is expected to open in late 2019.

Disney Skyliner testing at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Discuss on the Forums

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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.

MisterPenguinFeb 19, 2025

Disney probably doesn't like busses running empty, but they do.

HauntedPirateFeb 19, 2025

Just imagine needing to get out of your gondola at Riviera, whether arriving from Epcot or arriving from the hub station.

Chef idea Mickey`=Feb 19, 2025

I wish you had an illustration, the "two end" station concept is confusing me 😂

larryzFeb 19, 2025

Remember, this is the company that once stretched very similar visually discordant attractions across their theme parks.

JoeCamelFeb 19, 2025

Empty or full it costs the same to run so a fixed cost is budgeted for

BrianLoFeb 19, 2025

IF there’s one sitting there waiting for you that leaves as soon as you board. We’re talking a few percentage points on being that lucky. So much of WDW transit is pulsed and a lot of it with sub optimal cost cut intervals. What I like about the Skyliner is it’s often running empty, which Disney probably doesn’t like…

Vegas Disney FanFeb 19, 2025

I still think 4 lines with one transfer station would have been better than 3 lines with 3 transfer/turn stations. This would have removed most of the ugly poles from the resorts and the lone Caribbean beach station could have been a positive for Riviera guests by giving them their own priority line rather than the current negative of having to wait longer in hopes of an empty car.

TrainsOfDisneyFeb 19, 2025

I’m pretty sure they are faster than the skyliner. Straight line from Coronado to The swan / dolphin is about the same distance as swan / dolphin to studios - that’s a pretty quick boat ride.

Chef idea Mickey`=Feb 19, 2025

How would a canal cross "World Drive" highway between Coronado and for Epcot? Tunnels? Does the canal connect to the front of Epcot or somewhere between Seas and The Land.