First Day Visit to the NEW Disney Skyliner!

A week ago, I got to experience the Disney Skyliner on opening day! 

I was in Orlando a few days and realized I was going to be there for the day it opened. Sunday, September 29th, my parents, brother and his kids and I headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (my favorite park, which is also the park I used to work at) and got in line for our first ride on the Skyliner.

As we quickly learned, the Disney Skyliner is made up of three different gondola lines that take you to:

1. Hollywood Studios to Caribbean Beach Resort
2. Caribbean Beach Resort to Pop Century Resort and Art of Animation Resort
3. Caribbean Beach Resort to Riviera Resort that continues on to Epcot

I was pretty excited to check out this new transportation system, as I had been watching it be built and was interested to see how it felt to ride in one. It’s been a long time since my whole family got to experience a first ride together on something new at Disney. Really, as I think about it, I’m not sure I can think of anything all of us have experience for the first time all together and we’ve been going to Disney for a very a long time!

As we waited in the line to get on the Skyliner, we all marveled at the speed of the cars and the precision of how each of them stacked perfectly together. As we got closer to our gondola, my niblings noticed it was wrapped in Star Wars theming! It had a BB-8, Chewie, and the kids favorite “Porgs” on the side. 

We all hopped inside the cabin, and were off! It was such a sight to see the pure joy and excitement in the faces of my niblings. As we were flying high in the air, I looked around at the seven of us, and we all were just as excited. It was such a fun ride!

​We also noticed a cabin number inside which we took a picture of so we could keep track of each cabin we rode in. There are 300 gondolas, so we have a while before we ride them all :)

We rode all three lines, ending with the line to Epcot.

The longest and most complex line is the Caribbean to Epcot. It actually stopped running for about 10 minutes before we got on and stopped for about 5 min when we were in the gondola. It was not a big deal, but I would not want to be stopped for an extended amount of time as there is no air conditioning in the cabin. Although it’s pretty comfortable and cool when moving because wind flows in through the windows. Also, when everything is running smoothly you’re not on the gondola for a lengthy amount of time.

When we got to Epcot, we actually found a mini version of the Star Wars gondola we rode in for our first ride. That was too special not to buy!

On top of being such a special time all together on the Skyliner, it was a great ride. The gondolas feel very smooth and secure on the line. I can be a little uncomfortable with heights, but did not feel any discomfort on the line. I even enjoyed the ride over water. The gondola cabin is very quiet and relaxing, with a nice breeze when in motion. It was very speedy traveling to each location, but not too fast where it would make me sick. In all, the Disney Skyliner might be my new favorite ride at Disney, and you can currently ride it without a park ticket!

Update:

As I went to write this post, I read the news reports about the Skyliner Epcot line going down for three hours! I saw a picture on Twitter of some cabins crashed into each other, and this is one of my pics of around the same spot (this is what they should look like). 

Someone I used to work with at Apple actually was on the line when it went down, and was stuck for three hours. Once he and his family were safely on ground, Disney gave them $400 and 8 park hoppers. The Skyliner is down until further notice, but I’m hoping it will be back up and in working order very soon!