Halfway through my trip up the A1A scenic byway, I made a pit stop in the Disney/Orlando area. My first attraction was a flight on the Disney Skyliner, Disney World’s newest transportation system.
Disney’s Skyliner Gondola
The Skyliner is a gondola system and FREE to use, adding to the other free transportation options of busses, boats, and monorails. The difference with the Skyliner is height! You and your party soar over the tops of resorts and theme parks on your way through five different stations.
Three lines of service
The main hub of the Skyliner is at the Caribbean Beach Resort. From here you can take one of three lines. Once you’ve made it past the Joffrey’s Coffee kiosk and to the top of the ramp, the line to your right goes to Epcot, passing by the new Riviera Resort. Straight ahead is to Hollywood Studios, and to the left goes to Art of Animation and Pop Century Resorts. (And despite the straight line, you can’t go direct from, say, Pop Century to Epcot without getting out. You have to change lines at Caribbean Beach.)
Skyliner cars
The gondola cars are small but wide, and during non-Covid times can fit up to 10 people with five people each on two facing benches. During Covid, however, they have been keeping it to one party per car, so yours truly got a gondola all to herself. (Insert Fonzie “Ayyyyy” here.) If you need a wheelchair accessible gondola, they have an ingenious system of keeping special cars off to the side and sliding them in without stopping the whole cable.
Image wraps = no view
Gondolas come in lots of bright colors and several have character wraps on them. Meaning you’ll see Mickey Mouse and friends or the characters from the Haunted Mansion looking like they’re riding by on their own gondolas. PRO TIP: They’re really fun to look at but NOT so much fun to ride in because they really obscure the view out of the windows. All windows open at the top to let a nice cross-breeze through while the Skyliner is in motion.
How to ride
These days, you can’t just go to a park or a resort hotel without some sort of pass or ticket. You can get around this by using Mobile Order on the My Disney Experience app and ordering food at a resort restaurant ahead of time.
My experience
This is what I did for breakfast at the Caribbean Beach Resort. After a simple low-cost meal of oatmeal and fruit in the food court, I walked around the resort a little, then got in line for the Skyliner. And what a line it was!
The Skyliner has hours similar to the busses around Disney World. Meaning, their operation is based on the current schedule of the parks, whatever that may be. I don’t remember what time I got in line but it was in that window when everyone was trying to make it to the parks. That line snaked around and doubled back on itself in a long serpentine queue. I thought it would take forever! But it moves quickly and I was through it in maybe 20 minutes.
I was afraid that’s the way it would be all day. But once everyone got where they were going, I pretty much walked onto the Skyliner for every ride after that.
Line 1 to Epcot
Fearing that line, I first took the longest distance I could go – Caribbean Beach to Epcot. On that line, you go through the Riviera Resort station, then a cool mid-air turn station, and then to the International Gateway of Epcot, near the France pavilion.
Once at Epcot, you have to disembark but I just walked around the station and got right back on. On the way back, I got out at the Riviera Resort to check it out, had a coffee and a croissant, and sat in a swing for a while, watching the Skyliner go by.
Line 2 to Hollywood Studios
It’s a short ride back to Caribbean Beach, which is right across the lake. The next line I tried was to Hollywood Studios, which as I remember, is mostly over parking lots. Again, I had to get out at the Studios but easily reboarded for the ride back.
Line 3 to Pop Century & Art of Animation
I think my favorite line is the third one, the one from Caribbean Beach to Pop Century and the Art of Animation Resorts. It skims over grassy stretches and there’s a lovely low swoop over the lake between the two resorts.
Skyliner Stations
A note about the stations – they are beautiful! Well, mostly, I don’t remember much about the Pop/Animation one, though it is located ON the Generation Gap Bridge on the lake between the two. Caribbean Beach is pretty utilitarian, and HUGE, with all three lines running from it.
But the Riviera Resort station is beautiful! There are two huge spanning murals in the tunnels to the station, featuring the lanterns from Rapunzel and the flight of Peter Pan. And the Epcot station is themed French and has some beautiful Beaux-Arts styling on the curved awnings. But I didn’t get pictures of either! I think it was too crowded and/or went by a little too fast. I don’t think I was thinking of covering it for a blog post while I was experiencing it. I’ll go back, I promise.
Random stuff to know
Here are some random things to know about Disney’s Skyliner if you think you’ll ever ride it. It’s pretty zippy! You take off from the station pretty fast and you enter the station pretty fast too – it can be a little disconcerting the first time you experience it. And it is a gondola ride – you’re high off the ground and sometimes you bounce around and sway a bit. They can’t Disney-Magic away physics. It also had a rough start when it opened. If all that freaks you out, you may prefer bus transportation.
But if you love heights and bucket rides at amusement parks, you’ll probably love this too. Also keep in mind that I was able to ride by myself, which was definitely the fun way to do it. But once Covid restrictions are over and things go back to normal, you’ll probably be seated with other people. It is, after all, public transportation (albeit a fun one.)
I, for one, can’t wait to go back and experience it again, but probably not until Disney returns more to normal operation. I just don’t feel comfortable standing in multiple indoor lines and going on rides yet until it’s all over with.
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