Jecca
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2001
I’m a lucky girl and just happened to be here in WDW on the first day of Skyliner's grand opening. We're staying at Caribbean Beach in the Aruba section. We left Epcot via International Gateway at 4:50pm to board Skyliner, and these are some of my experiences and thoughts:
1. There is a separate line for people using mobility devices. While I thought that line was short, in reality it took much longer to board than for those who were in the "walking" line, which moved at a decent clip as long as Skyliner was working. There were six folks with mobility devices and their families in front of us.
2. Skyliner goes down pretty frequently, at least it did today. We waited what seemed like forever in line, partially because we were waiting for the accessible loading and partially because it was down for up to 10 minutes at a time.
3. There are 95 seconds, in theory, between loading of accessible gondolas. I do not believe these gondolas are any different from the regular ones - they just don't allow as many people on them. You can load 10 "typical" travelers in the gondola or 6 in parties with a mobility device. Anyway, while the gondolas are moving, there are about 12 gondolas on the regular track for every 1 gondola on the accessible track. The ones on the accessible track rejoin the regular line pretty seamlessly once things get moving. They pull two gondolas at a time onto the accessible loading area for unloading/reloading.
4. They load people using mobility devices in a forward direction into the gondola, and I have to say it's pretty tight in there. There is absolutely no room to turn around, and my wheelchair is pretty small. That means gondolas are unloaded in reverse, so you're going backwards. This is particularly not ideal because all of the warning signs and instructions are on the inside of the door behind you, so you can't read them at all. I would much prefer to load backwards and unload forwards, but that's just me. I honestly don't think Disney thinks a lot of these things through. I have many examples.
5. Not mobility related, but the ride itself is pretty cool if you aren't scared of heights (which I'm not). My husband, on the other hand, was freaking out and felt like he was in a tomb. This was exacerbated by the fact that the gondolas with designs and characters on them are REALLY hard to see through. Like, really hard. And the glass is reflective, so you're pretty much looking at yourself sort of in a funhouse mirror. They also sway in the breeze, especially when they're stopped mid-flight.
6. All in all, it took us over an hour from the time we got in line at Epcot to getting to our room in Aruba at CB. It was an inordinately long time for a system that has been touted to be quick and only take 10-15 minutes to get to and from any of the stations. And my line for a gondola on the accessible track was only 6 families deep.
Let me know if you have any questions that I didn't answer.
1. There is a separate line for people using mobility devices. While I thought that line was short, in reality it took much longer to board than for those who were in the "walking" line, which moved at a decent clip as long as Skyliner was working. There were six folks with mobility devices and their families in front of us.
2. Skyliner goes down pretty frequently, at least it did today. We waited what seemed like forever in line, partially because we were waiting for the accessible loading and partially because it was down for up to 10 minutes at a time.
3. There are 95 seconds, in theory, between loading of accessible gondolas. I do not believe these gondolas are any different from the regular ones - they just don't allow as many people on them. You can load 10 "typical" travelers in the gondola or 6 in parties with a mobility device. Anyway, while the gondolas are moving, there are about 12 gondolas on the regular track for every 1 gondola on the accessible track. The ones on the accessible track rejoin the regular line pretty seamlessly once things get moving. They pull two gondolas at a time onto the accessible loading area for unloading/reloading.
4. They load people using mobility devices in a forward direction into the gondola, and I have to say it's pretty tight in there. There is absolutely no room to turn around, and my wheelchair is pretty small. That means gondolas are unloaded in reverse, so you're going backwards. This is particularly not ideal because all of the warning signs and instructions are on the inside of the door behind you, so you can't read them at all. I would much prefer to load backwards and unload forwards, but that's just me. I honestly don't think Disney thinks a lot of these things through. I have many examples.
5. Not mobility related, but the ride itself is pretty cool if you aren't scared of heights (which I'm not). My husband, on the other hand, was freaking out and felt like he was in a tomb. This was exacerbated by the fact that the gondolas with designs and characters on them are REALLY hard to see through. Like, really hard. And the glass is reflective, so you're pretty much looking at yourself sort of in a funhouse mirror. They also sway in the breeze, especially when they're stopped mid-flight.
6. All in all, it took us over an hour from the time we got in line at Epcot to getting to our room in Aruba at CB. It was an inordinately long time for a system that has been touted to be quick and only take 10-15 minutes to get to and from any of the stations. And my line for a gondola on the accessible track was only 6 families deep.
Let me know if you have any questions that I didn't answer.
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