We did a quick trip to WDW this past weekend. On Friday night, we parked at DHS and did some GE stuff. It was raining off and on, so we really didn't feel like doing anything else there. So we decided to ride the Skyliner. We left just as Jingle Bells, Jingle BAM was letting out. We waited at most for three minutes to board (and it was probably faster than that). We were seated with another small group, and we were in a wrapped gondola. With the rain, wrap, and darkness, we really couldn't see outside. Once we arrived at Caribbean Beach, we got off, and got right back on again. While fun, it was uneventful since we couldn't see.
On Saturday afternoon, we were at Epcot, and it was a zoo. So we decided to go to DHS via the Skyliner. Minimal wait to board at the International Gateway stop. I was surprised (although I had the facts so I should not not have been surprised, I just chose to ignore them) how long it took. First the turn station, then going through Riviera. There were three of us, and we sat with a group of six. I was seated on the side where only four people sat, and I did not feel cramped. Looking at the people sitting on the five side, they didn't looked cramped either. We were in an unwrapped gondola, and it was a great view. At Caribbean Beach, there were a lot of people waiting, with a CM holding the sign saying 'End of Line'. We were about to get in that line, then realized it was the line for going to Epcot. We had to walk around all the people waiting for the Epcot Skyliner for us to board to Hollywood studios. After we boarded, the CM put a mother and her her child in a stroller in the gondola with us. It was a single stroller and the child stayed in it. The mom did fine getting on and off, but I can certainly see it taking a bit longer if you have a folded up double stroller and you need to keep track of the two kids.
At the end of the evening, we were going to reverse our trip to go back to Epcot. We were told that the Epcot line was down (see other thread mentioned earlier) and we should take the Epcot bus. Of course, we just missed one bus, but there were people already there who were not able to board. Next bus came in about 20 minutes. We boarded and were on our way back to Epcot. The good news is, we needed to be at the front of the park, so taking the bus was probably the right choice anyway, since the Skyliner would have dropped us off at International Gateway.
We did see one gondola being sent back onto the main line from the secondary boarding area, and as someone else mentioned, it comes within inches of the next gondola. Even though I was just watching, I may have jumped a bit when they were so close.
Overall, I think they can be great. The sheer number of guests that it can handle without having to wait for individual buses is phenomenal. As I am with all Disney transportation, I do not trust it to get me somewhere within a certain period of time. If I had a reservation for something, I would leave 30+ minutes extra for the journey. I do this for all modes of transportation (bus may take longer to get to stop, monorail gets stopped on the line, boat's horn gets stuck on so it needs to be fixed (and yes, that did happen on Saturday earlier in the day going from MK to Wilderness Lodge), line of cars trying to get through the toll plaza to pay for parking). I am looking forward to ride again in the future.