Skyliner closes debacle

[ShannyMcB]

Anyone else get stuck in the bus cluster tonight?
Skyliner from epcot went down. They sent hundreds of us to get buses at the boardwalk (beachclub?)
Upon receiving direction as to where to wait we were left alone. No one from wdw was there to provide info or direction. A random guest took a bit of charge and sort of organized people. She was very sweet, thank you young curly haired lady.
But where were the cast members? Someone from disney transportation? Literally anyone.
Had there been a couple cast members organizing guests, handing out water, the situation would have been tolerable. But it was awful, wdw transportation should be ashamed of the way this was handled.

 

[seashoreCM]

Before the Skyliner was completed and up and running, I came up with the thought and concern that this was a problem.

No, I do not claim to be the discoverer or inventor of (first person to come up with) that thought.

 

[EACarlson]

Sadly this is an improvement over what was being done a couple months ago when they were making people walk to the front of the park to get buses. I can't believe that there is not a firm plan in place for the regular closures due to weather.

 

[Akck]

I think they have a contingency plan in place for when the skyliner is down. The real question is who’s in charge of activating it? I don’t think anyone there knows.

 

[brockash]

It seriously is a disadvantage to be at a skyliner resort during rainy months in my opinion. We stayed at CBR in early March and it was great. Having said that I would turn down any "free upgrade" from a value to a resort on the Skyliner during the summer. It's just not reliable and like stated previously it seems to be such a headache...which is odd considering it happens almost daily for months on end.

 

[PatMcDuck]

Sadly, not a new problem. I experienced chaos when the Friendship boats closed because of lightning/rain as well. We were at Studios. My anger was not at the storm and losing the boats. It was at the unorganized reaction from Disney. We didn't tknow what to do. First went to docks, waited awhile, then guessed they maybe stopped running? NO closed sign was up, that would be easy enough to do. Then we asked at the busstop area, no clue. Then walked all the way to guest relations outside park, they had no idea either, said we could walk, along the canal, in a lightning storm, OR use a taxi. Then we asked some security guards, also had no idea. We were at this point drenched beyond recognition. We finally saw others and formed a small group, and were finally finally directed to a bus. This had to be almost an hour later.

Why not tell guest relations and security that boats closed, go to bustop # (whatever)? Why not post a sign by the boats? (this was pre-MDE). SO the issues with Skyliner are not a surprise. We were at Riviera in April and they closed the Skyliner, and we waited and kept checking the app for an Epcot bus and finally asked and they said oh, they don't put those special busses on the app. Just go to the bus stop. Why not put on the app?

 

[joelkfla]

Sadly, not a new problem. I experienced chaos when the Friendship boats closed because of lightning/rain as well. We were at Studios. My anger was not at the storm and losing the boats. It was at the unorganized reaction from Disney. We didn't tknow what to do. First went to docks, waited awhile, then guessed they maybe stopped running? NO closed sign was up, that would be easy enough to do. Then we asked at the busstop area, no clue. Then walked all the way to guest relations outside park, they had no idea either, said we could walk, along the canal, in a lightning storm, OR use a taxi. Then we asked some security guards, also had no idea. We were at this point drenched beyond recognition. We finally saw others and formed a small group, and were finally finally directed to a bus. This had to be almost an hour later.

Why not tell guest relations and security that boats closed, go to bustop # (whatever)? Why not post a sign by the boats? (this was pre-MDE). SO the issues with Skyliner are not a surprise. We were at Riviera in April and they closed the Skyliner, and we waited and kept checking the app for an Epcot bus and finally asked and they said oh, they don't put those special busses on the app. Just go to the bus stop. Why not put on the app?

I drove Disney buses for 9 years, last about 5 years ago. When I was at DHS, there was no coordination between Watercraft and Buses when the boats shut down. It was up to the bus coordinator in the office to notice that they weren't running and start shuttle service. So it all depended on how conscientious the bus coordinator was. Some were proactive, others waited until a manager lit a fire under them.

I don't know whether something more formal and reliable has been set up in the ensuing years, but it certainly should be.

As for Skyliner at IG, I agree that the current approach is totally inadequate. As I've said before, if they really cared, they could easily set up a bus pickup at the backstage gate right next to the Skyliner station for Guests in the queue when Skyliner shuts down. And there should be a way to guide Guests still in the park to the front bus area, whether by MDE, electronic message boards, or just signs promptly placed at strategic points.

 

[DisLiss]

I hope everyone who experiences this kind of poorly organized "solution" takes a moment to contact WDW in some way to let them know because if a guest had to volunteer to be a "cast member" it seems pretty clear that an actual cast member was needed in that situation.

 

[VandVsmama]

We ran into this problem once during our trip in early June of this year. It was pouring rain at Epcot when we got there at about 4:30 in the afternoon and poured for a good hour. By about 9:30 pm, we were ready to leave and were near the front of the park. We were staying at Pop Century and if the Skyliner was operating, we'd just take that back to Pop. DH inquired with guest services at the front of the park. They said they weren't sure, but Skyliner should be operating since it wasn't raining, no lightning or anything, but to head back to the back of the park to find out.

So we did. We walked ALL THE WAY BACK and guess what? No luck. So then we had to walk BACK to the front of the park. I was so exhausted. SO tired. I shed a few tears from the fatigue. :-(

 

[honeymo78]

I've been at Epcot when the Skyliner has been down and the signage/CMs have either directed us to the front of the park to catch a bus or over to Boardwalk/Beach Club (at different times I've seen either resort listed). When directed to the front of the park, the board always indicated which bus stop for my resort, Pop. When directed to either Boardwalk or Beach Club, we were instructed to go to the bus stop. Having stayed at Boardwalk and having used the bus stop at Beach Club before, I knew exactly where to go. If no one told people where the bus stop was (are there signs pointing in that direction?) then I can see some confusion. Otherwise, you just wait at the bus stop. During my experience, the buses all had Skyliner in the name - maybe Skyliner Resorts. I'm just not sure what organization from CMs was needed other than getting you over to the bus stop location at either Boardwalk or Beach Club. While I'm sure there was a large number of guests waiting, I don't know why they would have given out water as they don't do that at the bus stops at the front of the park when there are masses of people in line at park closing.

I'm not saying the system is perfect, and I wish that MDE provided info on when the Skyliner was down and where to go, particularly for an Epcot closure. But, I was happy that they weren't making everyone walk to the front of the park from IG every time it went down, and were providing buses at either BC or BW that went to Riviera, CBR, Pop and AoA. It's not as fast or convenient as the Skyliner but I know in advance that any time it rains (or looks stormy) that the Skyliner might not be working. Every time I choose to book at Pop, this is a consideration.

 

[Donald Duck Family]

This was our exact experience in June multiple times. We would be directed to the bus stop at the Boardwalk and then left to fend for ourselves. No guidance from Disney about when buses would come or what bus to take. In our experience, no bus ever arrived that was clearly marked as being for Skyliner Resorts. Apparently we were supposed to deduce for ourselves that we needed to be on busses that were marked either Dory or Mulan. Or maybe those drivers just took pity on the groups waiting for buses that never seemed to come.

Anyone else get stuck in the bus cluster tonight?
Skyliner from epcot went down. They sent hundreds of us to get buses at the boardwalk (beachclub?)
Upon receiving direction as to where to wait we were left alone. No one from wdw was there to provide info or direction. A random guest took a bit of charge and sort of organized people. She was very sweet, thank you young curly haired lady.
But where were the cast members? Someone from disney transportation? Literally anyone.
Had there been a couple cast members organizing guests, handing out water, the situation would have been tolerable. But it was awful, wdw transportation should be ashamed of the way this was handled.

 

[DisneyOma]

I did the "walk to the Skyliner, rats, it's down, walk to the front of EPCOT" hike on our trip last week. That is one long walk, especially in the heat. I did see a sandwich board inside the park by the International Gateway saying that the Skyliner was down, so I hadn't left the park.

 

[mom2missmous]

As a DVC owner whose home resort is BCV, I would not like to have masses of people coming to our already often overcrowded and inefficient bus stop from the skyline! For these people's sake as well as guests of Boardwalk, Yacht Club, and Beach Club(who already often share buses which are often overcrowded already), there should be a dedicated back up bus system that kicks in when needed in the situations! There must be a more convenient and dedicated loading area Disney could devise for when the skyliner goes down instead of sending guests all the way back to the front of the park OR sending them to overwhelm neighboring resorts!

 

[hsmamato2]

I'm unfamiliar with skyliner etc..... are there no buses on a regular basis from ,say Pop-Epcot anymore?

 

[EACarlson]

I'm unfamiliar with skyliner etc..... are there no buses on a regular basis from ,say Pop-Epcot anymore?

Correct, and very limited buses (one per hour IIRC) from AoA.

 

[hsmamato2]

Correct, and very limited buses (one per hour IIRC) from AoA.

Oh wow....I had no idea that was the case! That seems very short sighted on their part IMHO.

 

[Nabas]

What’s particularly irksome is that Disney used the Skyliner as the justification behind a 25-30% increase (over 3 years) in room rates at CBR, AOA, and POP. And RIV charges a high purchase price, Maintenance Fee, and points per night for the convenience of being on the Skyliner.

You’re paying a lot of these hotels, only to have the Skyliner shut down many days when the usual afternoon thunderstorms roll in. And then you’re stuck with terrible bus service because, it seems, Disney is still struggling to get buses to handle the extra passengers.

Like many others, we have experienced Disney’s inability to handle the overflow when the Skyliner shuts down, most recently last month.

You would think Disney would have this figured out by now.

 

[seashoreCM]

The Skyliner out of Epcot is unreliable. It works fine as a secondary transportation service but not as a primary service.

Here are some ways to improve the situation.

1. Resume regular 20 minute bus service from Epcot (Future World) to the Skyliner resorts. Buses normally do not simply go back and forth between two endpoints so the buses here would not all reload with Epcot bound guests and go straight back to Epcot. A shared bus for the 4 Skyliner resorts would do for most of the time. Might work with just two resort stops, Art of Animation and the Caribbean Beach stop closes to Riviera. They could get away with not having a bus for these resorts depart Epcot until 20 minutes after someone arrives at the platform for it.

2. Give a Lightning Line single ride pass (Fastpass Plus pass prior to Jan 1, 2022) to every guest who shows up at the Epcot Skyliner station and finds the service down. Refinement: guests could be vetted for qualifying for this perk, for example having the pass validated upon actual arrival at the Skyliner resort.

3. Provide surrey or tram shuttles from the Skyliner station to the front of Epcot or close to a neighboring resort or provide perimeter backstage buses to the front of Epcot where substitute buses run only during Skyliner outages.

 

[sethschroeder]

As a DVC owner whose home resort is BCV, I would not like to have masses of people coming to our already often overcrowded and inefficient bus stop from the skyline! For these people's sake as well as guests of Boardwalk, Yacht Club, and Beach Club(who already often share buses which are often overcrowded already), there should be a dedicated back up bus system that kicks in when needed in the situations! There must be a more convenient and dedicated loading area Disney could devise for when the skyliner goes down instead of sending guests all the way back to the front of the park OR sending them to overwhelm neighboring resorts!

I personally hope someday they add a walking trail back to Riviera which then continues on. They could either have it go out the same gate and by BW or they could put in another gate through the never to be developed African Pavilion. Heck maybe then they would actually invest a little to building up the Africa pavilion.

 

[sethschroeder]

Here are some ways to improve the situation.

Improvement just run it through rain, lightning, and wind like it was designed for. The Skyliner should not be going down pretty much ever.