Disney Skyliner Accident

[NWOhiogal]

All the Skyliner haters are now validated. *sigh*

Looking at something and saying "I don't think that's gonna work" is not equal to being a "hater", which implies an irrational hatred of something that doesn't merit such a strong emotion.

A lot of us looked at the Skyliner system and asked "What if this happens? What about this? What about this scenario, how are they going to deal with it?" I did that was called a Debbie Downer and a Chicken Little. IMO though you HAVE to envision every single bad scenario, because asking those questions after something goes wrong is too late.

Disney should have asked, "If the entire line stops, how long would it take to evacuate every gondola?" and when they were told "3 and a half hours" should have said, "That's not acceptable, in midday Florida summer heat that's too long." and those involved should have either come up with an evacuation plan that was considerably less than that, or said "You know what? This idea isn't going to work for Walt Disney World. We can't put our guests in potential danger like that."

They didn't, and this the result. The Skyliner will probably be completely shut down until the engineers figure out what happened. It's a shame because it looks like a fun system to ride, but the method of transport is just too unreliable to be safe.

 

[kollerbear]

there are college program students assigned to the Skyliner. There are also some CP's stuck right now on the Skyliner.

And I hope everyone is ok.

Im not against CP students. I am strongly against the Disney company''s overreliance on temporary, poorly paid labor, especially in areas that are highly safety sensitive.

 

[BaymaxFan78]

Can somebody please photoshop a portable toilet on the side of a gondola? pleaseee?

In today's 24 hour news cycle this will be forgotten in a few days..

In March I was staying at CSR, in the car on the way to Magic Kingdom. There were two CM busses that had crashed into each other, and one of them blew up (the side of the bus was basically melted off). I only knew who these busses were for because of 2 Twitter posts. I never saw a single news posting about this.

 

[ShayBells]

Saw on twitter they started moving. Hopefully everyone is okay.

 

[Matty B13]

The biggest challenge will be the water rescues going to Epcot, not sure if the have a special boat with an aerial bucket to cherry pick people out of the cabs, or if they will just slowly walk the cabs to the Epcot station. Can’t imagine how tough the evacuations will be for the older people on the skykliner and the really small children. I’m sure the local FD are doing a great job, hope everyone is ok.

 

[amcc]

I wondered that from day one but I don't belive so.

My understanding from following this from the beginning here was that there were ways to get the gondolas into the station using backup motors. That’s why I’m thinking that this is a very serious incident since they are doing the worst case scenario types of evacuations. Thank God it’s October and at night.

 

[cakebaker]

I hope there’s a simple explanation for what went wrong and that everyone is evacuated safely. Once the problem is identified and corrected, I’ll have no problem riding them again. We used them last week and I just booked Riviera this afternoon, largely because of the skyliner option. I’m not cancelling just yet.

 

[Edna K. Mode]

I cannot imagine being stuck high above the ground, particularly over water, late at night with young children or elderly family members. Really unacceptable, it would be very scary and it seems there isn’t much comforting communication coming from Disney. I really hope the reality here isn’t as bad as social media is making it sound. If this is really as bad as we are hearing on this thread, this may indeed be the tipping point for Disney.

 

[BaymaxFan78]

My understanding from following this from the beginning here was that there were ways to get the gondolas into the station using backup motors. That’s why I’m thinking that this is a very serious incident since they are doing the worst case scenario types of evacuations. Thank God it’s October and at night.

Probably. I don't know how these systems work but when I saw it yesterday it looked like the actual line is on a motor but the slow moving stations are on wheel powered systems similar to the loading station of a roller coaster.

 

[mshanson3121]

I cannot imagine being stuck high above the ground, particularly over water, late at night with young children or elderly family members. Really unacceptable, it would be very scary and it seems there isn’t much comforting communication coming from Disney. I really hope the reality here isn’t as bad as social media is making it sound. If this is really as bad as we are hearing on this thread, this may indeed be the tipping point for Disney.

Their lack of communication alone is pathetic, and they need to be seriously taken to task over it.

 

[TexasChick123]

I seriously wonder if someone had a heart attack or some other major medical emergency which is what stopped it for so long. I really hope not as that would be terrible.

 

[always]

It's a shame because it looks like a fun system to ride, but the method of transport is just too unreliable to be safe.

There's making an assumption and there's hyperbole. This is hyperbole. Gondolas are not new technology and can be found all over the world operating safely, even in weather like Orlando.

 

[SG131]

I seriously wonder if someone had a heart attack or some other major medical emergency which is what stopped it for so long. I really hope not as that would be terrible.

Even with a medical emergency it would have been faster to keep the line running and bring them into the station. It took quite awhile till they evacuated any cars.

 

[Spridell]

Now that the line seems to be moving again and getting people off, let's wait and see what the actual cause was.

I would imagine the Skyliner will be shutdown for a while until they find out exactly what happened.

 

[sky2823]

Someone stated on Twitter that an empty car fell off line at the station another said two cars collided. I guess both could be right. No one hurt. But they had to shut it down. No idea if it’s true. Sounds like a total PR nightmare for Disney. Lots of stories on twitter...

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Their lack of communication alone is pathetic, and they need to be seriously taken to task over it.

If nothing else, do they not think it might be nice for people to know whether they’re going to be there 3 more minutes or 3 more hours so they can decide whether or not pooping in a bag in front of strangers is a necessity?

 

[SaintsManiac]

Looking at something and saying "I don't think that's gonna work" is not equal to being a "hater", which implies an irrational hatred of something that doesn't merit such a strong emotion.

A lot of us looked at the Skyliner system and asked "What if this happens? What about this? What about this scenario, how are they going to deal with it?" I did that was called a Debbie Downer and a Chicken Little. IMO though you HAVE to envision every single bad scenario, because asking those questions after something goes wrong is too late.

Disney should have asked, "If the entire line stops, how long would it take to evacuate every gondola?" and when they were told "3 and a half hours" should have said, "That's not acceptable, in midday Florida summer heat that's too long." and those involved should have either come up with an evacuation plan that was considerably less than that, or said "You know what? This idea isn't going to work for Walt Disney World. We can't put our guests in potential danger like that."

They didn't, and this the result. The Skyliner will probably be completely shut down until the engineers figure out what happened. It's a shame because it looks like a fun system to ride, but the method of transport is just too unreliable to be safe.

Did you call them “flying death buckets?”

P.S. I was being sarcastic. Just trying to lighten the mood. Didn’t mean to make you feel attacked.

 

[TexasChick123]

Even with a medical emergency it would have been faster to keep the line running and bring them into the station. It took quite awhile till they evacuated any cars.

I think so as well, but maybe that isn’t protocol. Who knows?!? I really do hope everyone is ok. We were stuck on a monorail for an hour at the Poly station back in March late at night because we kept getting told it would start up shortly. After an hour, we were told there were “major issues” with the train in front of us, and there was no estimated time for when service would resume. We all grumbled because we would’ve gotten off sooner had we known. Kids were exhausted, so we were trying to avoid carrying kids back to VGF. My point is that this experience wasn’t great, but at least we could get off the train.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Their lack of communication alone is pathetic, and they need to be seriously taken to task over it.

If you give people information they can use it against you. Textbook PR and Legal playbooks.

 

[BaymaxFan78]

Disney's 2020 skyliner upgrades: USB ports and a built in toilet!