Month: October 2019

Yesterday Disney finally issued a statement regarding the “malfunction” that occurred last week on October 5th.

In the statement Disney states….

Following a complete review with the manufacturer, we’ve made adjustments to our processes and training, and we are improving how we communicate with guests during their flight with Disney Skyliner. We again offer our deepest apologies to the guests impacted by the malfunction that resulted in extended operating delays on Oct. 5.

Beginning today (October 15), guests may travel aboard Disney Skyliner from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. However, system updates later this week will result in the following modified operating hours for Oct. 16-18:

Oct. 16: The Disney Hollywood Studios line will be closed while the other two lines will be available from 1 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Oct. 17-18: All lines will be open from 1 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Similar to ski lift systems, Disney Skyliner may slow or come to some stops during the ride, particularly when we need to accommodate guests who require additional time to load their cabin. We want to assure you that the comfort of every guest is important to us.

As a reminder, Disney Skyliner connects Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios to four Disney resort hotels: Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, Disney’s Pop Century Resort, Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort (and the forthcoming Disney’s Riviera Resort, a Disney Vacation Club resort set to open Dec. 16, 2019).

We greatly appreciate your ongoing patience and understanding, and we look forward to welcoming you back aboard Disney Skyliner.

Without saying so, it sounds like it to me that they’re blaming this on “Cast Member Error” related to either training or their loading/unloading procedure….or both.

While it’s great to finally see some sort of an official statement, the fact that it took ten days from the date of the incident to get anything other than a brief statement indicating that there was a “malfunction” I find alarming and bad guest relations.

It’s quite apparent to me, at least, that whatever testing they conducted, and more specifically the “soft opening” with actual guests was inadequate.  Let’s hope Disney has learned their lesson from this.  I understand that accidents happen, but it’s how a company handles the communication with customers, or in Disney’s case guests, is crucial.  I don’t think anyone can commend Disney on how this was “handled.”

The Disney Skyliner remains closed after a collision of a few of the gondolas in the Riviera Resort station Saturday night. Reedy Creek Emergency services used scissor lifts to evacuate stranded guests.  Some guests were posting on Twitter that they had been stranded up to three hours.

Other than a single statement Disney, they’ve been pretty mum on what happened and when the Skyliner will resume operation.

In a statement Disney stated,

“One of the three Disney Skyliner routes experienced an unexpected downtime Saturday evening. As a result, the Skyliner will be closed while we look into the details surrounding this downtime. We apologize for this situation, and we are working with each guest individually regarding impacts to their visit with us.”

According to reports, Cast Members at the Epcot station have said that they expect the Skyliner to be closed through at least Tuesday, although no decision on a reopening date has yet been made at this time.

Disney is suggesting that guests use other modes of transport, including the walkway, Friendship boats and busses.

There are things about this all that are bothering me about all of this.

While I appreciate that Disney is investigating this and trying to figure out what happened and insuring that it’s fixed and doesn’t happen again, Disney’s statement comes off…at least to me…that this isn’t as big of a deal as it really appears to be…almost like, “No Biggie.” Disney terms this collision as a “malfunction” and nothing more.

It needs to be stated that I have not ridden the Skyliner yet.  I’ve only seen the videos of people riding it.  So I have no first-hand experience with it.

Whether this was Cast Member error or a serious malfunction of the system, what bothers me most about this is that they Disney Skyliner system had not been running “live” even a week when they happened.  Yes…less than a week!  Nothing is failure proof….but how does something like this happen this soon into its implementation.

Now comes up the topic of testing.  Unless something broke….how was this not picked up during the months of testing?

Disney also assured guests that in the event of a problem that they had procedures in place to evacuate guests in a timely manner.  I’m sorry…but nearly three hours is not “in a timely manner,”  it just isn’t.

While a lot of the Disney fandom is still excited about the Disney Skyliner, Disney is going to have to do some fancy spinning and public relations in order to assure guests, especially guests who were hesitant to begin with that the system is safe and in the event that something happens that they won’t be stranded for hours.