Here’s what I can confirm after speaking with a close source:
Shortly after the Skyliner stopped due to the incident at the station, a guest or someone else onboard with them in one of the vehicles called 911. The guest was patched through to Reedy Creek as they were claustrophobic, hyperventilating, and had a history of seizures in the past. The maintenance team that was dispatched to assess what happened was stopped from doing any work until the guest was emergency evacuated as a result of emergency services in the ride path. Reedy Creek had major challenges locating the specific Guest since the vehicle identification number is only printed on the side of each cabin - not on the bottom. The vehicle itself was in a position that obstructed the view of the number as well as the low light conditions. Reportedly the operators also do not have a system in place to determine how many guests are onboard or if the vehicle is occupied at all.
As a result of the delayed evacuation, other guests on board were overloading the emergency call button as well as the 911 operator if they had cell phones. My source is unsure how many other vehicles were evacuated by Reedy Creek, but I’m sure that each minute they were up there and seen doing so elicited more responses from other guests that may not have necessarily required it. People who were in no physical danger - just the many who were exhausted, hot, scared, hungry, needed a restroom, and some who did not speak English.
Once the maintenance team resolved the issue and deemed it safe to do so, they slowly cycled out the Skyliner as this is the most efficient way to get people off any ride.
From my source, it’s been a shared that the emergency kits on board some of the vehicles were previously opened or taken by guests earlier in the day who knew of their existence. Disney would have no way of knowing as It would be an operational nightmare to continuously check the contents of each vehicle throughout the day. They also would have had to come up with some way of locking them that did not impede proper usage. If the kits were not tampered with, they often did not have enough to supply the entire cabin.
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The following is completely speculatory:
I’m not aware of the failures that happened when the gondola transitions from the station at Rivera back to the main line which resulted in a “trains ahead” collision that caused the Skyliner to emergency stop. I would very much like to know if this was something that the ride system monitors with sensors.
I will say that it’s concerning how fast, to me, the vehicles enter into the station echoing some concerns expressed earlier. If for some reason a group of unaccompanied teenagers or heavy drinkers from one of Epcot’s many festivals decided to forcibly rock the vehicle they were riding in as it enters the station, I fear it would be up to the Cast Members recognize the danger to the vehicles in between and to e-stop it. I’m sure that this has been thought of, but I’m concerned that they are relying too much on the operators in the station or control tower to stop the Skyliner given that there was nothing that preemptively stopped the collision of the vehicle last night.
I would also like to throw my hat into the ring regarding the heat discussion. If you’ve ever been stopped on the PeopleMover in one of the interior tunnels, excluding Space Mountain, it’s completely shielded from the outside elements. However it is not air conditioned and there is absolutely no breeze unless the vehicles are moving. It’s super hot, even in cooler days. Getting evacuated from there takes much less time than being cherry picked or zip lined down by Reedy Creek up in the sky.
The Skyliner is not the Monorail. Both traverse high-in-the-sky above roadways, parking lots, and buildings. While the monorail’s vehicles are condensed into separate trains, the Skyliner’s vehicles are stretched out over a vast space. There’s no towing option either. Logistically it’s a much bigger beast to evacuate the Skyliner.
Time and time again Disney likes to do things on the cheap, but put a fancy dress on it. They are more concerned on appearances and how it goes into the story versus the comfort of the people who actually utilize it. In many cases too, the designers are building with California in mind instead of super intolerable Florida weather. Hell, they even screwed up with Disneyland’s most recent monorail makeover and their lack of cabin ventilation.
Choosing a gondola based transit system that spans long distances in Florida weather, in my opinion, shows how out of touch the powers that control expenditures are at Disney. During normal operation it’s semi-practical, but once it stops for any long period of time it’s logistically going to be a huge problem like we saw.
