If you’re an on-site guest staying at one of the Skyliner resorts, taking advantage of Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios or EPCOT means at least one ride on the gondolas. This shares my cautionary tale and offers words of warning about when to line up for the Skyliner gondolas, or if you should pay extra for Uber/Lyft or Minnie Van.
During a recent stay at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, I intended upon continuing my testing of the best approaches to Early Entry at EPCOT via the International Gateway. Specifically, determining whether I could beat the front entrance crowd to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (still a big nope) as well as the new protocol for Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
While I’ve used the Skyliner for Early Entry with regularity from Caribbean Beach and Riviera Resorts, it had been a while since I’d done the same from the Art of Animation and Pop Century station during busier dates. While I’ve used it during the off-season without issue, that isn’t the same.
Before we dig into the details of the day, let’s start with a few notes. The days I stayed at Art of Animation were 7/10 to 9/10 on the crowd calendar at EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios (depending on the park and day). Average wait times throughout the day for headliners like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, and other attractions were all above an hour–a couple were over 2 hours.
Equally importantly from the perspective of the Skyliner, I would assume occupancy at both Pop Century and Art of Animation were pretty high. This was during the heart of spring break season, and when I checked shortly before my travel dates, neither resort had any availability in the standard rooms. Art of Animation did have one family suite style available, but that’s not uncommon. Occupancy all across Walt Disney World was high.
Also notable about these tests occurred on days when both EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened at 9:00 am. This has been the norm for over a year, as it’s exceedingly rare for either to extended their hours to 8:30 am opening times. It’s only happened a handful of times with DHS in the last year, and none (to the best of my recollection) at EPCOT.
This is relevant because the current standard operating procedure is for the Skyliner to open only an hour before Early Entry starts. On this particular day, that meant 7:30 am. The Skyliner used to open at 7 am daily with regularity, but that hasn’t been the case for at least a year. (If my experience was any indication, it needs to go back to opening at 7 am!)
This is highlighted because it could change the calculus on using the Skyliner for Early Entry. As we’ve seen in the past, morning crowds are worse with later start times and better with earlier ones. This is because people like to sleep-in on vacation, or so I’m told. This shrinks the pool of participants for Early Entry as the start time moves earlier.
Similarly, starting the Skyliner at 7:30 am puts more stress on the system, as many guests want to take advantage of Early Entry want to be at Disney’s Hollywood Studios or EPCOT by around that time. As a result, some guests line up before the Skyliner opens, and there can be a backlog to process that never goes away in the lead-up to Early Entry.
Finally, there’s a big difference between doing Early Entry from Caribbean Beach and Riviera Resort versus Pop Century and Art of Animation. This is due to the extra transfer. It is always going to take longer to use the Skyliner from the two Value Resorts as a result. In normal crowds, that’s usually just an extra 5-10 minutes, though.
Between the two Value Resorts, there are nearly 5,000 rooms. And at Art of Animation, a large number of those are family suites, so there are more guests per room on average. This is a lot of guests being serviced by one station, and during peak season, there’s not just high occupancy, but also higher crowds–creating a greater incentive to take advantage of Early Entry.
By contrast, there are under 2,000 rooms in total between Caribbean Beach and Riviera Resort. Granted, the latter is DVC and has a variety of larger rooms, but roughly two-thirds of the rooms are standard studios or the smaller 2-person studios. More importantly, there are two stations at these two resorts, which dilutes demand to some degree. (The “to some degree” part is because these stations also have to process AoA and Pop transfers.)
On the particular day I did this, I left my Little Mermaid room at Art of Animation Resort at about 7:30 am.
This was much later than I would’ve liked to leave. Normally, I’ll line up 15 minutes before the Skyliner officially opens. On some occasions, I’ve been lucky and it’s quietly started running prior to the posted time.
Since this was checkout day and I was transferring resorts, I also had to drop my luggage off at the front before heading back to the Skyliner station. Even so, I could see the line across Hourglass Lake at Pop Century, and it was long. It’s hard to make out from the phone photo, but the line extends all the way to the bowling pin on the far left of the above photo.
After dropping off my bags at the front and making my way back to the Skyliner station, I found a similarly long line on the Art of Animation side. Here’s the end of it as of 7:55 am.
Unlike the end-of-night lines at EPCOT’s International Gateway or Disney’s Hollywood Studios, this line didn’t move especially quickly. It was more like starts and stops, somewhat akin to a standby line merging with the Lightning Lane.
Or in this case, two different standby lines, as there was a Cast Member merging the Art of Animation and Pop Century queues for the Skyliner. They’d let X number of guests through from one side, then hold the line and do the same for the other side.
During normal middle-of-the-day operations, each party will usually get a Skyliner cabin to themselves.
I was worried that was the case here, as the line seemed to be moving really slowly, but it was all a matter of that merge. Cast Members at the station were loading cabins efficiently. Not to their full capacity maximum, but that can be unpleasantly crowded–and it’s difficult to group that well at this station.
Anyway, I was finally boarded the Skyliner at the Hourglass Lake station at 8:26 am. All told, it was a wait of ~30 minutes, which was worse than I’d ever experienced for Early Entry, even during the height of crowds plus physical distancing. (My previous high was under 25 minutes.)
My Early Entry plan for Toy Story Land was totally out the window at this point, regardless, but I was nevertheless concerned that I’d encounter another similarly-long line at the hub station at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. The same guests would still be in front of me, plus another few thousand more from those rooms–a converging crowd and chaotic situation. Between this being peak spring break season, that’s what I was bracing myself for the worst upon exiting at CBR.
I was very happy to be wrong, and thankfully, this was not even remotely the case. To my surprise, there was almost no line on the DHS side, and EPCOT was well within its normal switchbacks. These lines were significantly shorter than I’ve experienced recently at Caribbean Beach’s hub…albeit around an hour earlier!
My best guess as to the explanation for this is that there are multiple stations and destinations here, thereby diluting crowds. On top of that, I was already late at this point, so I was probably behind the rush from CBR and Riviera. In any case, I was on the Skyliner bound for Disney’s Hollywood Studios by 8:32 am in a cabin all to myself. I’ll take it–small victory!
Another small victory is that I was through security at Disney’s Hollywood Studios by 8:40 am.
No line, no secondary screening–nothing. This put me inside the park only a few minutes later (it looks busy, but the entry process is smooth with fingerprint verification disabled), still with 20 minutes on the clock during Early Entry.
For those who are curious, this arrival time takes both Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash off the table. For both of these headliners, if you’re on time for Early Entry, you’re late. And I wasn’t even on-time. By the time I made my way back to Toy Story Land, the line for Slinky Dog Dash was approaching the Woody marquee!
All of my best options at this point would’ve been secondary attractions in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land or (better yet) Sunset Boulevard. I could’ve knocked out both Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror ahead of the regular rope drop rush.
Honestly, that might have been my best option no matter when I arrived. One of the things I’m trying to test is time saved starting at Sunset Boulevard versus the aforementioned headliners. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is routinely a top 3 wait time in the park, not that far off from Slinky Dog Dash and Rise of the Resistance. And yet, it’s much less popular during Early Entry.
Point being, the play if you’re on time or slightly late to Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is probably Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (potentially twice) and Tower of Terror for maximum time savings. (I’m not a fan of doing Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at this point.)
The flight is longer to EPCOT, but I’m guessing I still could’ve made it inside International Gateway by around 8:50 am. That would not have given me enough time to power walk to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, but it would’ve left Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure or maybe Frozen Ever After as options.
I haven’t tried doing the Rat Ride at the end of Early Entry, so I can’t speak to whether there’s a bit of a lull after the first wave of guests are processed, but I’m guessing there is not. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is still a really popular Early Entry destination even post-Cosmic Rewind getting a standby line.
Not only that, but there are still plenty of families who come through the front entrance of EPCOT and do Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure first. This results in a steady flow of guests doing Rat Ride throughout Early Entry. While I haven’t tested the actual wait times around 8:55 am, I’ve gotten off the ride around then and observed the continued influx.
Ultimately, just a warning if you’re planning to use the Skyliner for Early Entry at EPCOT or Disney’s Hollywood Studios to do Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, or Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. You absolutely need to line up at or before the Skyliner officially opens. While I was still able to salvage my morning, it required pivoting from my original Toy Story Land plan, which would’ve been an awful idea as I was behind the wave of the crowd.
Obviously, I would’ve been in a much better position were I not running late. That’s my own fault and I knew I’d be cutting it close. But even at around 7:30 am when it first opened, the line was lengthy for the Skyliner, and probably around a 30 minute wait then, too. It might’ve even been longer depending on how many people lined up ahead of opening.
That would’ve put my arrival time at DHS at around 8:10 am or 8:20 at EPCOT, at the earliest. Those times are still pushing it for all of the aforementioned headliners–you definitely won’t be at or near the front of the pack! And if you aren’t near the front of the pack, it really calls into question whether you should start with Slinky Dog Dash, Rise of the Resistance, etc.
It’s unfortunate that Walt Disney World has pushed back the opening of the Skyliner to 7:30 am, as that clearly is insufficient, especially for Pop Century and Art of Animation due to the extra transfer. Honestly, based on my recent experiences with Early Entry at DHS, I’d also add that it’s a shame this park also isn’t opening earlier–but that’s another story for another post.
When it comes to arriving on time, walking from the Crescent Lake Resorts is still the optimal strategy for Early Entry at DHS or EPCOT since you’re in control of your own fate. (I don’t even like to take the FriendShip boats for Early Entry since they’re less predictable!) However, that’s not easily accomplishable unless you’re staying at those hotels. From the Hourglass Lake or Barefoot Bay Resorts, walking isn’t an option.
The main takeaway here should be that it’s necessary to be at the Hourglass Lake Skyliner station by 7:15 am or so in peak crowds, start with attractions other than these headliners, or spend extra by taking an Uber, Lyft, or Minnie Van from the Skyliner resorts. The gondola is a great way to start the day, but there’s not a huge margin for error if you’re trying to do one of the top 4 rides at DHS or EPCOT from Art of Animation or Pop Century Resorts.
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Your Thoughts
Have you used the Skyliner for Early Entry at EPCOT or Disney’s Hollywood Studios from the Hourglass Lake Value Resorts? What time did you arrive at the station? How long was the line? Were you still able to beat the crowds to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Cosmic Rewind, or Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure? What time did the Skyliner start operating when you did this? Would you recommend the Skyliner, or using Uber/Lyft? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
