Swan-Dolphin "monorail" ready?

[PeterAlt]

If you look at the Swan and Dolphin hotels, you would see two big gaping holes on the top of them. I've heard that these were for a future monorail line running through them! The two hotels would have monorail station where these holes are. Has anyone else heard about this?

Also, I've heard that there are pylons already in place at World Showcase where this future monorail line is suppose to run through. Has anyone else heard about future monorail line structures that have been installed over the years?

 

[mkt]

i've heard this at well, and while I don't doubt that it COULD happen, I doubt that it ever will.

 

[Woody13]

WDW would NEVER expand the monorail to the Tishman properties. Actually, even staying in the Swan or Dolphin resorts is very anti-Disney!:lol:

 

[PeterAlt]

Found these pictures of concept art of what I'm talking about...

Moderator -- why won't my IMG tags work????

 

[mkt]

read the lower left.. just underneath the posting buttons to the left. It tells you what options are available.. different forum, different options. In this one, it's HTML..

so use

<img src="IMAGE URL">

 

[wdwmagic]

Thats an urban legend.
There are critical structures behind those black areas, that are needed for the buildings to remain standing (not to mention the conference areas and rooms in those areas). The buildings are also not deep enough to enable loading/unloading of the monorial inside the buiklding.
The black areas are also at different heights between the 2 resorts.

They are simply a Michael Graves design feature.

 

[Pixie Duster]

Actually when those building were first erected those black areas were not well, black. The reason why there is a strong possiblity for the monorail to go through them is because they are at near center of WDW property. I believe monorail expansion is going to happen eventually, with the lightrail station coming around 2010 I think the possibility of monorail expansion will reach a new height.

On a side note the Swan and Dolphin are a Westin hotel which is a Starwood property. I was offered a job with the Westin Grand Bohemian but I am not sure I was gonna leave Disney for it, anyway I researched a little bit and that's one of the things I found out.

 

[Sir Hiss527]

Very Interesting...This would very cool to see in the Future.

 

[wdwmagic]

Originally posted by Pixie Duster
Actually when those building were first erected those black areas were not well, black. The reason why there is a strong possiblity for the monorail to go through them is because they are at near center of WDW property.

The original monorail master plan, that you can see here http://www.wdwmagic.com/master.htm does show the monorail going near the Swan, but not through it. It runs much closer to the Yacht Club area than the Swan. It would make more sense to have a station serve all of those resorts, rather than just the Swan/Dolphin by going through its centre.

It comes off the Living Sea side of the EPCOT station, through the old tramway between Yacht/Beach and Dolphin, between Boardwalk and the waterway that leads to Studios, stops there, continues to World of Sports, AK and several hotels on the other side, eventually finishing just short of the Interstate 4/World Drive interchange.

 

[surfsupdon]

The hotels are not "front--back" wide enough to hold a full monorail train and the necessary stations.

The black squares are not equal to eachother on the sister hotels.
And are full of rooms.

And the entire hotels would have to rework their floor plans throughout to deal with the heavy crowds that monorails can bring.

A better solution would be to have a centralized station for all the Epcot Resorts, minus Carib. Beach, of course.

 

[ArchiDanDisney]

Architect Speaking:
If, and this is a big IF, Disney wanted to expand the monorail and have a station in the swan and dolphin, they would lose at least $348,000 dollars a night, due to lost revenue, and operating expenses. If they wanted to expand it, they would need to come up with a heck of a lot of cash. We're talking serious ticket and hotel price hikes. Logistically, it's just not probable, impossible no, but improbable probably. The busses right now, are more efficient than they were years ago, and there are fewer busses now. Well just thought I would imput that. Oh and by the way, Michael Graves NEVER considered a monorail station in his design :animwink:

 

[crazydaveh]

like everyone, I would like to see the monorail system expand, but I don't think we'll see it in our lifetime!

 

[SIR90210]

Interesting concept. Not likely, but interesting.

 

[cloudboy]

This rumor has been around for years. I knew someone who had interned with Graves office around that time. Apparently they thought that the buiding without those black areas looked a little too massive, and they added the black areas to break up the area. Purely a design feature, and not anything to do with the monorail.

 

[PeterAlt]

Originally posted by wdwmagic
Thats an urban legend.
There are critical structures behind those black areas, that are needed for the buildings to remain standing (not to mention the conference areas and rooms in those areas). The buildings are also not deep enough to enable loading/unloading of the monorial inside the buiklding.
The black areas are also at different heights between the 2 resorts.

They are simply a Michael Graves design feature.

What about the legend of the unused monorail pylons in World Showcase? Do they exist and where exactlt are they?

 

[cloudboy]

From my understanding (and this is only what I have heard and read in a book a while back) that the footingd for the pylons were placed when they first built epcot. Footings are the base on which the pylons sit on. Imagine you are putting up a mailbox - the mailbox is on a post, which you stick in the ground. But if the ground is soft, you put a cement block or stone underneath it in the ground to help keep it from sinking.

I belive that they only poured the ones in the lagoon, as they figured it would be easier to pour a little extra concrete before they had filled the lake.

 

[Pixie Duster]

Thanks for clearly it up... but I don't think we should write off the possibilit yof a monorail expansion, especially with the light rail coming...

 

[SIR90210]

If they do one thing to the monorail, the should add a station on the back side of the current EPCOT loop to serve World Showcase, near where the arches are around the holidays.

 

[imagineersrock]

Originally posted by SIR90210
If they do one thing to the monorail, the should add a station on the back side of the current EPCOT loop to serve World Showcase, near where the arches are around the holidays.

what purpose would that serve..?

 

[mkt]

for lazy people that don't wish to walk from the monorail station to World Showcase...