News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
well i for one feel it should be expanded.. we stay at pop a lot ... ( a WHOLE LOT)_.. and it would be great if it went to at least one more park.. probably Animal Kingdom since the Monorail connects epcot and mk... to me this would be outstanding..

Connecting to Animal Kingdom would definitely be easier than connecting to Magic Kingdom, but it would probably end up being a 15-20 minute long route (from Pop directly; it would be even longer from CBR/Riviera). The best way to do it would likely involved connecting to Blizzard Beach or possibly Coronado Springs too (since they're between Pop and DAK), but that would end up needing additional turn stations which would slow it down/make the trip longer.

I don't think they could connect the current DHS station to DAK because of where the station is at DHS (if they did it would probably need multiple turn stations), so trying to go from DAK back to DHS would end up being like a 35 minute trip if you stayed on the Skyliner.
 

JD80

Premium Member
Pop to Epcot is roughly 2.14 mi. Disney says on their own plandisney website that it's about a 20m ride.

Drawing a straight line from CBR to Blizzard Beach to the entrance of AK is roughly 2.82 miles. So a ride to AK from CBR would be roughly 26m

A bus from AK to DHS is roughly 15m of drive time. I assume a bus to POP would be similar.
 

Vegas Disney Fan

Well-Known Member
How are you going to “disguise” that and not have it standout worse than it is now?
I'm not an imagineer and horrible at photoshop but this took me about 5 minutes in Paint... still far from perfect but vastly superior to what they built in my opinion... mirror the building next-door and a little go away blue paint could go a long way.


CB Tower 1.jpg

CB Tower.jpg

Walking along the paths at least you wouldn't be passing what feels like a massive powerpole.
 
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Chef idea Mickey`=

Well-Known Member
I wonder why they didn’t build Caribbean beach to Epcot and riviera to Caribbean beach as a seperate spur? Seems like it would have been a win all around.
Promoting, intrigue, show off "The Riviera" experience. The Riveria is as much a highlight with the Skyliner.

Makes me wonder if they ever expanded the Skyliner, it would include another DVC resort accompanied with it and not just Coronado Spring's to it. A Blizzard Beach connection to me isn't necessary.
 

andre85

Well-Known Member
I'm not an imagineer and horrible at photoshop but this took me about 5 minutes in Paint... still far from perfect but vastly superior to what they built in my opinion... mirror the building next-door and a little go away blue paint could go a long way.


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Walking along the paths at least you wouldn't be passing what feels like a massive powerpole.

This is a lovely idea. I really like the Skyliner, but it's definitely an eyesore in some spots. This feels like it would have been a pretty trivial workaround at some locations
 

plutofan15

Well-Known Member
Took a shot at your photo and despite looking horribly amateurish I still think it looks infinitely better than what Disney built...

View attachment 844627View attachment 844628

While I agree that some sort of camouflage would be nice, over 25 years working in construction and engineering for a cellular provider, trying to hide towers is extremely expensive and the majority of the time it doesn’t work very well. In fact, the camo sites tend to be more obvious than the standard towers.
IMG_4145.jpeg

Can you find the camo tree site in this photo? 😄. Because cell sites need the antennas aby the tree line, camo sites are going the tallest “tree” in the area. Plus they are completely straight and the fake leafs/pine needles do not change during the seasons. In the case of palm trees, they would be the tallest & thickest trees in the area with the remaining tour sticking out of the top. It would look awful. Plus, the extra complication of performing maintenance would be prohibitive.
 

plutofan15

Well-Known Member
This is a lovely idea. I really like the Skyliner, but it's definitely an eyesore in some spots. This feels like it would have been a pretty trivial workaround at some locations

The cost is anything but trivial. Access to the support tower would be more difficult for maintenance and emergency access. Every structure has a life expectancy, including the Skyliner support towers. At some point thet will need upgraded/ replaced. Plus a lighthouse or some other structure would stand out with part of support tower sticking out of the top. It would be nice to camouflage them in some way but practicality and cost would be prohibitive.
 

andre85

Well-Known Member
The cost is anything but trivial. Access to the support tower would be more difficult for maintenance and emergency access. Every structure has a life expectancy, including the Skyliner support towers. At some point thet will need upgraded/ replaced. Plus a lighthouse or some other structure would stand out with part of support tower sticking out of the top. It would be nice to camouflage them in some way but practicality and cost would be prohibitive.

I can't imagine theming a handful of towers that run directly through some resorts would cost more than the towers themselves. I'm obviously no expert, but Disney has plenty of money, and I remember a time when they used to go out of their way to hide or disguise things that would break the theme
 

plutofan15

Well-Known Member
I can't imagine theming a handful of towers that run directly through some resorts would cost more than the towers themselves. I'm obviously no expert, but Disney has plenty of money, and I remember a time when they used to go out of their way to hide or disguise things that would break the theme
A stealth cell tower can easily cost 3x a normal tower. Any custom stealth tower for the Disney would easily push $500,000 each. And would stick out like a sore thumb along with access difficulty. I am not a gondola tower expert but a stealth tree cell tower can run easily $300,000 total construction cost. For all I know, there could be limitations on what can be done on gondola towers in regard to limiting access for emergency evacuations.
 

Vegas Disney Fan

Well-Known Member
A stealth cell tower can easily cost 3x a normal tower. Any custom stealth tower for the Disney would easily push $500,000 each. And would stick out like a sore thumb along with access difficulty. I am not a gondola tower expert but a stealth tree cell tower can run easily $300,000 total construction cost. For all I know, there could be limitations on what can be done on gondola towers in regard to limiting access for emergency evacuations.
I counted 5 towers inside CB resort, even at 10x that price it would be worth every cent.

This is a company that’s hid entire roller coasters inside mountains, I find it hard to believe they can’t figure something out… and if it’s impossible to hide them due to maintenance/code reasons that should have been a sign not to build it in the first place.

At this point I’d settle for some paint and some trees but even that seems to be too much effort for modern Disney.

Doesn’t really affect me since I’ll just stay at other resorts but I think it speaks volumes of how little Disney cares now. We used to love CB because we found it one of the most beautiful resorts on property, the skyliner unfortunately took a lot of that beauty away.
 
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