I think the real concern is the increase of gondola guests that will now be using the international gateway as their entrance into Epcot. Part of the IG appeal is the fact that there’s typically hardly a wait to enter the park. After the gondolas are finished, that’s clearly going to change.
Not only that but guest spill over to wandering around the Yacht Club, Beaches and Cream, Boardwalk, etc.
I think that spillover is a principal reason behind the gondolas. Not the ONLY reason, but I'm sure WDW's hoping people staying at CB or AoA will use the gondolas to get to their least best kept secret, the resorts that have DVC Villas, plus the new DVC resort being built. "How you gonna keep them down on the farm after they've seen Beach Club?" People staying there might use the gondolas to get to a character breakfast at Beach Club or a night out at Jellyrolls, see the location, the accommodations and think "next time I want to stay here" or "we really need to take one of those DVC tours."
Of course, it could backfire and people will think "I can visit those resorts any time I want now, the gondola makes it easy." Only time will tell...
But as far as those extra bodies clogging up IG, also, only time will tell. You gotta think about how many people at those resorts at any given time will all want to go to Epcot, and how dispersed they'll be over the course of a day. Even including Pop Century, assuming people staying there who want to go to Epcot will go over to the gondolas, the maximum capacity of Pop, AoA, Caribbean Beach and the new Riviera themed DVC when it's open is under 32K. Between the 4 parks and the water parks and people who are just chilling at the hotel or going to DS or offsite any given day...say 20% will be going to Epcot max? So 6400.
All of the "OG" Epcot hotels, at max capacity, is about 20K. So same deal, Let's say 25% on any given day's going to Epcot? A little more than the 20% I estimated at the other resorts because it's so close, maybe? SO 5000.
Now, this is an assumption on my part, but if the walkway to the OG Epcot hotels has a metal detector, and the entrance points at each gondola stand has a metal detector before you board, there will be no need for further delays at the actual IG entrance point.
Even assuming half the people show up an hour between an hour before park opens and 2 hours after it opens, with the rest straggling in over the course of the day.
That's roughly 950 people going through each of the two turnstiles (assuming they don't make it bigger) per hour for those three hours. And that would stink as you'd need to average 16 people going through each turnstile each minute, which will not happen...
But again, that strikes me as absolute worst case scenario, 10% of all of those hotels, all of which operating at max capacity, each room at max capacity, all trying to get through those two turnstiles in a 3 hour period. That doesn't count the rest of the day when things will be slower. Or when the hotels aren't at max capacity. And assuming they don't do anything to address the higher capacity which, for all we know, they will.
Also bear in mind that once the parks are open, the gondolas only drop people off 8 at a time, which disperses people in a time period far more efficiently than the Epcot resorts boats where dozens of people can all show up at the exact same time. Anyone who's ever stayed at an Epcot resort and walked to IG knows that feeling of seeing a boat coming along your side and trying to pick up the pace so you're not behind a sudden influx of lazybones who sailed in style while you pounded the pavement to get to IG and dad gummit you deserve to go in first pick up the pace grandma it's sprinting time!
