Honeypot: Complaints about the Skyliner/Gondola; also worries and insecurities

[Lensman]

John Nettles. I prefer his Tom Barnaby to Neil Dudgeon's John Barnaby.

Yep, though Neil grew on me and I find him acceptable now. I find it harder to get used to the new DSs every few seasons.

My sister finally convinced me to watch John Thaw as Inspector Morse. That also opened up Lewis and Endeavor to me. I loved Morse and Endeavor, but haven't finished Lewis yet.

She also got me to watch Netflix's Father Brown, which I like a lot.

 

[Damon7777]

Sorry but when I read no air conditioning, I began perspiring. Riding in a tin can (or reasonable facsimile)in Florida in the summertime with 90 degree temps and 100% humidity surrounded by sweaty people

What a wimp! You mean to tell me you actually have a problem with Disney giving us the Dehi, Manila or Nanchang experience.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I have a serious problem with that tower....

They should become coming out of the ground vertically, not laying on their sides. They are not going to work very well that way.

I hope they have seatbelts, otherwise everyone is going to be smashed to one side. Could that be #102?

 

[cosmicgirl]

I hope they have seatbelts, otherwise everyone is going to be smashed to one side. Could that be #102?

If you mean burried under an ECV after an emergency stop due to lightning in Tampa, then sure.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Is that an honest question? My answer - I don't know. I would never have thought of most of how Disney themes stuff. That's one of the draws of a Disney park though. You feel like you're in another world. Imagineers do a fantastic job at that. My opinion is those towers are too industrial. I think they could've done better.

Theme... let's talk about theme here. What we have is a new (to Disney), fun way to move people from spot A to spot B. What we have here is a Gondola taking you to a theme park. They are themed, amazingly like a Gondola taking you to a theme park. It doesn't run through a park interrupting the theme inside that park anymore then a bus pulling up to the entrance of MK upsets that or the Monorail riding past the Grand Floridian, Poly or through the Contemporary. It is themed as a Gondola. What more could anyone ask?

 

[FettFan]

If they had put shrouds over the wheels on the tower then it may have helped or it may have just looked like a shroud floating up in the sky and then they would have had to do something else. I bet it'll be like cell towers. Originally all you saw was cell towers everywhere and they were pretty ugly. Now, they're so ubiquitous that you don't even notice them.

Once you get used to these towers, I think that they'll just fade into the background. I tend to think that doing just about anything to them would make them stand out more than anything.

I should still think that a paint job would be in order.

Maybe in the purple/red/yellow/black color scheme to match the WDW road signs?

 

[LAKid53]

Yep, though Neil grew on me and I find him acceptable now. I find it harder to get used to the new DSs every few seasons.

My sister finally convinced me to watch John Thaw as Inspector Morse. That also opened up Lewis and Endeavor to me. I loved Morse and Endeavor, but haven't finished Lewis yet.

She also got me to watch Netflix's Father Brown, which I like a lot.

Morse is excellent. Bit of trivia - the actress who plays the reporter in Endeavor, Abigail Thaw, is John Thaw's daughter. Lewis is good.

Love Father Brown. Nice to see Mark Williams play something other than Ron Wesley's hapless father.

Another program I would suggest that's on Netflix and similar to these is Granchester. It's another cleric solving crimes show, but much edgier.

 

[nickys]

Morse is excellent. Bit of trivia - the actress who plays the reporter in Endeavor, Abigail Thaw, is John Thaw's daughter. Lewis is good.

Love Father Brown. Nice to see Mark Williams play something other than Ron Wesley's hapless father.

Another program I would suggest that's on Netflix and similar to these is Granchester. It's another cleric solving crimes show, but much edgier.

You really need to watch Foyle’s War too. It actually uses some real back stories from the War to good effect. The tragic disaster on a Cornwall beach involving US troops, the storage of hundreds of pictures from the National Gallery in an underground bunker in Wales are just two. And then it becomes hard to separate fact from fiction later on with SOE and so on.

Lewis too has some great story lines surrounding events in Oxford, like the Inklings. Love Morse, Lewis and Endeavour in different ways. The nods to Morse (in Endeavour) are just incredibly poignant. And they do such a good job of referencing characters from years later, all thanks to Colin Dexter having such an integral part in it. The only problem being DI Thursday, in that he’s one character never mentioned in Morse. So how is that to be reconciled, if at all? I dread some deeply tragic event to explain how Morse apparently never refers to him in his later career.

Edit: at this point I should mention I haven’t actually seen the most recent 4 episodes of Endeavour. So no spoilers please!

 

[Lensman]

Morse is excellent. Bit of trivia - the actress who plays the reporter in Endeavor, Abigail Thaw, is John Thaw's daughter. Lewis is good.

Love Father Brown. Nice to see Mark Williams play something other than Ron Wesley's hapless father.

Another program I would suggest that's on Netflix and similar to these is Granchester. It's another cleric solving crimes show, but much edgier.

You really need to watch Foyle’s War too. It actually uses some real back stories from the War to good effect. The tragic disaster on a Cornwall beach involving US troops, the storage of hundreds of pictures from the National Gallery in an underground bunker in Wales are just two. And then it becomes hard to separate fact from fiction later on with SOE and so on.

Lewis too has some great story lines surrounding events in Oxford, like the Inklings. Love Morse, Lewis and Endeavour in different ways. The nods to Morse (in Endeavour) are just incredibly poignant. And they do such a good job of referencing characters from years later, all thanks to Colin Dexter having such an integral part in it. The only problem being DI Thursday, in that he’s one character never mentioned in Morse. So how is that to be reconciled, if at all? I dread some deeply tragic event to explain how Morse apparently never refers to him in his later career.

Edit: at this point I should mention I haven’t actually seen the most recent 4 episodes of Endeavour. So no spoilers please!

Thanks for the tips, I'll give them a try!

Regarding DI Thursday, maybe the Endeavour writers will talk to the writers from ST: Discovery? Actually, I hope they don't and instead come up with something better or simply don't address it at all and let us in the audience have our own theories. In some ways, it's the most poignant just knowing how it all ends.

I'm so glad I found some kindred souls. We'll have to have our own little special interest group. Speaking of which, do you know any good ones for Morse?

 

[LAKid53]

You really need to watch Foyle’s War too. It actually uses some real back stories from the War to good effect. The tragic disaster on a Cornwall beach involving US troops, the storage of hundreds of pictures from the National Gallery in an underground bunker in Wales are just two. And then it becomes hard to separate fact from fiction later on with SOE and so on.

Lewis too has some great story lines surrounding events in Oxford, like the Inklings. Love Morse, Lewis and Endeavour in different ways. The nods to Morse (in Endeavour) are just incredibly poignant. And they do such a good job of referencing characters from years later, all thanks to Colin Dexter having such an integral part in it. The only problem being DI Thursday, in that he’s one character never mentioned in Morse. So how is that to be reconciled, if at all? I dread some deeply tragic event to explain how Morse apparently never refers to him in his later career.

Edit: at this point I should mention I haven’t actually seen the most recent 4 episodes of Endeavour. So no spoilers please!

If you haven't figured out by now, there are few shows that originate from the UK I haven't seen. I've got a subscription to both Britbox and Acorn and I've been watching PBS, especially Masterpiece, since high school. I do miss Mystery as a separate PBS program.

And as PD James has died, no more books or Adam Dalgliesh series.

Love Foyles War. Wish there were more seasons.

Yeah, it will be interesting to see how they handle Thursday as the series progresses. You can see how Morse slowly becomes the crusty, somewhat tragic figure of the later years. You really begin to feel for him.

I'm waiting for a new season of Tennison.

Thanks for the tips, I'll give them a try!

Regarding DI Thursday, maybe the Endeavour writers will talk to the writers from ST: Discovery? Actually, I hope they don't and instead come up with something better or simply don't address it at all and let us in the audience have our own theories. In some ways, it's the most poignant just knowing how it all ends.

I'm so glad I found some kindred souls. We'll have to have our own little special interest group. Speaking of which, do you know any good ones for Morse?

I am glad I found others with the same interest. My brother is a BIG fan of Morse, Endeavor and Lewis.

If you like the late John Thaw, I suggest watching Kavanagh QC. He plays a barrister who has his silks. What I found interesting is that a barrister in the UK can both represent CPS and a defendant. And that members of the same chambers will be on opposing sides.

 

[Lensman]

View attachment 377806

Has anyone seen this? Reedy Creek Firefighters feel they're stretched too thin with the Gondolas and SWGE coming soon.

That's not very reassuring.

This was already discussed in the main thread here:

Interesting article about there needing to be more firefighters after adding all of the attractions with specific coverage on the Skyliner:
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/bus...0190517-wuin256jerdohkngcufsdsltnu-story.html

For our non-Merican friends, the specific section:
Stromsnes spoke to the Sentinel in an interview recently to express a specific concern that Reedy Creek has added more equipment — but not more manpower — for when the 300 gondola cabins start running to Hollywood Studios and Epcot from several resorts this fall.

Should a problem with the gondolas ever arise, they could be up to 60 feet in the air or stopped over water.

Reedy Creek has spent $1.4 million on equipment and a truck that can go up to 116 feet and another truck for about $840,000 that can reach 173 feet, Classe said.

Reed Creek firefighters will also be able to access the gondolas by using a barge bought by Disney on a lake along the route.
Training on the new equipment began in April with Reedy Creek responders logging more than 2,500 hours so far.

But instead of hiring more people, the firefighters already on duty must take up any calls with the high-rise equipment, Stromsnes said.
“We have the equipment,” he said. “We just don’t have the people.”

At all times, at least 32 firefighters are on duty, minimal staffing levels in place since 2014, Stromsnes said. Classe added there are also two Battalion Chiefs and one shift commander on duty.

The force is made up of 138 firefighters overall.

In 2019, the Reedy Creek Fire Department made a budget request for 40 new positions although only two, which were administrative positions, were added, Stromsnes said, stressing his frustrations were not aimed at Disney but at Reedy Creek.

There's also some discussion of the relationship between the above complaint the the following legislation:

Disney may lose its right to build a nuclear power station

Interesting read on the Orlando Sentinel about Disney's right to build a nuclear power station, and moves to remove that right by legislators. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-bz-disney-nuclear-20190214-story.html

forums.wdwmagic.com

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The real “complaints”...which are more fears...are these in my mind:

1. No ac...just no way to make sense of that
2. More traffic to th boardwalk/beach area. More traffic has always ruined a good thing in the past.
3. Inevitable price jacking for the rather cheap hotels on it...which will then bleed to others and make everything even more out of whack

 

[danlb_2000]

The real “complaints”...which are more fears...are these in my mind:

1. No ac...just no way to make sense of that
2. More traffic to th boardwalk/beach area. More traffic has always ruined a good thing in the past.
3. Inevitable price jacking for the rather cheap hotels on it...which will then bleed to others and make everything even more out of whack

1. No way to make sense of it, unless you have actually read the considerable discussion on the topic in the main thread.

 

[nickys]

The real “complaints”...which are more fears...are these in my mind:

1. No ac...just no way to make sense of that
2. More traffic to th boardwalk/beach area. More traffic has always ruined a good thing in the past.
3. Inevitable price jacking for the rather cheap hotels on it...which will then bleed to others and make everything even more out of whack

2. Are you meaning more people in the area, foot traffic as opposed to actual traffic. That is a reasonable “fear” I guess, although maybe it would encourage them to actually open the Atlantic Dance Hall and use it for something.

3. The “rather cheap hotels”? Funny definition IMO, but OK. AoA is already priced above the rest of the values and less than the mods. But you’re right in that rates at the Skyliner resorts will probably increase. But what’s your concern exactly? If the increases “bleed to others” then everything then levels again, not making things “out of whack”. I think it’s more likely that the rates at AoA, POP and CBR all end up with a Skyliner premium on them. After all, they’ll have to contribute to the running costs which in the short term will be higher than just buses.

 

[cosmicgirl]

2. Are you meaning more people in the area, foot traffic as opposed to actual traffic. That is a reasonable “fear” I guess, although maybe it would encourage them to actually open the Atlantic Dance Hall and use it for something.

3. The “rather cheap hotels”? Funny definition IMO, but OK. AoA is already priced above the rest of the values and less than the mods. But you’re right in that rates at the Skyliner resorts will probably increase. But what’s your concern exactly? If the increases “bleed to others” then everything then levels again, not making things “out of whack”. I think it’s more likely that the rates at AoA, POP and CBR all end up with a Skyliner premium on them. After all, they’ll have to contribute to the running costs which in the short term will be higher than just buses.

They've already added a premium at Pop. I don't know about the others. I booked a maybe trip at Pop for RoE back in February and the same hotel stay cost exactly $25/night more a while back. And yes, the first booking was rack rate (free dining).

 

[larryz]

I would love that but I doubt Disney would hire me for such work ---my attraction would end up "NC-17" with scenes like mom screaming every profane word imaginable at her husband while delivering.

That would be called "The Wonders of Wife" pavilion.

 

[Lensman]

I updated the first post to add links to 27 discussions of AC in the main gondola thread. I have more but I'll add them later. Took a couple of hours as it is and I have other fun stuff to do now.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

2. Are you meaning more people in the area, foot traffic as opposed to actual traffic. That is a reasonable “fear” I guess, although maybe it would encourage them to actually open the Atlantic Dance Hall and use it for something.

3. The “rather cheap hotels”? Funny definition IMO, but OK. AoA is already priced above the rest of the values and less than the mods. But you’re right in that rates at the Skyliner resorts will probably increase. But what’s your concern exactly? If the increases “bleed to others” then everything then levels again, not making things “out of whack”. I think it’s more likely that the rates at AoA, POP and CBR all end up with a Skyliner premium on them. After all, they’ll have to contribute to the running costs which in the short term will be higher than just buses.

Charging $300 for Caribbean and $200 for pop inevitably leads the shrews to say “well...If we can charge that...what can we get for ______?!?”

Which leads us to a base rate of $550 at boardwalk and “Elvis Tower at Disney’s All Star Music: A Disney Vacation Club Resort”

Disney consumers suck more and more everyday...they compartmentalize and self-justify what they will pay...thinking it doesn’t affect anyone. When that is EXACLTY the opposite of how things are priced. Micro brains trying to not get crushed in a “macro” world.

Experience

 

[imarc]

Whispers that Disney has put in a large order of these to sell outside the Skyliner.

It allows guests to use their own sweat to cool the remains of their smoldering companions.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I can only hope they are automatic seat beats so while I'm dropped to my death in the oven after a lighting strike I'll have no chance at all of out swimming the gators. Just blup blup blup to the bottom of the lagoon.

I don't have to be faster than the gator just faster than you.

At 71 years old, I think you would be safe. Let my children know that I went out while saving your life. It's the least you could do!