New Gondola Capacity?

[REG Glenn]

Is anyone else wondering if the new gondola system will be plagued with extremely long lines? I can only imagine how long the lines will be to get to either Epcot or HS, especially at park opening. I love these rides at other theme parks, Cedar Point and Six Flags over Georgia. But the cues for these lines are painstakingly slow.

And how will those at second and third stop resorts, such as the new Riviera or Caribbean Beach, catch their gondola car to Epcot if every car leaves full from Pop and AoA? Will Disney let every third car go empty from the first resort as to leave room for those at the other resorts? Just wondering. Surely Disney has all this thought out.

 

[nickys]

Is anyone else wondering if the new gondola system will be plagued with extremely long lines? I can only imagine how long the lines will be to get to either Epcot or HS, especially at park opening. I love these rides at other theme parks, Cedar Point and Six Flags over Georgia. But the cues for these lines are painstakingly slow.

And how will those at second and third stop resorts, such as the new Riviera or Caribbean Beach, catch their gondola car to Epcot if every car leaves full from Pop and AoA? Will Disney let every third car go empty from the first resort as to leave room for those at the other resorts? Just wondering. Surely Disney has all this thought out.

You may find the main gondola thread useful! Read the first post, it summarises the known details.

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/new-gondola-transportation-disney-skyliner.924477/

There are 3 distinct lines and you change at CBR. So AoA/POP to CBR, CBR to DHS and CBR to Epcot (IG) via Riviera. Riviera guests will be the only ones having that issue, and I’m sure they will figure it out - probably the empty gondolas solution.

They are constant load and unload. The capacity is huge, 6-8 people in a car, a car departing every 10 seconds or so. That’s a bus load of people in around 2 minutes.

 

[The Pho]

These are different systems than those in other parks. Those systems double as rides, where this is primarily transportation and will be run at a much higher speed with a much higher capacity. Think about how often you wait for a bus or boat or monorail currently at Disney. Then consider how most of the crowds for those are caused by actually waiting for the arrival of the bus or boat or monorail. These will load constantly eliminating that waiting crowd. The only time they should really see a line will be after fireworks or park close when large crowds all converge on it at once. Otherwise there really shouldn't be too big a line at any time.

 

[MaximumEd]

You're comparing a Yugo to a new Vette. Capacity and speed won't be an issue.

 

[winstongator]

You may find the main gondola thread useful! Read the first post, it summarises the known details.

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/new-gondola-transportation-disney-skyliner.924477/

There are 3 distinct lines and you change at CBR. So AoA/POP to CBR, CBR to DHS and CBR to Epcot (IG) via Riviera. Riviera guests will be the only ones having that issue, and I’m sure they will figure it out - probably the empty gondolas solution.

They are constant load and unload. The capacity is huge, 6-8 people in a car, a car departing every 10 seconds or so. That’s a bus load of people in around 2 minutes.

Exactly the capacity relative to buses is the relevant metric. It’s close to 10x. People complain less about the buses lines than in the overall wait.

I’d love to see cost analysis of the gondola vs buses. 3 resorts, 2 parks, add just one bus each, 16hrs/day, $25/hr, 365 = $876k and making barely a dent in time waiting for a bus. To get it to a fourth of today’s waits would be $1.5M/yr, just on the cost of the driver.

 

[thomas998]

You're comparing a Yugo to a new Vette. Capacity and speed won't be an issue.

I wonder if ADA is going to end up causing problem. When someone in a wheelchair gets up on the monorail they have to spend the extra time getting the ramps off the monorail so they can get the wheelchair on board.... I've seen them stop rides until they can get a person in a wheelchair that they are confined to onto the attraction car... So when a person in a wheelchair goes up to the gondola will it stop the entire line of gondolas until they are safely put onto it? I know I've been on ski lifts where the gondolas somehow are kept from moving while the cable continues to run, but if they do that with these gondolas isn't that going to create a fairly long backup of gondolas into the station? I'm sure if it is simply a random wheelchair every now and again it isn't going to be big deal, but given the number of people on scooter and in wheelchairs seems to be increasing the potential for having to start backing up gondolas while before the get cleared out from a previous bottleneck would seem to be likely.

 

[nickys]

I wonder if ADA is going to end up causing problem. When someone in a wheelchair gets up on the monorail they have to spend the extra time getting the ramps off the monorail so they can get the wheelchair on board.... I've seen them stop rides until they can get a person in a wheelchair that they are confined to onto the attraction car... So when a person in a wheelchair goes up to the gondola will it stop the entire line of gondolas until they are safely put onto it? I know I've been on ski lifts where the gondolas somehow are kept from moving while the cable continues to run, but if they do that with these gondolas isn't that going to create a fairly long backup of gondolas into the station? I'm sure if it is simply a random wheelchair every now and again it isn't going to be big deal, but given the number of people on scooter and in wheelchairs seems to be increasing the potential for having to start backing up gondolas while before the get cleared out from a previous bottleneck would seem to be likely.

This has been covered in the main thread, see above for the link.

All the stations, bar Riviera, have an extra bullwheel, allowing cars to be pulled off and brought to a complete stop if necessary, whilst the rest of the line continues unaffected.

 

[LUVofDIS]

Wow, that link as of today has 664 pages, that is a novel that I don't care to tackle.
If I remember correctly, it was stated months ago that the capacity of the system would be between 4000 and 5000 guests per hour. I wonder what the number is for buses at each of those resorts? But if a standard bus holds 50 people, and a buses is suppose to arrive every 20 minutes, though it seems to be less during peak times. So for entertainment purposes lets just say a bus arrives every 10 minutes, that would be 6 buses per hour per resort/park. so that would be 36 buses per hour (4 resorts and two parks). That would theoretically be 1800 people per hour. The buses can do more if they run closer together, but if I thought this out correctly, which I may not have, the gondolas can transport many more people than the buses can.

 

[nickys]

Wow, that link as of today has 664 pages, that is a novel that I don't care to tackle.
If I remember correctly, it was stated months ago that the capacity of the system would be between 4000 and 5000 guests per hour. I wonder what the number is for buses at each of those resorts? But if a standard bus holds 50 people, and a buses is suppose to arrive every 20 minutes, though it seems to be less during peak times. So for entertainment purposes lets just say a bus arrives every 10 minutes, that would be 6 buses per hour per resort/park. so that would be 36 buses per hour (4 resorts and two parks). That would theoretically be 1800 people per hour. The buses can do more if they run closer together, but if I thought this out correctly, which I may not have, the gondolas can transport many more people than the buses can.

If you read post #1, it summarises what we know. That’s not too hard, is it?

 

[larryz]

Wow, that link as of today has 664 pages, that is a novel that I don't care to tackle.

It does appear daunting at first, but it shouldn't take you more than a couple of days if you don't move your lips while you read. Your other option besides reading the whole thread is to search the thread for key words related to your interest, in this case, capacity.

 

[larryz]

You're comparing a Yugo to a new Vette. Capacity and speed won't be an issue.

Hmmm. If a Yugo can move 5 people 10 miles in 10 minutes, how long will it take a Vette to do the same?

 

[LUVofDIS]

If you read post #1, it summarises what we know. That’s not too hard, is it?

So I quickly looked at the post, the only thing I might disagree with is I don't remember seeing any articulated buses at the resorts being serviced by the gondolas. I would still hold that the gondolas can transport more people per hour than the buses, at least as long as the system doesn't go down.

 

[LUVofDIS]

Depends on which vette, I have one that goes from zero to 60 in 3.6 seconds but can only hold a driver and two guests, that is if one sits on the others lap. Of course a Yugo can hold three guests, though tightly.

 

[nickys]

So I quickly looked at the post, the only thing I might disagree with is I don't remember seeing any articulated buses at the resorts being serviced by the gondolas. I would still hold that the gondolas can transport more people per hour than the buses, at least as long as the system doesn't go down.

No one who has read anything about the gondolas could argue that the buses could transport more people per hour than the gondolas.

 

[thomas998]

So I quickly looked at the post, the only thing I might disagree with is I don't remember seeing any articulated buses at the resorts being serviced by the gondolas. I would still hold that the gondolas can transport more people per hour than the buses, at least as long as the system doesn't go down.

It all depends on how many buses you have. The gondolas will be limited by a maximum number that the cables can safely support. In theory Disney could just get more and more buses, and while eventually they might get so many there is no more room on the road for them they would likely surpass the gondola capacity well before that happened.

 

[Raineman]

OK, but will it have AC?

 

[nickys]

It all depends on how many buses you have. The gondolas will be limited by a maximum number that the cables can safely support. In theory Disney could just get more and more buses, and while eventually they might get so many there is no more room on the road for them they would likely surpass the gondola capacity well before that happened.

At 5000 people an hour, you would need 100 buses an hour to match the capacity!

The whole point of the gondolas is to replace the buses to 2parks from 4 resorts. So that’s a bus every 2 minutes to each of those resorts in order to surpass the gondola capacity.

 

[thomas998]

This has been covered in the main thread, see above for the link.

All the stations, bar Riviera, have an extra bullwheel, allowing cars to be pulled off and brought to a complete stop if necessary, whilst the rest of the line continues unaffected.

I went to the main thread, and it has little blurb about wheelchairs with a link in the mass of posts specifically on that point... but unfortunately when you read it you find that it is based on speculation. Maybe there is some post in that massive mess that points to some official details on how the gondolas will work, but it also seems that the entire thread if filled with more speculation than anything else. I poked around a bit, found some talk on being able to take cars of the line to move to service but that had nothing to do with having multiple loading platforms. I hope they thought through the problems and have a viable solution... but I wouldn't bet on it until the system is running.

Of course I still want to see how well these unairconditioned swinging sweat boxes are going to provide adequate ventilation to people during the hottest days of July and August. And find out if they will be stopped each time you get a good thunderstorm moving through. I know other parks that have gondola rides will shut them down when the wind reaches a certain level for safety reasons.

 

[nickys]

I went to the main thread, and it has little blurb about wheelchairs with a link in the mass of posts specifically on that point... but unfortunately when you read it you find that it is based on speculation. Maybe there is some post in that massive mess that points to some official details on how the gondolas will work, but it also seems that the entire thread if filled with more speculation than anything else. I poked around a bit, found some talk on being able to take cars of the line to move to service but that had nothing to do with having multiple loading platforms. I hope they thought through the problems and have a viable solution... but I wouldn't bet on it until the system is running.

Of course I still want to see how well these unairconditioned swinging sweat boxes are going to provide adequate ventilation to people during the hottest days of July and August. And find out if they will be stopped each time you get a good thunderstorm moving through. I know other parks that have gondola rides will shut them down when the wind reaches a certain level for safety reasons.

Based on speculation from @liftblog, who works in the industry and has his own blog on gondola systems. And based on his observations of the unique double bullwheel system that has been installed.

Passive ventilation works well in all climes, and the best known system with a/c is reknowned for it not working more often than working properly. At 11mph, and with solar reflecting glass, I think people will cope for the 5 minutes that they’ll be inside a gondola car.

And gondola systems work just fine going up mountains with far more wind than a normal day in Orlando.

But since nothing seems to satisfy you, we’ll just have to wait until it opens.

 

[thomas998]

At 5000 people an hour, you would need 100 buses an hour to match the capacity!

The whole point of the gondolas is to replace the buses to 2parks from 4 resorts. So that’s a bus every 2 minutes to each of those resorts in order to surpass the gondola capacity.

Actually if they use articulated buses then they need less than 45 going between a resort and park to beat the capacity of the gondolas as those type buses hold 112 people... And if you were reallying trying to move the people faster from one resort to a park you wouldn't even be forced to have all the buses depart from a central point at the resort or even make a loop to each bus stop on the resorts bus loop, you could have buses that only went to a specific point at the resort. It might make it more confusing for the people returning to make sure they got on the right bus, but in the end there buses have one major advantage over the gondolas and that is the ability to switch their routes. If for some wacky reason Disney decided it wanted ultimate service to one resort and a park they could easily slam half their fleet of buses going between those two points, it wouldn't be anything I would ever expect but in theory it is possible.