News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

What I'm seeing here is a way to give DHS/SWL quick access to 3 deluxe resorts, a huge moderate resort and a huge value resort. Disney is not going to make this a small capacity ride but a huge capacity people mover. 30-40 people get on a gondola every minute or even less and are whisked away in a never ending stream. Even though busses may travel faster at a particular moment they will lose out on average speed.

This will only be for on site guests. Think about end of day. Off site guests and others will use the main entrance to leave. Thousands of on site guests will leave out the back of you will. Just a thought but wouldn't it be great to enter the park at the resort and skip the lines to get in.

I would not be surprised if pop century becomes a hub to the other like minded resorts in the area. I also wouldn't be surprised if pop c didn't get a star wars re theme.

I don't think weather will be the problem many seem to think. engineers KNOW Florida has lightning and last time I checked hurricanes don't pop up at a moments notice.

This strikes me as a green and cheap way to move thousands of people quickly and efficiently.
 

deix15x8

Active Member
Their is a lot of talk about capacity, but with this system connecting two hotels to Epcot and two hotels to Hollywood Studios that seems like a rather low capacity need. Each line would only need to be the equivalent of the buses running between each park and those resorts. When it's new it'll have some interest riders, but those fade. How many people ride the boats just to ride them? The needed capacity would be about 1/4-1/2 of the capacity of these two hotels since not all those guests will be going to any particular park on a given day and only those staying at the hotels would have a real need to use it.
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
Disney just purchased 50 Gillig Low Floor Buses. At $380,000 each (according to one web site), that's $19 million dollars. And each one needs a bus driver. And is less efficient to operate than a GL.

They'll always need buses as back-ups and for surge demand and for off the beaten track destinations. But I imagine they'd like the most used routes to become as automated and efficient as possible.

This is the first answer that has actually provided an "answer" to the why..
Tha makes a little more sense, but busses can be moved around. How much of a price increase would have to happen at someplace like a value or a moderate.. ok, CBR is being made in to a deluxe apparently.. but a Value?

I don't know. I'll wait and see on this..
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
But enough of an overhaul to justify a multi million dollar transportation system?
Just seems like a lot to spend for little return.
Buses are not exciting or fun for most people (my kids loved them when they were little). This offers a unique transportation option that is part ride, part transport. The monorail is still wildly popular and is essentially just an elevated train.

Aside from being a fun way to get around, I think it makes sense from an economic perspective. The single largest line item of expense for WDW is labor costs. When you include the cost of benefits it's also rising significantly each year. If they can come up with a transportation option that significantly reduces labor (i.e. bus drivers) in the long run it's worth the investment. Add in the costs for maintaining the buses including more labor for mechanics. Remember that they have to replace buses somewhat frequently compared to a system like this too. The buses also result in wear and tear on roads that have to be repaved and they also add to the traffic jams on property.

I also think it's likely that this is just a test of the logistics of a system like this. If it works well it is easily expandable to other resorts and parks or Disney Springs. Creating a linked system would be both efficient and fun for guests.
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
Omg.... right. Because they reduced their inventory by over 25%.
I don't understand your position. A reduction in rooms in the past is irrelevant to what the actual occupancy is now.
Disney rooms are almost always full...year round.
The reason for a gondola would not be about room occupancy.
 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
The top right is the the one i was referring to. That would be the station for the new property.

Are you guessing or do you have "info" to suggest that? I'm asking because my gut reaction was that -- given these pieced together gondola plans -- the DVC resort would end up being located further south on the land across from Trinidad South/above AoA. I figure that if they were going to build a gondola "hub" there with lines going to directly to DHS and another to Epcot then that would be the ideal place to build a "deluxe" DVC resort that you are selling to the public.

I figured the building in the area you are describing could be used as a station for CBR (as well as being redirection for the gondolas).
 

andysol

Well-Known Member
I don't understand your position. A reduction in rooms in the past is irrelevant to what the actual occupancy is now.
Disney rooms are almost always full...year round.
The reason for a gondola would not be about room occupancy.

A reduction of rooms by converting to DVC allowed for the full occupancy at higher rates now. So yes- a reduction in rooms in the past is entirely relevant to what the occupancy is now. A reduction in rooms now would be irrelevant to the rooms in the past. You're completely backwards.

I don't get what you want- for everyone to just agree with you and say you're right? You must be lovely to live with...
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Their is a lot of talk about capacity, but with this system connecting two hotels to Epcot and two hotels to Hollywood Studios that seems like a rather low capacity need. Each line would only need to be the equivalent of the buses running between each park and those resorts. When it's new it'll have some interest riders, but those fade. How many people ride the boats just to ride them? The needed capacity would be about 1/4-1/2 of the capacity of these two hotels since not all those guests will be going to any particular park on a given day and only those staying at the hotels would have a real need to use it.
It looks like they will also be linking DHS with EPCOT as well, but your point is valid. It's about 4,000 hotel rooms for those 2 resorts as currently configured. If the system can handle something like 4,000 guests per hour that's more than enough capacity. Two things to consider: 1) CBR is in transition. Maybe it will end up with more than 2,000 rooms after the work is done. 2) What if they connect other resorts and parks at a later time? They could be building out extra capacity in anticipation that guests would be coming in from other locations and "switching" at the CBR station.
 

Daveeeeed

Well-Known Member
I don't understand your position. A reduction in rooms in the past is irrelevant to what the actual occupancy is now.
Disney rooms are almost always full...year round.
The reason for a gondola would not be about room occupancy.
Please. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Please don't derail this thread with negativity.


Now... Does anyone know what the current bus usage is for the resorts on the proposed gondola line?
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
A reduction of rooms by converting to DVC allowed for the full occupancy at higher rates now. So yes- a reduction in rooms in the past is entirely relevant to what the occupancy is now. A reduction in rooms now would be irrelevant to the rooms in the past. You're completely backwards.

I don't get what you want- for everyone to just agree with you and say you're right? You must be lovely to live with...
My comment was "we all know that Disney is not having trouble filling rooms so what would be the reason to build a transportation to a certain resort...where is the return going to come from."
That's all.
Talking about already converted DVC, and how it had an impact on occupancy, is completely off topic to this discussion..and has nothing to do with why room occupancy was brought up.

It looks like they will also be linking DHS with EPCOT as well, but your point is valid. It's about 4,000 hotel rooms for those 2 resorts as currently configured. If the system can handle something like 4,000 guests per hour that's more than enough capacity. Two things to consider: 1) CBR is in transition. Maybe it will end up with more than 2,000 rooms after the work is done. 2) What if they connect other resorts and parks at a later time? They could be building out extra capacity in anticipation that guests would be coming in from other locations and "switching" at the CBR station.

I understand that direction of thinking.
This is an interesting proposition.
I'm obviously skeptical, but it would be neat if something like that happened.
ETA..I quoted your wrong post, meant to quote the first one. But this one is semi applicable as well.lol
 

peter11435

Well-Known Member
Are you guessing or do you have "info" to suggest that? I'm asking because my gut reaction was that -- given these pieced together gondola plans -- the DVC resort would end up being located further south on the land across from Trinidad South/above AoA. I figure that if they were going to build a gondola "hub" there with lines going to directly to DHS and another to Epcot then that would be the ideal place to build a "deluxe" DVC resort that you are selling to the public.

I figured the building in the area you are describing could be used as a station for CBR (as well as being redirection for the gondolas).
The plans already show that the majority of the land across from Trinidad south will be new retention ponds.
 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
Their is a lot of talk about capacity, but with this system connecting two hotels to Epcot and two hotels to Hollywood Studios that seems like a rather low capacity need.

I'm not trying to pick on this post, but I've noted similar sentiments. So, it is important to note:

1. The CBR would be serviced and it is the largest moderate
2. It would be almost certain that both AoA and Pop Century would be serviced. It would be easy to put a station at a location in between the two resorts where guests of either could use it. My guess would be in the "50's Parking lot" on the north side of the hotels. So that's two more large hotels (probably about half of the total Value resort guest capacity)
3. A DVC resort (maybe two, as I think WDW 1974 hinted somewhere) is going to be built on part of the land (though, it may take over or replace some of the CBR) so that's another resort being serviced.

I would think a transportation link that services 4 resorts and connects them to two different theme parks actually would be a huge boost for WDW's overall transportation need. That's a lot of buses that can be freed up for other purposes.

There's probably going to be somewhere like twice as many guests that this would potentially service than the Resort Line of the Monorail does. People commenting that this doesn't service many guest don't seem to be aware of how large CBR, AoA and Pop all are.
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
I'm not trying to pick on this post, but I've noted similar sentiments. So, it is important to note:

1. The CBR would be serviced and it is the largest moderate
2. It would be almost certain that both AoA and Pop Century would be serviced. It would be easy to put a station at a location in between the two resorts where guests of either could use it. My guess would be in the "50's Parking lot" on the north side of the hotels. So that's two more large hotels (probably about half of the total Value resort guest capacity)
3. A DVC resort (maybe two, as I think WDW 1974 hinted somewhere) is going to be built on part of the land (though, it may take over or replace some of the CBR) so that's another resort being serviced.

I would think a transportation link that services 4 resorts and connects them to two different theme parks actually would be a huge boost for WDW's overall transportation need. That's a lot of buses that can be freed up for other purposes.

There's probably going to be somewhere like twice as many guests that this would potentially service than the Resort Line of the Monorail does. People commenting that this doesn't service many guest don't seem to be aware of how large CBR, AoA and Pop all are.
I like this. In my mind 4 resorts is a lot easier to rationalize.
 

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