News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

[Incomudro]

Oh, you mean like the private, leather-lined heated seats with nobody else around you in the Disney buses and monorails?

I'm not the one who brought up the comparison of being stuck in the gondola with being stuck in traffic in my car.

 

[tractor tipper]

Was down at Pop Cen. for a week. Wife loves Skyliner. Twice though it went down, heavy rain storm and Epot line down for unk. reason. Would be nice if Disney were to post notices of downage and where to go for buses. Had to catch bus at Riviera and front desk didn't know it was down. Overall when running it is great no doubt best free transport, not running different story.

 

[jaklgreen]

Was down at Pop Cen. for a week. Wife loves Skyliner. Twice though it went down, heavy rain storm and Epot line down for unk. reason. Would be nice if Disney were to post notices of downage and where to go for buses. Had to catch bus at Riviera and front desk didn't know it was down. Overall when running it is great no doubt best free transport, not running different story.

Better yet, have them send a notification through your MDE app. Anyone staying at those resorts should know before they leave their rooms or the parks. I would be a bit annoyed if I walked all the way to IG to catch it, and then have to go all the way back through the parks to the buses.

 

[Phil12]

Better yet, have them send a notification through your MDE app. Anyone staying at those resorts should know before they leave their rooms or the parks. I would be a bit annoyed if I walked all the way to IG to catch it, and then have to go all the way back through the parks to the buses.

I agree. They have bus wait times on the MDE app therefore it would be a good idea to notify users if the Skyliner or monorail systems experience delays, breakdowns, evacuations, hours of operation and closures as well.

 

[tractor tipper]

I agree. They have bus wait times on the MDE app therefore it would be a good idea to notify users if the Skyliner or monorail systems experience delays, breakdowns, evacuations, hours of operation and closures as well.

I wouldn't think it would be hard to do.

 

[joelkfla]

I wouldn't think it would be hard to do.

Probably not, but any coding change takes time and money. The benefits have to be justified against the cost and risks.

 

[GoofGoof]

Probably not, but any coding change takes time and money. The benefits have to be justified against the cost and risks.

I don’t see a real risk in doing this. There’s always a cost for anything new, but I can’t imagine they would not want to keep guests better informed and risk worse PR especially with the EPCOT line.

Here is the biggest problem I can see. If I take the gondola from AoA, CBR or Riviera to Epcot for the day I would assume that’s also how I would get back to my resort. Let’s say when I decide to leave and I’m at SSE so I walk through to world showcase and all the way to Intl gateway to hop the gondola but find when I get there the Epcot line is down for the rest of the day. The signs direct me to backtrack through the park to the front bus stops to take a bus to my resort. That would make me pretty angry. If when I was at SSE I checked the app and it told me the gondola was down and to use the bus stop at the front of the park or I got a text saying the same thing, I might be mildly annoyed but much less so than in my original scenario.

This is much less of an issue for DHS since the gondola and bus stations are closer together. Maybe they could solve part of the problem by directing guests to the BC bus stop to be picked up which is about half as far a walk, but still an inconvenience and also puts out guests paying top dollar for a deluxe resort. It’s much easier to just update guests using the technology they already have.

 

[No Name]

I was never a fan of the gondola system as part of a long-term vision for wow transportation. As we already see with the Caribbean to Epcot line, it gets convoluted quickly. Having a set path is very limiting.

If I were in charge, I would expand the monorail system to go to the high-demand locations. For example, expanding the Epcot line to go to Disney Springs, and building a new line that goes to DHS and DAK. Then I would have a “norail” PRT system built across property, with mini cars designed to resemble the monorail cars, that takes people to all locations. It’s essentially a giant LPS system. Requiring very few CMs too. The advantages of automated vehicles not having a track are huge, as we’ve seen in recent rides, and that thinking should be applied to transportation. This would also save the resort a shot ton of money in operational costs.

 

[larryz]

Probably not, but any coding change takes time and money. The benefits have to be justified against the cost and risks.

Yeah. Iger's new slogan since the MDE/MB debacle is "Fool me once..."

 

[lazyboy97o]

I was never a fan of the gondola system as part of a long-term vision for wow transportation. As we already see with the Caribbean to Epcot line, it gets convoluted quickly. Having a set path is very limiting.

If I were in charge, I would expand the monorail system to go to the high-demand locations. For example, expanding the Epcot line to go to Disney Springs, and building a new line that goes to DHS and DAK. Then I would have a “norail” PRT system built across property, with mini cars designed to resemble the monorail cars, that takes people to all locations. It’s essentially a giant LPS system. Requiring very few CMs too. The advantages of automated vehicles not having a track are huge, as we’ve seen in recent rides, and that thinking should be applied to transportation. This would also save the resort a shot ton of money in operational costs.

This really wouldn’t save money. You’re just replacing higher capacity buses with many, many more vans.

 

[GoofGoof]

I was never a fan of the gondola system as part of a long-term vision for wow transportation. As we already see with the Caribbean to Epcot line, it gets convoluted quickly. Having a set path is very limiting.

If I were in charge, I would expand the monorail system to go to the high-demand locations. For example, expanding the Epcot line to go to Disney Springs, and building a new line that goes to DHS and DAK. Then I would have a “norail” PRT system built across property, with mini cars designed to resemble the monorail cars, that takes people to all locations. It’s essentially a giant LPS system. Requiring very few CMs too. The advantages of automated vehicles not having a track are huge, as we’ve seen in recent rides, and that thinking should be applied to transportation. This would also save the resort a shot ton of money in operational costs.

I still think this type of technology only works at WDW if you create dedicated lanes for them to drive in. Just add an extra lane next to the shoulder of each highways with a curb to divide it. Mixing autonomous cars, terrible FL local drivers and clueless tourists is a recipe for disaster. It would add infrastructure costs but still way cheaper than a tracked system.

This really wouldn’t save money. You’re just replacing higher capacity buses with many, many more vans.

The theory is the cost savings come from a lack of drivers. It would cost more up front than busses but in theory cost less to operate. I will believe it when I see it. If it was really cheaper Disney would have already seriously considered it.

 

[joelkfla]

I was never a fan of the gondola system as part of a long-term vision for wow transportation. As we already see with the Caribbean to Epcot line, it gets convoluted quickly. Having a set path is very limiting.

If I were in charge, I would expand the monorail system to go to the high-demand locations. For example, expanding the Epcot line to go to Disney Springs, and building a new line that goes to DHS and DAK. Then I would have a “norail” PRT system built across property, with mini cars designed to resemble the monorail cars, that takes people to all locations. It’s essentially a giant LPS system. Requiring very few CMs too. The advantages of automated vehicles not having a track are huge, as we’ve seen in recent rides, and that thinking should be applied to transportation. This would also save the resort a shot ton of money in operational costs.

Sounds great, but nobody has yet built a large-scale multiple destination PRT system. The most advanced, at Heathrow Airport, just chooses between 2 destinations in a "T" configuration. The WVU system is a trunk line with the abiltity to bypass stations or turn back. The risks of unproven technology would be unacceptable to a bottom line focused corporation like Disney.

PRT's are not truly trackless; they all run on some sort of fixed guideway or dedicated ROW. I think their appeal has diminished as the possibility of unconstrained autonomous vehicles has come into view. But the technology for running thousands of autonomous vehicles throughout a 40 square mile area is not here yet.

 

[Creathir]

I was never a fan of the gondola system as part of a long-term vision for wow transportation. As we already see with the Caribbean to Epcot line, it gets convoluted quickly. Having a set path is very limiting.

If I were in charge, I would expand the monorail system to go to the high-demand locations. For example, expanding the Epcot line to go to Disney Springs, and building a new line that goes to DHS and DAK. Then I would have a “norail” PRT system built across property, with mini cars designed to resemble the monorail cars, that takes people to all locations. It’s essentially a giant LPS system. Requiring very few CMs too. The advantages of automated vehicles not having a track are huge, as we’ve seen in recent rides, and that thinking should be applied to transportation. This would also save the resort a shot ton of money in operational costs.

*cough*

First, it doesn't have to be elevated the entire way, just at surface crossing with roadways etc.

Second, the purpose is not just pure passenger capacity. Sure from a single point to a single point, it makes little sence.

Multipoint to multipoint, get in and pick your destination, it is FAR superior to any other mode of transportation out there.

As far as capacity, this can easily be addressed with multiple lanes of guideway, but really as they are all computer controlled, the spacing can be much tighter.

It's similar to the concept of Google. Instead of one giant super computer processing all the requests, its millions of smaller computers working together to accomplish a task.

There would obviously need to be quite a few PRT cars, but the overall experience would be far superior than what is there today, and could in theory connect all resorts together and to all the parks.

 

[matt9112]

I still think this type of technology only works at WDW if you create dedicated lanes for them to drive in. Just add an extra lane next to the shoulder of

I still think this type of technology only works at WDW if you create dedicated lanes for them to drive in. Just add an extra lane next to the shoulder of each highways with a curb to divide it. Mixing autonomous cars, terrible FL local drivers and clueless tourists is a recipe for disaster. It would add infrastructure costs but still way cheaper than a tracked system.

The theory is the cost savings come from a lack of drivers. It would cost more up front than busses but in theory cost less to operate. I will believe it when I see it. If it was really cheaper Disney would have already seriously considered it.

Im not a terrible driver thank you very much.

 

[tractor tipper]

Yeah. Iger's new slogan since the MDE/MB debacle is "Fool me once..."

Please explain your comment of "MDE/MB debacle". We have found it to be very useful and works great for us.

 

[Creathir]

Please explain your comment of "MDE/MB debacle". We have found it to be very useful and works great for us.

While the project certainly has its merits, it was extremely expensive, with reports being it cost $1-2 billion and took longer than expected to implement.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Please explain your comment of "MDE/MB debacle". We have found it to be very useful and works great for us.

While the project certainly has its merits, it was extremely expensive, with reports being it cost $1-2 billion and took longer than expected to implement.

Not only did the project go way over budget it also failed to deliver on its two big promises, that Disney would not have to build new attractions for years and a double digit increase in guest spending.

 

[nickys]

While the project certainly has its merits, it was extremely expensive, with reports being it cost $1-2 billion and took longer than expected to implement.

And is notoriously “glitchy” - and that’s the polite way of putting it.

For example, room reservations / FPs / ADRs drop off the app at random. The app constantly being over-loaded and failing as people are trying to book the afore-mentioned reservations.

 

[larryz]

Please explain your comment of "MDE/MB debacle". We have found it to be very useful and works great for us.

What they said...

 

[ABQ]

Please explain your comment of "MDE/MB debacle". We have found it to be very useful and works great for us.

What they said...

I think they were referring to the massive cost overruns of the entire "next gen" project on the whole and how it was supposed to be a massive return on investment but wasn't. Not speaking of the current experience which does work ok for most. We'll see how the new Genie works next.