News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

[danlb_2000]

How far along are they here? Permits filed, with end dates of 2019. Are we green lit, construction about to start?

The permit says the work will be done by sometime in 2019, but in the case of water management permits this is NOT a hard expiration date just a date that they plan to be complete. Also note that the permit does not cover all the necessary elements for the system (for example we have not seen anything about an Epcot station yet) so even the 2019 date is not a guarantee the whole thing will be done by then.

 

[monothingie]

Throughput could easily be higher than the current bus system or boats.

It could if you are right, it depends on the size of the cars. But keep in mind, the larger the car, the longer it takes to load. Just think how long it takes to load and unload a bus? Now imagine doing the same thing on a system which is perpetually in motion. Just because it is detachable, doesn't mean you can't ignore the car behind.

 

[danlb_2000]

Where are the other supports? I'd think you'd need a few between turns/stations and those would need similar permits or to be included in these permits.

There are definitely pieces missing. As you say there would have to be more support pylons and some would fall in areas that would require a water management permit, so we may see additional permits for this.

 

[Master Yoda]

All fair points, but still very limited to the parks and resorts attached to this specific infrastructure. That's the appeal of the bus fleet to me. It works from literally any point A you can think of to any point B you can think of in any type of weather you can think of because all a bus needs is a road.

Quite true. Buses will shoulder the lion share of guests in WDW until personal teleporters become a thing. Relative to other forms of mass transit they are cheep, easy and flexible, but even they have their limits and I think WDW is pushing up against them. They have to look at other options as crowds are only going to get bigger over the foreseeable future.

It is also very likely that this is just phase one. If It works out, we might start seeing these things go up in more locations.

 

[Clamman73]

Por favor, mantengase alejado de las góndola puertas.

 

[Bocabear]

They were saying the London system handles 10+ people per car and dispatches every 15 seconds... An average bus at capacity is 50 people and dispatches every 20 minutes + Even if the gondolas dispatch every minute, it is still faster loading than a bus...and will not be hampered by street traffic... Seems like it would be worlds more efficient than the bus transportation.

 

[krikiter]

Generally a lurker with nothing important to say, but if you extend the ENE line, it just happens to go straight to: Disney Springs.

Edit: Sorry, already noted elsewhere. Back to the shadows...

 

[danlb_2000]

All 100% valid points.

I personally don't see this as a silver bullet to fix all of WDW's travel woes, but it will shoulder a fair bit of the burden that the currently over taxed transportation system has been saddled with without being as expensive as a monorail expansion.

I think we can all agree that there is no one silver bullet for WDW transportation. Any system is going to require a mix of solutions.

 

[Master Yoda]

I think we can all agree that there is no one silver bullet for WDW transportation. Any system is going to require a mix of solutions.

Exactly.

 

[peter11435]

It could if you are right, it depends on the size of the cars. But keep in mind, the larger the car, the longer it takes to load. Just think how long it takes to load and unload a bus? Now imagine doing the same thing on a system which is perpetually in motion. Just because it is detachable, doesn't mean you can't ignore the car behind.

The cars wouldn't need to be huge to be more efficient than the buses. As you say buses take a while to load and don't have nearly the frequency the gondolas will have. Additionally think of how long loading wheelchairs takes on a bus. We don't know enough yet to speculate what the capacity will be but it is not locked in to be low or inefficient and there is no reason to suspect they wouldn't make it as efficient as possible

 

[George]

I defend lots of things that get slammed here all the time so it makes sense I'm not a fan of this idea that everyone is going nuts for. What does this solve, exactly? I hate fixed route transportation systems because they have no flexibility without creating an elaborate network of transfer stops. I can take a bus from the Magic Kingdom and get directly to 20+ different destinations nonstop. A monorail can get me to four destinations, one of which is a parking lot and another of which I could have walked to more quickly. And for this journey I'm waiting in a massive queue due to inability to scale capacity quickly and sufficiently. I don't know, this gondola idea sounds like it will have all of the problems of the monorails (minus cost) at even lower capacity.

It isn't supposed to fix any woes. It is a cool thing. I would only ride for fun when not in a hurry. Old school Disney.

 

[NelsonRD]

Wonder what the fees are going to be for this, are they going to charge me by my weight times my height divided by the time of day per foot?

 

[Grimley1968]

An advantage something like this would have over buses is that they can travel in straight lines, at least from stop to stop, and drop off closer to the destination than buses, because guests would probably enjoy seeing the system up close even if they have no reason to use it.

I think handling throughput is mostly a matter of scaling the system to meet demand.

I'm very intrigued by the idea of bag check being pushed out to the boarding location.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

I defend lots of things that get slammed here all the time so it makes sense I'm not a fan of this idea that everyone is going nuts for. What does this solve, exactly? I hate fixed route transportation systems because they have no flexibility without creating an elaborate network of transfer stops. I can take a bus from the Magic Kingdom and get directly to 20+ different destinations nonstop. A monorail can get me to four destinations, one of which is a parking lot and another of which I could have walked to more quickly. And for this journey I'm waiting in a massive queue due to inability to scale capacity quickly and sufficiently. I don't know, this gondola idea sounds like it will have all of the problems of the monorails (minus cost) at even lower capacity.

You doom & gloomers are simply afraid of change.

Also, Disney is a business.

 

[danlb_2000]

Boom goes the cannon. Putting the pieces together on this one was quite fascinating. Great job @danlb_2000 and team.

I want to give credit to @TiggerDad for being the first to notice the interesting alignment of the buildings which is what started this all.

 

[wdwgreek]

NOW THIS IS INTERESTING! Something I would not have expected. I'm super curious how this develops. I just don't think a skyride works well in florida, but then again it ran at MK for 20 years so what do I know.

 

[danlb_2000]

I see some other Disney fan sites have started to run with this story. Waiting to see how long before the main stream media picks it up.

Thumbs up to the site that did acknowledge us, and thumbs down to the one that didn't (you can guess which one that was).

 

[MisterPenguin]

The problem with connecting DAK park to AKL hotel would be the view of the back of Pandora. The rear of the showbuildings have half rockwork on them so it would really break the illusion.

Trouble with a cable car is it is often taller than the trees. Trees are being used on a berm to hide Pandora's backside from the DAK bus station.

The proposed pathway (on the first page of this thread) would go right over the backstage area of World Showcase and if you look on Google Maps, the areas behind the France and Morocco buildings certainly aren't the most "magical" things to look at. I'm not sure seeing the back of Pandora would be a deal breaker. (personal opinion only, of course)

It's been mentioned in this thread already how to mitigate seeing backstage:

1. Automated opaquing glass.
2. Low traveling gondolas. Except to go over a roadways, gondolas could theoretically be just 10 feet off the ground.

Duel.

Dueling gondolas!

Would they be racing each other or jousting?

 

[TiggerDad]

An advantage something like this would have over buses is that they can travel in straight lines, at least from stop to stop, and drop off closer to the destination than buses, because guests would probably enjoy seeing the system up close even if they have no reason to use it.

I think handling throughput is mostly a matter of scaling the system to meet demand.

I'm very intrigued by the idea of bag check being pushed out to the boarding location.

If you look at where it lands at DHS, it's consistent with pushing security out further from the entrance point there as well. The bus dropoff would need to be reconfigured too, unless you screen before you get on the buses somehow.

 

[Clamman73]

I'll officially now say that I despise the busses. Waiting for it, waiting for everyone to board, sometimes packed like sardines, takes forever just to get out of the MK area...with a gondola system, it's always in motion, nice view, less environmental impact...and I miss the Skyway...