News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

[Goob]

I LOVE the idea of having gondolas. So glad this is actually happening.

 

[rocketraccoon]

@marni1971 believes they will run between 12 to 16 miles per hour. At 12 mph that would be about 3 minutes for each leg of the trip, so Epcot to DHS would be about 9 minutes travel time plus the time it takes to change cars at the south CBR station. These are just estimates but they give you an idea of how quick it could be.

That's actually way quicker than I was expecting. Even if it takes you 12 or so minutes to get there, that's still way faster than the boats. Probably better views than the buses as well.

 

[Figment2005]

Is blue replacing another color?

No, just receiving some much needed attention. When it comes out, it will be obvious.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Make them look like doors and voila... the Monsters Inc Doors ride comes to life....

 

[BEARSHOUSE4]

The monorails don't really have any Disney theming built in, such as Mickey-shaped windows. Yet they've become their own kind of thing, with each having a unique color stripe, nice views, “¡Por favor manténgase alejado de las puertas!” Maybe it's nostalgia and memories that seperates WDW monorails from others, but whatever the reason, I don't feel like the monorials are generic.

On the other hand, there are the buses. They are just buses, they have no special place in my heart or in the hearts of many others, I'm sure. Like the monorials, they don't have any built-in Disney theming. But unlike the monorails, they don't feel unique without it. At least to me. Maybe you are a bus aficionado. If you are, tell me, is the spelling buses or busses?

I worry that the gondolas, too, will struggle to stand clear of being generic. Unlike monorails, they constantly pass by, and each one won't have a unique color pattern, I'm sure. So there's little anticiaption guessing when or which one will come.

I wonder if, 20 years from now, we'll see the gondolas more like we do the monorails, or more like we do the buses.

*edited to add in bus comparison

Tell that to the collectors of the transport cards! Gillig all the way!

 

[GoofGoof]

The Disney Resort Cruiser is a great example of just slapping characters on something and that being considered special. Mickey shapes don't create an experience.

Simple, good design that works was at the heart of differentiating Walt Disney World. Above all a good transit system should be good at transit. It doesn't need to be a loud distraction.

What's the problem if a bus works well getting you from point A to point B and it also has some Mickey ears too. I don't see how having characters or mouse ears makes the system any less efficient at transit or makes it a loud distraction.

Here's the resort cruiser bus from Tokyo:

Vs the busses we have had at WDW:

I'll take the Tokyo ones any day.

I'd be fine with the gondolas taking some design inspiration from the Tokyo monorail too. They have Mickey ear windows which differentiates it from a generic train, but are subtle enough to not be a gaudy distraction in the environments it travels through. That to me is how a customization should be done.

 

[lazyboy97o]

What's the problem if a bus works well getting you from point A to point B and it also has some Mickey ears too. I don't see how having characters or mouse ears makes the system any less efficient at transit or makes it a loud distraction.

Here's the resort cruiser bus from Tokyo:
View attachment 197742
Vs the busses we have had at WDW:
View attachment 197743

I'll take the Tokyo ones any day.

I'd be fine with the gondolas taking some design inspiration from the Tokyo monorail too. They have Mickey ear windows which differentiates it from a generic train, but are subtle enough to not be a gaudy distraction in the environments it travels through. That to me is how a customization should be done.
View attachment 197744

Because this solution is being slathered across Walt Disney World. Everything needs to be "Disneyfied" to make it "more fun" as though Walt Disney World were a complete bore. Everything is being turned into nothing but a giant mishmash of character branding.

 

[Kman101]

Because this solution is being slathered across Walt Disney World. Everything needs to be "Disneyfied" to make it "more fun" as though Walt Disney World were a complete bore. Everything is being turned into nothing but a giant mishmash of character branding.

I don't think having a Mickey window is the same as putting characters where they don't belong in attractions. But I agree with you that it's an overall problem emerging that it "needs" to have it to be considered Disney. But there are also many who want that and they go to the parks too ...

 

[GoofGoof]

Because this solution is being slathered across Walt Disney World. Everything needs to be "Disneyfied" to make it "more fun" as though Walt Disney World were a complete bore. Everything is being turned into nothing but a giant mishmash of character branding.

There are literally hundreds or maybe thousands of Mickey ears built into all aspects of the Disney parks worldwide. It's nothing new. I don't see it as character branding really. I can understand feeling that way about the monorail wraps advertising new movies.

 

[TiggerDad]

Forgive me for not reading the last 100 pages, but is there an estimate on how long it'd take to get from one park to the other?

The point of this is resorts to parks not park to park. That is just a side effect. They are not doing this to make it easier to park hop.

 

[GoofGoof]

The point of this is resorts to parks not park to park. That is just a side effect. They are not doing this to make it easier to park hop.

You will be able to go from DHS to EPCOT but you will have to change gondolas at the CBR stop. It may not be the intent of the system, but it will be a lot faster than the boats for getting from one park to the other. I could see it being particularly popular for people hopping from DHS to EPCOT for dinner and also once SW Land opens and DHS is open much later, people leaving EPCOT after Illuminations and hopping over to DHS for a few hours.

 

[Goob]

I'm really anxious to see some concept art. Surely Disney will do something to differentiate them from regular ol' ski resort gondolas.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I'm really anxious to see some concept art. Surely Disney will do something to differentiate them from regular ol' ski resort gondolas.

The stations will be different, but the bones of a Dopplemayr station will be visible.

 

[Goob]

Have you seen some plans? If so, are the actual cars any different from a regular ski gondola?

 

[ChrisFL]

I don't know if this has been discussed, but is there a possibility that this will be an upcharge transportation system? I'm guessing Disney has considered it at the VERY least.

 

[GoofGoof]

I don't know if this has been discussed, but is there a possibility that this will be an upcharge transportation system? I'm guessing Disney has considered it at the VERY least.

They will probably upcharge the hotel room rates at CBR, AoA and Pop. I don't see them charging to actually ride the gondolas, but who knows

 

[MisterPenguin]

I don't know if this has been discussed, but is there a possibility that this will be an upcharge transportation system? I'm guessing Disney has considered it at the VERY least.

They will probably upcharge the hotel room rates at CBR, AoA and Pop. I don't see them charging to actually ride the gondolas, but who knows

Disney resorts are already upcharged to account for "free" parking, "free" EMH, "free" extra 30 days for FP, and "free" transportation.

If the gondola saves WDW from buying 30 buses, let's say, then that's over $11 million dollars in savings. And that's just the cost of the buses. Add in the cost of personnel for those buses, and gas, and maintenance, and insurance, and do that year over year.... I can't imagine the gondolas being that much more expensive than buses, if not less expensive.

But yeah, I do expect Pop/AoA/Caribbean to go up a bit for the capital expense. Though, it may wind up the DVC absorbing most of the cost.

 

[GoofGoof]

Disney resorts are already upcharged to account for "free" parking, "free" EMH, "free" extra 30 days for FP, and "free" transportation.

If the gondola saves WDW from buying 30 buses, let's say, then that's over $11 million dollars in savings. And that's just the cost of the buses. Add in the cost of personnel for those buses, and gas, and maintenance, and insurance, and do that year over year.... I can't imagine the gondolas being that much more expensive than buses, if not less expensive.

But yeah, I do expect Pop/AoA/Caribbean to go up a bit for the capital expense. Though, it may wind up the DVC absorbing most of the cost.

DVC will foot a portion of the bill but they can't just pass on most of the cost to them. Timeshare law requires them to justify the actual expenses. Unless it's a really large DVC resort it's only going to be a small portion of the total guest rooms on the route. Pop and AoA have about 5,000 rooms combined and CBR currently has 2,000. Even if CBR ends up a 50/50 split that's still only 1,000 DVC rooms to 6,000 hotel rooms. They may have to allocate some of the costs to the park to park transport as well. Either way it's unlikely that DVC would foot more than 15 to 20% of the total bill.

 

[roj2323]

@marni1971 believes they will run between 12 to 16 miles per hour. At 12 mph that would be about 3 minutes for each leg of the trip, so Epcot to DHS would be about 9 minutes travel time plus the time it takes to change cars at the south CBR station. These are just estimates but they give you an idea of how quick it could be.

It's important to note that this will be about 10 minutes faster than taking the friendship boats.

 

[marni1971]

Have you seen some plans? If so, are the actual cars any different from a regular ski gondola?

They will have vinyl wraps.