News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

[The Empress Lilly]

Seriously. Who cares. This is transportation, not an attraction. You see backstage areas from busses already.

Yes, some backstage is not a dealbreaker. But, transportation is an attraction at WDW. Or ought to be.

In Walt's plan there were no sightline issues. But we have to accept WDW is now the haphazard product of half a century of lesser gods, and of two decades of deranged blood sucking vampire zombies out to destroy children's souls. I'll accept some sightline issues. Plus, this might force some sense of building a coherent whole, an actual bubble, where magic is all around you rather than just in the slogan and upcharge event.

 

[Prince Thomas]

i LOVE this idea!!!!

 

[Gringrinngghost]

As a person scared of heights this looks absolutely terrifying! I know the monorail is high up but it seems safer somehow. Am I the only who who would find this to be the scariest ride on property?

Come to Six Flags Great Adventure and ride the Worlds Fair one...

 

[RSoxNo1]

From the comments on the site that did not.... Pretty childish (and did not deny he basically stole the hard work from the sleuths here):

Jon
February 15, 2017 at 10:04 AM - Reply
Why didn’t you acknowledge it was WDWMagic forum members who made the discovery?

• 
  Tom Corless
  Author
  February 15, 2017 at 10:11 AM - Reply
  Why didn’t they acknowledge our Banshee picture when they posted it?
  

Tom is an immature child that for some idiotic reason has a wildly popular site.

 

[Sachilles]

So to confirm, we don't know that any sort of a station is going to the international gateway. We are taking a leap of faith based on alignment correct? The one thing that bothered me about the boardwalk lot turn station is it doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of angles. Some suggest it's to avoid backstage areas.
I suggest this. Continue the line from the boardwalk lot, to the IG logical spot. Continue straight. You are right at the bus area at the front of Epcot. You then have a bigger entrance to the park, and connection to the monorail.

 

[jt04]

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...

If nobody is working on smart switchable gondola technology then it is a lost opportunity. So much potential. And the engineering seems fairly simple.

 

[britain]

I've always thought that the individual pods would be amazing. Given that the self driving cars are becoming a reality, it wouldn't be unheard of to create pods based off of the concept. Wait for all outside traffic to be banned on the internal roads beyond a common parking lot.

The key is security though. Keeping you up in the air means keeping weapons out of the secure area.

 

[peter11435]

In Walt's plan there were no sightline issues.

There were without a doubt sight line issues with both of Walt's monorails and both of walts skyways.

 

[GhostHost1000]

This is interesting... and I'm all for it as long as it fits thematically around the resort

 

[Coaster Lover]

I would think another benefit to a low travel system is evac as well (or god fordid castrophic failure of something). I don't know how many pods are normally strung out on a line at a time, but I imagine if a major issue occured causing the cable line to be inoperable, evac'ing multiple pods at a high elevation would be a nightmare for both guests and emergency crews.

Unless there is damage to the actual cable itself, there are typically redundancies built into the system. For example, I know most of these systems have a back up diesel generator/motor which, in the event of a power outage or primary engine failure, would allow them to get all of the gondola back to a station.

 

[George]

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...

The main problem with a bus is that it's a bus.

 

[Kevin_W]

Just not sure how many people would be put off getting into a swinging, lightning prone, wind buffeted box hanging off a cable if they can't even see out of the windows!!

I, for one, would be more than happy to not see out the windows of a box hanging off a cable.

 

[krikiter]

As an aside, I feel like everyone is recreating this scene right now from Red October using Google Maps:


(Skip to 1:27)

 

[George]

Are you fairly tall or standing on a step ladder?

I'm 8'3"....you should see me trying to fit into the Snow White mine train. I spend hours shaving before vacation. Bigfoot weirdos seem to be everywhere.

 

[Slowjack]

Very true, the placement is suspect, but the size of the structure near DHS is enormous. Look at it compared to the monorail station at Epcot.

That is a very substantial structure for gondola loading/unloading.

You're right about that. The building is much larger than would be needed for the equivalent of a MK Skyway station. If it is a Skyway station, I have to assume that means the cars are much bigger, or there's substantial indoor queue space, or both.

 

[Clamman73]

From the comments on the site that did not.... Pretty childish (and did not deny he basically stole the hard work from the sleuths here):

Jon
February 15, 2017 at 10:04 AM - Reply
Why didn’t you acknowledge it was WDWMagic forum members who made the discovery?

• 
  Tom Corless
  Author
  February 15, 2017 at 10:11 AM - Reply
  Why didn’t they acknowledge our Banshee picture when they posted it?

General question...Pictures from the Banshee ride from people other than Disney were supposed to be released?

 

[peter11435]

You're right about that. The building is much larger than would be needed for the equivalent of a MK Skyway station. If it is a Skyway station, I have to assume that means the cars are much bigger, or there's substantial indoor queue space, or both.

I would guess the size of this building is largely due to containing system infrastructure and maintenance.

 

[wdwgreek]

Tom is an immature child that for some idiotic reason has a wildly popular site.

Pretty sure when myself and another poster screenshotted the picture we explicitly said where it came from.... ie the site which we can post the name of/ tom's website. So his excuse is bs.

 

[Kevin_W]

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.

It made my "Google Now" news feed a little while ago.

 

[Coaster Lover]

If nobody is working on smart switchable gondola technology then it is a lost opportunity. So much potential. And the engineering seems fairly simple.

I'm sure it exists/wouldn't be too difficult to generate. Gondola with switch tracks are not necessarily uncommon and automating those completely seems a logical step. Being able to go to a station, push a button of where you want to go and go non-stop to your final destination would be amazing. PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) systems have been around for a while (WVU's is one of the oldest and most complete/complex). Converting that same technology/thought to a Gondola system wouldn't seem that far-fetched.