News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

[Maeryk]

What about the distances, and how often they depart? The vertical climbs count as well in the distance. It isn't as simple as just drawing a line on the map.

The throughput you're mentioning is less than half of what @Lift Blog said they are shooting for, which is 4500-5000.

Could that be the system, vs a single station?

 

[allgiggles]

They do have AC. In fact, they have a second engine that provides power for the lighting, AC, fans, etc, specifically. Now, that doesn't mean the AC is always working.. or can keep up with demand.

(Just read a bunch of specs on the friendship boats.. never knew one lost it's thruster and plowed into the boardwalk!)

I should have rephrased that. I know they have a/c...it was just that both times I rode the boats it wasn't working or just not turned on. And I can't imagine why it wouldn't be turned on in the middle of June in Florida so I'll just have to assume it wasn't working.

 

[MisterPenguin]

What about the distances, and how often they depart? The vertical climbs count as well in the distance. It isn't as simple as just drawing a line on the map.

The throughput you're mentioning is less than half of what @Lift Blog said they are shooting for, which is 4500-5000.

How often do they depart? I've said the answer twice in this thread and it's in the one you just quoted: Every 12 seconds.

The vertical climb and descent add 2 times the square root of 2 distance and time for the very first and last leg. If that leg were 20 meters, that's 56 extra meters, or 14 extra seconds.

Would you like me to figure the increased length of each droop between towers by getting the derivative of the hyperbolic cosine extension for each catenary arc between towers?

Lift Blog's throughput is for a 10 seater found in Singapore. Our sources say ours is an 8 seater.

 

[Monorail_Orange]

Sometime in 2019.

Ah, that would make sense, especially if it's meant to be in time to service DHS once SW:GE opens. Timetable of 2 years, give or take. Seems reasonable.

 

[Kamikaze]

How often do they depart? I've said the answer twice in this thread and it's in the one you just quoted: Every 12 seconds.

The vertical climb and descent add 2 times the square root of 2 distance and time for the very first and last leg. If that leg were 20 meters, that's 56 extra meters, or 14 extra seconds.

Would you like me to figure the increased length of each droop between towers by getting the derivative of the hyperbolic cosine extension for each catenary arc between towers?

Lift Blog's throughput is for a 10 seater found in Singapore. Our sources say ours is an 8 seater.

I wasn't asking how often they depart - I was asking how where you got that information. In other words - are you just extrapolating or do you have some inside information?

 

[thomas998]

We have had people on this thread who have ridden gondolas is climates as bad or worse the Florida and have said they were comfortable.

I have ridden gondolas in South America that had no AC. I didn't die, the locals thought it was fine and dandy because the locals also had few ACs in their homes. I even made the mistake of staying in some hotels that were for the local market and not the international market and found that you can survive a night with no AC in a tropical climate when its hot and humid at night... You don't enjoy it and frankly being a westerner that has become accustomed to AC you don't sleep that much.

So please spare me the locals in hotter places think it is fine with no AC, because locals in some countries find it fine to eat horse or dog meat, but that doesn't mean that I want to endure the same thing.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I wasn't asking how often they depart - I was asking how where you got that information. In other words - are you just extrapolating or do you have some inside information?

Well, 8 is confirmed by Martin and there are no 8 seaters on Doppelmayr's site that gets anywhere near the throughput Lift Blog's post talks of. So, I'm figuring Lift Blog has the wrong lift in mind, though he correctly ID'd the 8 seater that Martin slyly confirmed. That's my source.

 

[DisneyJeff]

I should have rephrased that. I know they have a/c...it was just that both times I rode the boats it wasn't working or just not turned on. And I can't imagine why it wouldn't be turned on in the middle of June in Florida so I'll just have to assume it wasn't working.

Every friendship boat I've been on has had air conditioning. Unfortunately, to feel the effects you had to be standing directly under it.

 

[Maeryk]

I have ridden gondolas in South America that had no AC. I didn't die, the locals thought it was fine and dandy because the locals also had few ACs in their homes. I even made the mistake of staying in some hotels that were for the local market and not the international market and found that you can survive a night with no AC in a tropical climate when its hot and humid at night... You don't enjoy it and frankly being a westerner that has become accustomed to AC you don't sleep that much.

So please spare me the locals in hotter places think it is fine with no AC, because locals in some countries find it fine to eat horse or dog meat, but that doesn't mean that I want to endure the same thing.

Enjoy the bus.

 

[Tyler161]

Will there be sightline problems at World Showcase? Seeing a gondola right behind the Eiffel Tower could be a nuisance, and I hope it doesn't ruin the illusion like the Swan & Dolphin do at some places.

 

[Maeryk]

Will there be sightline problems at World Showcase? Seeing a gondola right behind the Eiffel Tower could be a nuisance, and I hope it doesn't ruin the illusion like the Swan & Dolphin do at some places.

It only has to be high enough to clear traffic. The Tower is 103' tall. I doubt very much if the gondolas, at that point, will be anywhere near that high.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Will there be sightline problems at World Showcase? Seeing a gondola right behind the Eiffel Tower could be a nuisance, and I hope it doesn't ruin the illusion like the Swan & Dolphin do at some places.

Seeing trolleys in other parks doesn't ruin the experience for me.

 

[thomas998]

Unless you've experienced this scenario, why would you be so adamant that AC is needed? Once again, there are systems in hotter, more humid climates without AC. And there are people on this forum who have been on those systems and said that the lack of AC was not an issue. This isn't a unique system. There is real world data to back up the decision.

I believe even @Lift Blog - who, as by his name indicates, runs an entire blog just on Gondolas and chairlifts, I believe personally vouched that the AC option was unnecessary. But lets take your completely uninformed opinion over real world data and someone who could be considered an expert, right?

I have experienced it. I've ridden on gondolas in South America where it was pretty much the same hot humid weather you would have in Orlando, so I'm as much an expert as your person that road on it in a hot climate in Asia... So there. Now you can choose to believe either one of us... but I would ask if your local that was convinced it was fine lived in an air conditioned place, because where I was the locals tended not to have AC and were much more accustomed to being hot. I am not a fan of being hot and miserable when an AC is available if you don't mind then I'm sure you'll enjoy the gondolas.. I'll use transportation with AC and enjoy my vacation just a little bit more.

 

[Kamikaze]

Well, 8 is confirmed by Martin and there are no 8 seaters on Doppelmayr's site that gets anywhere near the throughput Lift Blog's post talks of. So, I'm figuring Lift Blog has the wrong lift in mind, though he correctly ID'd the 8 seater that Martin slyly confirmed. That's my source.

In this post:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/new-gondola-transportation.924477/page-231#post-7804355

He mentions the 8 passenger AND the 4500-5000 number. If you read the comments on the blog post: https://liftblog.com/2017/07/16/disney-unveils-bold-skyliner-gondola-plan/
He also goes into how it could work and get to that number.

 

[Tyler161]

Seeing trolleys in other parks doesn't ruin the experience for me.

Thats the spirit! I wish that was the case for me, but unfortunately I have an annoying problem when the illusion is broken. I'm trying to solve the problem I have by squinting or looking away like it didn't happen

It only has to be high enough to clear traffic. The Tower is 103' tall. I doubt very much if the gondolas, at that point, will be anywhere near that high.

Thats what I was hoping to hear, and if thats the case I'm on board with this project.

 

[Kamikaze]

Will there be sightline problems at World Showcase? Seeing a gondola right behind the Eiffel Tower could be a nuisance, and I hope it doesn't ruin the illusion like the Swan & Dolphin do at some places.

Again, this isn't the hugely tall MK Skyway system you are thinking of. There is no need to make it extremely tall so it be seen from distances away.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Will there be sightline problems at World Showcase? Seeing a gondola right behind the Eiffel Tower could be a nuisance, and I hope it doesn't ruin the illusion like the Swan & Dolphin do at some places.

I was thinking about this the other day and think I've come up with a solution. Use a berm to hide the actual Gondolas then simply add a fake "mini gondola scene" that passes near the pavilion's Eiffel Tower. Why?

Two reasons. The Eiffel Tower fails to look realistic. It's designed small to appear far away but it doesn't quite work. It just looks small -- because there's nothing else around it for visual reference for us to determine it's size. Enter the faux gondola scene.

Imagineering could really amp up the "depth perspective" of the Eiffel Tower with the addition of "faux mini gondolas" in background. This gives us a visual size reference that make the illusion of the Eiffel Tower seem grand and larger. As an added bonus; watching those "gondolas" go back and forth will add a nice bit of kinetic movement in an otherwise static and bland area.

 

[MisterPenguin]

In this post:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/new-gondola-transportation.924477/page-231#post-7804355

He mentions the 8 passenger AND the 4500-5000 number. If you read the comments on the blog post: https://liftblog.com/2017/07/16/disney-unveils-bold-skyliner-gondola-plan/
He also goes into how it could work and get to that number.

5000 people an hour divided by cabins with 8 people. That's 625 cabins an hour.

There are 3,600 seconds in an hour. Divide that by 625 cabins. That's a cabin launch every 5.7 seconds.

That only comes about by people working crazy fast with a clientele that is really really used to doing this. Every cabin has to be full. No EVCs. No cabins with two or double wide strollers. No slow downs due to confused guests or people tripping or groups that try to squeeze 10 on and you have to force them for safety's sake to get off.

The videos I posted above which is very likely the model we'll be getting shows 12 second lift offs and Doppelmayr's own throughput description matches that speed. In Singapore they may exceed the ride's intended speed, like overclocking a computer, for the sake of capacity or because they're trying to break a record. But I doubt Disney will allow their CMs to exceed the manufacturer's protocols and risk losing being covered by insurance because they did so.

 

[Kamikaze]

5000 people an hour divided by cabins with 8 people. That's 625 cabins an hour.

There are 3,600 seconds in an hour. Divide that by 625 cabins. That's a cabin launch every 5.7 seconds.

That only comes about by people working crazy fast with a clientele that is really really used to doing this. Every cabin has to be full. No EVCs. No cabins with two or double wide strollers. No slow downs due to confused guests or people tripping or groups that try to squeeze 10 on and you have to force them for safety's sake to get off.

The videos I posted above which is very likely the model we'll be getting shows 12 second lift offs and Doppelmayr's own throughput description matches that speed. In Singapore they may exceed the ride's intended speed, like overclocking a computer, for the sake of capacity or because they're trying to break a record. But I doubt Disney will allow their CMs to exceed the manufacturer's protocols and risk losing being covered by insurance because they did so.

Like I said, if you read the comments, he (@Lift Blog) reasons out how that speed/capacity could work:

Seems to me the biggest limiting factor for gondola spacing is the curves in the terminals where cabins get closest to each other and might explain using 8- instead of 10-passenger cabins. A wider line gauge could help and/or the end stations could go teardrop shaped to smooth out those curves as the renderings make those terminal buildings look awfully large. Giggijochbahn’s top station makes a T-shape and cabins go faster in the curves while doors only open on the straightaway for the same reason. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. D-Line is certainly possible.

As far as the insurance aspect:

Update: I’m told Disney is working with Doppelmayr to achieve the highest possible throughput likely using 8-passenger cabins,

So that takes that out of the equation.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

5000 people an hour divided by cabins with 8 people. That's 625 cabins an hour. There are 3,600 seconds in an hour. Divide that by 625 cabins. That's a cabin launch every 5.7 seconds.

It's worth noting that even if a cabin launches every 5.7 seconds that does not necessarily mean guests only have 5.7 secs to load.