News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

englanddg

englanddg

One Little Spark...
Digging around in the patents, because...I can...and this one comes up repeatedly as a citation on other patents...

It's old...from 1977, but...

Interesting to note that the system does allow for a "plurality of loading station shuttle tracks at said loading station for receiving truck support means of said trucks..." (read that part)

Basically, guess who owns the originating patent for the "detaching" concept (one good guess)

https://www.google.com/patents/US4050385
 
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EthanMagicBands

Active Member
Maybe I missed it because I don't want to read 32 pages in this thread, but if someone wanted to get from Epcot to Hollywood Studios in this design, how would it be done with the T in the middle of the resorts there?
 
Brad Bishop

Brad Bishop

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
It would be really cool if Disney could have King Kong attack the new gondolas! ;)
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The weird thing: This would be a great transit line from WDW (TTC, maybe) to Universal. I know, there's the, "But then people are leaving our site and going over there and spending money!!!" Which one is saying that, though? Both, probably.

I actually think that some sort of travel between the resorts would be good for both resorts. It's not going to happen, I'm just saying I think it's short-sighted to limit it to, "We're not going to let them off property!" What they should be doing is thinking, "How can we keep them wanting to stay on property?" - which is different than, "how do we force them to stay on property??"
 
GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Tonka's Skipper said:
The Gondola system would be very expensive. The towers and mechanics especially. problems:
1. The gondolas would be relatively low capacity and slow.
2. The loading and unloading would be slow and what about strollers and wheelchairs and scooters?
3. As someone else mentioned.......The towers and gondolas in the view from the parks and resorts.

We need more details.

AKK
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The system is not all that expensive. $10 to $15M per mile covered all in. A fraction of the cost of a monorail or even a surface level light rail. The money saved on operating the fleet of busses would probably mostly offset the cost.

  1. The capacity is not as low as you think or as slow. The larger urban gondolas hold 20 to 30 passengers or more. They also travel as fast as 15 to 20 MPH. Seems slow compared to a bus but they fly direct from point A to point B with no stopping for traffic lights. A 3 mile system with 30 gondolas holding 30 people each that takes about 10 minutes to travel the full length would have a capacity over 4,000 people per hour.
  2. The loading and unloading can be done by detaching the gondolas and loading them independent of the cable. This allows the cars to be slowed down for loading and would allow for things like strollers and wheelchairs to be easily pushed in. Think of the way an omnimover loads. It's fast and efficient.
  3. The towers and gondolas could potentially be visible from the parks, but the approach to the park stations should be relatively low to the ground so less intrusive. The view from the new CBR and possibly Boardwalk would be impacted as well.
Yes, we still need a lot of details, but it's doable.
 
britain

britain

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
It gets beyond frustrating. About 85% of posts wind up being either reaction posts of the strictly "love it" or "hate it" variety or people going off on tangents like a discussion on the Pandora addition winds up being one on the merits of the film and how much money it made etc. The news here is the new transport system that Disney is planning, while some speculation is expected, having to wade through posts of people simply offering opinions is tedious. Those opinions absolutely matter and deserve to be heard, I'm just not sure it is in the same thread.

And so this post doesn't go off-topic, my feeling on this new added 'benefit' of staying in that resort area (new DVC, CBR, POP, AoA) is one of the reasons Disney has been planning (this goes back at least 3-4 years, maybe more) of dropping the 'value', 'moderate', 'deluxe' categories for accommodations versus charging by an area. I don't know if this is part of it, but making an educated guess that this area may become more popular (and pricey) based on having this unique connection option.
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Yeah, but sifting through the comments looking for the goods is part of the fun, man! It makes it a cocktail party, not a lecture hall.
 
W

willtravel

Well-Known Member
I know I am in the minority here but if this new transportation project is going to happen, I hope it is not at the expense of cutting future new attraction projects, refurbs, or even cut budgets of anything being built right now. I understand transportation at WDW needs help but for me not at the expense of the parks. Course maybe the new park ticket pricing will pay for this--
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
prfctlyximprct said:
Is this what allthe height balloons were for??
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Possibly, but, unlikely. The height balloons were in a place where it seems there are plans for a rather large building. If they were doing height balloons for a gondola system, they would have had balloons strung out over its route.


MiddKid said:
Folding up a stroller and/or transferring from a wheelchair will not interrupt the smooth operation of a system like this.
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It's assumed these gondolas will be large enough to not require transfers or folding.


wdwbaw said:
Great news to hear! While I don't have time to read through 29 pages, I have one question, and i'm sorry if this has already been addressed. Is there any possibility of this ever being expanded to include DAK? It would make sense down the road to do this, as it would finally connect all four parks. MK to EPCOT via monorail, EPCOT to DHS via gondola, and DHS or EPCOT to DAK via gondola.
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Can it go to DAK? Yes. Will it? We don't know. Our insiders are only confirming something in the DHS resort area for now.

Forget DAK, I want it to got to all the way to the airport!


seascape said:
If they continue past the world gateway entrance couldn't it connect to the epcot monorail station, thus making it easy to get to MK?
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It's possible, but there are no indications that that is happening yet.
 
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CTXRover

CTXRover

Well-Known Member
The Orlando Sentinel article on this is now the top story on their site as of the time of this post. Excellent sleuthing job here!

Sounds really interesting. I am sure that any sightlines from within Epcot have been considered. That would be my only concern. Otherwise, I look forward to this potential possibility.
 
surfsupdon

surfsupdon

Well-Known Member
I have to think Universal had something g to do with this. Yes, I like Disney better, but a Universal Resort, no matter the tier, is SO MUCH more convenient to parks than a Disney Resort to parks. And amenity wise, Universal value/moderate blow WDW's categories out of the water.

The transportation gondolas, and changes potentially coming to CBR, CSR, and maybe others are all responsive to something.

And that's a good thing- any time we get a better product.
 

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