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News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -
- Thread starter danlb_2000
- Start date
Mainahman
Well-Known Member
WE check in to POP saturday morning.. i guess they consider the room construction less noisy, as i never got an email like this..
allgiggles
Well-Known Member
Maybe it went to your spam folder and you missed it. Or maybe you got it so long ago you forgot about it. I got the same email for our upcoming stay at AoA...it arrived more than 5 months before our check-in date.
Seabasealpha1
Well-Known Member
So....I know it's a good distance away...but has anyone heard any rumblings about any kind of mass transit (besides busses and minnie-vans) to Animal Kingdom?
In theory, you can get to three out of Four parks fairly well by boat, monorail, or (soon) Skyliner...
AK getting any love?
(not asking about monorail expansion here...I know better...and be nice!)
In theory, you can get to three out of Four parks fairly well by boat, monorail, or (soon) Skyliner...
AK getting any love?
(not asking about monorail expansion here...I know better...and be nice!)
nickys
Premium Member
@marni1971 has hinted that there are plans down the line for some kind of link between AKL and AK. Not a monorail (yeah, shocker
) or gondola expansion. There was a discussion about it for a while. Everything from a light railway to a people mover was suggested along the way. I think it may even be buried in this thread somewhere ..... Good luck trying to find it, you could try searching for various permutations of light railway and AKL.
I was wondering if anyone had any theories as to why Disney didn't just expand the canal system but instead went for the Skyliner?
It seems as if boat transportation would have been a cheaper alternative and would have been relatively easier to construct than the Skyliner. I bet they could have come up with faster, higher capacity boats that the watercraft they use now. Just seems like a proposal like the one in the attached map would have been the favored option. Thoughts?
It seems as if boat transportation would have been a cheaper alternative and would have been relatively easier to construct than the Skyliner. I bet they could have come up with faster, higher capacity boats that the watercraft they use now. Just seems like a proposal like the one in the attached map would have been the favored option. Thoughts?
Brian
Well-Known Member
You mentioned it right there. Boat transportation is perhaps the slowest at WDW. Just look at how long it takes to get from Wilderness Lodge to Magic Kingdom. Plus, this will be a novelty, similar to how the monorail was when it first debuted.
davis_unoxx
Well-Known Member
I agree! Would be a cool means of transportation!
What kind of watercraft can move 4k people an hour? You'd need something the size of the Bay Lake ferries departing from a dock once every 10 minutes to rival the gondola lift's pph throughput.
peter11435
Well-Known Member
You think that would’ve been cheaper and easier to construct?
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nickys
Premium Member
And the dock that you have on the map is right where all the fireworks are stored.
So whenever they were loading the barges for Illuminations each night, all boats would have had to stop running, even if it was deemed safe to transport large numbers of people through the storage depot at other times.
I do believe so. I'm sure the gondola supports have to be driven deeply into the ground to withstand wind load. 5 new gondola stations and the "turning points" are sure to cost a lot of money.
The canals in comparison would be pretty simple - Disney recently dug the huge new retention pound across from DHS by World Drive and Osceola Parkway - the canals required for these boats would have been a much smaller project. There is a long history of Disney creating waterways across the Florida property.
Obviously this is a quick sketch and things would have had to been figured out logistically. The dock could have been placed anywhere. There's easily a way to separate passenger boat traffic and fireworks traffic. Obviously there would have been separation established.
I doubt Disney would have let that hinder this plan.
peter11435
Well-Known Member
If your plan would have been cheaper and easier we would see it being constructed currently.
Your plan includes major changes to stormwater runoff and environmental considerarions. These would all have to be mitigated. Consider all of the utilities that currently run through the areas you would be digging. All would need rerouted. Data, power, water, sewage.. You wouldn’t need gondola stations but you would need boat docks. 4 bridges including 3 that are major roadways. Then you have the boats. Each of which would need at least one cast member to operate.
Movielover
Well-Known Member
I like your thinking, however I think there are several factors that you might not be taking into account that would drive the price of that plan up.
This is totally not the same as just digging a retention pond. There are major infrastructures that would have to be altered in order for this to work. 3 major roads and 2 resort roads would have to be closed and bridges built. there are 2 separate canals that would have to be reconstructed due to their height difference to the new transport canal.
Finally this area,
would need a 100% reconstruction including a totally new backstage dock.
Then you have to account the logistical aspect, their is just no way they could load and launch enough boats to match the capacity of the Skyliner.
Again great idea but it would not be a extremely cheaper alternative to the Skyliner
The water route solution would require building 7 new roadway bridges and two water bridges (like the one near the IG).
And speaking of water bridges... the lakes of Epcot-DHS are elevated as opposed to the low lying drainage canals. That's why the ferry by the IG gate has to have a water bridge that crosses over a canal and roadway. This means the path from CBR to DHS is problematic. It's low lying marsh. You'd have to build levees to contains the water route in that area unless you want to go the lock and canal method.
Also, there is no longer access to the lake in front of DHS which touches undeveloped land. It is now landlocked by parking lots.
Engineering wise, gondolas are much easier. Not to mention they are all electric and WDW is throwing up a huge solar farm... a lot less greenhouse gasses.
And speaking of water bridges... the lakes of Epcot-DHS are elevated as opposed to the low lying drainage canals. That's why the ferry by the IG gate has to have a water bridge that crosses over a canal and roadway. This means the path from CBR to DHS is problematic. It's low lying marsh. You'd have to build levees to contains the water route in that area unless you want to go the lock and canal method.
Also, there is no longer access to the lake in front of DHS which touches undeveloped land. It is now landlocked by parking lots.
Engineering wise, gondolas are much easier. Not to mention they are all electric and WDW is throwing up a huge solar farm... a lot less greenhouse gasses.
mm121
Well-Known Member
while on the surface this would have been kinda cool, its not practical
1) this would most definitely NOT be cheaper than the skyliner
2)modifying waterways requires ALOT more red tape with water management etc than getting construction permits
3) doesnt provide nearly the capacity or the speed desired.
4) the canals and aoa/pop lake are at a different water level than the epcot/dhs system
5) NO ONE BOOKS ROOMS BASED ON THE NOVELTY OF SLOW BOATS, the skyliner at least at first will seem new and novel so thus works must better for marketing that saying "hey we just spent millions to add a slow boat to your hotel"
6) the boats with their limited capacity are cast hours heavy unlike the skyliner that will only require staff at the stations for much higher capacity.
7) boats are lots of maintenance and burn lots of fuel unlike the all electric skyliner (except for possibly some kind of fuel powered backup generator)
8) in order to use this system guest would be required to have an epcot ticket as it dumps them INSIDE the park vs the skyliner that dumps at the international gateway where people can go to a resort to catch a bus,
Gondola was deemed cheaper to run long term.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
The EPCOT boats have AC, when they're not told to crank it down to pinch pennies anyways. The Gondolas were stated somewhere earlier in this thread to not be getting AC.