nickys
Premium Member
What do you mean remember? Are you telling us you haven't been counting them? Pffft - amateur!
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News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -
- Thread starter danlb_2000
- Start date
What do you mean remember? Are you telling us you haven't been counting them? Pffft - amateur!
NormC
Well-Known Member
All moot as it is not happening.
britain
Well-Known Member
So....
Mr. Jim Hill (yada, yada, grain of yada, yada) said on the most recent Disney Dish podcast that TDO is concerned about the crush of guests leaving International Gateway after Illuminations is over. What used to be a convenient way to walk out of EPCOT for the Beach, Yatch, Boardwalk, Dolphin and Swan guests is now having that number doubled at least by hooking the Skyliner up with the Caribbean, Rivera, Pop and Animation resorts.
There may be a need to tear down and expand the IG turnstiles area, but that wasn't included in the Skyliner budget (sez Hill).
Hmm... I wonder if this has anything to do with Coco & Poppins' budget?
Mr. Jim Hill (yada, yada, grain of yada, yada) said on the most recent Disney Dish podcast that TDO is concerned about the crush of guests leaving International Gateway after Illuminations is over. What used to be a convenient way to walk out of EPCOT for the Beach, Yatch, Boardwalk, Dolphin and Swan guests is now having that number doubled at least by hooking the Skyliner up with the Caribbean, Rivera, Pop and Animation resorts.
There may be a need to tear down and expand the IG turnstiles area, but that wasn't included in the Skyliner budget (sez Hill).
Hmm... I wonder if this has anything to do with Coco & Poppins' budget?
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If true, it pretty short sighted of them to starting think about that now. People here expressed this concern from the day we found out there would be an IG station.
nickys
Premium Member
IIRC, the original plan was to expand the secure zone, but leave the turnstiles where they are now and add a couple extra. Then the gondola crowd could be separated from those heading to the Boardwalk.
Then @marni1971 hinted the gondola station may not be within the secure zone after all.
That sounds to me more that they want to slash the budget, not that they didn't think about it at the time.
1. I hope they stick to the "original" plan of having the station inside the secure zone.
2. I think Jim Hill has the wrong end of the stick. Hopefully.
Kamikaze
Well-Known Member
If he had said they were worried about lines at park open, then I could see it being a concern. You're putting 4 more resorts worth of people in line to go through the tapstyles.
But it won't be an issue at close. No stopping, everyone just walks through. Line at the actual load for the Skyliner, sure, but that won't interfere with Boardwalk area guests walking to their resorts.
britain
Well-Known Member
The issue is bottlenecking the IG turnstiles with twice the number it was intended to handle. The line for the skyliner is a separate headache.
Kamikaze
Well-Known Member
Its an open enough area to not be a problem at close. Since we're talking about tapstyles and not actual old turnstyles, it won't be an issue.
britain
Well-Known Member
Well, I hope you’re right!
Wonder when the last time JH saw the IG entrance. It's a small-time operation with three detectors and three tapstiles (or is it two)? Let's say that WDW never even thought about expanding the gate capacity until now (highly unlikely), it really wouldn't be a huge deal to do an expansive overhaul. There's plenty of space in the area. Installing more tapstiles, detectors, and queue lines shouldn't be an issue.
And as @britain mentioned, heading out isn't an issue. Heck, even for the main gates of Epcot and MK they push you down to two exit lanes anyway. And the walkway from the bridge to the exit also constricts the crowd flow.
Kamikaze
Well-Known Member
Its not any smaller than any other walkway area, really. It gets a little tight at the turn around the corner of the shop, but other than that its just a path. And at close they'll have the gates open for everyone to exit.
That only makes sense until you consider that a cabin with guests who need time to unload must displace a cabin from the orange track. If you just set the system to operate with a fixed buffer on the orange track (say, 30 seconds, or every 4 cabins) then everyone always knows what's going on.
britain
Well-Known Member
Well, I think Hill knows there is sufficient space. I think Hill was saying they weren't planning on doing any tapstile expansion.
nickys
Premium Member
You said he thought they would be tearing them down!
GlacierGlacier
Well-Known Member
Will these load/unload platforms have a stationary floor or a conveyor floor like a lot of attractions at WDW? No matter how slow those things are moving I'd think disney'd want to minimize any chance of a fall risk.
britain
Well-Known Member
Ah, sorry I meant that Disney wasn't originally planning on doing that. I should have said 'originally' in my post.
DisAl
Well-Known Member
I am guessing that you do not have an engineering background. Making and breaking electrical contacts as the gondolas move along would most likely produce quite noticeable arcing. Maybe that is what the are going to use for a new night time show? I can imagine the enjoyment of the riders as they see sparking over their gondola...
They make and break the contacts in the stations, no reason to believe the same things couldn't be done on the towers, not that I think they are doing that.
Skibum1970
Well-Known Member
I completely agree with you. I would be shocked if Imagineering didn't think this through that far. They are designing a high-capacity transit system to several resorts and they already know the guest counts that currently use this entrance. Thus, I'm am certain that they didn't just one day recently think to themselves, "Oh crap!! Our gates can't handle that capacity back there!!"