News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

NormC

NormC

Well-Known Member
LovePop said:
The gondola is much worse than waiting in the sun at the bus stop because of the enclosure. It gets extremely stuffy in there, even with vents, fast, because of the enclosure and the number of people stuffed in. I know because I rode gondolas in Hong Kong, where I come from. And that's why I'm freaking out about it. Even if it's no worse than waiting in the hot sun, it is majorly horrible that instead of the powerful air conditioning, one get to "wait in the hot sun" all the way to HS and Epcot. We lost the air conditioning, and in Florida!!!!! That is the worst downgrade ever.
The travel time by bus from Pop to DHS used to be 8 minutes. I know because I timed it many times. Google map says 2.5 miles, 8 minutes. Last summer, it took longer because of a big long wait at some intersection due to construction (probably of the gondola.) Sometimes we waited 5 minutes just at one intersection. But that should be done by now. However, Disney may be redesigning the roads so that you can only go the long way now because last summer, we took a different way to HS. Even then, it was 10 minutes, same as Epcot.
The buses do not come every 20 minutes. In the morning and evenings, it comes about every 7 or fewer minutes. Otherwise, it would never be able to haul the whole crowd out of there. Furthermore, being that there is a computer board announcing the arrival of the bus, during the day people often relax in the air conditioned lobby and only go out to the bus stop when the bus is getting close. During our last summer trip, I counted 8 times when the bus was already there and we ran after it and caught it!
The gondola will also have to load scooters. If the gondola loads faster than your average gondola, than at least we don't have to wait long to get on it. In Hong Kong, the wait for the gondola is often 45 minutes, and that crowd doesn't even compare to Disney.

Conclusion: the gondola is NOT better transportation, at least not for us. It will be the new sauna style of getting to HS and EP, just like the boats that go from EP to HS. I hate those boats! I only take them in the mornings and evenings when it's not near as hot, and even then, I hate them because they are hot and stuffy and dingy, like some cheap public transportation. But, the people in the 5 deluxe resorts along the way sure don't seem to mind! My kids refuse to even ride taxis because their air conditioning is often weak compared to the buses. Therefore, I agree with you on this: Disney will have not trouble marketing the idea that the gondola is "a better transportation amenity." People will be happy to pay more to stay at Pop (and AofA and CBR) and cook themselves all the way to EPCOT while enjoying the "bird's eye view."
Click to expand...
:banghead:
 
Lift Blog

Lift Blog

Well-Known Member
2percenter said:
@Lift Blog, what do you think the chances are that Disney will be implementing the Doppelmayr Recovery Concept redundant emergency drive system to reduce the need for cabin evacuations in case of failure of the main drive? I'm not entirely sure how we'll be able to tell until we see the emergency drives being installed.
View attachment 282541
Click to expand...
This image is older and a lot has changed with D-Line and the advent of direct drive. I can already tell the DHS line does not have a vault (underground) drive like shown in that recovery concept picture. Instead the drive systems are above the bullwheel like on a standard lift. We should know pretty soon if there will be an emergency drive at the return station (Most lifts come with three drive systems at the drive station and the recovery concept adds a fourth at the opposite station.)

The recovery concept has generally been used for lifts that traverse impossible to evacuate terrain. Most of the Skyliner routes would be relatively easy to evacuate from the ground.
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
larryz said:
I think it's picking up reflected light off the grass and trees around it...
Click to expand...

Yeah, the photos where it looks greenish also have the canal in the picture which is also greenish. I think it has more to do with cameras artificially coloring (or putting too much of one color) in grey tones.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
trojanjustin said:
They built the utildors then covered the entire park with earth excavated from the Seven Seas Lagoon. The entire park is now built on the second floor, with Fantasyland on the third floor. There is a utilidor that runs through Liberty Square and as you can't dig down in Florida..
Click to expand...
If I may.. not all the park is on the second floor. The extremeties of Caribbean Plaza, Frontierland, Starland and extrememties of Tomorrowland are more at real ground level.

There is one utilidor (the central corridor) that’s lower than real ground level as it passes under the hub. It took a lot of reinforcement to make it water tight.
 
GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
lazyboy97o said:
The thing just needs to be scrapped. The current one does not work (even before the gondola tower) and relocating it to the Ratatouille show building would not be much better as it would just draw unwanted attention to parts of the building that are not supposed to be points of focus.
Click to expand...
Couldn’t they make a bigger version but put it at ground level further back in the backstage area making it look further in the distance?
2percenter said:
Inspired by one of your commenter's mention of Breckenridge's QuickSilver Super6 as the only double-loading lift in North America, I found the following video of how that works. Note that loading on the inside turnaround curve works for lifts but not for gondolas.


I found another video of someone loading on the inside turnaround.


Factoid: At its top speed of 7 meters per second (about 15 mph), the Doppelmayr D-Line takes 3.8 minutes travel time per mile of ropeway.
Click to expand...

Why would it not work for a gondola? I was under the impression that the passengers load on the straight parts leading into or out of the curve so there’s no reason you couldn’t load gondolas on both.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
Original Poster
GoofGoof said:
Couldn’t they make a bigger version but put it at ground level further back in the backstage area making it look further in the distance?

Why would it not work for a gondola? I was under the impression that the passengers load on the straight parts leading into or out of the curve so there’s no reason you couldn’t load gondolas on both.
Click to expand...

It would be difficult to load on the inside curve for a gondola because the cars run in a trench to they can have level loading. To get to the inside you would have to cross the trench.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
GoofGoof said:
Couldn’t they make a bigger version but put it at ground level further back in the backstage area making it look further in the distance?
Click to expand...
Backstage behind Ratatouille means it’s not sitting behind Morocco, possibly even between the pavilion and the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Backstage behind the existing pavilion is more visible from the Ratatouille walkway. I know it’s iconic and was added for a reason, but the recognizable shape of the tower and the French architecture work against each other to create a condition that makes visual sense.

danlb_2000 said:
It would be difficult to load on the inside curve for a gondola because the cars run in a trench to they can have level loading. To get to the inside you would have to cross the trench.
Click to expand...
I think @GoofGoof was suggesting straight unload, inside turn, straight load. That’s how these would work, with the outside turn available as an unnecessary but fear-reducing accessible loading area. People get “across” the trench by walking around the outer turn or under the cable (in a safe area with a minimum 80” vertical clearance).
 
GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
danlb_2000 said:
It would be difficult to load on the inside curve for a gondola because the cars run in a trench to they can have level loading. To get to the inside you would have to cross the trench.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I meant load on the outside still but just load on the straight part after the turn.
 
S

SLUSHIE

Well-Known Member
GoofGoof said:
Sorry, I meant load on the outside still but just load on the straight part after the turn.
Click to expand...

Yes, I think you are correct for how this lift will operate.

I do not see much of a purpose for the inside curve if the outside curve was used like a normal lift. If the inside curve was some sort of staging area, nobody would be able to get to it. Also because of the chain drive that appears to be connecting the transition between the 1st and 2nd curve, it seem to be less efficient for all cabins to take the outside curve in normal operation. Some lifts will have an area where they can pull off cabins because they are damaged or maybe need to be cleaned for some reason, but generally that is 'outside' the lift in a maintenance area. This would only be able to hold 2 or 3 cabins and maintenance people wouldn't be able to easily access them, so I don't see it being for that either. Though I guess that could be a quicker way to pull cabins off the line and then worry about them later. The best explanation to me right now, is that the outside curve will be a holding area for strollers and wheelchairs, but as people have pointed out, a similar type of holding area doesn't seem likely at the turn station, which would greatly effect the efficiency of this concept if they still have to slow or stop the entire line because of that station.
 
Last edited:
Lift Blog

Lift Blog

Well-Known Member
SLUSHIE said:
Yes, I think you are correct for how this lift will operate.
The best explanation to me right now, is that the outside curve will be a holding area for strollers and wheelchairs.
Click to expand...
Like this.
skylinerdiagram.png
 
M

mmascari

Well-Known Member
Lift Blog said:
Like this.
skylinerdiagram.png
Click to expand...

Have we seen any pictures of the Riviera station or is it not done enough yet, to know if they can just unwrap this concept and do the same thing?

Just take this picture, and make it a straight line, all going one direction. Half way through, the main line door closes and the car goes straight. The Special Needs car is pulled out, allowing the main path to go behind it. Still no crossing the travel path for anyone. The opposite side doing the same thing for the other direction. Mentally grab the top line by the arrow pointing left and pull it around the left arrow pointing up, so it's a straight line all in one direction of travel, unbend the curves on the right.


PS: I suggested a year ago they would pull cars off the main travel path for a stationary loading, working out the capacity issues on that extra area along with swapping the cars in and out of the main travel path, and communication issues so they don't run out of space. After all, even a slow special needs loader doesn't have any worse mobility than a box of supplies does on it's own. This was followed by a series of replies that they were not doing it, it wasn't possible, and required stopping the line to accomplish (which would defeat the purpose). :cool:

PPS: Yes, I've read all the pages, clearly I have a problem. Looking forward to these being done.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom