News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
danlb_2000 said:
A South Florida Water Management District permit was filed today for the Hourglass Lake Evac Boat Dock. It is safe to assume this is where they will dock a boat designed for evacuating gondola cars that are over the lake.

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Any idea what the boat will look like? A flat barge with a cherry picker arm and basket? I assume it won’t be too large or it would be an eyesore in the lake there.
 
PG 134

PG 134

Active Member
flynnibus said:
I think it's interesting they are using a floating dock design, even tho hourglass is a stand-alone lake.
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I haven't spent much time near Hourglass but the northern neighbor resort lake fluctuates significantly enough to notice the change in water height.


creathir said:
The location is a little surprising.
I’d have thought it would be along the northern shoreline, further away from the guest areas.
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Probably would like the dock to be where Cast Members frequent the area to make it less tempting for guests messing around on the dock or with any boat.
 
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MiddKid

Well-Known Member
A cherry picker or lift would be a luxury...at ski resorts we use a hanging chair!

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MiddKid

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
How does that rescue equipment get into the car to begin with?
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Some resorts use a system where they have a literal launcher that launches a lead rope over the cable then it’s a series of pulling ropes and harnesses up to the chairs. Others have a zip line like system...climb the tower, ride down the cable to the chair. There are YouTube videos of both but here is the latter system.


Oh, and if the chair/gondola isn’t far off the ground they just have people jump into one of those canopies being held by a bunch of patrollers on each edge.

All that to be said, these systems are due to the mountain environment. Can’t just drive a truck up. I assume Disney will just drive a scissor lift up since they have easy ground access to most of the lines.
 
GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
MiddKid said:
Some resorts use a system where they have a literal launcher that launches a lead rope over the cable then it’s a series of pulling ropes and harnesses up to the chairs. Others have a zip line like system...climb the tower, ride down the cable to the chair. There are YouTube videos of both but here is the latter system.


Oh, and if the chair/gondola isn’t far off the ground they just have people jump into one of those canopies being held by a bunch of patrollers on each edge.

All that to be said, these systems are due to the mountain environment. Can’t just drive a truck up. I assume Disney will just drive a scissor lift up since they have easy ground access to most of the lines.
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Do they have trained staff on site for these types of rescues or is it more local fire department? I agree that Disney’s system seems fairly easy and low to the ground so they shouldn’t have a need for air rescues with cables. Just a few trucks and a boat or 2 for the part over water.

Instead of jumping to a canopy they could just inflate one of these and allow guests to slide to safety in style. Talk about a magical rescue;)

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Flalex72

Well-Known Member
GoofGoof said:
Do they have trained staff on site for these types of rescues or is it more local fire department? I agree that Disney’s system seems fairly easy and low to the ground so they shouldn’t have a need for air rescues with cables. Just a few trucks and a boat or 2 for the part over water.

Instead of jumping to a canopy they could just inflate one of these and allow guests to slide to safety in style. Talk about a magical rescue;)
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The small ski hill I worked at had a volunteer force of ski patrollers which wasn't very large some days, so all lift staff and anyone who wanted it were trained to do evacuations. Only one person on site had to be fall arrest trained to climb the towers to get the process started. Larger hills usually have paid patrol and lift maintenance staff in large enough quantities to handle an evacuation.

Gondolas usually require someone sliding along the cable or arriving via helicopter to each gondola in order to open the doors, unless of course you can reach up with a bucket truck.

Once again, the thing to stress is that these systems have multiple redundancies so you never have to get to the evacuation stage. The two evacuations I have been a part of were both when parts of the emergency brake system failed. Both failures were fail-safe, so the brake engaged without a way to disengage it safely.
 

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