News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner

[Flalex72]

I get that the CBR station would be a transfer point. But how would the more north "DVC station" work? If I understand correctly, the CBR hub to Epcot path would be continuous, so at that DVC station, the gondolas would change direction but also be used for embarking/disembarking. But probably most people will not be getting on or off there -- so will people at the station just wait there until a gondola comes by that is either not filled or people are getting off? Which would mean they might have a number of gondolas pass by before one is available.

Am I understanding it correctly?

At the ski areas I have been to with mid-station loading, this is generally how it works. People have the opportunity to alight at the mid station, then there's a line of people and they fill available space. This creates problems when you have a group of six that would fit in an 8 person cabin, but all of the cabins already have 3 or more people in them. For this reason, If the mid station is busy, the bottom station may restrict how many people load each cabin, or leave some cabins unfilled to even out the loading and make it easier for groups to fit without breaking up.

At Disney, with crowd flow in both directions and a relatively regular pattern each day, they will quickly figure out if a system of leaving x/x number of cabins empty at certain hours of the day makes the system most efficient.

On a vacation ski trip today. So I Thought I would do some research for the group. Here's Vails new 10 passenger gondola. Rode it up in the am "awesome powder day!" Very comfortable. Had 10 in my cabin with all the gear. No issues(but I definitely agree the ski crowd is not the Disney crowd lol). When I got out I tested the bench and you can lift it. I could see a EVC or a wheelchair fitting well, with the bench up, and you would still have room for some of the family. I will try to get some other shots later, but the skiing was just too good today.

The one thing I would like to point out is that this video is the best one posted so far that gives you an idea of the noise. The towers generate a humming noise that blends into the background pretty easily, but might not be insignificant if the hotel walls are thin.

 

[2351metalcloud]

One potential concern I had about such a system was the speed of the gondolas. The Emirates Air Line (the London Gondolas) travel at 6 m/s (~13 mph). Considering that most of the buses travel almost double that and the monorail travels at triple that speed, my concern was if it would just be faster to take the bus. However (using Google maps) I measured the distances between each of the points on the system and even if the gondolas are only moving at 6 m/s (which is certainly not the fastest that these systems can go), the time between all of the points is quite quick. Assuming there is minimal time in each station as the car traverses the system and assuming the speed is constant (which it should be given the nature of the system), one could conceivably get from Hollywood Studios to EPCOT (even with it's convoluted path) in a little over 10 minutes and while that may not seem like a super fast transit time, if you consider the possibility of a gondola being ready to take you every minute or so (as opposed to waiting 15-20 minutes for a bus) there could certainly be a fair amount of time savings available:

Distance:
AoA/Pop to Hub: ~500 m: 1 minute 23 seconds
Hub to Hollywood Studios: ~1.1 km: 3 minutes 3 seconds
Hub to CBR: ~775 m: 2 minutes 9 seconds
CBR to Boardwalk: ~1.0 km: 2 minutes 47 seconds
Boardwalk to EPCOT: 750 m: 2 minutes 5 seconds

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but at least something to consider is that I think some people will ride these just because they haven't taken them before or haven't rode them in a while. I think some people do this with boats at Disney World.

 

[SLUSHIE]

At the ski areas I have been to with mid-station loading, this is generally how it works. People have the opportunity to alight at the mid station, then there's a line of people and they fill available space. This creates problems when you have a group of six that would fit in an 8 person cabin, but all of the cabins already have 3 or more people in them. For this reason, If the mid station is busy, the bottom station may restrict how many people load each cabin, or leave some cabins unfilled to even out the loading and make it easier for groups to fit without breaking up.

Keystone is a good (but bad) example of this.

In the morning (maybe all day too IDK) they skip cabins at the bottom for people to load at the mid station. There isn't very many people ever at the mid station, so sometimes cabins are being skipped even though nobody is even waiting at the mid station. This can cause longer lines at the bottom for pretty much no real good reason. I would hope Disney would have a better handle on that type of thing though.

 

[Flalex72]

Keystone is a good (but bad) example of this.

In the morning (maybe all day too IDK) they skip cabins at the bottom for people to load at the mid station. There isn't very many people ever at the mid station, so sometimes cabins are being skipped even though nobody is even waiting at the mid station. This can cause longer lines at the bottom for pretty much no real good reason. I would hope Disney would have a better handle on that type of thing though.

This is the kind of thing I would assume Disney would have down to a science after a little bit of trial and error. There are a lot of similarities here to the system used to manage FP+ and stand-by line ratios at the merge point.

 

[roj2323]

Keystone is a good (but bad) example of this.

In the morning (maybe all day too IDK) they skip cabins at the bottom for people to load at the mid station. There isn't very many people ever at the mid station, so sometimes cabins are being skipped even though nobody is even waiting at the mid station. This can cause longer lines at the bottom for pretty much no real good reason. I would hope Disney would have a better handle on that type of thing though.

It's called Radios. The DVC station can just radio the transfer station to send them an empty when they have people waiting and since it should only be about 2 minutes between the transfer station (CBR south) to the DVC station it's a really short wait. Additionally you assume no one will get off at the DVC station which is unlikely to be the case.

 

[Maeryk]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but at least something to consider is that I think some people will ride these just because they haven't taken them before or haven't rode them in a while. I think some people do this with boats at Disney World.

That's us. We make a point of using every transportation system available every time we are there, and this will just be an added means. Disney transpo is part of the whole vacation experience for us. Now, that may be because I started going to Disney when there was one park, 2 hotels, and one campground, so to me, everything beyond that is part of the resort, rather than just viewing it as 4 parks, and a bunch of hotels, and transportation required to go back and forth. But I know the resort launches are based on a sketch Walt did on a napkin.. a lot of thought went into the transportation system, (well, then there were buses) and this looks like a return to that "lot of thought" concept. I can't wait to ride it.

 

[monothingie]

Here's my question that has yet to be answered, how do you effectively cool these gondolas. A single rope system with multiple cars will require a lot of electricity. Battery and solar options while existent don't seem like they are reliable options for Florida heat.

 

[peter11435]

Here's my question that has yet to be answered, how do you effectively cool these gondolas. A single rope system with multiple cars will require a lot of electricity. Battery and solar options while existent don't seem like they are reliable options for Florida heat.

Pretty sure this has been answered more than once over the course of the thread. There are numerous solutions to this problem and I'm sure if Disney decides they want them to be air conditioned they will have no problem doing so.

http://gondolaproject.com/2012/09/12/how-londons-emirates-air-line-cable-car-powers-cabins/

 

[lazyboy97o]

Keystone is a good (but bad) example of this.

In the morning (maybe all day too IDK) they skip cabins at the bottom for people to load at the mid station. There isn't very many people ever at the mid station, so sometimes cabins are being skipped even though nobody is even waiting at the mid station. This can cause longer lines at the bottom for pretty much no real good reason. I would hope Disney would have a better handle on that type of thing though.

Between MagicBands and other sensors likely to be included to get rider counts, it would be possible to monitor the demand in very accurate, real time.

 

[RustySpork]

If this is Walt's vision of the WEDway People Mover coming true beyond a simple ride at MK, well that would just be the best thing ever.

 

[MaryJaneP]

If this is Walt's vision of the WEDway People Mover coming true beyond a simple ride at MK, well that would just be the best thing ever.

Walt's vision was a gondola?

 

[RustySpork]

Walt's vision was a gondola?

Has Disney confirmed it's a gondola? If they did, I missed it.

 

[marni1971]

Here's my question that has yet to be answered, how do you effectively cool these gondolas. A single rope system with multiple cars will require a lot of electricity. Battery and solar options while existent don't seem like they are reliable options for Florida heat.

You provide air vents.

 

[marni1971]

Has Disney confirmed it's a gondola? If they did, I missed it.

It is confirmed.

 

[P_Radden]

It is confirmed.

It may be confirmed here, but no actual announcement by the mouse right?

 

[RustySpork]

It is confirmed.

I guess I'll have to do more googling. I thought it was still rumored to be a gondola. Well, I can still wish it was a real implementation of TTA.

 

[marni1971]

It may be confirmed here, but no actual announcement by the mouse right?

Of course not!

 

[P_Radden]

Of course not!

that's what I thought. You know everyone from bus drivers to Burbank has to be spreading the news by now though. Would you expect an announcement this summer?

 

[marni1971]

that's what I thought. You know everyone from bus drivers to Burbank has to be spreading the news by now though. Would you expect an announcement this summer?

I think over this summer it'll be hard to hide.

There again it didn't stop them with the BLT did it?

 

[P_Radden]

I think over this summer it'll be hard to hide.

There again it didn't stop them with the BLT did it?

Yeah man, I can't get over how they instructed CMs to blatantly lie to guests about that construction. That's pretty delusional on behalf of the Mouse. I guess it's all about controlling the message though.