Now, if WDW will just put in laser guns like on Buzz Lightyear, they could turn the gondola transport system into a fast-paced, family-friendly first-person-shooter attraction!
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News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -
- Thread starter danlb_2000
- Start date
Now, if WDW will just put in laser guns like on Buzz Lightyear, they could turn the gondola transport system into a fast-paced, family-friendly first-person-shooter attraction!
Club34
Well-Known Member
i wouldn't say getting jammed up will never happen but remember this...these contraptions are usually used in ski areas where you have a lot of heavy, bulky, awkward equipment AND you are a wearing frankenstein boots [read: ski boots] and somehow its generally smooth and everyone gets in and out without issue. this is not new tech and they know what they are doing. i am worried about the ventilation but i am sure they have thought it through. there should be no worry about the capacity and such. it will be fine. will there be lines in the morning? yes. but then you haven't known hell until you have to watch a full MK bus pull away from your hotel without you. the gondolas just keep spinning. no left out feeling.
on the cost subject, perhaps that includes the theming and infrastructure costs. ski hills don't have to do much prep. there is literally zero theme since it gets covered in snow and the infrastructure has me thinking. ski hills are usually drilling into rock but orlando is swamp. is there going to be extra work/planning required to deal with the swamp factor of this build? i think that could be a thing. anyone?
Lift Blog
Well-Known Member
Buying a gondola these days, your choices are French-Italian or Swiss-Austrian.
I prefer to buy Venetian.
TiggerDad
Well-Known Member
That is to drown out the noise from the a/c unit.
GCTales
Well-Known Member
How many times must we say that the pixie dust generators will be solar powered and equipped with a noise dampening field that will prevent the screams disturbing other riders.....That is to drown out the noise from the a/c unit.
Jordanaous
Well-Known Member
If disney was smarter they shoulda built the Epcot monorail station in the Epcot resort area, would of connected The beach club, The Yacht club, The Boardwalk, The swan, the Dolphin, as well as the International gateway entrance to the TTC.
And then you could take the Disney skyliner to Hollywood studios.
It's sad to see that the Epcot monorail line was never really used to its full potential like having hotels on its line.
Problem with that is Epcot's Monorail extension was opened in 1982, eight years before Yacht/Beach Club, Swolphin and the International Gateway entrance...
Hindsight is always 2020, but at the opening of Epcot, there was only one entrance - so the natural place for the monorail was right at the entrance.
Creathir
Premium Member
They could have extended the loop around Future World, and instead made it an elongated curve towards the East.
For that matter, they still could do this, though likely won't.
Jordanaous
Well-Known Member
Oh they definitely could have done that when the built the entrance in 1990. But at that point, they had just spent millions extending the monorail to Epcot, and built all the infrastructure for it just eight years prior.
The benefit would have been those staying at the new resorts could get to the Magic Kingdom quickly with a single change, but those resorts were seen as having walking proximity to Epcot, and Friendship Boat services to MGM Studios which opened just one year prior to the International Gateway. Those at Disney will have probably said, 'Those are enough benefits for those in that resort, if they want to get MK they can get the bus or walk through Epcot to get to the monorail'.
At the end of the day, I'd argue that the Epcot resorts get the best deal in terms of proximity to the parks. They're wedged between both HS and Epcot, and it's relatively quick to get to either. Anyone at Disney would have little incentive to make such a huge investment to improve transport for the resorts with the best location...
There were plans to extend the monorail through the Epcot resort area to DHS.
But as @Lift Blog has pointed out, ski area gondolas also get used a lot by non-skiers in the summer months.
It's sad to see that the Epcot monorail line was never really used to its full potential like having hotels on its line.
For now...
Rumor is of at least one hotel to be build at Epcot's main entrance. Wonder if they'll try to hook them up with perhaps an elevated walkway to the monorail.
Also... self driving vehicles are coming...
The Epcot main entrance could look very different within a decade.
Note I said could. I know of 3 northern locations outside of the park for a proposed hotel.
And if someone as insignificant as I am knows that then you can bet there's more.
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Kamikaze
Well-Known Member
Wut.
Martin, no foolin', you're probably the most knowledgeable person in the world on WDW/Disney parks that doesn't work for TWDC. And I'm not talking about just having inside sources/info.
Thank you. But I'm just a fan who's lucky to have friends.
chiefs11
Well-Known Member
The Skyeship also has a mid-load station, just like the Disney one will have at the Riviera resort.
The old Killington gondola had 2 mid stations along the 3.5 mile trip from the base to Killington peak, for a total of 4 stations on one line. One was at Skye peak before it went over to Killington peak, this section was removed when they put in the new Skyeship.
I thought the vacancy rate and diminishing inventories of non DVC's didn't support this. Unless underperforming hotels are going to be shuttered. Then again if it's all DVC then...
trainplane3
Well-Known Member
I've thought about a Epcot hotel. Something that goes back to Walt's Epcot Center hotel/skyscraper that sat in the middle of his concept. That could integrate well with the entrance if they try hard enough, right? But the issue would be sitelines since (personally) I wouldn't want to see some 10 story hotel sitting next to Epcots entrance. Almost like a mini Epcot Center concept city that encompasses the entrance to Epcot. I think it could almost be tasteful.