News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

[DisneyCane]

Oh, I understand there's a lot of gripping power. It just doesn't look very substantial for a device that, if it failed, could send 8 or so people plummeting to their grisly demise at the bottom of a rocky canyon.

The grip force is measured every time a cabin leaves the station.

As far as I know, the grip on a detachable lift has never detached. The Vail accident in 1976 was a different type of design.

I'd be much more worried driving around wdw then getting on the gondola.

 

[s8film40]

Why does the Wynn Palace go through the trouble of using 507-thread-count sheets?

I suppose because they want to give their guests a great experience.

 

[danlb_2000]

Why does the Wynn Palace go through the trouble of using 507-thread-count sheets?

..and why is Disney using plain towers when they could by using giant gold dragons like Wynn's?

 

[flynnibus]

The air moves by pretty good at 15mph... put some ramp vents in the direction of travel....

 

[Creathir]

The ventilation should keep the air moving just fine and you won't be in these very long, probably no more then 5 minutes at a time.

I don't see floods of lawsuits from people stuck on Monorails, can't see them happening here. They are buying this system from one of the worlds top gondola manufacturers, they the manufacturer thought it was un-safe to run them without AC they probably wouldn't be build it that way.

The monorails that get stuck have A/C, or at least windows which open.

These don’t. Just little vents at the top and bottom.
That’s my only major outstanding concern, what happens to the guests during an evac situation? 45 minutes to an hour of sitting in this little glass box in the sky?

 

[Lensman]

I found another new Doppelmayr installation, the Busan Air Cruise in Busan, South Korea.
Here's their inspirational youtube video:


Busan gets into the 90's but is a bit cooler than Orlando.

@Lift Blog can confirm whether this is also a Doppelmayr D-Line system with 10 passenger cabins. Of note is that I read that the operator intends to operate it with 8 passengers max to maximize passenger comfort.

Also, I think that the SkyLiner gondolas do have those little horizontal louver windows at the top (and maybe some lower down at the front and the back). I can't be sure though from the few photos of the gondola on the flatbed on the highway.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Behold the form of your sky chariot...

 

[J. D.]

Behold the form of your sky chariot...

 

[MisterPenguin]

bioreconstruct...

 

[tonymu]

I know it's another site's Twitter account but this is very notable.


This is 100 percent a CWA/Doppelmayr gondola cabin. It looks like a 10 passenger one but could be 8. The windows are more reflective than normal ones, presumably for UV reasons. It looks like multiple windows that open are on the front. There also is extra ventilation along the bottom.

A single cabin is sometimes used for terminal alignment before the haul rope is even up, which could explain this delivery. Just based on what we have seen, I'm guessing Doppelmayr has a staging area somewhere in the region where they unload shipping containers from Europe and load parts onto flatbed trailers bound for the park.

Is it me or does it look like that gondola is tipping backwards. I see a gap under the front....

 

[lawdogNOLA]

About the only gondola system I've been in that's going to be similar to the weather conditions at WDW was the gondola system at the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans.

http://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/563

It was a ride 2500 feet across the Mississippi River, then back another 2500 feet if you didn't want to get off. The gondolas held 6 people and had no AC, and got up to a height of 320 feet. The view was amazing, and if you caught it at the right times of the day, actually refreshing from the river breeze. But they were hot as heck during daytime, humid and if it was raining, you almost felt like you were swimming from the moisture that would be circulated in. Also, they could get darn cold. After the fair, they tried to keep it going as part of the city's transit system, but it didn't last long. IIRC, no one died or suffered heat stroke or the like on the gondola, but there was lots of chatter about how much fun it was and how miserable it was, all by the same people.

A huge difference is that the 1984 gondola had only 2 pylons, each thousands of feet from the other, so that the Skyliner system should be faster than the 1984 Fair system was, plus there's been 34 years of technological advancements in the interim. So, I can see that if the speed is sufficient, that the ventilation system might well work as advertised.

And while many of us are accustomed to thinking of the monorail and the buses that the gondola system is meant to supplement/replace, WDW operates transportation without AC every day with the water transportation fleet. I know that nothing on Seven Seas Lagoon/Bay Lake has AC for guests. It's been so long since I've been on one of the Friendship boats that I don't remember if there's AC on board that fleet. But once the ferry boats start moving, that breeze sure feels nice.

Another analogy that a lot of people may have experienced: Going to stay at the beach, and the condo/place you're staying at doesn't have AC in the elevators. But I do wonder about whether an aftermarket heatpump fan might need to be put on the roof at some point (and yes, ha-ha, I did see the photoshop of the window unit stuck onto one).

So, I'll give Disney the benefit of the doubt that they and the engineers and designers know what they're doing.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

What if big Timmy likes to watch...

So bad...
...and yet so good

 

[Lensman]

bioreconstruct...

I noticed something about the support columns of this turn station that seems to me to be very different from the terminal station at DHS. The two innermost support columns seem a lot taller than the outer columns. Even accounting for perspective, it seems to me that they are significantly taller. Plus they're wider at the bottom and have that odd sloped section. It looks unlike any mid/turn station I've seen.

It seems improbable but could it be possible that the station could have two levels? To what end?

I suppose it could just be an architectural element but those columns look pretty beefy for just a roof.

@Lift Blog, any ideas at this early stage of construction?

I can't wait to see what they've got in store for us.

 

[Lift Blog]

I found another new Doppelmayr installation, the Busan Air Cruise in Busan, South Korea.
Here's their inspirational youtube video:


Busan gets into the 90's but is a bit cooler than Orlando.

@Lift Blog can confirm whether this is also a Doppelmayr D-Line system with 10 passenger cabins. Of note is that I read that the operator intends to operate it with 8 passengers max to maximize passenger comfort.

10 passenger Doppelmayr but not D-Line. Skyliner cabins will be wider.

 

[Lift Blog]

I noticed something about the support columns of this turn station that seems to me to be very different from the terminal station at DHS. The two innermost support columns seem a lot taller than the outer columns. Even accounting for perspective, it seems to me that they are significantly taller. Plus they're wider at the bottom and have that odd sloped section. It looks unlike any mid/turn station I've seen.

It seems improbable but could it be possible that the station could have two levels? To what end?

I suppose it could just be an architectural element but those columns look pretty beefy for just a roof.

@Lift Blog, any ideas at this early stage of construction?

I can't wait to see what they've got in store for us.

This is common on lifts where part of the front masts are steel. Steel elements will fill the gaps and the station will be level, albeit quite high in the air.

 

[danlb_2000]

The monorails that get stuck have A/C, or at least windows which open.

These don’t. Just little vents at the top and bottom.
That’s my only major outstanding concern, what happens to the guests during an evac situation? 45 minutes to an hour of sitting in this little glass box in the sky?

Scenarios like that should be very rare since there are much fewer reasons that make a gondola un-movable then with a monorail.

 

[Creathir]

Scenarios like that should be very rare since there are much fewer reasons that make a gondola un-movable then with a monorail.

Totally agree, but still will happen.
These are machines, and will break down.

This speaks towards ski lifts and trams, but does offer potential times of evac:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2057261/what-happens-if-you-get-stuck-ski-lift

I mean, 2 hours is likely on the extreme end, but if timed wrong (Middle of August at 2:00 in the afternoon) it certainly would not be an enjoyable experience.

 

[Minthorne]

Behold the form of your sky chariot...

But where are the ACs we saw in the concept art?

Oh AC stands for Animation Characters right? Like Mickey!

 

[Lord Pheonix]

sigh........
cant believe after 512 pages, yall are STILL talking about AC....
you are overlooking the fact that the gondolas are mirror tinted. MIRROR TINTED. mirror tint reflects far more heat then even regular tint, and regular tint easily cuts the internal ambient temperature down considerably. couple that with the fact that you will be in shade, which makes it feel cooler, and the car is moving with vents or open windows, it will feel alot cooler then if you were standing out in the open in the full sun. yes, it wont be a nap inducing 65 degree air conditioned space, but it will FEEL far cooler then the outside temperature. that why we have terms like heat index and wind chill.

Also, 180 pounds per person??? for americans????????? wishfull thinking, says I. probably more like 220 to 250.

 

[JenniferS]

Totally agree, but still will happen.
These are machines, and will break down.

This speaks towards ski lifts and trams, but does offer potential times of evac:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2057261/what-happens-if-you-get-stuck-ski-lift

I mean, 2 hours is likely on the extreme end, but if timed wrong (Middle of August at 2:00 in the afternoon) it certainly would not be an enjoyable experience.

So, if the gondolas did have AC, run on batteries that charged as they passed through the station, what good would it be during a 2 hour stoppage at 2:00 in the middle of August? None!

This whole circular AC argument is tedious. We’ve been told there is no AC. We’ve been told to drop that aspect of the discussion. Enough already.

This is not just directed to you, but really, pages and pages of useless AC discussion is ... well, useless.