News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
At the top of Lone Peak the easiest way down is a single black diamond (Liberty Bowl) with everything else being double black diamond and really steep. There are a few runs that before skiing you need to check out with the ski patrol. Good stuff. You always have a line on a good snow day. There are always a couple hundred crazies like me who want to get up there!

It just amazes me that we use lifts like this all the time in the nastiest of weather and all our Skyliner friends are worried about how to evac. Will an evac be needed at some point in the first 20 years...possibly...but unlikely. If they have to do an evac will it be hard compared to evacing in some of these mountain evironments? Nope.
Might be the size and physical condition of a lot of WDW park goers. I doubt many could find their way down from the top of Lone Peak during the summer on their butts.
 

wdizneew

Well-Known Member
Taken right after passing the toll plaza. Excuse the blurriness of the photos.
 

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GoofGoof

Premium Member
Most of those buttons and dials aren't even used to fly the plane under normal circumstances. A lot of the stuff in between the pilots is for entering flight plans and setting radio frequencies. The overhead panel is mostly secondary things like cabin temperature, the seat belt sign, etc.

I think in addition to the feeling of control, another factor is that when in an automobile accident there is a reasonable chance of survival, even with no major injuries. If you're involved in a plane cash that isn't a runway over run or landing a little short there is little chance of survival and if you do survive, injuries are likely to be severe. It makes things like that Souix City crash landing at miracle that so many survived.
Logically speaking everything you say is true, but I think there’s a psychological factor of complete loss of control that makes it way worse. Something like minor turbulence is the equivalent of hitting a small pot hole on the road, but it’s the not knowing why that leads to fear.

In the case of the gondolas they are pretty simple machines but they are unfamiliar and there is still a level of having no control over operation that could make people nervous. I think even people with fears going in will likely come around once they try it a few times.
 

USofA scott

Member
No, I never said there was no present service from the Fort to MK. I questioned your statement that it was to the Outpost, that it's always been there, and the implication that it's regular full-time service.

I'm certain that if the route existed when I was trained for the Fort internal shuttle years ago, I would have been told about it, rather than making Guests change buses twice to go to WL and then MK. At the time I trained for MK, new drivers were trained on all routes based at the hub (I know that procedure changed over the years.) I drove the route between MK & WL many times, and the only time it went to the Fort at that time was when the boats were not running.

I have no 1st-hand knowledge of current routes, other than my recent experience traveling from WL to MK. I was told by a driver at FtW about a year ago that MK service started at 4 p.m. That was reinforced by the driver on my recent trip, though he was less specific. I've also seen it stated numerous times on the web. There have also been reports of special buses running to MK at the end of Hoop De Doo, or directly to resorts when HDDR ended after MK close. The official map I linked in my previous post tells Guests to take the boat to MK, which wouldn't make sense if there were a full-time bus to MK at the time the map was printed, although I recognize that Disney often edits info distributed to Guests to reduce confusion, and for "business purposes".

Now, as I said, it's possible that service was expanded to full-time within recent times, but I am confident that it did not exist 5-12 years ago, unless it was some sort of covert operation that was hidden from Guests and drivers.

I suggest you check with your coordinators at MK bus ops or with some senior drivers, as you may be giving out incorrect info in your classes. (Bus managers may not have past knowledge unless they came up through bus ops.) You said you teach at Disney U, so I assume you deal with the general cm population, not Transportation cm's specifically. As you probably know, cm's outside of Transportation are notorious for giving out incorrect transportation info, so it's important that they are given accurate info.
Its a few years back, but here were the old flag routes
 

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Driver

Well-Known Member
No, I never said there was no present service from the Fort to MK. I questioned your statement that it was to the Outpost, that it's always been there, and the implication that it's regular full-time service.

I'm certain that if the route existed when I was trained for the Fort internal shuttle years ago, I would have been told about it, rather than making Guests change buses twice to go to WL and then MK. At the time I trained for MK, new drivers were trained on all routes based at the hub (I know that procedure changed over the years.) I drove the route between MK & WL many times, and the only time it went to the Fort at that time was when the boats were not running.

I have no 1st-hand knowledge of current routes, other than my recent experience traveling from WL to MK. I was told by a driver at FtW about a year ago that MK service started at 4 p.m. That was reinforced by the driver on my recent trip, though he was less specific. I've also seen it stated numerous times on the web. There have also been reports of special buses running to MK at the end of Hoop De Doo, or directly to resorts when HDDR ended after MK close. The official map I linked in my previous post tells Guests to take the boat to MK, which wouldn't make sense if there were a full-time bus to MK at the time the map was printed, although I recognize that Disney often edits info distributed to Guests to reduce confusion, and for "business purposes".

Now, as I said, it's possible that service was expanded to full-time within recent times, but I am confident that it did not exist 5-12 years ago, unless it was some sort of covert operation that was hidden from Guests and drivers.

I suggest you check with your coordinators at MK bus ops or with some senior drivers, as you may be giving out incorrect info in your classes. (Bus managers may not have past knowledge unless they came up through bus ops.) You said you teach at Disney U, so I assume you deal with the general cm population, not Transportation cm's specifically. As you probably know, cm's outside of Transportation are notorious for giving out incorrect transportation info, so it's important that they are given accurate info.
I think we are saying the same thing just a different way. And I specifically teach new transportation CM's and all content we use is specified by Disney. We are given a script to learn and memorize. We do not bring our own material to the class room.
 
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danlb_2000

Premium Member
Original Poster
Looks like they are lashing a communications cable to one of the overhead protective ground wires.

That's an interesting operation, I would like to hear @Lift Blog take on this. The basket for the guy connecting the wires is hung form one of those top wires. Not sure how they get it past each tower, maybe it's light enough that the worker can lift it over.
 

Grimley1968

Well-Known Member
The guy connecting the wire at the top reminds me of some of the steel workers I've met working on tall buildings. They (should) tie off, but it still takes a different kind of person to do that kind of work than the average person.
 

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