News New Gondola Transportation - Disney Skyliner -

Jon81uk

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
Grimley1968 said:
However, I'm puzzled by the eastern expansion idea. The article states that it would connect Typhoon Lagoon with Disney Springs. Unless I'm reading it wrong, it mentioned no resorts on this line. I don't understand the logic of connecting a water park with their shopping area, with no resorts. If the plan is to connect this line as an addition and connection to the current system, that might make sense, but I'm having some trouble figuring out how it would connect without a massive expansion of at least one of the stations and possibly a lot more gondolas going over structures.
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Last time I visited WDW in 2016 there was no bus service to Typhoon Lagoon, we had to get a bus from our resort to Disney Springs and then another bus from Springs to Typhoon Lagoon. Therefore a gondola from DS to TL makes perfect sense. Guests can travel to Disney Springs (by bus, boat or whatever) and then take the gondola over to Typhoon Lagoon.
 
Jon81uk

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
Purduevian said:
Regarding the possible expansion:
They will not directly connect DS to any themepark/waterpark. The free parking at DS prohibits this (no buses from DS to Theme Parks).
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Waterparks already have free parking. There has been Disney Springs to Typhoon Lagoon bus service regularly in the past when they want to save money by avoiding running busses from resorts to Typhoon Lagoon.
 
beertiki

beertiki

Well-Known Member
My wife once dropped me off at DS at 9am to get some breakfast and go to one store when it opened at 10am. Then I was going to the Poly to do some shopping and have a couple beers at the Tambo where she would pick me up at noon. I was very surprised when I got to the Poly bus stop to find 15 people in line. Then after a closer look, I figured out they were not Poly guests, they were going to MK. I did not notice, but I bet there were people in the lines for the other two monorail resorts too. This was only noticeable because DS had just opened, and busses had not dropped off any resort guests yet. My guess is the busses to the monorail resorts at DS always have 10 or more people riding who parked there and are going to the MK. If staying off site, I bet you can be at the gates of MK faster, with less walking than if you pay to park at the TTC, walk to the tram, long security lines, and ferry boat waits.
 
L

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
beertiki said:
My wife once dropped me off at DS at 9am to get some breakfast and go to one store when it opened at 10am. Then I was going to the Poly to do some shopping and have a couple beers at the Tambo where she would pick me up at noon. I was very surprised when I got to the Poly bus stop to find 15 people in line. Then after a closer look, I figured out they were not Poly guests, they were going to MK. I did not notice, but I bet there were people in the lines for the other two monorail resorts too. This was only noticeable because DS had just opened, and busses had not dropped off any resort guests yet. My guess is the busses to the monorail resorts at DS always have 10 or more people riding who parked there and are going to the MK. If staying off site, I bet you can be at the gates of MK faster, with less walking than if you pay to park at the TTC, walk to the tram, long security lines, and ferry boat waits.
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And the savvy guests avoid paying the daily $25 theme park charge to park their car. They can park their cars at DS for free. Do that for a week and save about $175.
 
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J

joelkfla

Well-Known Member
beertiki said:
My wife once dropped me off at DS at 9am to get some breakfast and go to one store when it opened at 10am. Then I was going to the Poly to do some shopping and have a couple beers at the Tambo where she would pick me up at noon. I was very surprised when I got to the Poly bus stop to find 15 people in line. Then after a closer look, I figured out they were not Poly guests, they were going to MK. I did not notice, but I bet there were people in the lines for the other two monorail resorts too. This was only noticeable because DS had just opened, and busses had not dropped off any resort guests yet. My guess is the busses to the monorail resorts at DS always have 10 or more people riding who parked there and are going to the MK. If staying off site, I bet you can be at the gates of MK faster, with less walking than if you pay to park at the TTC, walk to the tram, long security lines, and ferry boat waits.
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There used to be no direct service from DTD to most resorts (including the MK Resorts) before 11am. That was back when buses picked up at MP & PI. Buses coming in to drop off at DTD before 11am only went out to a few nearby resorts (including PO and the Epcot Resorts) to pick up for the theme parks. Those buses would take Guests, but any wanting to go to an unserviced resort would have to take a circuitous route to a serviced resort, stay on the bus to a theme park, then transfer to a bus to their intended destination.

I don't know whether that's still the situation at modern day DS.
 
Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
Purduevian said:
I just don't see them either forcing people to pay for parking at DS or connecting it to parks too easily do to financials.

I believe disney springs would struggle if they did force people to pay for parking. There are too many other options for high end malls and restaurants around the Orlando area and parking would make DS a lot less attractive.

If they left parking free AND allowed easy transportation to theme parks, too many people would use this as a "hack" in order to save the parking fee. There is a reason parking at DS is free AND there is no direct buses to and from theme parks.
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Just my opinion its not if they will charge for parking at DS, its a matter of when. Its just a mater of time.
 
larryz

larryz

I'm Just A Tourist!
Premium Member
Disstevefan1 said:
Just my opinion its not if they will charge for parking at DS, its a matter of when. Its just a mater of time.
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But I can see any parking fee waived with a legitimate purchase in the DS shops or restaurants.

If only WDW had an electronic bracelet or some other token that could be used to track purchases and charge sales and parking fees... and could be used to vet access to a Skyliner station running from DS to another Skyliner hub...
 
HiJe

HiJe

Well-Known Member
larryz said:
But I can see any parking fee waived with a legitimate purchase in the DS shops or restaurants.

If only WDW had an electronic bracelet or some other token that could be used to track purchases and charge sales and parking fees... and could be used to vet access to a Skyliner station running from DS to another Skyliner hub...
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This mythical bracelet (or band if you will) sounds like sorcery. Or Magic even.
 
Disone

Disone

Well-Known Member
Jon81uk said:
Last time I visited WDW in 2016 there was no bus service to Typhoon Lagoon, we had to get a bus from our resort to Disney Springs and then another bus from Springs to Typhoon Lagoon. Therefore a gondola from DS to TL makes perfect sense. Guests can travel to Disney Springs (by bus, boat or whatever) and then take the gondola over to Typhoon Lagoon.
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This has since been reversed. Transportation is once again provided from the resort to Typhoon Lagoon without having to go to Disney Springs. It reverted back some time ago, I no longer recall when they reverted back.
 
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Jon81uk

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
Disone said:
This has since been reversed. Transportation is once again provided from the resort to Typhoon Lagoon without having to go to Disney Springs. It reverted back some time ago, I no longer recall when
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But if they did decide to add gondola service from DS to TL then it would be reasonable as means buses can serve Disney Springs only and then guests get a quick gondola trip over the road.
 
C

COProgressFan

Well-Known Member
Jon81uk said:
Waterparks already have free parking. There has been Disney Springs to Typhoon Lagoon bus service regularly in the past when they want to save money by avoiding running busses from resorts to Typhoon Lagoon.
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Disone said:
This has since been reversed. Transportation is once again provided from the resort to Typhoon Lagoon without having to go to Disney Springs. It reverted back some time ago, I no longer recall when they reverted back.
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ppet

ppet

Well-Known Member
After spending a week at AoA, I whole heartily endorse the Skyliner. Yes we did get stopped a couple of times, never for more than a few minutes. It closed twice due to lightning in the area. The speed of transit was very apparent both times when we had to settle for a bus. Taking it to HS for early morning the line was concerning. We got in line over by POP. by the time we started moving the line stretched back past POP's pool. At 8 o'clock when they started boarding the line started to move and it was less than 15 minutes easy. Much better than the morning we did rope drop for AK. We had to wait on the third bus. then to add insult to injury the bus broke down before we got to the park. No rope drop that morning, but we did get extra fast passes.
 
peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
donsullivan said:
I wasn’t precise enough in my words. Disney is not allowed to charge for parking there. So all the projection that it’s inevitable that Disney will start charging is invalid.
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Yes, but if RCID charges that can still benefit Disney.

Also nothing prevents Disney from purchasing the garages from RCID for next to nothing. Just look at the deal Disneyland had with the city of Anaheim for the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure.
 
donsullivan

donsullivan

Premium Member
peter11435 said:
Yes, but if RCID charges that can still benefit Disney.

Also nothing prevents Disney from purchasing the garages from RCID for next to nothing. Just look at the deal Disneyland had with the city of Anaheim for the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure.
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There would be no benefit to Disney to acquire those structures. They’d have to pay all the taxes on materials and the like that RCID is not required to pay as a part of the purchase. And then, they’d have to absorb the operations and maintenance costs as well. Other than projecting some negative intent on Disney, there is no reasonable benefit to them doing that.
 
Creathir

Creathir

Well-Known Member
larryz said:
But I can see any parking fee waived with a legitimate purchase in the DS shops or restaurants.

If only WDW had an electronic bracelet or some other token that could be used to track purchases and charge sales and parking fees... and could be used to vet access to a Skyliner station running from DS to another Skyliner hub...
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This to me is how they stop any misuse of the system if it gets bad.

A simple magic band swipe for hotel guests is all it takes, avoids having to toll parking at DS, and only would be needed in this location.

If someone forgot their band, a CM could easily tap into the res system to lookup hotel/room and validate the guest name using an iPhone/iPad app.
 
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Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
donsullivan said:
As I understood it, because the garages were built by RCID (not Disney) using municipal bonds they are not allowed to charge a parking fee in the garage.
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That’s great to hear. My only worry is that RCID was created by Disney and is literally controlled by Disney (no matter what you were told) , so is possible rules can change.
 

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