Disney Skyliner (Gondola Transportation System) Read Post 1 Now Open!

[STLstone]

I have some doubts that these would really take 2 years to build.

I know Disney likes to drag out their construction projects for accounting purposes, but I don't see a benefit to Dopplemayr to do this. They would want their money as soon as possible. They are not a struggling company that needs Disney's business. They wouldn't want to drag out a construction project when they could be busy building another one (or more) somewhere else during the next 2 years. Unless there is some larger deal with Dopplemayr to buy many more of these, I think they would want to finish this as soon as possible.

Also, this is a proven technology. The design for much of this is off-the-self and has been built many times before. There shouldn't be a big learning curve on building these.

Even if they were to stretch out this build like they normally do, it seems like they would still want to have them open months ahead of Star Wars land. It would be much more of an issue trying to work out the operational kinks of this before the huge crowds show up.

I guess we'll see...

 

[ucfknight]

I have some doubts that these would really take 2 years to build.
I know Disney likes to drag out their construction projects for accounting purposes, but I don't see a benefit to Doppelmayr to do this. They would want their money as soon as possible. They are not a struggling company that needs Disney's business. They wouldn't want to drag out a construction project when they could be busy building another one (or more) somewhere else during the next 2 years. Unless there is some larger deal with Dopplemayr to buy many more of these, I think they would want to finish this as soon as possible.

So far only station construction, land clearing, and other site work is going on. None of this involves Doppelmayr. Disney will take their normal sweet time with this phase of construction. When Disney hands the project to Doppelmayr for actual installation of the towers, cables, motors, and associated equipment I'm sure Doppelmayr will build it as quickly as they can.

 

[rteetz]

 

[sachilles]

This is prime build season for ski lifts. It would make sense for Dopplemayr to commence building in late November.

 

[Q-man]

This is prime build season for ski lifts. It would make sense for Dopplemayr to commence building in late November.

If they aren't done with foundations by now it is unlikely that structure will be up and operating by ski season.

 

[Q-man]

It hadn't really hit me how many rooms are going to be on the gondola lines until seeing the landing construction pix between AoA and Pop. Those two plus CBR and Riviera make for over 7K rooms. That is ~25% of present WDW rooms. The IGW expansion may be trickier than I had thought. How many guests at once was the IGW set to handle back when they ran the tram to the IGW resorts? How does modern security checks effect that?

 

[skier_pete]

It hadn't really hit me how many rooms are going to be on the gondola lines until seeing the landing construction pix between AoA and Pop. Those two plus CBR and Riviera make for over 7K rooms. That is ~25% of present WDW rooms. The IGW expansion may be trickier than I had thought. How many guests at once was the IGW set to handle back when they ran the tram to the IGW resorts? How does modern security checks effect that?

There's been a lot of talk of having the security be at the resorts, and then push back security at the IG to cover the boats and walk-ups as they do now. This makes a lot of sense, but the problem is at the other end - DHS - where the landing is WAY outside of security. Unless they push back DHS security as well.

 

[DanBoris]

This is prime build season for ski lifts. It would make sense for Dopplemayr to commence building in late November.

Which means late November 2018, because there is no way the stations structures will be ready by November of this year.

 

[STLstone]

This is prime build season for ski lifts. It would make sense for Dopplemayr to commence building in late November.

Is the prime build season for lifts driven at all by the fact that they are often ski lifts and would be needed in the winter months - which makes the summer the construction season?

 

[robinb]

There's been a lot of talk of having the security be at the resorts, and then push back security at the IG to cover the boats and walk-ups as they do now. This makes a lot of sense, but the problem is at the other end - DHS - where the landing is WAY outside of security. Unless they push back DHS security as well.

I wonder if they could create a dedicated path from the boat landing to the touchstiles.

 

[Q-man]

There's been a lot of talk of having the security be at the resorts, and then push back security at the IG to cover the boats and walk-ups as they do now. This makes a lot of sense, but the problem is at the other end - DHS - where the landing is WAY outside of security. Unless they push back DHS security as well.

Considering the 'soft targets' are easier to hit outside the parks having security where those 'soft target' crowds start aggregating makes sense. It would also give a bit of magic back when you get to the parks and just have the tapstiles to go thru.

 

[STLstone]

There's been a lot of talk of having the security be at the resorts, and then push back security at the IG to cover the boats and walk-ups as they do now. This makes a lot of sense, but the problem is at the other end - DHS - where the landing is WAY outside of security. Unless they push back DHS security as well.

I would have thought the idea of so drastically relocating the security checkpoints to be ludicrous - until the actually did it at Magic Kingdom and around the monorail resorts.

 

[DanBoris]

Is the prime build season for lifts driven at all by the fact that they are often ski lifts and would be needed in the winter months - which makes the summer the construction season?

Exactly. Ski lifts are normally installed between ski seasons, so the installers are busy in the summer months, so it would make sense for Disney to try to get their done in the winter months.

 

[mara512]

Some pictures from this morning at POP Century.

 

[DBDiz]

Some pictures from this morning at POP Century.

So is that steel structure in the lake the support for the crane to erect the tower, or the base of the tower itself?

 

[Q-man]

So is that steel structure in the lake the support for the crane to erect the tower, or the base of the tower itself?

Tower itself. They use barges for the cranes.

 

[RENThead09]

So got this email today about December reservation at POP:

We are delighted you have chosen to stay with us at Disney's Pop Century Resort!

Walt Disney once spoke of how his creations would never be complete as long as there is imagination left in the world. It is in this spirit that we have embarked on creating a new transportation system, Disney Skyliner, which will give Guests a bird’s-eye view of Walt Disney World® Resort while traveling via gondolas. This transportation system will connect future Guests of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort with Disney’s Hollywood Studios®, the International Gateway at Epcot® and other Resorts.

While we work our magic, the Resort will be in full operation with all amenities available to you, including our dining, merchandise and recreation locations. It is possible that you may see or hear construction, but noise should not be heard from your Guest room between dusk and 9:00am. We apologize for any inconvenience this work may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding. Please know we are making every effort to ensure your comfort and enjoyment.

If you have questions or need assistance prior to your arrival, please call the Disney Reservation Center at 407-939-7805 between the hours of 7:00am-11:00pm (ET).

Might just be a miss, but seems to say that the construction is for future guest of A of A to use the Skyliner, but doesn't mention POP. I know that it says "other resorts" but considering this is going to people staying at POP, seems very peculiar in how they presented it.

 

[rteetz]

So got this email today about December reservation at POP:

We are delighted you have chosen to stay with us at Disney's Pop Century Resort!

Walt Disney once spoke of how his creations would never be complete as long as there is imagination left in the world. It is in this spirit that we have embarked on creating a new transportation system, Disney Skyliner, which will give Guests a bird’s-eye view of Walt Disney World® Resort while traveling via gondolas. This transportation system will connect future Guests of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort with Disney’s Hollywood Studios®, the International Gateway at Epcot® and other Resorts.

While we work our magic, the Resort will be in full operation with all amenities available to you, including our dining, merchandise and recreation locations. It is possible that you may see or hear construction, but noise should not be heard from your Guest room between dusk and 9:00am. We apologize for any inconvenience this work may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding. Please know we are making every effort to ensure your comfort and enjoyment.

If you have questions or need assistance prior to your arrival, please call the Disney Reservation Center at 407-939-7805 between the hours of 7:00am-11:00pm (ET).

Might just be a miss, but seems to say that the construction is for future guest of A of A to use the Skyliner, but doesn't mention POP. I know that it says "other resorts" but considering this is going to people staying at POP, seems very peculiar in how they presented it.

It definitely isn't just for AoA. They have pamphlets in the Pop rooms too. They probably just omitted it in this message.

 

[joelkfla]

So got this email today about December reservation at POP:

We are delighted you have chosen to stay with us at Disney's Pop Century Resort!

Walt Disney once spoke of how his creations would never be complete as long as there is imagination left in the world. It is in this spirit that we have embarked on creating a new transportation system, Disney Skyliner, which will give Guests a bird’s-eye view of Walt Disney World® Resort while traveling via gondolas. This transportation system will connect future Guests of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort with Disney’s Hollywood Studios®, the International Gateway at Epcot® and other Resorts.

While we work our magic, the Resort will be in full operation with all amenities available to you, including our dining, merchandise and recreation locations. It is possible that you may see or hear construction, but noise should not be heard from your Guest room between dusk and 9:00am. We apologize for any inconvenience this work may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding. Please know we are making every effort to ensure your comfort and enjoyment.

If you have questions or need assistance prior to your arrival, please call the Disney Reservation Center at 407-939-7805 between the hours of 7:00am-11:00pm (ET).

Might just be a miss, but seems to say that the construction is for future guest of A of A to use the Skyliner, but doesn't mention POP. I know that it says "other resorts" but considering this is going to people staying at POP, seems very peculiar in how they presented it.

Probably just a typo. They likely prepared a common letter, and somebody forgot to change the 2nd occurrence of the resort name. I've seen this before in other Disney communications.

 

[sndral]

Probably just a typo. They likely prepared a common letter, and somebody forgot to change the 2nd occurrence of the resort name. I've seen this before in other Disney communications.

Or they plan to upgrade POP and make it AOA2, or maybe only AOA guests will be allowed to board the gondolas & POP guests will be banned - naw, just another example that whomever composes these messages has no real knowledge of what's going on, you'd think they'd at least name POP in a communication to a POP guest.