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

[Flyerjab]

Exactly .. I already feel that the Art of Animation prices aren't even close to the "value" price range due to its popularity, I can't imagine what that and Pop Century prices will be like now that it has direct non-bus transportation access to TWO parks (one of which is going to be REALLY popular in a year's time).

I wonder though how speedy it will be to use this mode of transport (over a bus) .. Will Disney cut bus service to DHS and Epcot from these resorts because there is another viable transportation available .. I mean you can't get a bus from Epcot to the Yacht or Beach Club, right? Don't they expect you to take the boat?). I am curious to see how fast continuous (but small) gondolas get you to the parks (considering you will probably have to wait in a long line to get on a gondola in the busy morning with two large resorts feeding into it.

Pretty certain I saw someone on the wdwmagic forums say that busses won’t be running to those parks as a result of the direct Skyliner transportation. @rteetz can can correct me on that.

I also wonder how many guests are going to treat the skyliner as a ride. We probably will. I think this will be so neat and some of the views should be awesome.

 

[Roxyfire]

Pretty certain I saw someone on the wdwmagic forums say that busses won’t be running to those parks as a result of the direct Skyliner transportation. @rteetz can can correct me on that.

I also wonder how many guests are going to treat the skyliner as a ride. We probably will. I think this will be so neat and some of the views should be awesome.

That's been said, and reported here, but I won't count on it. I think it would be more likely that they'd reduce bus frequency at first.

 

[rteetz]

Pretty certain I saw someone on the wdwmagic forums say that busses won’t be running to those parks as a result of the direct Skyliner transportation. @rteetz can can correct me on that.

I also wonder how many guests are going to treat the skyliner as a ride. We probably will. I think this will be so neat and some of the views should be awesome.

The goal I believe is to cut out buses from these resorts to those parks.

 

[Lee Matthews]

Not gonna lie, I’d love the Skyliner to eventually run to Disney Springs.

Do we think they will be able to pump audio into the gondola pods like on the buses and monorail?

 

[tlmadden73]

The service will likely be faster than a bus. And yes, I think the expectations are they will cut the bus service to these resorts. (There's been lots of arguments about that, but I can't believe they aren't factoring in that cost savings.) I've presented the calculations elsewhere, but the gondolas should give about double the capacity of buses overall to / from these 4 resorts. (Assuming Gondola capacity around 2400 / hour each way.) The advantage is where you used to have to wait anywhere from 2 to 30 minutes for your bus, now your wait time will be essentially nil except maybe at park closing. So the transition time might still be 10 minutes, but the wait time is eliminated from the equation. And especially at a resort like CBR where you have to ride the bus around to 7 different stops - now that's gone. Pop/AOA might not be as good, because you may have to get off and back on at the CBR station. (No one know exactly how they are doing this.)

But bus capacity is flexible . . while Gondola capacity is fixed. For example, when I stayed at Pop Century and was going to MK EMH . .there were several buses lined up ready to take guests to MK early. The line was long enough to fill up 2-3 buses right away, but it went quickly with virtually no wait since the buses were all their waiting. But, while trying to go back later in the evening for dinner, we waited for 15-20 minutes for one single bus (but wasn't filled to capacity when it left).

So I wonder how long the line will be on that bridge in the morning if you have TWO resorts full of people trying to go to TWO different parks early in the morning. Could there sometimes be 30+ minute wait times simply due to a ton of people trying to use it all at generally the same time (an hour to 30 minutes before rope drop)? Not doubting it . .just curious as how it will work. Guess will wait and see when its in action.

Pretty certain I saw someone on the wdwmagic forums say that busses won’t be running to those parks as a result of the direct Skyliner transportation. @rteetz can can correct me on that.
I also wonder how many guests are going to treat the skyliner as a ride. We probably will. I think this will be so neat and some of the views should be awesome.

I definitely see them cutting the busses (maybe not right away) (otherwise why put the money into this . .and it fits with their other modes of transport (monorail and boats)).

I see non-resort guests treating this as a ride. I definitely would hop on it from Epcot or DHS even if I wasn't staying at a connecting resort. (or at least use it as an alternative way to get from DHS to Epcot and vice versa as opposed to the boats).

 

[Roxyfire]

But bus capacity is flexible . . while Gondola capacity is fixed. For example, when I stayed at Pop Century and was going to MK EMH . .there were several buses lined up ready to take guests to MK early. The line was long enough to fill up 2-3 buses right away, but it went quickly with virtually no wait since the buses were all their waiting. But, while trying to go back later in the evening for dinner, we waited for 15-20 minutes for one single bus (but wasn't filled to capacity when it left).

So I wonder how long the line will be on that bridge in the morning if you have TWO resorts full of people trying to go to TWO different parks early in the morning. Could there sometimes be 30+ minute wait times simply due to a ton of people trying to use it all at generally the same time (an hour to 30 minutes before rope drop)? Not doubting it . .just curious as how it will work. Guess will wait and see when its in action.

That's the thing though, its continuously loading rather than loading one big group of 50 or 100 (or whatever the double bus capacity is) at a time. Personally I don't think we're really going to know until we see it in person. And an ops person can probably try to predict but that's probably only based on similar builds. Plus there's the people not willing to give it a chance either. So, I do think it would be short-sighted to end bus transport entirely right off the bat.

 

[DanBoris]

Well, i think there's a good chance these are all open next spring. They don't need Star Wars up and running to have the gondolas a go.

I think Spring is doable. They would probably get the Doppelmayr people in next Winter to install the cables and lift hardware since that will be the slow time for them. If all goes well they could have it open before summer which will give them time to work out any operational kinks before the Star Wars Land crowds hit.

 

[DanBoris]

But bus capacity is flexible . . while Gondola capacity is fixed. For example, when I stayed at Pop Century and was going to MK EMH . .there were several buses lined up ready to take guests to MK early. The line was long enough to fill up 2-3 buses right away, but it went quickly with virtually no wait since the buses were all their waiting. But, while trying to go back later in the evening for dinner, we waited for 15-20 minutes for one single bus (but wasn't filled to capacity when it left).

So I wonder how long the line will be on that bridge in the morning if you have TWO resorts full of people trying to go to TWO different parks early in the morning. Could there sometimes be 30+ minute wait times simply due to a ton of people trying to use it all at generally the same time (an hour to 30 minutes before rope drop)? Not doubting it . .just curious as how it will work. Guess will wait and see when its in action.


I definitely see them cutting the busses (maybe not right away) (otherwise why put the money into this . .and it fits with their other modes of transport (monorail and boats)).

I see non-resort guests treating this as a ride. I definitely would hop on it from Epcot or DHS even if I wasn't staying at a connecting resort. (or at least use it as an alternative way to get from DHS to Epcot and vice versa as opposed to the boats).

The estimate capacity of the gondola system will be between 4000 to 5000 in each direction. I am not sure what bus capacity is, but for the sake of argument, let's say that it is 70 people, that would be 56 to 71 buses per hour to make up the same capacity.

 

[STLstone]

But bus capacity is flexible . . while Gondola capacity is fixed. For example, when I stayed at Pop Century and was going to MK EMH . .there were several buses lined up ready to take guests to MK early. The line was long enough to fill up 2-3 buses right away, but it went quickly with virtually no wait since the buses were all their waiting. But, while trying to go back later in the evening for dinner, we waited for 15-20 minutes for one single bus (but wasn't filled to capacity when it left).

So I wonder how long the line will be on that bridge in the morning if you have TWO resorts full of people trying to go to TWO different parks early in the morning. Could there sometimes be 30+ minute wait times simply due to a ton of people trying to use it all at generally the same time (an hour to 30 minutes before rope drop)? Not doubting it . .just curious as how it will work. Guess will wait and see when its in action.


I definitely see them cutting the busses (maybe not right away) (otherwise why put the money into this . .and it fits with their other modes of transport (monorail and boats)).

I see non-resort guests treating this as a ride. I definitely would hop on it from Epcot or DHS even if I wasn't staying at a connecting resort. (or at least use it as an alternative way to get from DHS to Epcot and vice versa as opposed to the boats).

The gondolas will be lined up and ready all of the time and continuously arriving.

 

[Lee Matthews]

I can totally see the benefit of the Skyliner and really really hope it's extended out down the line to Animal kingdom and Disney Springs areas first and foremost.

 

[skier_pete]

But bus capacity is flexible . . while Gondola capacity is fixed. For example, when I stayed at Pop Century and was going to MK EMH . .there were several buses lined up ready to take guests to MK early. The line was long enough to fill up 2-3 buses right away, but it went quickly with virtually no wait since the buses were all their waiting.

But 3 busloads is 180 people. the Gondola system will take that in about 5 minutes. Remember a full bus is about 60 people. If capacity is 2400 people per hour (someone above said 4000-5000 but I think that is too high), then that's the equivalent of 40 buses worth to Epcot each hour, and 40 buses worth to DHS. Yes, it's four resorts, but there's no resort that gets 10 buses an hour.

And in the morning, you may get 2-3 buses worth of people, but those people don't all show up at the bus at the same instance, they arrive over time. The gondola will scoop those people up quick. I still insist the biggest issues will be

(a) park closure, or more specifically, nighttime shows ending, when you get that massive surge of people to resorts. As it is though, people get stuck waiting an hour for a bus, and it won't be THAT bad.
(b) weather events - while the gondola could maybe run during lightning storms, I question whether Disney will actually run them. If the gondola shuts down without alternative transport, not sure what the option will be.

 

[erin1715]

This may have been mentioned already but am I the only one a little nervous about being suspended in a box with only a cable holding it up? I nearly had a panic attack on the gondola ride in the San Diego Zoo! I had to look at the floor the entire time and couldn't bring myself to look out. I'm sure there are many safety systems in place, but it still makes me very nervous.

 

[tlmadden73]

To all the comments above .. I guess I didn't realize the gondola capacity is that much. I guess I've been picturing a "ride"-like system where a group steps up .. gets ushered into a car .. gets settled, door closes, it takes off and next one comes in. Just seems like that would take some time with only 8-person max gondolas.

I mean .. it won't be a continuously moving queue like the people mover or something, will it? I mean it has to stop to get people on/off .. and that feels like it will just take time. It's not like it's a ski lift where you just plop off and ski away.

So mainly my ignorance of the system .. will be interesting to see for sure!

 

[dina444444]

To all the comments above .. I guess I didn't realize the gondola capacity is that much. I guess I've been picturing a "ride"-like system where a group steps up .. gets ushered into a car .. gets settled, door closes, it takes off and next one comes in. Just seems like that would take some time with only 8-person max gondolas.

I mean .. it won't be a continuously moving queue like the people mover or something, will it? I mean it has to stop to get people on/off .. and that feels like it will just take time. It's not like it's a ski lift where you just plop off and ski away.

So mainly my ignorance of the system .. will be interesting to see for sure!

The gondola will load like the people mover. When the gondola reaches the station it detaches from the main cable which will be moving at 30-40 mph and goes onto the station cable which moves it at slightly slower than moving walkway speed for load and unload.

 

[MommyinHonduras]

It will have a platform similar to Kali, you get on and it keeps moving but gives you a set time to get on but not long, the system will not stop moving. Speculation is there might be a way for one to come off to allow time for loading ECVs maybe.

 

[skier_pete]

This may have been mentioned already but am I the only one a little nervous about being suspended in a box with only a cable holding it up? I nearly had a panic attack on the gondola ride in the San Diego Zoo! I had to look at the floor the entire time and couldn't bring myself to look out. I'm sure there are many safety systems in place, but it still makes me very nervous.

This has been a concern that has been brought up, but there is no indication how Disney may address people that are afraid to travel via the gondola. My guess is you would have to take a taxi/uber instead. The reason I say that is that if I am at the Boardwalk and I am afraid of boats - my only recourse (outside of walking) is a taxi/uber. (I actually have a boat phobia - but can overcome it enough to use the Friendship boats.)

I am thinking that Disney will heavily advertise that these resorts access Epcot and DHS by gondola only. I think if you won't use the gondolas, you better stay somewhere else.

 

[Lee Matthews]

I'd imagine they will still run one or two buses an hour for those not wanting to use the skyliner which will stop at the multiple resorts too? They can't completely get rid of buses surely?

 

[dina444444]

I'd imagine they will still run one or two buses an hour for those not wanting to use the skyliner which will stop at the multiple resorts too? They can't completely get rid of buses surely?

They could. The only way to get to Epcot from the MK resort loop is by monorail so it will likely be the same for the skyliner resorts to get to Epcot and dhs.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'd imagine they will still run one or two buses an hour for those not wanting to use the skyliner which will stop at the multiple resorts too? They can't completely get rid of buses surely?

I guess we shall see. I would think at least to start they would just drastically reduce bus capacity or maybe have buses share resorts or something

But if Minnie Vans get more and more popular they could offer that as the alternative to the skyliner

 

[jbcheerchick93]

To all the comments above .. I guess I didn't realize the gondola capacity is that much. I guess I've been picturing a "ride"-like system where a group steps up .. gets ushered into a car .. gets settled, door closes, it takes off and next one comes in. Just seems like that would take some time with only 8-person max gondolas.

I mean .. it won't be a continuously moving queue like the people mover or something, will it? I mean it has to stop to get people on/off .. and that feels like it will just take time. It's not like it's a ski lift where you just plop off and ski away.

So mainly my ignorance of the system .. will be interesting to see for sure!

I know other people have mentioned this but, think of the gondolas as free standing objects. They are "attached" and "detached" from the cable as they go in and out of the stations. The cable never stops moving or slowing down, but the internal mechanisms pick the gondola back up on its way off of the platform and out of the overhead hang. There are many lifts and gondolas that have two tracks in each station. One could be for "able-bodied" people who do not need a stroller or ecv or wheelchair, or who might be on crutches or just slower moving in general...Then the gondolas come back on to the cable line one by one. There is the ability to "merge" one in like traffic merges on the highway. One of the "standstill" gondolas on a separate track would pop right back into the lineup to go back onto the cable.

I'm certainly going to be fascinated with how it all ends up working when all is said and done!