New Hollywood Studios bus loop to open soon!

In case anyone didn't notice there don't appear to be sun or rain shelters in the new loop. It will probably be the charter bus loop when construction is complete.

Fortunately, construction of the adjacent resort bus loop, which will have shelters, seems to be moving along rapidly.
 
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Riviera will be a DVC resort. The Skyliner also is likely to be faster than walking or riding the boat to DHS from the BW & BC Villas.

I haven't been paying much attention to the gondola situation, but this sounds interesting. So I could walk out of Epcot at the IG and catch the gondola to HS? Sounds promising.
 
Riviera will be a DVC resort. The Skyliner also is likely to be faster than walking or riding the boat to DHS from the BW & BC Villas.

IF we stayed at Riviera, we would drive ourselves to whichever resort we wanted to attend. And speed of transit doesn't really address the issue of fear. People like my sister who are afraid of heights aren't getting on those things. And I LIKE the boats. They are pleasant. Doesn't bother me if they take an extra few minutes to get there vs riding in an unairconditioned glass box 80' in the air.
 

I haven't been paying much attention to the gondola situation, but this sounds interesting. So I could walk out of Epcot at the IG and catch the gondola to HS? Sounds promising.

FYI. That's not going to be the quickest trip. To get from Epcot to Disney's Hollywood Studios via gondola, you'll first go to the new Disney's Riviera Resort before continuing on to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. There, you'll need to disembark and switch to a different gondola line in order to reach Disney's Hollywood Studios.

disney-gondola-route-overview.jpg

Image taken from Gondola Thread in the Disney Rumors and News forum: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...n-system-read-post-1-updated-6-12-18.3578988/
 
FYI. That's not going to be the quickest trip. To get from Epcot to Disney's Hollywood Studios via gondola, you'll first go to the new Disney's Riviera Resort before continuing on to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. There, you'll need to disembark and switch to a different gondola line in order to reach Disney's Hollywood Studios.

disney-gondola-route-overview.jpg

Image taken from Gondola Thread in the Disney Rumors and News forum: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...n-system-read-post-1-updated-6-12-18.3578988/
Total distance along the route is 2 miles. The gondolas are expected to travel around 12 mph, which works out to an estimated travel time of 10 minutes at full speed. Allowing a generous extra 10 minutes for transferring and reduced speed thru stations, that beats the boats easily, and is the same or better than walking.
 
Total distance along the route is 2 miles. The gondolas are expected to travel around 12 mph, which works out to an estimated travel time of 10 minutes at full speed. Allowing a generous extra 10 minutes for transferring and reduced speed thru stations, that beats the boats easily, and is the same or better than walking.

Add in the wait in line time at each station. That is an unknown.
 
Add in the wait in line time at each station. That is an unknown.
Yes, that will be a factor at park exit, and possibly at park opening, but the line for the boats can get quite long at closing. Even at off-peak times, you've got an average 10-minute wait if the boats run every 20 minutes. Perhaps the boat line will be shorter when the Skyliner shares the load, or perhaps Disney will reduce the number of boats running, but those are also unknowns.
 
View attachment 339776

Just to help clarify for everyone. The blue loop is what is opening soon. The red loop isn’t done yet. Also soon the walkway from Epcot to DHS will go through the bus loop (the yellow line). The green is the current charter bus area which will close.
Is the drop off stop you show for Minnie Vans only? Do you know? Or is all Drop Off using that?

Ugh. Why would the walk from the Epcot resorts have to go thru the bus loop? That will be annoying for sure. And add time too. Guess they are really trying to push us to use the gondolas.
If I'm reading the map right, the walk from BW/Epcot has been using that route since before the boat went down for bridge repair work.

Why do they hate guests staying at Pop so much? Don't we suffer enough at all other parks? Can't they mix and match a little to make it all fair to everyone?
My understanding is they put the values in the far bus stops so there is room for those mega double buses. They can't fit those in the closer/tighter bus stops
 
I don't know the answer to this right now...
The reason I asked is the existing HS Minnie Van pickup/drop off is a bus stop (about where you show on that map now in the existing bus loop, specifically I believe they've been using stop 26, but I may be wrong about the number)
Passenger Pick up/drop off is no where near that, it's off across the street in the other parking lot. They do not go in the bus stops loop ever, to my knowledge. Only Minnie Vans.
 
The reason I asked is the existing HS Minnie Van pickup/drop off is a bus stop (about where you show on that map now in the existing bus loop)
Passenger Pick up/drop off is no where near that. They do not go in the bus stops loop ever, to my knowledge. Only Minnie Vans.
I would imagine that will stay the same then.
 
I thought this thread was about the new HS bus loop not about the pros and cons of the gondola.

Thank you for posting the pics for the bus loop but to put it in better context for me can you provide a pic that shows the existing bus loop and the bag check area to show just how far the new walk will be. In the pic with the blue, red and green loops what is the red section for? Will that be where the gondola terminates.

I am asking this because one of my family members uses the wheelchair rentals and while they do provide courtesy wheelchairs to use between the bus stop and the rental counter after admission, I am looking at worst case scenarios when there are no courtesy chairs and a potential long walk.

Thanks
 
I thought this thread was about the new HS bus loop not about the pros and cons of the gondola.

Thank you for posting the pics for the bus loop but to put it in better context for me can you provide a pic that shows the existing bus loop and the bag check area to show just how far the new walk will be. In the pic with the blue, red and green loops what is the red section for? Will that be where the gondola terminates.

I am asking this because one of my family members uses the wheelchair rentals and while they do provide courtesy wheelchairs to use between the bus stop and the rental counter after admission, I am looking at worst case scenarios when there are no courtesy chairs and a potential long walk.

Thanks
The existing bus loop is off top of the photo. Specifically above the right hand upper corner, if you will, where you see that blue awning at the top (the blue awning is the gondola station)
Also, if you have ever hopped to another park, the green area is where they currently have you catching another park's bus
9e396128-4bb4-4641-ba02-544c0e02d8a9-jpeg.339776
 
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Thank you for posting the pics for the bus loop but to put it in better context for me can you provide a pic that shows the existing bus loop and the bag check area to show just how far the new walk will be. In the pic with the blue, red and green loops what is the red section for? Will that be where the gondola terminates.
This aerial photo is a few months old, but shows a larger area:
DaIWT-MX4AAMxIZ.jpg


It's rotated about 60 degrees counterclockwise from the first photo. The new bus loops are just dirt here. You can use the median cuts for the left turn into the loops to locate them.

The park entrance plaza is at the center top, at the end of the Lagoon. You can see the red pavement, and just make out the ticket booth structure behind it. I think the arched green roof to the right of it is the BATB theater.

The handicapped lot is to the left of the entrance plaza, bordered by a line of trees on the left. The current bus stops circle the handicapped parking.

The future Skyliner station is the small construction area at the top left corner of the Lagoon.

To give credit, both of the aerial photos are from the Twitter feed of @bioreconstruct. He posts aerial and other photos of all the Orlando attractions, usually each weekend.
 
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This aerial photo is a few months old, but shows a larger area:
DaIWT-MX4AAMxIZ.jpg


It's rotated about 60 degrees counterclockwise from the first photo. The new bus loops are just dirt here. You can use the median cuts for the left turn into the loops to locate them.

The park entrance plaza is at the center top, at the end of the Lagoon. You can see the red pavement, and just make out the ticket booth structure behind it. I think the arched green roof to the right of it is the BATB theater.

The handicapped lot is to the left of the entrance plaza, bordered by a line of trees on the left. The current bus stops circle the handicapped parking.

The future Skyliner station is the small construction area at the top left corner of the Lagoon.

To give credit, both of the aerial photos are from the Twitter feed of @bioreconstruct. He posts aerial and other photos of all the Orlando attractions, usually each weekend.



Thanks for this. I could not tell much before, but yeah that's a hike!!!
 












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