Plans have been filed for DVC expansion at Caribbean Beach Resort

[sachilles]

OK, follow my logic here.

You have 2 "corner" units in this whole thing. One near the new cbr tower and one in the boardwalk parking lot.

If the boardwalk corner station is not a loading station, that it would stand to reason the corner station in CBR is a not loader. That means if it's a DVC tower....you now have to see this lift, but walk or bus half a mile to load on it opposite of south trinidad. That strikes me as unlikely.
I think the corner in CBR will be a loading platform, at lease one direction. I think the boardwalk one will also be a loader, or have the ability to be a loader for future development in that area. No sense building all this for one stop in CBR.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I call this the "anything but buses" syndrome (ABBS). You can ride a bus anywhere and usually you don't want to ride a bus. Name one bus ride you can't wait to take, I dare you. Greyhound is painful, city buses are an evil necessity. Seriously, the only time I ever chose a bus over another form of transportation was when I lived in NYC in the summer and going into the subway was a boiling, smelly, crowded nightmare. So to be forced onto a bus at Disney seems to suck out the magic of being there. Especially when there is alternative magical transportation like the (mostly) working monorail.

That being said, I can't imagine they would build a ski lift type system. The Friendship boats already shut down in lightening, what good would another system that can't work in the rain do? Gondola seems like a better idea. I'd imagine it would be a big draw simply because ABBS. Short of spending a gazillion dollars expanding the monorail, expanding the capacity of the monorail, and expanding the reliability of the monorail, buses simply are the most efficient and flexible means of moving guests around. You can get more buses easily and cheaply since they are mass produced, you can reduce or increase capacity easily, you can repair them easily, and you can shift routes easily. Lots of people have bus driving experience, so it's not hard to get employees. Buses just make (unfortunately boring) sense.

I would think it would have to be something fully enclosed (and likely air conditioned) ... I mean, in July and August you would roast in those chairs!

 

[skier_pete]

Maybe they could do it like the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car in Hong Kong which goes both ways and goes through stations like depicted here to change direction. Per their website it has a capacity of 3,500 people per hour in each direction

They have detachable cars and really efficient for loading, etc.:

This is exactly what @sachilles and I are talking about. It's not in any way a new concept. You can slow the cars down almost to a stop at the stations. Almost. They detach from the cable when they get to the station.

 

[sachilles]

One more thing to add as a positive. It's pretty mainstream technology which is proven. Construction of these things can be very quick.

Now wasn't there a rumor about Switzerland in epcot?

 

[TheMaxRebo]

This is exactly what @sachilles and I are talking about. It's not in any way a new concept. You can slow the cars down almost to a stop at the stations. Almost. They detach from the cable when they get to the station.

Ok, yeah, I went on that thing and it is really easy to get into/out of them - even rather old people had no issue. In fact, they had it set up with a Photopass type person there taking pictures of your group getting into the car and once in before it left the station - so really easy and quick process

 

[sachilles]

So. To take it another step forward into dream land. If you connect the straight line from the permitted building across from the south Trinidad area , to the building at the edge of the dhs/epcot canal. If you continue that line straight, where does it take you? CSR.....continue straight and you could end up in yeti country. Big leap of faith there, but it does line up.

 

[skier_pete]

OK, follow my logic here.

You have 2 "corner" units in this whole thing. One near the new cbr tower and one in the boardwalk parking lot.

If the boardwalk corner station is not a loading station, that it would stand to reason the corner station in CBR is a not loader. That means if it's a DVC tower....you now have to see this lift, but walk or bus half a mile to load on it opposite of south trinidad. That strikes me as unlikely.
I think the corner in CBR will be a loading platform, at lease one direction. I think the boardwalk one will also be a loader, or have the ability to be a loader for future development in that area. No sense building all this for one stop in CBR.

I agree - the CBR one will definitely be a "loader". The Boardwalk one may or may not be - but I would lean toward "NOT". It just doesn't make a lot of sense at it's current location, and even if "expansion" of a new resort somewhere - it wouldn't be there. I think it is just a router - a turn point. As I'm sure you know, any cable type device like this can to minor turns with just a tower, but to do a sharp > 90 degree turn requires a little more.

One more thing to add as a positive. It's pretty mainstream technology which is proven. Construction of these things can be very quick.

Now wasn't there a rumor about Switzerland in epcot?

Right. This would be a bid job between like Poma and Dopplemayr and a few others. They typically build these things in a ski off-season (8 months) so it could easily be built in time for a 2019 opening. DVC sales through the roof.

 

[sachilles]

Perfect time for them to build it is winter to spring in florida, as they are not likely to have construction conflicts in either north America/europe or south america/nz.

The boardwalk one is still a head scratcher for me. I know they would want to avoid back stage areas, I get that. However the cost to do a couple of gentle bends, vs one corner station if a financial no brainer. Strikes me as an odd choice financially. If only to connect Epcot to CBR to DHS, the routing could be done differently.

 

[sachilles]

One of the Poma project managers lives in my town. See him at the bar quite a bit(I rarely go, but he's always there). You better believe I have have questions for him on my next visit.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

So. To take it another step forward into dream land. If you connect the straight line from the permitted building across from the south Trinidad area , to the building at the edge of the dhs/epcot canal. If you continue that line straight, where does it take you? CSR.....continue straight and you could end up in yeti country. Big leap of faith there, but it does line up.

That would take it across World Drive though which seems like a big road to cross

I wonder though if they are thinking DVC at Coronado as well could there be a separate one that links to AK? It could also then link to Blizzard Beach where the chair lift/aondala theme would tie in perfectly

 

[beer dave]

This get's even more interesting when you consider the shape of this building proposed for CBR..

View attachment 220142

and this one just south of the Boardwalk parking lot..

View attachment 220143

Connect the dots...

View attachment 220144

I am fully aware that I might be reading to much into this and seeing what I want to see, but it's is interesting.

How about this-- the building at CBR differs in form from the one in the BW lot in one way-- the "back" of the building is not curved-- it is flat--
So --if you draw another line (forming a y) out of the flat back of the CBR building, does it not point directly at the CBR tower ?

So this building could be another router, but handles two sets of cables-- one set going to IG from CBR and the other going to HS---Then the loading would be in the CBR tower------ Anyone buying now?

 

[beer dave]

The long building in the green belt area between HS and the large ish building outside CBR is for storage and maintenance of the vehicles. the large ish building outside CBR is the drive house.

I think if you look at Danboris's site plan, that the building in BW lot is more pointing towards the green belt area between BCV and the IG.

Edit-- on second look there is no long building in the green belt area-- it's just marked off for being disturbed or altered during construction-- so as Pete says-- (sorry missed it) the larger building would have to be the service area.

 

[Sweettears]

That would make sense. I do agree the shapes of the buildings would work for this type of transport. I'll wait for that other permit then ETA: well, guess there's not one yet. maybe it's coming?


I ski fairly often myself, and am skeptical about this. Ski lifts stop and start All. The. Time. Someone loses a pole while boarding, it needs to slowed down for kids, etc. This is true even for gondolas. It just seems that even though it could take 11 minutes as PP mentioned, actual travel time would be significantly increased with the loading of the variety of Disney guests with varying levels of mobility.

The monorail stops and starts all the time too.

 

[PaintsWithAllTheColors]

The monorail stops and starts all the time too.

True! It just seems slightly better to be stuck in a monorail than a gondola to me. And I just don't know if it would be any faster then bus service in all reality. I get the "cool" factor, but I prefer speed of transportation , personally. Oh well, all speculation at this point anyway haha

 

[Sweettears]

True! It just seems slightly better to be stuck in a monorail than a gondola to me. And I just don't know if it would be any faster then bus service in all reality. I get the "cool" factor, but I prefer speed of transportation , personally. Oh well, all speculation at this point anyway haha

I appreciate both aspects of the WDW transportation system. If not in a hurry I love the ride aspect. Otherwise I appreciate the most efficient option. Usually if I need efficiency I'll opt for taxi or Uber.

 

[rteetz]

Martin from wdwmagic has said it's happening. Gondola transportation system is in the works.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/transportat...gondola-system-about-to-become-a-reality-.htm

 

[jknezek]

Assuming the map is correct, does Art of Animation then get upgraded over time away from a value resort? No other value resort would have that kind of transportation link unless you count Fort Wilderness, which is kind of a different animal. I've never been in Art so I have no idea how much work would need to be done, but if it stays as a value, you have to believe it becomes a much sought after value resort and Pop Century and All-Star will certainly be deemed lacking, though All-Star obviously has a different draw with Wide World of Sports activities. You have to assume it would also hurt Port Orleans and Coronado Springs as moderates without direct unique transportation. Unless of course this is kind of a transportation stage 1. It will be interesting to watch.

 

[rteetz]

Assuming the map is correct, does Art of Animation then get upgraded over time away from a value resort? No other value resort would have that kind of transportation link unless you count Fort Wilderness, which is kind of a different animal. I've never been in Art so I have no idea how much work would need to be done, but if it stays as a value, you have to believe it becomes a much sought after value resort and Pop Century and All-Star will certainly be deemed lacking, though All-Star obviously has a different draw with Wide World of Sports activities. You have to assume it would also hurt Port Orleans and Coronado Springs as moderates without direct unique transportation. Unless of course this is kind of a transportation stage 1. It will be interesting to watch.

Possibly but doubtful.

It's worth noting that there would be security changes with this meaning you get screened before getting on. This also would be open to most everyone so guests staying at pop could walk over to AoA and take it.

 

[skier_pete]

True! It just seems slightly better to be stuck in a monorail than a gondola to me. And I just don't know if it would be any faster then bus service in all reality. I get the "cool" factor, but I prefer speed of transportation , personally. Oh well, all speculation at this point anyway haha

A detachable gondola is very fast. The ride to DHS will be especially short - probably less than 5 minutes.

So this building could be another router, but handles two sets of cables-- one set going to IG from CBR and the other going to HS---Then the loading would be in the CBR tower------ Anyone buying now?

I think the difficulty there is you can't have two gondola routes merging into one Gondola route - unless you have HALF the cars coming into the station do the two routes. It would be a tricky mix. I suppose it is possible to have a separate line there, but the outbuilding seems to small for that.

I can't find the original overlay drawing with the new tower, but I THINK the tower already skews over towards that building. My guess is it will be within a very short walk of that building - if not an extension off the building right to the tower.

Martin from wdwmagic has said it's happening. Gondola transportation system is in the works.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/transportat...gondola-system-about-to-become-a-reality-.htm

This is the first time I've seen a leg that includes Pop Century and AOA. This actually makes the idea even more cost effective. AOA is already not a true "value" but it makes Pop Century a "Value +" and CBR and "moderate +".

 

[sachilles]

That would take it across World Drive though which seems like a big road to cross

I wonder though if they are thinking DVC at Coronado as well could there be a separate one that links to AK? It could also then link to Blizzard Beach where the chair lift/aondala theme would tie in perfectly

To be honest, it's not that big of a road to cross. They cross the interstates in the US, along with ravines bigger than the span of that road. Certainly a very doable engineering exercise.

The WDWmagic article just re-hashes the points already made, doesn't seem to have anything new to back up the story. However, it does mention a very good point about traffic congestion. That does affect bus traffic. While you can keep throwing busses at a traffic problem, eventually the roads will be too busy to support them. Wise to have other options, even if not the fastest option, it helps ease bus traffic on the roads. Scenic enough to make it a quasi-attraction like the monorail or the boats.
The upside is that in premise, it's an omni mover. You never have to wait for a bus, train nor boat to arrive. It's always loading. That could also mean there is always a line...... part of transport times is that mystery wait time at the station, or just missing the bus as it leaves as you arrive.