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

[DanBoris]

Just wanted to add that boardwalk won’t have a physical station. It’s just a turn in the line

Correct. Same cable arrangement, but without the loading and unloading.

 

[OSUZorba]

And those are VERY generous numbers since it's essentially discounting that (a) MK is the most popular park for people to go to, (b) people spend time going to water parks / Disney Springs / Other resorts, and (c) some people have days where they just stay at their resort.

Here's how I prefer to think about it - a resort like Pop Century currently has a bus go to Epcot every 15 minutes, and a bus go to DHS every 15 minutes in the morning starting at say 8 AM. If each bus full holds 60 people, then that's 240 people per hour leaving Pop for DHS and Epcot each. If we add in CBR, AOA, and Riviera - that's just under 1000 people an hour traveling in each direction in the morning that are traveling to these two parks RIGHT NOW. You are suggesting it will be five times what the current # of people going to the parks are. And while I agree having the gondolas there may increase those traveling to these parks slightly - you are not going to get anywhere near 5400 people in three hours.

I agree, I was using very extreme numbers to illustrate just how over capacity this system is. I highly doubt there will even be more than a couple minute line except at closing and even then I'd bet it was less than 10-15 minutes, much better than the bus, especially considering total time from exit to resort.

 

[OSUZorba]

I believe this is correct, they will still come off the cable and slow down. The difficulty here is that all the other stations have a secondary loop that allows to take some gondolas off the cable for wheelchair ECV loading. From what we know of Gondola design/photos of the station it appears that Riviera won't have this option. (Makes me wonder if they will have to have special transport from Riviera for wheelchair/ECV.) But otherwise it will work very similar to the other locations.

My speculation is this:

It looks like the Riviera station is very long compared to the other stations. This will result in more time in the station allowing more time for people to load/unload without stopping. But I think they will have it blockable (divided into blocks) so that they can stop a car in the middle, while still launching cars forward of the stopped car. Incoming gondolas could still be caught and advanced up until it has no where to go and then it would stop. The extra length of the station would allow a handful of cars to queue up until the cars started moving. Once the stopped car is loaded (and probably a few behind it) they could be accelerated back up into the forward queue for launching.

This scheme would probably only get you a minute or so of stoppage and I don't think it's been done before, but I think it could be done.

They could also just bus ECVs over to CBR.

 

[WDW_Ding]

Sorry if this is mentioned somewhere in this thread, but when is the gondala system rumored to open?

 

[rteetz]

Sorry if this is mentioned somewhere in this thread, but when is the gondala system rumored to open?

Spring-summer 2019

 

[Weedy]

Here’s another video from Doppelmayr

 

[jhoannam]

Sorry if this is mentioned somewhere in this thread, but when is the gondala system rumored to open?

I just booked our August 2019 trip at CB and the CM said the Gondola system should be running by then.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I just booked our August 2019 trip at CB and the CM said the Gondola system should be running by then.

An official opening dates of the Skyliner has not been announced. I would take this information with a grain of salt. It's the CM's best guess.

 

[jknezek]

An official opening dates of the Skyliner has not been announced. I would take this information with a grain of salt. It's the CM's best guess.

I don't disagree, but most of our estimates have been late spring/early summer. It's probably a safe bet that August will have a functioning Skyliner. However, as you said, it is not announced so it is all conjecture.

 

[rafiki]

I didn't see a reference to this here, so FWIW, I thought I'd pass it on from the Swolphin forum:

Here is what the Swan / Dolphin are showing, notice the end date is 1 week earlier than Christmas day.

This work sounds like it will be cable pulls that will impact all the Epcot resorts and just not the Swan / Dolphin.

 

[rteetz]

I didn't see a reference to this here, so FWIW, I thought I'd pass it on from the Swolphin forum:

Makes sense, its been rumored to be in early December.

 

[Iowamomof4]

Makes sense, its been rumored to be in early December.

I must say, however, that I'm confused as to why they would have to close down the friendship boats for that long. Other than at the IG, I don't see where the Skyliner would impact the boats. Will it really take 2-3 weeks to run the cables at the Epcot station?

 

[rteetz]

I must say, however, that I'm confused as to why they would have to close down the friendship boats for that long. Other than at the IG, I don't see where the Skyliner would impact the boats. Will it really take 2-3 weeks to run the cables at the Epcot station?

I’m not completely familiar with how it works so they could be doing other work as well while the boats are down.

 

[intertile]

I’m not completely familiar with how it works so they could be doing other work as well while the boats are down.

Most probably a liability issue. They must require a substantial distance from the stations during the cabling. In case something were to release abruptly at a high pressure.

 

[OSUZorba]

I'd think they could still run the boats to DHS, just not IG.

 

[The Pho]

I must say, however, that I'm confused as to why they would have to close down the friendship boats for that long. Other than at the IG, I don't see where the Skyliner would impact the boats. Will it really take 2-3 weeks to run the cables at the Epcot station?

A few weeks to run the cable wouldn't be unusual. Especially since there's actually stuff under these Gondolas, unlike most Gondolas where it's summer on empty mountains. They need it clear underneath to install them.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I must say, however, that I'm confused as to why they would have to close down the friendship boats for that long. Other than at the IG, I don't see where the Skyliner would impact the boats. Will it really take 2-3 weeks to run the cables at the Epcot station?

I’m not completely familiar with how it works so they could be doing other work as well while the boats are down.

Just looking at the map, it does seem like the areas that the cables would go that overlap with where the boats go is pretty minimal - even at the IG I guess it is right at the dock - but for just that very specific spot would it take three weeks?

Do we know if they totally finished all the bridge work when they were closed a little while ago? maybe they have more to do and this is for that (or for both - take care of two things during one closure)

 

[jknezek]

Given the proximity to certain areas of CBR, will they close those buildings while running cable? That cable cuts a swathe through that area.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Given the proximity to certain areas of CBR, will they close those buildings while running cable? That cable cuts a swathe through that area.

That's a good point - from some of those latest pictures and where some of the supports are, there are some buildings that are really close - certainly as close as any of the boat docks or anything would be

 

[rteetz]

Given the proximity to certain areas of CBR, will they close those buildings while running cable? That cable cuts a swathe through that area.

Maybe there will just be periods of time where guests cannot be in those areas or something?