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

[skier_pete]

I'm not sure where you live but there are quite a few cities near me and all have standing room only on their buses first thing in the morning and heading home in the evening. I just see this as 'normal', instead of 'not enough busses'.

Yeah, not sure what people expect from buses. I am surpirsed that Disney handles park closures as well as it does with the fact that often 3 parks are closing at the exact same time. Do people expect them to suddenly send out 1000 buses right at closing time?

If the buses bother you - you can ALWAYS rent a car. Same goes for the gondola. Yes, you are now going to have to pay to park at the resort, but that was your choice for the sake of convenience. Me, I don't mind the buses, except sometimes at the end of the night when we are so tired and we just want to be back at the resort - but I just take it as part of the trip.

 

[kay1864]

It looks more to me that they are playing off of the Art of Animation font.

Ah., makes sense, thanks!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Anyone noticed that they appear to have changed the sign design? No longer the classic Disney logo, and no longer the cool retro lettering. Now we have basic font, and dancing letters. Which to some could convey a bumpy ride. (I know it's not in reality, but one's subconscious might think so) Either way, boring silly logo.

Hope the original concept is still used elsewhere.

View attachment 423985

View attachment 423986

It seems the Skyliner fonts change to match the location of the station and align with other signage in the area.

Art of Animation


Pop Century



Caribbean Beach


Disney's Hollywood Studios

 

[NotUrsula]

I'm not sure where you live but there are quite a few cities near me and all have standing room only on their buses first thing in the morning and heading home in the evening. I just see this as 'normal', instead of 'not enough busses'.

Yes, it is normal for heavily-used mass transit, but that doesn't mean it's optimal from a safety POV. It's actually fairly hazardous, but public budgets being what they are, it is considered an acceptable trade-off for keeping needed systems running and getting people to work. Disney, however, is a private for-profit company; there is no compelling-public-interest reason to use SRO buses, and doing so opens them to greater liability in the event of injuries to standees in an accident. (Also, we have to remember that the vast majority of visitors to WDW do not customarily ride real public transit, so they are a bit more at risk in such circumstances than those who are practiced at keeping their balance in a moving bus.)

 

[cranbiz]

Yes, it is normal for heavily-used mass transit, but that doesn't mean it's optimal from a safety POV. It's actually fairly hazardous, but public budgets being what they are, it is considered an acceptable trade-off for keeping needed systems running and getting people to work. Disney, however, is a private for-profit company; there is no compelling-public-interest reason to use SRO buses, and doing so opens them to greater liability in the event of injuries to standees in an accident. (Also, we have to remember that the vast majority of visitors to WDW do not customarily ride real public transit, so they are a bit more at risk in such circumstances than those who are practiced at keeping their balance in a moving bus.)

To do as you suggest requires a different style bus (think a Magical Express Prevost motor coachs). Those are slower loading (which we know from using Mears in peak times), take much longer to load a scooter or chair and cost a lot more than a 72 passenger Gillig Transit bus and still hold less people than a transit bus with standee's. It requires more of those expensive buses to move the same number of guests. Maintenance is more, vandalism is higher making the upkeep cost more. That style bus takes longer to clean at night and longer to clean and disinfect in the event of a Signal V.

Maintenance facilities need to be expanded, you need more drivers and cast, park and resort load zones need to me changed to fit the designs. There will be a significant increase in cost and that will need someone to pay for it. People on this board complain about costs, wait until there is a separate resort transportation fee to pay for this.

That's the same reason city transit systems use transit buses and not motor coaches. They are impractical for moving large amounts of people quickly over short distances.

 

[gorkt]

Yeah I never got the hate for WDW buses. I think they do a remarkable job considering the amount of people they have to move and the fact that there are so many scooters and strollers that they have to deal with. Sure, you have to wait for a few busses occasionally or stand at the end of the night but that is what happens when you are trying to get thousands of people out of a place all at once and disperse them to 30 different places. It is a logistics puzzle of epic proportions.

I am also impressed with their continued efforts to make bus service more predictable. I go every 3 to 4 years, and there has been noticeable improvements. In 2016 they had the ETA boards in the bus stations. Now they have this built into the app. They also have Minnie vans for those can‘t miss reservations.

 

[bookgirl2632]

Hope it’s successful. Disney bus system is really bad. Most busses have people standing in the AM park opening and PM park closing. What in my book is not enough busses.

I’ve ridden on several city buses and subway systems. I’ve had to stand on each of them. I recall standing on a NYC subway where people were packed in like sardines. Disney is no different. I’ve never had a problem with their transportation. They do a remarkable job transporting all those people all day, every day.

 

[loutoo]

One of the things that has always impressed me most about disney is their mastery of logistics. They move hundreds of thousands of guests to dozens of locations along with 75,000 cast members, food, merchandise, trash, laundry and who can imagine what else. they do it almost invisiblely. There is not another such operation on the planet all handled by a single entity like that. The millions of moving pieces are staggering when you start looking at them granularly. Awe inspiring really.

 

[bookgirl2632]

One of the things that has always impressed me most about disney is their mastery of logistics. They move hundreds of thousands of guests to dozens of locations along with 75,000 cast members, food, merchandise, trash, laundry and who can imagine what else. they do it almost invisiblely. There is not another such operation on the planet all handled by a single entity like that. The millions of moving pieces are staggering when you start looking at them granularly. Awe inspiring really.

There’s a reason that Disney and their practices are studied. Disneyworld is a small city, with all the infrastructure that comes with it. It really is impressive, what they do.

 

[NotUrsula]

To do as you suggest requires a different style bus (think a Magical Express Prevost motor coachs). Those are slower loading (which we know from using Mears in peak times), take much longer to load a scooter or chair and cost a lot more than a 72 passenger Gillig Transit bus and still hold less people than a transit bus with standee's. It requires more of those expensive buses to move the same number of guests. Maintenance is more, vandalism is higher making the upkeep cost more. That style bus takes longer to clean at night and longer to clean and disinfect in the event of a Signal V.

Maintenance facilities need to be expanded, you need more drivers and cast, park and resort load zones need to me changed to fit the designs. There will be a significant increase in cost and that will need someone to pay for it. People on this board complain about costs, wait until there is a separate resort transportation fee to pay for this.

That's the same reason city transit systems use transit buses and not motor coaches. They are impractical for moving large amounts of people quickly over short distances.

Oh, I'm not suggesting that WDW ban bus standees. I'm simply pointing out that Disney's potential liability for that practice is greater than it would be if the system were owned by a municipality.

FWIW, I think that providing the transit system without a separate fee helps to mitigate that exposure a tiny bit. People in general tend to lower their quality expectations for services they perceive as "free" (which we all know this transit system really is not, but that's another topic for another day.)

 

[ejgonz2]

Have they said anything about hours of operation? I’m assuming they’ll be operating after Jellyrolls closes for example?

 

[Lewisc]

Have they said anything about hours of operation? I’m assuming they’ll be operating after Jellyrolls closes for example?

They haven't said. The station is promoted as an EPCOT station. I assumed hours would be based on park hours. Time will tell.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Daring to dream that we'll hear about more lines being announced at D23!!

I wonder if the new lines will be air conditioned?

 

[Lewisc]

I wonder if the new lines will be air conditioned?

I assumed Disney might wait a year and see how skyliner works. I have no doubt flying ovens will be a feature of future skyliners.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I don't think park open will even be an issue. Based on the capacity numbers we have seen you could have 8 people boarding every 10 seconds. I can't ever remember being at a bus stop in the morning where people arrived at a rate higher then that. I think closing time will be the only time there is a noticeable line.

We are at POP right now and the other morning with to MK and got to the bus stop and it took 3 buses, two of which would the extra/double long ones, to get on due to the mass of people. These value resorts are BIG so I could see a little bit of a backup first thing in the morning and/or right at park close/after fireworks to come back ... BUT even with that it will be a moving line, not just standing there for ~20 mins waiting for the bus

 

[AdamsMum]

Hope it’s successful. Disney bus system is really bad. Most busses have people standing in the AM park opening and PM park closing. What in my book is not enough busses.

I live in a city with large mass transit system, and it's always standing room in the morning and evening rush hours. Park opening and closings could be seen as Disney rush hour. But I was thinking along those lines too. It will be nice to have a cab with limited capacity so you aren't standing armpit to armpit with your fellow park guests. I'm pretty sure it will be a success in that respect. Of course there's no telling how long you will have to wait in line after Epcot fireworks to get on. We'll see. I'm happy that they are investing in another option.

 

[OSUZorba]

One of the things that has always impressed me most about disney is their mastery of logistics. They move hundreds of thousands of guests to dozens of locations along with 75,000 cast members, food, merchandise, trash, laundry and who can imagine what else. they do it almost invisiblely. There is not another such operation on the planet all handled by a single entity like that. The millions of moving pieces are staggering when you start looking at them granularly. Awe inspiring really.

That is why they have a massive industrial engineering department. They treat the parks like a massive manufacturing plant.

 

[ST1TCH]

Well, notwithstanding all the back and forth about buses over the past 1-2 pages, I for one am super excited about the option of the Skyliner and not having to wait in lines for buses and the time it takes to get scooters on, etc. Our past 2 trips in 2014 and 2016 in mid-December it was always a wait from the value resorts to get a bus and then to get on the bus and then to get off. Same when leaving at night, not to mention the long walks from the parks to the bus locations. The Skyliner is going to be such a welcome change to me. I can see them being put between as many resorts and parks as possible.

As for the continual discussion about them being hot or needing AC, I really don't think that's going to be an issue when they're moving as fast as they do and have the windows open so the air flows through them.

 

[Rich M]

Sorry if this is in the 417 pages but there is just so many pages to get through. I see that CBR is the main hub so if I get on at Pop do I then have to get off at CBR to go to HS or do you stay on until you get to your destination? I don't really want to wait 15 mins to get on then have to get off to stand in another line for another 15 mins to get on another one.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Sorry if this is in the 417 pages but there is just so many pages to get through. I see that CBR is the main hub so if I get on at Pop do I then have to get off at CBR to go to HS or do you stay on until you get to your destination? I don't really want to wait 15 mins to get on then have to get off to stand in another line for another 15 mins to get on another one.

There are 3 separate lines. Everyone gets off at CBR and switches lines. It is not anticipated to be a long wait due to the continuous load/unload nature. We'll know more about wait times once guests are riding.