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

Let's assume the average gondola will house 5 passengers and they depart the station every 10 seconds. The system would move about 1800 guests per hour in a single direction (5 passengers x 6 cabins per minute x 60 minutes).

If we compare a peak bus guest load of 50 passengers including standing room, that's the equivalent of about 36 full bus loads per hour.

The killer route on this thing from Disney's perspective would be the CBR to IG spur. Right now, most Disney buses are only maximized in one direction. In the morning, a bus going from CBR to Epcot is full on the way in but then departs Epcot virtually empty. At night, it leave Epcot full but picks up few passengers at CBR. But that gondola route will be simultaneously used in BOTH directions all day long; guests going from Epcot resorts to Hollywood studios and back, while guests from Pop/AOA/CBR go to Epcot and back. Using my numbers above, in a single hour that spur will move 3600 guests or 72+ bus loads. (Though admittedly there could be bottlenecks if a car switch is required for some trips.)

During peak periods, Cast Members could group multiple parties together, coming closer to the 8-10 maximum capacity for every gondola. And I suspect bus or boat service will still be offered between these resorts & parks, albeit with reduced frequency. They simply cannot mandate that every guest ride in these windowed cabins 50' off the ground.

I'm curious to see if guests will actually have to change cars at CBR or if they'll use some computerized switching system to have cars just pass thru that station if headed to or from Hollywood Studios.

It should be 8 to 10 per car, assuming they fill them, and dispatch time could be as little as 8 seconds. This would give a capacity of 4500 per hour, per direction, per leg, meaning a total theoretical hourly capacity of 27,000 people.
 
Before I wasn't a fan, now I really want to try them!

So, do you think since now the moderate and value resorts have a new transportation option similar to the monorail, will their prices go up? Or stay the same because they are getting rid of the bus option? If the rumors are true that they are changing the pricing model from value, moderate, deluxe to something else, these gondolas may play a part in that.

:teacher:
 


It should be 8 to 10 per car, assuming they fill them, and dispatch time could be as little as 8 seconds. This would give a capacity of 4500 per hour, per direction, per leg, meaning a total theoretical hourly capacity of 27,000 people.

I think w figured out earlier in this thread that Doppelmayr's estimate of 3K+ an hour was around 75% of capacity.
 
I am not saying there weren't budget cuts back in the day but usually the theming wasn't part of the cuts rather entire pieces were cut out. Take Animal Kingdom for example. They didn't skip put on theming but instead cut out Beastly Kingdom.
The thing is, to the "old school" collective, all of Animal Kingdom post dates the "back in the day" era.... just a point, not really weighing in on either side of the debate... honestly who cares if a turn is in a plain building--- do they need to theme each of the support columns?
 
The thing is, to the "old school" collective, all of Animal Kingdom post dates the "back in the day" era.... just a point, not really weighing in on either side of the debate... honestly who cares if a turn is in a plain building--- do they need to theme each of the support columns?
I agree it’s not like every aspect of the monorail beams is themed. The stations look cool and should blend in, but the infrastructure/ turn station are kinda whatever to me. If they wanna slap some pennants on the top to make it “boardwalk” themed that’d suffice for me
 


I agree it’s not like every aspect of the monorail beams is themed. The stations look cool and should blend in, but the infrastructure/ turn station are kinda whatever to me. If they wanna slap some pennants on the top to make it “boardwalk” themed that’d suffice for me
Right-- like the monorail is themed like a monorail, the gondolas can be themed like gondolas. Self themeing...Theme understood...... with a silent theme at the end. Parenthetically.
 
If the Contemporary, which has a monorail running *through it* still has buses, I can't imagine the gondolas totally replacing buses elsewhere.

Some people simply can't or won't be able to use them. It's an additional layer and a cool new thing to make being on property fun. I can't see them getting rid of buses any time soon.
 
If the Contemporary, which has a monorail running *through it* still has buses, I can't imagine the gondolas totally replacing buses elsewhere.

Some people simply can't or won't be able to use them. It's an additional layer and a cool new thing to make being on property fun. I can't see them getting rid of buses any time soon.

They only use buses to places that are not serviced by the Monorail. Even to Epcot, you're using the monorail to get to the TTC and then transferring to the Epcot line.
 
If the Contemporary, which has a monorail running *through it* still has buses, I can't imagine the gondolas totally replacing buses elsewhere.

Some people simply can't or won't be able to use them. It's an additional layer and a cool new thing to make being on property fun. I can't see them getting rid of buses any time soon.

My initial thought was that it would supplement the buses and so they would just be less frequent as far as going to EPCOT and DHS - but as was pointed out above, the Contemporary doesn't have buses going to MK or EPCOT (unless the monorail is down)

If this does happen then I could see some negative reaction and some people saying they can't stay at these resorts due to fear of heights, etc.
 
My initial thought was that it would supplement the buses and so they would just be less frequent as far as going to EPCOT and DHS - but as was pointed out above, the Contemporary doesn't have buses going to MK or EPCOT (unless the monorail is down)

If this does happen then I could see some negative reaction and some people saying they can't stay at these resorts due to fear of heights, etc.
I can tell you right now that my mom will never set foot on one of these things. Even I'm a little iffy at this point...:scratchin

But currently, the resorts that these serve are normally not on our list of preferences, anyway.
 
I would wager that the buses will still run. They will then slowly reduce them to the point where people notice and complain, and run somewhere near that level.
They'll get the ridership data, and they won't send empty buses if it costs them money. However, I don't think they'll eliminate the buses they day the skyliner opens.
 
Ah, okay. I haven't been keeping up around here lately so I thought I had missed an announcement or something. Yes, I really can't imagine they would get rid of buses entirely, exactly because there are people who will refuse to ride the gondolas due to fear of heights or any number of other similar reasons. I guess that's why the comment stood out to me.
 
Ah, okay. I haven't been keeping up around here lately so I thought I had missed an announcement or something. Yes, I really can't imagine they would get rid of buses entirely, exactly because there are people who will refuse to ride the gondolas due to fear of heights or any number of other similar reasons. I guess that's why the comment stood out to me.

Those people could be accommodated in other ways, bus to another location and then a transfer, uber, Minnie Van, and finally, if this is a concern, they could stay elsewhere. The current plan we have heard from reliable sources is to eliminate buses from routes covered by the gondola. Part of what pays for this system is the reduction is the elimination of busses. In theory, they could just scale back the buses, but how far could they actually scale back and still have them be a viable method of transportation.
 
Every hotel that uses something other than buses for service somewhere has at least one other transportation option. I wouldn't worry too much about this being the only option for these hotels.
 
I would wager that the buses will still run. They will then slowly reduce them to the point where people notice and complain, and run somewhere near that level.
They'll get the ridership data, and they won't send empty buses if it costs them money. However, I don't think they'll eliminate the buses they day the skyliner opens.
Then you would most likely lose that wager. As Dan said, those in the know have stated that this will replace the busses. The current plan by Disney is to not run busses to Epcot or Studios from these resorts once the gondolas are up and running. Could that change? Sure, but I wouldn’t count on it.
 
Then you would most likely lose that wager. As Dan said, those in the know have stated that this will replace the busses. The current plan by Disney is to not run busses to Epcot or Studios from these resorts once the gondolas are up and running. Could that change? Sure, but I wouldn’t count on it.
What would you like to wager? They'll trust the numbers more than anything. They'll have ridership numbers to justify what ever decision they make.
 

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