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

Silly question, but have they said everyone will have access to the gondolas? Or will it only take you to and from the resorts to Epcot/ DHS?

I don't think they explicitly said but they are definitely positioning this as another form of WDW transportation and I can't think of any other mode of transportation they have that is restricted as far as who can use it (other than things that require an extra cost - the park hopping shuttles, carriage rides, etc. - but even those anyone can pay for them)
 
Yeah after thinking it over, it was a pretty dumb question. I can't wait to take a ride on the Skyliner though
 
Is there a thread or post somewhere that tells how many people each gondola will hold, how fast they travel, etc. thanks!
 


Is there a thread or post somewhere that tells how many people each gondola will hold, how fast they travel, etc. thanks!
Nobody knows for sure at this time. It's been discussed further up in this thread. It seems likely the cabin size will be 8 or 10 passengers; those are the most common sizes for this type of system being built today. Top speed is about 13mph, but systems don't necessarily run at top speed.
 
Is there a thread or post somewhere that tells how many people each gondola will hold, how fast they travel, etc. thanks!

It's impossible to tell from the information shared so far - but I would guess based on what I've seen they will be somewhere between 8 and 12 as far as capacity. Detachable Gondolas typically run 15-20 MPH. I would expect each "leg" will be about 5 minutes long. If you wanted to take the Gondola from DHS or Epcot, assuming you don't have to get off for a change (which you might) you are probably talking 20-25 minutes by air which may be faster than the 30 minutes (plus wait time) by boat.
 
It's impossible to tell from the information shared so far - but I would guess based on what I've seen they will be somewhere between 8 and 12 as far as capacity. Detachable Gondolas typically run 15-20 MPH. I would expect each "leg" will be about 5 minutes long. If you wanted to take the Gondola from DHS or Epcot, assuming you don't have to get off for a change (which you might) you are probably talking 20-25 minutes by air which may be faster than the 30 minutes (plus wait time) by boat.
Your speed is too high. Doppelmayr quotes a max line speed of 6 m/s, which equals 13.4 mph. That's for a monocable system; tri-cable systems have a higher max speed, but it seems unlikely Disney will put in a tri-cable system because of higher expense and poorer aesthetics. The concept art showed a monocable system. Some systems operate at lower than max speed to allow for sightseeing.

Also, travel time by Friendship Boats between Epcot & DHS is 20-25 minutes (exclusive of wait time), not 30 minutes. That's from cast off to door opening.
 


Your speed is too high. Doppelmayr quotes a max line speed of 6 m/s, which equals 13.4 mph. That's for a monocable system; tri-cable systems have a higher max speed, but it seems unlikely Disney will put in a tri-cable system because of higher expense and poorer aesthetics. The concept art showed a monocable system. Some systems operate at lower than max speed to allow for sightseeing.

Also, travel time by Friendship Boats between Epcot & DHS is 20-25 minutes (exclusive of wait time), not 30 minutes. That's from cast off to door opening.

OK - but what I was trying to get across is that likely travel times between the gondola and the friendship boats are going to be pretty similar. There's enough variables there to make it hard to predict which will be faster. However, the gondola will likely be a bit of a draw for folks going park-to-park if there aren't lines.

The big question mark to me is how do they handle (a) people that won't ride the gondola due to fear of heights and (b) weather related shutdowns. They will certainly want to reduce/eliminate completely the buses going to these resorts. If they still have to run buses they won't be happy. But not everyone will be willing to ride them. If they even run half the buses - are people going to tolerate waiting 45 minutes for a bus if they refuse to use the gondola?
 
I'm really interested to see if they run the buses in addition to the gondolas. I don't think any other resort with "special transportation" also runs buses to the park with the special transport. At least not so long as the specials are working. There is no regular bus from Ft. Wilderness or Wilderness Lodge, or the monorail resorts to MK. As far as I know, there is no regular bus from the Friendship Boat resorts to DHS or EPCOT. And there is no regular bus from Saratoga Springs, OKW or POR to Disney Springs.

I'm willing to bet there will be no regularly schedule buses from the gondola resorts.
 
OK - but what I was trying to get across is that likely travel times between the gondola and the friendship boats are going to be pretty similar. There's enough variables there to make it hard to predict which will be faster. However, the gondola will likely be a bit of a draw for folks going park-to-park if there aren't lines.

The big question mark to me is how do they handle (a) people that won't ride the gondola due to fear of heights and (b) weather related shutdowns. They will certainly want to reduce/eliminate completely the buses going to these resorts. If they still have to run buses they won't be happy. But not everyone will be willing to ride them. If they even run half the buses - are people going to tolerate waiting 45 minutes for a bus if they refuse to use the gondola?
Just speculation:

They'll probably have to run internal shuttles more frequently at CBR, to get folks from the Skyline station to their rooms. So they might run service to DHS & Epcot from one location (Old Port Royale, or whatever the new name will be, or maybe Jamaica which is closest to the Victory Way exit), and require walking to that stop or taking the internal shuttle to connect. That would cut down the run time, and allow 20 minute headway with fewer buses. I don't know what the internal road system will look like after the construction, but perhaps they'll be able to include the Riviera on the shuttle route.

Pop & AoA service could be cut back to a combined bus every 20 minutes stopping at both resorts. That would cut the number of buses almost by half.

Another possibility is running buses only to DHS, and requiring a transfer to bus or Friendship Boats to get to Epcot.

Weather, I expect, will be an issue. Disney doesn't like to schedule any more bus drivers than the minimum they can get by with. Even now, it can take half an hour to get replacement buses in full operation when the Epcot monorail goes down unexpectedly.
 
I'm really interested to see if they run the buses in addition to the gondolas. I don't think any other resort with "special transportation" also runs buses to the park with the special transport. At least not so long as the specials are working. There is no regular bus from Ft. Wilderness or Wilderness Lodge, or the monorail resorts to MK. As far as I know, there is no regular bus from the Friendship Boat resorts to DHS or EPCOT. And there is no regular bus from Saratoga Springs, OKW or POR to Disney Springs.
There is regular bus service between WL & MK. The alternative from FtW is the shuttle to WL, and then the bus from WL to MK.

The alternative from the Epcot resorts to DHS & Epcot is the footpath.

There is regular bus service to DS from all the resorts that also have boats to it.
 
There is regular bus service between WL & MK. The alternative from FtW is the shuttle to WL, and then the bus from WL to MK.

The alternative from the Epcot resorts to DHS & Epcot is the footpath.

There is regular bus service to DS from all the resorts that also have boats to it.

Huh. Not sure why I thought those routes only ran when the special transportation was down. Thanks for the correction.
 
So the question of special routes - one thing that sort of bugged me (minorly) is that Beach Club (and I assume Yacht Club) doesn't run a bus to Epcot. My daughter was in the YES program, and we had to be at the front of Epcot for 8:45 AM and we were staying at Beach Club - I was forced to take a taxi, because the only way to get to Epcot from Beach Club was by walking in the back way.

So I'm sort of surprised there are buses from WL to MK. Certainly the monorail resorts do not have buses to MK. I would say it is not impossible for Disney to say "Gondola or Minnie Van".
 
So the question of special routes - one thing that sort of bugged me (minorly) is that Beach Club (and I assume Yacht Club) doesn't run a bus to Epcot. My daughter was in the YES program, and we had to be at the front of Epcot for 8:45 AM and we were staying at Beach Club - I was forced to take a taxi, because the only way to get to Epcot from Beach Club was by walking in the back way.

So I'm sort of surprised there are buses from WL to MK. Certainly the monorail resorts do not have buses to MK. I would say it is not impossible for Disney to say "Gondola or Minnie Van".
Recently, I had been marveling at how much debating some of us have done over these gondolas - with very little official information released. Probably more debating than a lot of other subjects get.

Well, just wait until we find out all the final details of how these things will actually be implemented. THEN the arguing/complaining/praising can really begin! :duck:
 
Recently, I had been marveling at how much debating some of us have done over these gondolas - with very little official information released. Probably more debating than a lot of other subjects get.

Well, just wait until we find out all the final details of how these things will actually be implemented. THEN the arguing/complaining/praising can really begin! :duck:

Well we could. But what would the fun of that be? If we waited for official announcements on things, this would just be the NEWS board, not Rumors and News...
 
Well we could. But what would the fun of that be? If we waited for official announcements on things, this would just be the NEWS board, not Rumors and News...
I didn't mean to imply that we should wait. I meant it like "this has been nothing compared to what we're about to see when we actually know what we're discussing..."
 
Recently, I had been marveling at how much debating some of us have done over these gondolas - with very little official information released. Probably more debating than a lot of other subjects get.

Well, just wait until we find out all the final details of how these things will actually be implemented. THEN the arguing/complaining/praising can really begin! :duck:


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