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

[skier_pete]

I've always had a problem with this Skyliner concept. I don't see how this is going to be implemented without issues

1- If one wants to get from Epcot to Hollywood Studios, it seems to me you have to get off at the Riviera, and again at Caribbean Beach. Does that mean you get to the back of the queue at each station? Why would anyone do this rather than ride the Bus or the Boat?. Getting from Art of Animation or Pop will be equally onerous, stops at CB, and the Riviera before reaching Epcot. At those two starting points, you don't even have the Boat to choose

2- Weather, especially Thunderstorms, very windy days, and Hurricanes are a problem. Thunderstorms are pretty frequent. Hurricanes will have far less impact. That said, I can envision plenty of down time for this system. Downtime on the Skyliner will negatively impact the other modes of transportation.

3- Aesthetically, these gondola towers are pretty hideous.

My 2 cents for what is worth

You won't have to get off at Riviera. The skyway will slow there, but not require you to get off. With the swap at CBR, I think it will still be faster than the boat much of the time - probably under 15 minutes from DHS to Epcot.

There's been a lot of speculation about how they will handle the weather. I suspect it will go down similar to the boats, which shut down during the worst of the storms. It probably won't shut down for just rain and wind, but lightning will likely do it.

 

[The Pho]

I've always had a problem with this Skyliner concept. I don't see how this is going to be implemented without issues

1- If one wants to get from Epcot to Hollywood Studios, it seems to me you have to get off at the Riviera, and again at Caribbean Beach. Does that mean you get to the back of the queue at each station? Why would anyone do this rather than ride the Bus or the Boat?. Getting from Art of Animation or Pop will be equally onerous, stops at CB, and the Riviera before reaching Epcot. At those two starting points, you don't even have the Boat to choose

2- Weather, especially Thunderstorms, very windy days, and Hurricanes are a problem. Thunderstorms are pretty frequent. Hurricanes will have far less impact. That said, I can envision plenty of down time for this system. Downtime on the Skyliner will negatively impact the other modes of transportation.

3- Aesthetically, these gondola towers are pretty hideous.

My 2 cents for what is worth

People will do this over bus and boat because the Studios to Epcot boats are incredibly slow and walking is faster, in addition to not having to wait to get on the Gondola. The constant loading should be able to keep up with demand apart from Park close.

The wind shouldn't be much of an issue at all either. Gondolas are primarily used in places with far stronger winds than your average Florida thunderstorm produces. Of course who knows where Disney will set their wind threshold for these since ski resorts all tend to vary all over the place on when to close.

 

[Mome Rath]

I liked the old skyway, not so much 20,000 leagues. lol

I think the new gondolas will be great, and look forward to riding them. We all know as soon as they open we will have time-to-travel-to reports for all the stops, and a good idea about how fast the queue moves, etc... At closing time I'd much rather wait on a gondola that I can see moving constantly rather than waiting on a bus that you can't predict when it'll get there.

 

[skier_pete]

I think also people continue to overestimate the number of people hopping between Epcot and DHS currently. The boats current run 4 an hour and hold maybe 120 people. That's around 500 people moving both ways, including those heading to/from the resorts. The Gondola will handle somewhere around 3000-5000 (depending on what rumor you follow) each way - which is 6 to 10 times more than the boats - and the boats will still have to run to get people back to the resorts. The boats take 30 minutes from DHS to Epcot. The gondolas with no wait might take 15 - and you can bet most of the day there will be a very minimal wait for these things.

Also, while you will get some people that ride them just to ride them - at least early on - I think there won't be a massive influx of people doing that. Certainly not enough to cause long lines. (OK - the first couple of weeks probably.)

 

[BrianL]

I did and I was a kid. I hated them, they didn't belong and no one belonged in the air looking down on all those attraction buildings. Completely ruined the magic. I was so happy when they tore them out.

I actually never minded looking up at them, but I agree that the view from them kinda ruined the magic. The tops of the buildings aren't themed. All you see are flat roofs and air conditioning units with leaves and dirt collected everywhere. I also hate the view from the Monorail once it enters Epcot because you can see that kind of stuff on top of the Future World buildings. They should cover that somehow.

 

[HopperFan]

I've always had a problem with this Skyliner concept. I don't see how this is going to be implemented without issues

1- If one wants to get from Epcot to Hollywood Studios, it seems to me you have to get off at the Riviera, and again at Caribbean Beach. Does that mean you get to the back of the queue at each station? Why would anyone do this rather than ride the Bus or the Boat?. Getting from Art of Animation or Pop will be equally onerous, stops at CB, and the Riviera before reaching Epcot. At those two starting points, you don't even have the Boat to choose

2- Weather, especially Thunderstorms, very windy days, and Hurricanes are a problem. Thunderstorms are pretty frequent. Hurricanes will have far less impact. That said, I can envision plenty of down time for this system. Downtime on the Skyliner will negatively impact the other modes of transportation.

3- Aesthetically, these gondola towers are pretty hideous.

My 2 cents for what is worth

1 - I hate the slow boats and I'm not going to take something else that isn't direct. I will continue to walk and not worry about waiting, crowded inside, stalls or stopping.

2 - I was there two weeks ago and every single day, sometimes more than once parks went 101. That gondola is only as good as the FL weather.

3 - Having seen in person and up close, yes they are.

I actually never minded looking up at them, but I agree that the view from them kinda ruined the magic. The tops of the buildings aren't themed. All you see are flat roofs and air conditioning units with leaves and dirt collected everywhere. I also hate the view from the Monorail once it enters Epcot because you can see that kind of stuff on top of the Future World buildings. They should cover that somehow.

When I'm in a land I prefer it be a full immerse and big ugly towers traveling through Fantasyland did not belong. It popped a hole in the bubble. These gondola towers are just ugly and look like giant power line towers ... especially to break the view line in Epcot. When one takes so much care to blend colors of ToT with Morocco because you can see in the sight line ..... it's sad that these cable car towers are acceptable.

I also noticed some work needs to be done for the view from Slinky Dog. The roof of Aliens is already dirty and some of the paint looks to be oxidized or peeling. Disney seems to be letting up on the on-stage views and it makes me sad. I can't imagine what they will look like in a year. They knew we would be looking right down on it, why are they painted cleverly or themed somehow with the ride, maybe have a few Aliens up there ............. ....... it's the lost attention to all details that seems to be the future.

 

[BrianL]

When I'm in a land I prefer it be a full immerse and big ugly towers traveling through Fantasyland did not belong. It popped a hole in the bubble. These gondola towers are just ugly and look like giant power line towers ... especially to break the view line in Epcot. When one takes so much care to blend colors of ToT with Morocco because you can see in the sight line ..... it's sad that these cable car towers are acceptable.

I also noticed some work needs to be done for the view from Slinky Dog. The roof of Aliens is already dirty and some of the paint looks to be oxidized or peeling. Disney seems to be letting up on the on-stage views and it makes me sad. I can't imagine what they will look like in a year. They knew we would be looking right down on it, why are they painted cleverly or themed somehow with the ride, maybe have a few Aliens up there ............. ....... it's the lost attention to all details that seems to be the future.

Well, the towers weren't a big bother to me, but I do actually prefer the land without them and was not sad to hear of them being removed. I don't think I'll care too much in World Showcase as they won't be right there in your face. They may do something to screen them a bit.

That's sad about Slinky. They really should do something about that. When I was at Disneyland recently, I wanted to ride the railroad since I had never gone all the way around it. On the back-half, behind It's A Small World, the condition of the rear of the facade was abysmal and some of the things you could see were really an eyesore. I mean, I get that in an area like that with a lot of trees and all that things may not be perfect, but it was really bad with peeling paint and rust and such. I agree that they should do their best to make sure guests never see that kind of thing.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I think also people continue to overestimate the number of people hopping between Epcot and DHS currently. The boats current run 4 an hour and hold maybe 120 people. That's around 500 people moving both ways, including those heading to/from the resorts. The Gondola will handle somewhere around 3000-5000 (depending on what rumor you follow) each way - which is 6 to 10 times more than the boats - and the boats will still have to run to get people back to the resorts. The boats take 30 minutes from DHS to Epcot. The gondolas with no wait might take 15 - and you can bet most of the day there will be a very minimal wait for these things.

Also, while you will get some people that ride them just to ride them - at least early on - I think there won't be a massive influx of people doing that. Certainly not enough to cause long lines. (OK - the first couple of weeks probably.)

Like you said, when they first open they will be crowded as people a locals and bloggers, etc. will want to ride them to check them out - but after that I don't see them being heavily used for going between EPCOT and DHS - them existing isn't going to like triple the amount of people that want to hop between those two parks (though can see some uptick after Galaxy's Edge opens). The main thing these are designed to accomplish is more efficiently transport people from the hotels on the line to EPCOT and DHS. Yes, from POP and AoA you will have to transfer, but they are value hotels so makes sense they won't have direct (I guess from Riviera to DHS you would have to transfer as well)

 

[rteetz]

I also noticed some work needs to be done for the view from Slinky Dog. The roof of Aliens is already dirty and some of the paint looks to be oxidized or peeling. Disney seems to be letting up on the on-stage views and it makes me sad. I can't imagine what they will look like in a year. They knew we would be looking right down on it, why are they painted cleverly or themed somehow with the ride, maybe have a few Aliens up there ............. ....... it's the lost attention to all details that seems to be the future.

Paint/decals are peeling or being peeled off in the queues for toy story attractions too. That land was rushed to get done.

 

[skier_pete]

Paint/decals are peeling or being peeled off in the queues for toy story attractions too. That land was rushed to get done.

Wow, that's pretty terrible.

 

[rteetz]

Wow, that's pretty terrible.

Yeah WDWNT and Blog Mickey have tweeted several images of very poor show in toy story land.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Paint/decals are peeling or being peeled off in the queues for toy story attractions too. That land was rushed to get done.

well, hopefully people remember this when they complain that Disney is taking too long to get some other area open ... this is what happens when they rush (not saying it is an excuse - but having highest quality and "speed" don't always go together)

Hopefully after the summer they can take a look and fix the stuff, even if it means some closures of areas of it at times

 

[rteetz]

well, hopefully people remember this when they complain that Disney is taking too long to get some other area open ... this is what happens when they rush (not saying it is an excuse - but having highest quality and "speed" don't always go together)

Hopefully after the summer they can take a look and fix the stuff, even if it means some closures of areas of it at times

It doesn’t help when you have guests who help peel off paint as well...

 

[The Pho]

It doesn’t help when you have guests who help peel off paint as well...

Just wait until they find out what people do inside Gondolas...

 

[TheMaxRebo]

It doesn’t help when you have guests who help peel off paint as well...

uggh, that sucks ... though I think if something was in pristine condition people would be less likely to deface it ... but still ridiculous that people would do that

 

[Tigger's ally]

Just wait until they find out what people do inside Gondolas...

Mrs. Tigger's Ally better not be thinking of joining the 16 foot high club. I have to spend my time seeing if I can see the tops of buildings or into hotel rooms or the backstage areas. I will be alert on my post!

 

[HopperFan]

Paint/decals are peeling or being peeled off in the queues for toy story attractions too. That land was rushed to get done.

I saw all that on Slinky, I don't know if it was the poor process or the GUESTS! They didn't look like peels, they truly looked like people had scraped them with their nails, some were actual gouges. All nail width sizes and in correct place to be in arm height. I saw no issues out of reach. I mean I wouldn't be surprised, too many guests have no respect.

 

[Lilsia]

The concept art clearly shows a new guest area behind the pavilion with an entrance wrapping around on the canal side of the pavilion. You will enter the queue from the is area.

That still does not mean that it will be an open area where you are looking up at the Eiffel tower from behind. The person I quoted was saying that they would have to move the tower because we would be looking at it from behind and it would not be in perspective. I said that there is no way that they will make it so we can see from behind the pavilion. The queue very well might loop around that back, but it won't be open for us to see outside.

 

[DanBoris]

That still does not mean that it will be an open area where you are looking up at the Eiffel tower from behind. The person I quoted was saying that they would have to move the tower because we would be looking at it from behind and it would not be in perspective. I said that there is no way that they will make it so we can see from behind the pavilion. The queue very well might loop around that back, but it won't be open for us to see outside.

The area behind the pavilion will be open, you will see the back of the current pavilion.

 

[rteetz]

That still does not mean that it will be an open area where you are looking up at the Eiffel tower from behind. The person I quoted was saying that they would have to move the tower because we would be looking at it from behind and it would not be in perspective. I said that there is no way that they will make it so we can see from behind the pavilion. The queue very well might loop around that back, but it won't be open for us to see outside.

It will be an open area back there.

The queue will be inside the ride building but in order to get to the queue you will need to walk behind the current pavilion. You can see this in the concept art and aerial images.



Red is the ride building

Green is the new open guest area behind the pavilion

White is where you will walk around the side to get to this new area