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

[cranbiz]

How so? There's no hills.

Why would you need hills? A Funicular is simply a mode of transportation that uses cables to propel the vehicle. Look at Universal. the train between the 2 HP worlds does not go up or down a hill and is a funicular.

 

[Orionreplay]

When we arrived at the AoA on the night of the 11th, my family's first instinct was to ride the Skyliner. We scored a gondola to ourselves and rode all the way to Epcot for our first attempt. I felt all the involved castmembers were just as excited as we were, even still today. It took us all of 18 minutes to go from AoA to Epcot.

On our way back to the AoA we hit a snag and were left with a delay and hung in midair for awhile, but this allowed us to see Epcot and Hollywood Studios fireworks right from our gondola, once again just my family of 4 in our own "private" gondola.

As the week went by we would get grouped with others and learned how strangely quiet the Skyliner could be when two families of strangers share the same gondola! We saw our share of delays, but nothing was too terrible.

When we had to ride a bus to the MK (egad!), it all seemed so old school. All the waiting... because you always just miss the last bus! Then struggling to find room in the crowded bus and then stand there dumbly for the 25 minutes to the resort through traffic with my kids moaning about their feet hurting.

Yet there was the Skyliner floating majestically above us, those families getting back to their rooms in comfort and quiet, gliding effortlessly over the highway and waterways. I'd love to see it get expanded!

 

[sachilles]

Here is a good video showing different funiculars around the world including Hogwarts and other themed ones.

 

[afan]

You don't need a hill.

Why would you need hills? A Funicular is simply a mode of transportation that uses cables to propel the vehicle. Look at Universal. the train between the 2 HP worlds does not go up or down a hill and is a funicular.

Because the general defition of one, and generally what it's always talking about, involves hills. I've never heard of hogwarts as a funicular.

 

[sachilles]

The history of the device's origins does involve many hills. It's one way a typical train can overcome steeper hills. However the hill is not required. You are simply using a cable to pull the train. If you watch the video above you can see several that operate on level or varying slope land. Distance is somewhat of a limitation. It can very cost effective.

 

[cranbiz]

Because the general defition of one, and generally what it's always talking about, involves hills. I've never heard of hogwarts as a funicular.

View attachment 454727

See the post directly above yours.

 

[DVC_HK]

So heard this from our DVC sales rep Saturday so you know how correct cast member rumors are but he said if they see the Skyliner working out extremely well they would set up more hubs and eventually phase out buses. Now I don't see them getting rid of buses but where else could they set up Skyliner hubs?

 

[rteetz]

So heard this from our DVC sales rep Saturday so you know how correct cast member rumors are but he said if they see the Skyliner working out extremely well they would set up more hubs and eventually phase out buses. Now I don't see them getting rid of buses but where else could they set up Skyliner hubs?

Buses won’t be phased out because they are the backup to the Skyliner. They could add Skyliner stations wherever they see fit.

 

[cranbiz]

They could have a spur that services DAK, the All Stars, AKL and Coronado Springs. They could also service DS from PO, OKW and SSR.

There could also be plans to supplement transportation in the MK area.

I don't ever see buses going away though.

 

[Orionreplay]

I agree about buses sticking around. At our Skyliner resort we still had a pick-up for both Hollywood Studios and Epcot. A pretty vacant stop for sure with the Skyliner working in the background, but I asked the driver of our MK bus and he smiled and said that some people won't ever step foot in it. Fear of heights sorts of things. So they still had to make the Epcot and Hollywood Studios trip to the resort.

I hadn't considered that.

 

[sachilles]

I don't think buses, or bus like transportation will ever go away entirely. However, I do think they will reduce it when practical.
It is rumored that there are more skyliner lines at least in the conceptual stage, and that certainly makes sense.
I think you need to look at where it would serve the most traffic. Perhaps the most frequent(most passengers), yet short bus loops.

I think MK area will get one at some point, but there are a lot of options there.

If I were king for the day, I think I'd make blizzard beach a hub. Have it serve Cornado and all stars, to get a big cluster of people. Then also have lines to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood studious from the the blizzard hub. I think that would encourage some use of under utilized water park space, and serve a great deal of your bed base.
As much as I'd want AKL linked with Animal kingdom, I think that link could remain buses easily, or some other type of transport.

 

[Someone28624]

I agree about buses sticking around. At our Skyliner resort we still had a pick-up for both Hollywood Studios and Epcot. A pretty vacant stop for sure with the Skyliner working in the background, but I asked the driver of our MK bus and he smiled and said that some people won't ever step foot in it. Fear of heights sorts of things. So they still had to make the Epcot and Hollywood Studios trip to the resort.

I hadn't considered that.

When I was at Caribbean Beach last week, they mostly had the Epcot and HS buses running, but one evening at 6pm-ish I went to get a bus to MK and the status board at the bus station under “next time” for HS and Epcot said “Use Skyliner.” It was a Christmas Party night, so MK was closing. I’m guessing they took advantage of the Skyliner to flex more buses to MK as they were packed with day guests leaving and party guests coming.

 

[Orionreplay]

Skyliner can handle the crowds too. We saw our share of 8:30 foot traffic in the morning between Pop Century and AoA. That line would extend around the bridge like a giant fish hook and you'd search for the end to get in line. Yet even on the longest line mornings, my wife clocked our continually moving line at 5 minutes. No, you can't choose your gondola and yes, you will be in there with your newest, closest friends.... but the line was the fastest line at WDW that week.

 

[Craig Larson]

If I were king for the day, I think I'd make blizzard beach a hub. Have it serve Cornado and all stars, to get a big cluster of people. Then also have lines to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood studious from the the blizzard hub. I think that would encourage some use of under utilized water park space, and serve a great deal of your bed base.
As much as I'd want AKL linked with Animal kingdom, I think that link could remain buses easily, or some other type of transport.

I saw someone suggest something similar, with a line between blizzard beach and the other side of the POP/AoA bridge, thus connecting the entire system

 

[Skywise]

Skyliner can handle the crowds too. We saw our share of 8:30 foot traffic in the morning between Pop Century and AoA. That line would extend around the bridge like a giant fish hook and you'd search for the end to get in line. Yet even on the longest line mornings, my wife clocked our continually moving line at 5 minutes. No, you can't choose your gondola and yes, you will be in there with your newest, closest friends.... but the line was the fastest line at WDW that week.

But there's no way to get ahead of that gondola in front of you to race to the park!

 

[dlavender]

We had a great time on the skyliner yesterday. Just took a quick trip from the IG to Riviera and back. No stops. I was surprised how much smaller they were than I anticipated as well as how fast they come into the stations.

 

[seashoreCM]

The biggest advantage of a funicular over other similar or dissimilar methods of transport is that one cabin (descending a hill or incline) assists in propelling another (the other) cabin ascending. That advantage is lost if there is no hill.

A big disadvantage of a funicular is that there are only two cabins (or cabin groupings i.e. trains), at "opposite ends" of the cable.

Funiculars can be either aerial (vaguely like the Skyliner) or on-the ground (Hogwarts?; there is also one in Hong Kong and two in Pittsburgh).

Without hills or even with hills in some situatiosn, we can take advantage of a loop cable to hold many more cabins (the Skyliner) or a comparable on-the-ground example is a (non-trolley) cable propelled streetcar system such as in San Francisco.

I am guessing that the Caribbean Beach Skyliner station will not be expanded to have a "fourth leg" aimed into the middle of the resort and making the station building look like a cross. The physical and visual impact to the resort would be extremely great and also managing walkways and queues would become much more complex.

 

[Weedy]

This is where I think the Skyliner from TTC to Magic Kingdom should run.
See red mark on photo the east side of Seven Seas Lagoon.
It could start and end on the inside of the monorail beam. Pick up and drop off in the bus areas and most of the run over land

 

[sachilles]

The biggest advantage of a funicular over other similar or dissimilar methods of transport is that one cabin (descending a hill or incline) assists in propelling another (the other) cabin ascending. That advantage is lost if there is no hill.

Would you mind explaining the physics of this one to me?

 

[jknezek]

Would you mind explaining the physics of this one to me?

Simple counterweight.