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

[OSUZorba]

I have to chuckle about how some folks can characterize a floating stuck gondola in the air as not scary or horrific. I haven't ridden one yet, but I think that those folks that were directly involved would take the counter position.

I was stuck on a chairlift for 20 minutes, going up a (non-snowy) mountain with my 2 year old, 50 feet up, and it started raining. No seat belt, no crotch strap, lap bar wasn't even close to touching her, nor was it locked.

Even that situation I wouldn't call horrific, tense yes. Horrific would've been if she tried to jump or fight with me.

Of course, if you're afraid of heights it would be different.

ETA: slowest chairlift ever in general, ride up to 50 minutes total.

 

[OSUZorba]

And you know this, 100%, how? Do you have supporting data that every cable/gondola was tested to maximum limits and that QC has never failed? I would say any other park ride (for example, the train ride) is far more safe than a hanging gondola. Do you think it isn't per your statement of "any" other?

I think it could easily be horrific for others that have less "confidence" than you.

Have you ever seen a steam explosion? The train is probably actually one of the least safe rides on property. Between the steam, tank of fuel oil, and being 100 years old. Then get into the lack of restraints and stopping distance.

 

[OSUZorba]

Clearly everyone here complaining about communication doesn’t frequently utilize the NYC subway system.

I was in Busan, Korea this year and rode the subway everywhere. As an English speaker, I found the Korean subway much easier to use and understand the communication on than the NYC system. In Korea you get everything in Korean, Mandarin, and English. In NYC you get everything in Gibberish.

 

[Orionreplay]

I was stuck on a chairlift for 20 minutes, going up a (non-snowy) mountain with my 2 year old, 50 feet up, and it started raining. No seat belt, no crotch strap, lap bar wasn't even close to touching her, nor was it locked.

Even that situation I wouldn't call horrific, tense yes. Horrific would've been if she tried to jump or fight with me.

Of course, if you're afraid of heights it would be different.

ETA: slowest chairlift ever in general, ride up to 50 minutes total.

Been there and done that, but winter. Swinging in the wind, bundled for the cold, but still the wind cuts you like you were naked. You brace for the 30+ minute ride up the hill and halfway up it stops. Just stops. You turn to look down the hill, like you are really going to see what happened, and the wind finds exposed flesh, so you turn back and make yourself into a smaller version of yourself. You bob and swing there for 20 minutes with no restraints, no belt, just that very easy to move up-down bar. The chair begins to move every so many minutes, but stop again. You realize all that hot cocoa and water you drank an hour ago, that you took a pass at the bathroom earlier because it was just a minor twinge, is now making itself mighty known. The people below are not quite ants, but more like cricket sized.

Eventually you get to the top and ski down. And guess what? After you use the bathroom... You pile right back onboard and hope this time there will be no problem. Eh the joys of winter skiing!

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Been there and done that, but winter. Swinging in the wind, bundled for the cold, but still the wind cuts you like you were naked. You brace for the 30+ minute ride up the hill and halfway up it stops. Just stops. You turn to look down the hill, like you are really going to see what happened, and the wind finds exposed flesh, so you turn back and make yourself into a smaller version of yourself. You bob and swing there for 20 minutes with no restraints, no belt, just that very easy to move up-down bar. The chair begins to move every so many minutes, but stop again. You realize all that hot cocoa and water you drank an hour ago, that you took a pass at the bathroom earlier because it was just a minor twinge, is now making itself mighty known. The people below are not quite ants, but more like cricket sized.

Eventually you get to the top and ski down. And guess what? After you use the bathroom... You pile right back onboard and hope this time there will be no problem. Eh the joys of winter skiing!

And again, the population that goes skiing and the population that goes to Disney World is very very different.

 

[clee152]

And again, the population that goes skiing and the population that goes to Disney World is very very different.

Rich white people?

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Rich white people?

Lol, no that population is well represented in both skiing and Disney World. Old, infirm people and infants and toddlers

 

[clee152]

Lol, no that population is well represented in both skiing and Disney World. Old, infirm people and infants and toddlers

They all go skiing.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Can we please get back to discussing actual news about the WDW Skyliner?

 

[seashoreCM]

Being stuck on the skyliner has me more concerned I'd miss a fast pass or adr window.

Disney should honor late arrivals for ADR dining reservations and fastpasses due to transportation problems, e.g. parking lot did not open early enough or monorail got stuck for a very long time. My suggestion for ADRs is to merge in the arriving late party just behind the already waiting parties whose ADR time has already arrived AND all of whose members have already arrived. Or pencil in a new ADR time for ten minutes after the late party's actual arrival and treat that as official.

I think that resort transportation signage at the front of Epcot should never say "Use Skyliner." Rather bus service to Caribbean Beach, Riviera, Art of Animation, and Pop Century should always be in effect from Epcot.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I was once 90 mins late for a dining reservation when we were stuck in the monorail and they fit us in without question.

 

[seashoreCM]

The only problem I will have is if someone has to take a dump in one of those (gondola emergency kit) bags is who is gonna clean up all the puke? I can assure you I will be throwing up everything I ate in the last day if I have to witness that!

The mess should be taken care of by mousekeepers and sanitary imagineers as part of the normal course of business and without recording the names or identities of any guests.

I was stuck on a chairlift for 20 minutes, going up a (non-snowy) mountain with my 2 year old, 50 feet up, and it started raining. No seat belt, no crotch strap, lap bar wasn't even close to touching her, nor was it locked.

I would question why the Skyliner was built to run so high above ground, where it takes more complex and slower operating equipment to get people down in case of emergency.

 

[hertamaniac]

Have you ever seen a steam explosion? The train is probably actually one of the least safe rides on property. Between the steam, tank of fuel oil, and being 100 years old. Then get into the lack of restraints and stopping distance.

The originals were replaced with smaller boilers and a total renovation to make them look 100 years old. The first restored locomotives went online in 1971. And I think the 30 psi for the atomizer is not high pressure as compared to conventional water heater relief valves (~150 psi).

And you're on the ground and, when stopped, are able to disembark. And you have a communication system with a CM that is at the back the transportation system at all times. Also, since the locomotives must comply with the FRA, they are subject to the overhaul schedule(s).

I don't think the gondola system at WDW is federally regulated.

 

[sachilles]

The mess should be taken care of by mousekeepers and sanitary imagineers as part of the normal course of business and without recording the names or identities of any guests.

I would question why the Skyliner was built to run so high above ground, where it takes more complex and slower operating equipment to get people down in case of emergency.

They are quite low by ski lift standards.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Bingo....that qualifies to me as horrific.

Awkward, okay. Embarrassing, sure. But terrifically horrible?

Is Disney going to reveal that someone has called and at a given timestamp? Do we know the period of time between a call and response as we all discussed?

No. The guests who call the number will.

Again, if there was a more serious incident than the minor fender-bender and it happenned in July at 3 PM instead of in the evening in the fall the outcome could have been a lot worse.

If, if, if. If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a trolley car.

 

[gatour]

I'm just going by quotes from RCFD in the media. They were fully mobilized for that stoppage/evacuation/whatever you want to call it. It's also not like Disney can snap it's fingers and get the National Guard there in a timely fashion to help with an evacuation of this sort. Before that three hour stoppage we were only having theoretical arguments about how long it would take Disney to resolve a major issue. Now we have real world data. A minor "fender-bender" between two cars in a station took more than 3 hours to resolve with guests hanging in the air. Everything else is just speculation. It also seems incredibly unlikely to me that having guests stuck in the air for 3 hours is the actual "worst case scenario" when that "worst case scenario" for a transportation system designed to last decades was reached in (checks notes) 14 days.

Yes we have ONE data point. Not multiple data points over an extended period of time. Did everything go well, probably not. So what you do is figure out what went well and what did not and then make changes to the plans.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Awkward, okay. Embarrassing, sure. But terrifically horrible?

No. The guests who call the number will.

If, if, if. If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a trolley car.

Lol, that’s four if’s. There’s only one if. Change the incident from the fall which happenned in the first 14 days of operation and make it in the summer instead and the outcome is much much worse.

 

[hertamaniac]

Awkward, okay. Embarrassing, sure. But terrifically horrible?

To someone that has anxiety or can be emotionally scarred, yes, it could be deemed horrible.

No. The guests who call the number will.

And how will these guests reveal their calls? Is there a public, centralized location that gives everyone visibility?

 

[Bay Max]

I got back on the Skyliner today. Smooth sailing. No problems.

 

[seashoreCM]

The originals were replaced with smaller boilers

When the steam (or compressed air or whatever) is used to drive the wheels (via pistons and cylinders and connecting rods on the sides of the locomotive) so many (call it X) pounds per square inch of pressure are needed. At any given moment, approximately the same PSI (greater during acceleration, lesser when coasting) is present at all points within the spaces the steam occupies including the inside of the boiler so the boiler must be able to sustain that pressure no matter how large or small the boiler is.

If the cylinders were fatter allowing pistons of greater surface area then lower pressures are needed to get the same number of pounds of "push" at lower PSI. The firebox and oil atomizer work at a different pressure, unrelated to what is needed to drive the wheels.