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

[rteetz]

Does this equate to two separate lines?
Epcot-Riviera-CBR (my red/purple)
DHS-CBR-AniPOP (my yellow/blue)

Or three lines?
Epcot-Riviera-CBR (my red/purple)
DHS-CBR (my yellow)
CBR-AniPOP (my blue)

The volume of people who will travel to Epcot from AoA (1120 family suites + 864 rooms), Pop (2880 rooms), DHS and CBR (~1400 with demolition) will be huge. I can't see them leaving empty gondolas, but I can't see them allowing a back up at Riviera. I guess they can monitor the need and communicate to leaving some empty?

Glad I'm not in charge...

I've always understood it as three lines.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Does this equate to two separate lines?
Epcot-Riviera-CBR (my red/purple)
DHS-CBR-AniPOP (my yellow/blue)

Or three lines?
Epcot-Riviera-CBR (my red/purple)
DHS-CBR (my yellow)
CBR-AniPOP (my blue)

The volume of people who will travel to Epcot from AoA (1120 family suites + 864 rooms), Pop (2880 rooms), DHS and CBR (~1400 with demolition) will be huge. I can't see them leaving empty gondolas, but I can't see them allowing a back up at Riviera. I guess they can monitor the need and communicate to leaving some empty?

Glad I'm not in charge...

I think the later and CBR becomes a bit of a "hub"

 

[MommaBerd]

My memory's not totally clear on this, but I think I have seen them restrict some cars on the Resort Monorail for Guests boarding at a particular resort.

Do you remember what time of day? If evening, it's possible that a car was being reserved for a special dining event where guests go from resort to resort on the monorail loop.

 

[DanBoris]

This is true, unless Disney limits loading to ensure that some percentage of cabins coming into midway stations are empty. Obviously, that's most likely to be necessary in the morning, when everybody is traveling to the parks.

I think it's very likely something like this would happen at busy times. If Riviera starts getting backed up they would radio to CBR south and have them start sending empty cars. In theory, Riviera could also start putting guests destined for Epcot on cars heading for CBR south and they would just stay on until Epcot, although this might be confusing for some guests.

 

[STLstone]

Does this equate to two separate lines?
Epcot-Riviera-CBR (my red/purple)
DHS-CBR-AniPOP (my yellow/blue)

Or three lines?
Epcot-Riviera-CBR (my red/purple)
DHS-CBR (my yellow)
CBR-AniPOP (my blue)

The volume of people who will travel to Epcot from AoA (1120 family suites + 864 rooms), Pop (2880 rooms), DHS and CBR (~1400 with demolition) will be huge. I can't see them leaving empty gondolas, but I can't see them allowing a back up at Riviera. I guess they can monitor the need and communicate to leaving some empty?

Glad I'm not in charge...

I don't think every single room will be headed to Epcot at the same time each morning. And even if they are, they won't all use the gondolas.

People would be climbing into these almost as fast as they can walk up to them. The line would normally be moving at walking speed. Sending an empty car every so often would slow the movement of the line down, but it wouldn't come to a stop. It may not even be perceptible.

Like you, though, I'm glad I'm not in charge.

 

[OKW Lover]

Interesting discussion about capacity and empty cars. I think people are forgetting that "occupied" (carrying passengers) cars does not have to mean full cars. Its possible that there is available space on arriving cars.

I'd also wonder what the ability is to pack the number of cars on each line. Isn't there a need for some spacing between cars? Once that's reached there is no ability to simply send more cars (full or empty) to another station.

 

[STLstone]

Interesting discussion about capacity and empty cars. I think people are forgetting that "occupied" (carrying passengers) cars does not have to mean full cars. Its possible that there is available space on arriving cars.

I'd also wonder what the ability is to pack the number of cars on each line. Isn't there a need for some spacing between cars? Once that's reached there is no ability to simply send more cars (full or empty) to another station.

I don't know if this is what everyone meant, but when I say "send empty cars" I mean "prevent people from loading into a car a CBR so that it arrives at the Riveria empty."

I envisioned the system operating at, or near, the maximum number of cars on the cables at all times.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Interesting discussion about capacity and empty cars. I think people are forgetting that "occupied" (carrying passengers) cars does not have to mean full cars. Its possible that there is available space on arriving cars.

I'd also wonder what the ability is to pack the number of cars on each line. Isn't there a need for some spacing between cars? Once that's reached there is no ability to simply send more cars (full or empty) to another station.

I was wondering about that - especially if the CBR station is to be where they store the gondolas .... can you have some cars get on and off the system at certain points and then merge back in when needed? So not all cars would go down to POP for example, half go to DHS and then the merge together coming back up to CBR or something

 

[OKW Lover]

I don't know if this is what everyone meant, but when I say "send empty cars" I mean "prevent people from loading into a car a CBR so that it arrives at the Riveria empty."

I envisioned the system operating at, or near, the maximum number of cars on the cables at all times.

Or they could limit the number of people in a car to something less than the max capacity.

 

[mom2rtk]

I don't know if this is what everyone meant, but when I say "send empty cars" I mean "prevent people from loading into a car a CBR so that it arrives at the Riveria empty."

I envisioned the system operating at, or near, the maximum number of cars on the cables at all times.

Don't they already do this with some of the boats from POFQ and POR to DS? We waited over 45 minutes at POR once in the blazing sun and I was really unhappy that more people could have gotten on that boat. Then I realized they were keeping spots open for POFQ. What else can they do? (Well, other than have more boats running of course).

 

[joelkfla]

Do you remember what time of day? If evening, it's possible that a car was being reserved for a special dining event where guests go from resort to resort on the monorail loop.

No, that's why I said my memory wasn't clear. It was a few years ago, and might have been for some special event. I don't ride the Resort line very often.

 

[joelkfla]

I was wondering about that - especially if the CBR station is to be where they store the gondolas .... can you have some cars get on and off the system at certain points and then merge back in when needed? So not all cars would go down to POP for example, half go to DHS and then the merge together coming back up to CBR or something

Cabins can be added and taken off, but I don't think they'd want to do that as part of normal operations. They might take some cabins off midday and add them back around dinner time. And there would probably only be storage space at the main base, which everyone is assuming to be CBR.

Or they could limit the number of people in a car to something less than the max capacity.

They could, but I think it would be much easier logistically to just reserve every 3rd cabin, or whatever that number turns out to be. Again, I foresee this being necessary only around park opening times.

Don't they already do this with some of the boats from POFQ and POR to DS? We waited over 45 minutes at POR once in the blazing sun and I was really unhappy that more people could have gotten on that boat. Then I realized they were keeping spots open for POFQ. What else can they do? (Well, other than have more boats running of course).

Yes. I've heard they now run separate boats for each side of PO at night.

 

[skier_pete]

Does this equate to two separate lines?
Epcot-Riviera-CBR (my red/purple)
DHS-CBR-AniPOP (my yellow/blue)

Or three lines?
Epcot-Riviera-CBR (my red/purple)
DHS-CBR (my yellow)
CBR-AniPOP (my blue)

The volume of people who will travel to Epcot from AoA (1120 family suites + 864 rooms), Pop (2880 rooms), DHS and CBR (~1400 with demolition) will be huge. I can't see them leaving empty gondolas, but I can't see them allowing a back up at Riviera. I guess they can monitor the need and communicate to leaving some empty?

Glad I'm not in charge...

I also think there will likely be THREE lines, Epcot to CBR line, The DHS to CBR line, and the CBR to Pop/Animation. Though another possiblity is that The DHS-CBR-Riviera-Epcot is a single line, and the CBR to Pop is it's own line.

I think in general people are overestimating the traffic issues here. Think about it from the perspective of buses:
Right now, CBR has maybe 4 buses per hour going to Epcot normally (one bus every 15 minutes) at peak times. Each bus holds say 75 people on it. Pop and AoA have the same thing, a bus every 15 minutes. So we are talking 12 buses of people leave these three resorts at peak hours heading to Epcot. That's 900 people per hour leaving those three resorts going to the parks. The capacity for the gondola will likely be on the order of 2,500 people per hour. And there's a good chance that they won't eliminate the buses completely. If Disney is thinking properly, you will have people who are afraid of heights and won't want to ride the Gondola, so there will likely still be some amount of buses that have to run to these parks.

I'm not saying their won't be waits at peak times, especially with AoA and Pop coming to CBR and needing to all load at the same station. I just think the overcrowding of the areas are being overstated by some. I wouldn't be surprised if a 10-15 wait for the gondola occurs at peak times, but that's no different from your 20 minute wait for the bus.

 

[joelkfla]

I'd also wonder what the ability is to pack the number of cars on each line. Isn't there a need for some spacing between cars? Once that's reached there is no ability to simply send more cars (full or empty) to another station.

It seems like the throughput is really determined by the speed thru the loading platform. The number of cabins and their spacing on the cable would be determined by the relationship between cable speed and loading speed. If the cable speed is increased while loading speed remains the same, cabins would be further apart, there would be fewer cabins online, and riders would get to their destination faster, but the same number of people would be boarding per minute (assuming zero space between cabins on the loading track.)

I don't know if this is what everyone meant, but when I say "send empty cars" I mean "prevent people from loading into a car a CBR so that it arrives at the Riveria empty."

That's what I meant, too.

 

[beer dave]

what about one line from epcot to riviera through hub at cbr to DHS..... and another from epcot to cbr to dhs, passing through Riviera, and a connector from pop to the hub at cbr.........

 

[rteetz]

what about one line from epcot to riviera through hub at cbr to DHS..... and another from epcot to cbr to dhs, passing through Riviera, and a connector from pop to the hub at cbr.........

All this talk of different lines is confusing me.

As of right now it is understood that it will be
Epcot to Riviera to CBR
DHS to CBR
AoA/Pop to CBR

 

[beer dave]

All this talk of different lines is confusing me.

As of right now it is understood that it will be
Epcot to Riviera to CBR
DHS to CBR
AoA/Pop to CBR

That sounds like probably what they will do-- I was just supposing that in order to make DRR and CBR more deluxe that they would give them their own lines directly to both parks. I realize this requires doubling up on the ropes everywhere except at pop. It could also be one rope through from DHS to epcot and they load /unload both directions at cbr and drr---- and pop switches at cbr...... that would be most conducive it think.

 

[DanBoris]

I was wondering about that - especially if the CBR station is to be where they store the gondolas .... can you have some cars get on and off the system at certain points and then merge back in when needed? So not all cars would go down to POP for example, half go to DHS and then the merge together coming back up to CBR or something

I don't think it's quite that easy to add and remove cars from the line. I would guess that they will always run the maximum number of carts on all three lines because I don't see any major downside to doing that

 

[DanBoris]

I also think there will likely be THREE lines, Epcot to CBR line, The DHS to CBR line, and the CBR to Pop/Animation. Though another possiblity is that The DHS-CBR-Riviera-Epcot is a single line, and the CBR to Pop is it's own line.

I think in general people are overestimating the traffic issues here. Think about it from the perspective of buses:
Right now, CBR has maybe 4 buses per hour going to Epcot normally (one bus every 15 minutes) at peak times. Each bus holds say 75 people on it. Pop and AoA have the same thing, a bus every 15 minutes. So we are talking 12 buses of people leave these three resorts at peak hours heading to Epcot. That's 900 people per hour leaving those three resorts going to the parks. The capacity for the gondola will likely be on the order of 2,500 people per hour. And there's a good chance that they won't eliminate the buses completely. If Disney is thinking properly, you will have people who are afraid of heights and won't want to ride the Gondola, so there will likely still be some amount of buses that have to run to these parks.

I'm not saying their won't be waits at peak times, especially with AoA and Pop coming to CBR and needing to all load at the same station. I just think the overcrowding of the areas are being overstated by some. I wouldn't be surprised if a 10-15 wait for the gondola occurs at peak times, but that's no different from your 20 minute wait for the bus.

When talking about worst case traffic we should probably be talking about park closing. At the beginning of the day people are going to leaving or the parks over a longer period of time. When the parks close you get a very large amount of people leaving in a small period of time.

 

[skier_pete]

When talking about worst case traffic we should probably be talking about park closing. At the beginning of the day people are going to leaving or the parks over a longer period of time. When the parks close you get a very large amount of people leaving in a small period of time.

That is very true! There will definitely be a line at park closing, but right now if you are not the first out of the park, then you often have to wait 1 or 2 or 3 buses. And again, even if you have 3 busloads of people from Pop and AOA and CBR and another busload from Riviera, that's maybe 1000 people, which will load onto the gondolas in under 30 minutes. And they won't all be coming out of the parks at the exact same instance, so again worst case is maybe 15 minute wait, which is better than some of the bus waits.