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

[Krandor]

What happens in bad weather - will they keep the covered bus stops for buses to run again?

I don’t think they will remove buses completely. Have them normally on a less frequent schedule then now so in case of issues they can send more buses over. Not complicated.

 

[Krandor]

On the latest Disney dish podcast Jim Hill said there is new concern over the size of the international gateway especially at the end of the night/Illuminations due the amount of people planning on using the Skyliner to get back. I know this has been discussed some here previously but it’s worth a listen.

Who is newly concerned? The podcaster? Disney?

 

[rteetz]

Who is newly concerned? The podcaster? Disney?

Disney

 

[Krandor]

Disney

So Disney didn’t think about traffic on that Epcot gate when designing this? That seems hard to believe.

 

[rteetz]

So Disney didn’t think about traffic on that Epcot gate when designing this? That seems hard to believe.

It is Jim Hill after all.

 

[DisFanDad]

So Disney didn’t think about traffic on that Epcot gate when designing this? That seems hard to believe.

Sometimes even big companies can overlook the simplest of things. I really have no opinion one way or the other on this, I don't know what the total capacity of the unit is going to be or what the flow of people is going to be like, I'd err on the side of disney doing its home work. But I have seen these systems move what seemed to be zombie apocalypse type hordes of people at first tracks without ever creating a major backup ... just a slow but steady shuffle toward the front. Quite efficient really.

 

[NatureBoyChris]

It is Jim Hill after all.

Never really understood the flack Jim Hill receives around here. I enjoy his podcast with Len Testa. I find both of them extremely knowledgeable when it comes to Disney.

 

[rteetz]

Never really understood the flack Jim Hill receives around here. I enjoy his podcast with Len Testa. I find both of them extremely knowledgeable when it comes to Disney.

Jim is great with Disney history and I listen to him all the time as well. It’s the rumor stuff he gets the flack for.

 

[Krandor]

I will say this. When doing the races this weekend esjecuallly at Hollywood was surprised to see how many of the “towers” appeared to be up already. Looks like they are making good progress.

 

[wareagle57]

I think there are worse things to worry about than a potential 30 minute wait for a gondola back to pop after illuminations. Still beats the heck out of waiting for a bus that you never know how long it will take to come and then being crammed into it with strangers in the dark and BO.

 

[nkosiek]

I think there are worse things to worry about than a potential 30 minute wait for a gondola back to pop after illuminations. Still beats the heck out of waiting for a bus that you never know how long it will take to come and then being crammed into it with strangers in the dark and BO.

Part of the problem could be how it backs up the entire exit area, especially as you have 3 resorts that utilize that exit to just walk back to their rooms.

 

[jknezek]

Part of the problem could be how it backs up the entire exit area, especially as you have 3 resorts that utilize that exit to just walk back to their rooms.

I think you solve the problem pretty easily with temporary queue lines that stretch back toward England over the bridge in a triple file width line or so that gets set up just before the fireworks show. That would allow people to flow over the bridge just fine and out to the walking resorts and you would have an orderly queue not jamming up the space for the skyliner. It's not that hard to manage for a moving line. I do think the gateway might need some expansion eventually, but I don't think this is an impossible to handle situation. It just requires a little planning.

 

[Tigger's ally]

I think you solve the problem pretty easily with temporary queue lines that stretch back toward England over the bridge in a triple file width line

As long as they have the line snake through the bar area of Rose and Crown and the tap be open, I am totally up with this idea! ARGHHHHHHH

 

[joelkfla]

I think you solve the problem pretty easily with temporary queue lines that stretch back toward England over the bridge in a triple file width line or so that gets set up just before the fireworks show. That would allow people to flow over the bridge just fine and out to the walking resorts and you would have an orderly queue not jamming up the space for the skyliner. It's not that hard to manage for a moving line. I do think the gateway might need some expansion eventually, but I don't think this is an impossible to handle situation. It just requires a little planning.

I think there will also be enough room to set up a pretty good-sized chain queue alongside the station, where the racers passed it this past weekend. https://twitter.com/bioreconstruct/status/987442645717999616

 

[sachilles]

Really, the only time their would be a crowd is post illuminations. There is a bit of a crowd in that area anyway. The only substantive change is that some people who might go to the front of the park, will now go to the gondola...so that is Riviera/CBR and the value twins. The only way I see that changing is if DHS has substantially later hours than Epcot on that given night, and people want to hit DHS until close.
I think it will self regulate, but I'd agree, they'll have to be wise in how they set up the line.

 

[skier_pete]

So Disney didn’t think about traffic on that Epcot gate when designing this? That seems hard to believe.

I'm sure they did - but it is easy to point out that this is clearly when the crunch is going to be. All the people returning to four resorts at about the same time. (Similar to what will happen at DHS - though you don't get QUITE the same thing since not everybody leaves right when fantsmic gets out.) In theory you might get 1,000 - 2,000 people wanting to get on the Gondola within a say 20 minute window of the park letting out. You definitely could see some backups, but honestly I always thought it would be easily handled. I severely doubt that this didn't occur to anyone in the design process.

 

[joelkfla]

I'm sure they did - but it is easy to point out that this is clearly when the crunch is going to be. All the people returning to four resorts at about the same time. (Similar to what will happen at DHS - though you don't get QUITE the same thing since not everybody leaves right when fantsmic gets out.) In theory you might get 1,000 - 2,000 people wanting to get on the Gondola within a say 20 minute window of the park letting out. You definitely could see some backups, but honestly I always thought it would be easily handled. I severely doubt that this didn't occur to anyone in the design process.

Just to throw in some facts, according to room counts on touringplans.com:

• CBR, Pop, & AoA together comprise 23% of all rooms served by Disney Transport, who will be using the Skyliner.
• Adding in the Epcot area resorts gives 38% of all Transport-using (& walk-in) resort guests exiting through IG.

 

[OKW Lover]

In theory you might get 1,000 - 2,000 people wanting to get on the Gondola within a say 20 minute window of the park letting out.

How many people do the Skyliner resorts accommodate? Not number of rooms, but actual people? Then how many do we think would actually be at Epcot for Illuminations on a regular night?

ETA:
Just saw @joelkfla's post and about the only part of this question still open is how many do we dink would be in Epcot on a normal night after Illuminations.

 

[jknezek]

How many people do the Skyliner resorts accommodate? Not number of rooms, but actual people? Then how many do we think would actually be at Epcot for Illuminations on a regular night?

ETA:
Just saw @joelkfla's post and about the only part of this question still open is how many do we dink would be in Epcot on a normal night after Illuminations.

Well... you could assume an average room occupancy of 3. Figure 75% of people stay for a fireworks show at a park. EPCOT's attendance is roughly 22% of the WDW attendance at the 4 parks. So if you took the total rooms serviced by the skyliner resorts, multiplied by 3, then .75, then .22, you could make an estimate. I'd probably adjust that a bit for the fact that you probably get higher attendance at EPCOT from the EPCOT area resorts than from the other resorts, but I'd be inclined to balance that by saying Pop and AoA probably send fewer to EPCOT than the average just based on family demographics.

 

[skier_pete]

Well... you could assume an average room occupancy of 3. Figure 75% of people stay for a fireworks show at a park. EPCOT's attendance is roughly 22% of the WDW attendance at the 4 parks. So if you took the total rooms serviced by the skyliner resorts, multiplied by 3, then .75, then .22, you could make an estimate. I'd probably adjust that a bit for the fact that you probably get higher attendance at EPCOT from the EPCOT area resorts than from the other resorts, but I'd be inclined to balance that by saying Pop and AoA probably send fewer to EPCOT than the average just based on family demographics.

Your also assuming that 100 % of hotel guests go to one of the four parks every single day - and that clearly isn't true either, but yeah I was figuring 20% of occupancy would be at Epcot at any one time.

So there's like 2000 rooms at Pop (average 3 per room), another 1000 at AOA (suites - average 5 per room), 1500 rooms at CBR (average 3) and 600 rooms at Riviera (average 5). Gives us 18,500 patrons at these resorts.

Say 20% go to Epcot on a given day, and 50% stay for the fireworks (75% is WAY too high), that's 1850 people.

Hourly capacity of 3,000 means 37 minutes to get them all back to the resort. Not that the line would be that long as all those people have to exit the park, but you could see 20 minute backups if true.

But in the end we have to do a reality check - let's go back to the bus transportation: This calculation says that 1850 people are leaving Epcot for these four resorts at the end of the night. At 60 people per bus, that would mean 31 busloads of people are going back to these 4 resorts. dropping Riviera which doesn't exist yet, that 26 bus loads of people going back to CBR, Pop, and AoA, or roughly 8 buses each resort.

Is there ONE person on the board that believes there are EIGHT busloads of people heading back to CBR at the end of each night? Of course not - it's maybe 3 or 4. Same for the other resorts. So the ACTUAL numbers will likely be half that number so now we are talking 1000 people leaving Epcot for the gondola. That's 20 minutes of full load.

I've done similar calculations elsewhere on this thread - the crowds here won't be as bad as everyone thinks. The worst will be at the end of the fireworks, but wait will still be way shorter than the buses. (Have you ever left a park for the buses and had to wait 2 even 3 buses? I've waited 45 minutes for a bus at the end of the night - you'll never have this happen here.)

They are more than ready for these crowds.