Your figures were right, it’s just you’ve made a common mistake…
10 gondolas per minute, so a cabin arriving every 6 seconds.
But the stations are loooooong. As the cabins approach, they detach from the main driving cable onto the station cable. Once into the station, the doors open. They then travel the length of the platform at walking pace. That’s the length of time you have to get off, the time it takes for a cabin to travel the length of the platform.
Then the cabin will go 180 degrees round the first bullwheel and start travelling back along the other platform, again at walking pace. So the boarding guests have all that time to walk alongside and get in.
The capacity is approximately the same as bus arriving every 3-4 minutes.
Oh and it’s likely the cabins will remain on line overnight. They are unlikely to take them all off each evening. The storage for really bad weather (like hurricanes) is at CBR. There are pictures of around half of them there now. One or two on the lines, the rest have yet to arrive.
I am looking forward to the gondola system opening, which, barring any unforeseen delays, it will be when I go in December. I’ve loved “sky rides” ever since I rode my first at the NYWF in 1964; I must have been on dozens at various parks, resorts, etc.
A “working plan” for a non-park day on that trip is the take a bus from WL to DHS, ride the gondola to CBR and check out the new Riviera resort (lunch maybe). Then take to gondola to the IG, explore the BW area (I’ve never seen it at Christmas), and have dinner at either FF (haven’t been since the renovation) or Yachtsman (have never been). Then a bus to the MK and a boat back to WL.
Here is a good pic of the storage! Sounds like this will be rarely used because in wind situations and overnight they will just be in the stations, but this area is for hurricanes or something bigger. They would need a cherry picker to pull the gondolas off the line and put them into this area.
There are going to be around 300. I think @Nicky_S and I follow the same blog progress on these!
I don’t actually do Twitter, but there are two or three posters over on WDWMagic that regularly post “bioreconstruct”’s tweets onto the appropriate threads.
Plus there’s user @liftblog who runs an actual blog on gondolas, is an operator with a lot of experience, who has been explaining the intricacies of gondola operations to us for about a year now! Amazing what you can learn on the internet these days …
The gondolas fit up to 10 people. It’s also 5000 pph per line per direction. There will be two lines, the Epcot line and the DHS line. Contrast that to a bus that takes 60-100 people every 10 minutes or so…
But there’s also a 3rd line, right? CBR to Pop/AoA If it actually takes anywhere close to 5000 pph, that will be really impressive! Lets say HS has 20,000 people at the end of the night after fireworks (is that close to reality? I’m not real sure). How many of them will be going to Gondola resorts as they leave? 10%? If we include Epcot resorts, since who would wait for the boat, maybe it’s 20%. So 4000 people would be leaving. That means the crowd would clear out in 48 minutes! I’m guessing my estimate is high for that number of people, which means everyone at other resorts will be standing in the bus lines looking at the empty gondola area.
I’m thinking if it runs well for the first year we’ll see gondolas connecting all the other parks and major resort areas soon. I would say they would go to the TTC, but it seems crazy to put more people there since then they will have to take the monorail or boat. Is there a spot between the contemporary and MK that a station would fit?
“The gondolas fit up to 10 people. It’s also 5000 pph per line per direction. There will be two lines, the Epcot line and the DHS line. Contrast that to a bus that takes 60-100 people every 10 minutes or so…”
Three lines.
POP / AOA to CBR
CBR to DHS
CBR to IG, via Riviera
And while the cabins take 10, Disney are basing capacity on 8 per cabin.
Instead of more monorails or gondolas, how about the Peoplemover extended all over the property? With overhead roof to protect from rain/sun, of course.
I get your fears - and I’m not trying to tell you not to have them, because one often can’t control that. But - it’s not quite fair to compare a theme park attraction to an industrial transportation system. The Skyliner is the latter - it has as much in common with the ride at Seaworld as the Indy 500 has in common with the Tomorrowland Speedway. The company that makes these systems has made them for public transportation systems around the world. The materials used, technology in place, etc. is in a a completely different class than the ride at Seaworld, or even the old MK Skyway.
My fear of heights is entirely unreasonable, but comes (I’m fairly sure) from a “practical joke” one of my brothers did to me when I was a kid. (Well, several, but one in particular.) That is, we were on some observation tower (I think it was at Silver Dollar City or something). And while I was standing innocently looking out, my brother grabbed me and lifted me up and over the railing. Not ALL the way over, mind you, but it happened in a way that I thought I was going over because I was dangling face-down, about 75 ft (I’m guessing) above the ground. He pulled me back, but the damage had been done. (There were a couple other instances, including an aforementioned Grand Canyon situation.) This particular brother was always a risk-taker and a bit messed in the head! Well, it messed with my head. Even at work, our 3-floor building uses glass railings and has a few upper floor conference rooms with glass walls that overlook the lobby. When I’m near the railings or in the conference rooms, I start to get dizzy and I visualize myself or someone else falling through the glass to the floor. It took me about 3 years in the building before I could stand going up/down the stairs without any sense of dizziness.
I really wish it would go away, this fear of heights. Last summer, we were at a family camp that had three zip lines. I made up my mind to do two of them (one of them was intended just for little kids). I was petrified. And unlike my son, who just ran and jumped off the platform, I had to sort of sit on the edge, looking up, and ease myself forward. I did it! Yay! But it didn’t seem to help my fear. (And here I thought facing my fear would fix things!) I still get dizzy from heights…even watching OTHERS on television in tall buildings, etc.
Like I said - please don’t think I’m trying to discount your fears… I get that they are real. I just wanted to point out the difference between the Seaworld ride and Skyliner.
I think the trick to not worrying about the height of the gondola is to focus your fear on that big high tension cable and what kind of damage it could do if it snapped.
Although to be fair the gondola itself would likely provide a reasonable amount of protection when that high tension cable comes a calling. The guy walking below with no gondola armor to protect is who I would really fear for…
