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

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

do we know if there is any A/C at the stations? Just wondering if that would help too - a) for people waiting and b) just a little heat / cool exchange when during loading and unloading

It's a good point to bring up.

I think it should be pretty tolerable if they get the angles of the roofing and overhangs to be as optimal as possible to reduce the amount of sun a person would be under while they are waiting.

Fans would be nice though. People def. gravitate towards that in queues and it at least helps people feel more comfortable when the humidity is higher as being in the shade doesn't make that go away.

 

[DanBoris]

Strictly speaking, the gondola has no air conditioning. But that doesn't mean they can't air condition it beyond just "natural venting". I can think of 3 inexpensive ways:

1.The gondola opens its door and people walk in and sit down. Then the door will stay open a little further and reach the spot where a big tube points at near the top of the door and shoot out a blast of cold air (say, 55 degrees) that instantly replaces most of the air inside the gondola. The people inside screams and shudders from the sudden cold. The door immediately closes, keeping the cold air in, and the gondola is on its way. If the gondola is going from Pop to Epcot and bypassing CBR, the door will open at CBR station and another blast of cold air will take place.

2. The gondola can have water sprayed on it outside at intervals to keep it wet. The gondola is moving, so the rapid evaporation may remove a noticeable amount of heat.

3. The gondola can have a small compartment on top that fits a tray with a handle. The tray can hold a block of ice about 2 feet by 2 feet by half foot (about 4 gallons). When the gondola crosses a station, before it loads people, a robot arm can put out the old tray with half melted ice inside to be put back in the freezer, then shove in a new one. The gondola ceiling can be designed with vents to let the cold out while at the same time direct any condensed moisture outside.

The cooling methods only need to take place if the gondola temperature is over, say, 80 degrees.

Someone actually ran across a patent for the 3rd idea.

 

[DanBoris]

do we know if there is any A/C at the stations? Just wondering if that would help too - a) for people waiting and b) just a little heat / cool exchange when during loading and unloading

I don't see AC units at any of the stations except CBR. I assume it has them for things like the maintenance area, and maybe a central control room.

 

[bpadair32]

I cannot get over how much people are freaking out about AC. You are not going to cook, the lines are going to be fast moving and the cabins are ventilated even though you are likely not going to be in those very long either.

 

[SgtTibbs]

I cannot get over how much people are freaking out about AC. You are not going to cook, the lines are going to be fast moving and the cabins are ventilated even though you are likely not going to be in those very long either.

Whew. Glad to have that finally cleared up.

 

[WDWFortWildernessExplorer]

Monorail stations do not have AC.

 

[dm1996]

Will the gondolas have heating systems for the 11 cold days a year Disney has. I mean they are so high up in the air, the temperature is probably pretty chilly up there.
Can’t wait for this system to open. Hopefully it works great and creates a faster and smoother mode of transportation Disney can implement new in more areas.

 

[OSUZorba]

Strictly speaking, the gondola has no air conditioning. But that doesn't mean they can't air condition it beyond just "natural venting". I can think of 3 inexpensive ways:

1.The gondola opens its door and people walk in and sit down. Then the door will stay open a little further and reach the spot where a big tube points at near the top of the door and shoot out a blast of cold air (say, 55 degrees) that instantly replaces most of the air inside the gondola. The people inside screams and shudders from the sudden cold. The door immediately closes, keeping the cold air in, and the gondola is on its way. If the gondola is going from Pop to Epcot and bypassing CBR, the door will open at CBR station and another blast of cold air will take place.

2. The gondola can have water sprayed on it outside at intervals to keep it wet. The gondola is moving, so the rapid evaporation may remove a noticeable amount of heat.

3. The gondola can have a small compartment on top that fits a tray with a handle. The tray can hold a block of ice about 2 feet by 2 feet by half foot (about 4 gallons). When the gondola crosses a station, before it loads people, a robot arm can put out the old tray with half melted ice inside to be put back in the freezer, then shove in a new one. The gondola ceiling can be designed with vents to let the cold out while at the same time direct any condensed moisture outside.

The cooling methods only need to take place if the gondola temperature is over, say, 80 degrees.

I think you are joking, but if not:

1) If the gondolas were still ventilated the cold air would be replaced very quickly. If they were sealed they'd heat up very quickly because air has very low heat capacity, meaning it changes temperatures with little energy input. A sealed gondola would go from a freezer to an oven within a minute.

2) A perfect swamp cooler can only get the temperature down to the wet bulb temperature. In a humid conditions the wet bulb temperature will be close to the dry bulb, so you get little cooling. You then also add more humidity to the air, increasing the heat index inside the cabin. Evaporative cooling towers can be used in humid environments because they are generally cooling a much warmer fluid down to around the dry bulb temperature. Towers must also be much larger in humid environments due to the decreased cooling ability.

3) If the cabin got more ice every 5 minutes and that was 10# a time, that would give you a 0.06 Ton Air Conditioner. To put that into perspective my mid size sedan has a 1.5 ton AC unit. (The term ton is actually based on the cooling power of one short ton of ice, 2000 pounds of ice melted and heated to 60°F gives you 12,000 BTU of cooling. An AC ton is 12,000 BTU/hr of cooling.)

 

[SgtTibbs]

Will the gondolas have heating systems for the 11 cold days a year Disney has. I mean they are so high up in the air, the temperature is probably pretty chilly up there.
Can’t wait for this system to open. Hopefully it works great and creates a faster and smoother mode of transportation Disney can implement new in more areas.

No.

 

[huskies90]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone (perhaps in some other thread) floated the idea that the opening of the gondola will spell the end of the resort friendship boats or the end of the boats going all the way to the theme parks? That would open up other possibilities for explaining the security situation.

Curious if this has been discussed earlier in the thread: I love the gondola idea and cannot wait for it to open but I am alone in my Disney circle. Everyone in both my immediate and extended family (that goes to Disney) is already refusing to use the gondolas because of fear - especially fear of heights. "No way I am getting on one of those." Are they the statistical outlier or is this a common concern?

 

[Iowamomof4]

Curious if this has been discussed earlier in the thread: I love the gondola idea and cannot wait for it to open but I am alone in my Disney circle. Everyone in both my immediate and extended family (that goes to Disney) is already refusing to use the gondolas because of fear - especially fear of heights. "No way I am getting on one of those." Are they the statistical outlier or is this a common concern?

Fear of heights has been discussed frequently. I would say your family is a statistical outlier. Mild fear of heights is fairly common, but having it to the point that a person couldn't get on an enclosed, secure gondola is more rare.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Curious if this has been discussed earlier in the thread: I love the gondola idea and cannot wait for it to open but I am alone in my Disney circle. Everyone in both my immediate and extended family (that goes to Disney) is already refusing to use the gondolas because of fear - especially fear of heights. "No way I am getting on one of those." Are they the statistical outlier or is this a common concern?

It's definitely been mentioned - but note that these won't get very high - I believe the monorail at it's highest point will be higher than these get .... now I get that for some it isn't *just* the height, it's the "fear of being in something dangling by a cable" and I do get that

Only other thing I can point to is a study done in Switzerland (which has a bunch of public and commercial use gondolas) and they found that the gondolas were the safest form of transportation they have - significantly safer than trains

http://gondolaproject.com/2015/11/16/are-gondolas-and-cable-cars-safe/

 

[scrappinginontario]

Curious if this has been discussed earlier in the thread: I love the gondola idea and cannot wait for it to open but I am alone in my Disney circle. Everyone in both my immediate and extended family (that goes to Disney) is already refusing to use the gondolas because of fear - especially fear of heights. "No way I am getting on one of those." Are they the statistical outlier or is this a common concern?

Just curious, have your family members looked at pictures? A friend's son was the same way until he saw pictures of how low they actually will be and suddenly he moved from frightened to excited!

 

[Iowamomof4]

Just curious, have your family members looked at pictures? A friend's son was the same way until he saw pictures of how low they actually will be and suddenly he moved from frightened to excited!

View attachment 380884 View attachment 380885

Yep! I don't think I could handle those extreme gondola routes that cross mountain passes and things like that. I fall into the mild fear of heights category though. I'm not at all concerned about the Disney Skyliner. It'll be relatively low to the ground and I've been assured by reading this thread and others (the one on wdwmagic is pretty amazing) that these gondolas will not sway in the winds much if at all. It should feel entirely different than my local themepark sky ride (ski lift chairs) and I still ride that even though it's a little unnerving.

 

[huskies90]

We will see what they say once the gondolas are up and running. I would be shocked if they didn't go on them. I think this preliminary talk is just that: preliminary. And once they are up running everyone will ride them. Their initial reaction surprised me but it also could have been a reaction to my excitement.

 

[WDWFortWildernessExplorer]

Curious if this has been discussed earlier in the thread: I love the gondola idea and cannot wait for it to open but I am alone in my Disney circle. Everyone in both my immediate and extended family (that goes to Disney) is already refusing to use the gondolas because of fear - especially fear of heights. "No way I am getting on one of those." Are they the statistical outlier or is this a common concern?

Do they ride Peter Pan?

 

[joelkfla]

I know that, but they could have cooled air flowing through blowers. Not saying they will or that is makes sense, just wondering

I remember when decades ago WDW used to blow chilled air into open air roofed queues, like Peter Pan & Mr. Toad. They gave up on it, I assume to save costs and fend off claims that they were wasting energy. You could still see the linear vents in the queue ceiling a few years ago at Peter Pan, but I don't know whether they're still there after the last rehab.

So I think it's unlikely they would go back to cooling open air areas.

 

[dm1996]

I remember when decades ago WDW used to blow chilled air into open air roofed queues, like Peter Pan & Mr. Toad. They gave up on it, I assume to save costs and fend off claims that they were wasting energy. You could still see the linear vents in the queue ceiling a few years ago at Peter Pan, but I don't know whether they're still there after the last rehab.

So I think it's unlikely they would go back to cooling open air areas.

Don’t they blow chilled air in the line at jungle cruise? I know they did on the fast pass side last time I was there.

 

[joelkfla]

Don’t they blow chilled air in the line at jungle cruise? I know they did on the fast pass side last time I was there.

Don't know; I think I've ridden once, twice at most, in the last 5 years.

 

[DanBoris]

I think you are joking, but if not:


3) If the cabin got more ice every 5 minutes and that was 10# a time, that would give you a 0.06 Ton Air Conditioner. To put that into perspective my mid size sedan has a 1.5 ton AC unit. (The term ton is actually based on the cooling power of one short ton of ice, 2000 pounds of ice melted and heated to 60°F gives you 12,000 BTU of cooling. An AC ton is 12,000 BTU/hr of cooling.)

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090031743