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

I am going to say construction related modular building. Looks like an insulated CONEX / shipping container. There is nothing like that in any of the concept drawings, or on any gondola systems I have ridden.

I am pretty sure they are going to be permanent, probably control room and equipment room. You can see in these two pictures that insulation and an outside wall surface has been added, no reason to do that if they were just for construction purposes. Probably not something you have seen because gondola stations over water are not common. The other stations have small structures connected to them, but since they are on the ground they are cinder block or concrete structures.

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Replying to my own post...

Since I'm staying Club Level, I decided to write to the Signature Services folks, and ask them... they answered almost right away that they were unaware of any disruption of service of the Friendship Boats.... so.... who do we believe? Since only the Dolphin/Swan seems to have alerted anyone, can we count of just that stop being affected? Who knows? I guess we just show up and find out then.
It could still happen but I would be surprised if such a lengthy shutdown happens when it has not been announced yet. There might be something affecting the Swan/Dolphin but I’m not convinced at this time that it is a complete shutdown of the Friendshio boats in that area.
 
Sorry to bring this up again, but maybe some can "un-confuse" me. So... it seems according to the notices that ALL boats will be suspended - from sometime around Nov 28 until sometime around Dec 20....

I don't understand why this is the case if it has to do with the gondola - the only place on the posted map that would go over where the boats travel seems to be at the International Gateway - but yet, they specifically said people can WALK through there.... if the boats can't go through there, why can people walk through?

:crazy: So confused!


It would be very easy to build a temporary structure over the walkway to keep anyone walking safe from anything possibly falling just like they do on sidewalks in front of tall city buildings with construction. It would not be easy to do the same over the water to protect the boats and floating guests.

So it is possible to keep the walkway open to walkers yet close the waterway due to the cable installation ....... if this is the case here with this information.
 
With the discussion about the Friendship Boats possibly closing in December I wrote to Disney and asked them.

This is a portion of the email I received from them today:

Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World® Resort!

We are glad to know you will visit us soon! At the moment we do not have any notifications about the Friendship boat at the Epcot® International Gateway to be close. I recommend to always keEpcot® looking in our website for official notifications since all information it is subject to change.


So, at this time there is no official notification that the Friendship Boats will be closed later this year.
 


I am pretty sure they are going to be permanent, probably control room and equipment room. You can see in these two pictures that insulation and an outside wall surface has been added, no reason to do that if they were just for construction purposes. Probably not something you have seen because gondola stations over water are not common. The other stations have small structures connected to them, but since they are on the ground they are cinder block or concrete structures.

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I agree that this is more outfitted than I would normally expect a modular office structure to be (the ones we used would typically be fully outfitted with everything, only on-site work wwould be utilities interconnection).

@DanBoris- Mind if I post over at wdwmagic and see what LiftBlog has to say?

I have never seen a structure like this on a gondola system.
 
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With the discussion about the Friendship Boats possibly closing in December I wrote to Disney and asked them.

This is a portion of the email I received from them today:

Thank you for contacting the Walt Disney World® Resort!

We are glad to know you will visit us soon! At the moment we do not have any notifications about the Friendship boat at the Epcot® International Gateway to be close. I recommend to always keEpcot® looking in our website for official notifications since all information it is subject to change.


So, at this time there is no official notification that the Friendship Boats will be closed later this year.

Thanks for being smart enough to ask WDW! I think the Swolphin issue may be related to their dock and not an issue with operation of the Friendship Boat system in its entirety.
 


So I read quite a bit of this thread but missed 100 or so pages in the middle lol. Anyway let’s say a severe weather event occurs and people have to get off at CBR and your hotel is Pop. Are they going to leave people relatively stranded at CBR until the weather clears, make them bus to whatever park is open or closest and then bus to Pop or bring a bus into CBR to take them to Pop. I personally believe they can operate the system in thunderstorms but whether or not they do...
I am so excited for this to open. Hopefully it is open when we are at Pop for 2 weeks starting June 2. I have a fear of heights but never minded cable cars - go figure. I’m not concerned by the lack of AC. I think Disney people are aware it is hot there and took that into consideration.
I wanna ride with those hitchhiking ghosts!
I wish they would build a walking path to connect Pop with CBR. The two hotels are right next to each other. That way, people who are stranded can simply walk to Pop and then to AofA, if necessary.
 
I wish they would build a walking path to connect Pop with CBR. The two hotels are right next to each other. That way, people who are stranded can simply walk to Pop and then to AofA, if necessary.

That would be quite a haul though from the North end of CBR to Pop, let alone all the way to AoA. Guessing if the weather is bad enough to shut down the Gondola's then I wouldn't want to walk that far in the same weather. Been caught outside (boat dock at DHS) in a lightning storm and as a grown man I was too afraid to step foot out of what little protection we did have.
 
That would be quite a haul though from the North end of CBR to Pop, let alone all the way to AoA. Guessing if the weather is bad enough to shut down the Gondola's then I wouldn't want to walk that far in the same weather. Been caught outside (boat dock at DHS) in a lightning storm and as a grown man I was too afraid to step foot out of what little protection we did have.
Also pop and CBR are separated by a road. Which isn’t insurmountable to build over, but doesn’t seem it would be used enough to justify the effort and expense of putting one up
 
Also pop and CBR are separated by a road. Which isn’t insurmountable to build over, but doesn’t seem it would be used enough to justify the effort and expense of putting one up
It's just the Pop entrance road, also used by Pop, AoA, and CBR cm's reporting to work. It would be easy to install a pedestrian signal, although it could back things up at shift change times.

There's also a tunnel under the road, used by golf carts moving cm's between the combined service area and Pop/AoA. Perhaps they could clean it up and direct Guests thru it during shutdowns. Guests would still be crossing the traffic into the service area.

But buses would be simplest. Except perhaps at park exit, the number of Guests caught between DHS or IG and CBR on their way to Pop or AoA would fit on 1 or 2 buses, and they'd all arrive at CBR station within 10 minutes of the declared shutdown. After dropping everyone at Pop or AoA, the buses would go into service replacing the Skyliner until it was back in service.
 
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Does anyone know how many towers are left to install?
 
That would be quite a haul though from the North end of CBR to Pop, let alone all the way to AoA. Guessing if the weather is bad enough to shut down the Gondola's then I wouldn't want to walk that far in the same weather. Been caught outside (boat dock at DHS) in a lightning storm and as a grown man I was too afraid to step foot out of what little protection we did have.
From the north end, sure. CBR is a long haul just to walk from its north to south end. But from the CBR gondola station it ain't bad, and the gondola may not be down just because of bad weather. It might be down for any and all reasons. It shouldn't cause any hardship to install a path with pedestrian crossing because the buses/cars have to stop at the gates anyway. Pedestrians can be ordered to wait until the traffic clears out before being allowed to cross by some kind of crossing light. There aren't that many cars/buses on those roads. And there won't be that many pedestrians, only when the gondola is down. Also, people living at the South end can walk to Pop faster than taking the gondola.
 
Nice over view of the gondola, including the AC controversy. I agree with this author that it's probably going to be just fine without.
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/skyliner-gondola-update-october-2018/

I also agree with the author how some people made up their minds that this is a bad idea and only focusing on/brining up the potential negative aspects (whether or not they are true)

that said, I think it goes the other way too in that people that think it is a good idea (and I fall in this camp) are more focused on the positive aspects and minimizing any downside scenarios (sight-lines, etc.)

In reality, I bet it winds up being somewhere in the middle of these two extreme views ... though I still think Disney has thought about all angles and wouldn't' be investing so much if it isn't at least more towards the positive end than negative
 
I don’t know if people have figured this out yet, but is the CBR stop going to be a big transfer hub? Like will anyone going thru that hub need to get off and transfer onto whichever line they are headed towards: Riviera/Epcot, DHS, or Pop-AoA? Or will gondolas be rerouted automatically into their final destination so the Epcot station would have different lines for people heading to different places so either the whole car gets off or whole car stays on?
 
I don’t know if people have figured this out yet, but is the CBR stop going to be a big transfer hub? Like will anyone going thru that hub need to get off and transfer onto whichever line they are headed towards: Riviera/Epcot, DHS, or Pop-AoA? Or will gondolas be rerouted automatically into their final destination so the Epcot station would have different lines for people heading to different places so either the whole car gets off or whole car stays on?
You will have to get off and transfer at CBR.
 
As a person who is deathly afraid of heights, this Gondola idea scares me a lot. I will never be able to ride in one of these, I hope that boats and buses will always be an alternative. More walking trails too, my preferred method.
 

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