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

[rteetz]

I never thought of these as a replacement for the buses but as a supplement form of transportation that will reduce the unsafe overloading of the buses and to encourage guests to not drive their cars. When these are working the buses will be less crowded and those who would drive instead of getting crammed in a bus..especially at close will consider riding the buses again or try the gondola's.
If they are going to have buses as an option it will have to be as they are now, otherwise guests might be missing FP's and ADR's. It's just unrealistic to expect all guests at the Skyliner resorts to give up what has always been advertised and expected..especially if your a DVC owner at Rivera.
The Rivera is expensive and telling potential buyers you can only ride in a non ac gondola is not an easy selling point to overcome.

No it isn't a complete replacement but it wouldn't make sense to keep running buses as frequently as they do when they could be using those buses to help elsewhere.

I think you assume people know what to expect. I have helped plenty of people plan vacations that have no idea what type of transportation is available.

One of the selling point of buying at Riviera is the Skyliner much like the monorail at BLT, the Poly, or GF.

 

[The Pho]

I never thought of these as a replacement for the buses but as a supplement form of transportation that will reduce the unsafe overloading of the buses and to encourage guests to not drive their cars. When these are working the buses will be less crowded and those who would drive instead of getting crammed in a bus..especially at close will consider riding the buses again or try the gondola's.
If they are going to have buses as an option it will have to be as they are now, otherwise guests might be missing FP's and ADR's. It's just unrealistic to expect all guests at the Skyliner resorts to give up what has always been advertised and expected..especially if your a DVC owner at Rivera.
The Rivera is expensive and telling potential buyers you can only ride in a non ac gondola is not an easy selling point to overcome.

They didn’t spend $300 million on gondolas to not change anything else.

 

[crvetter]

The Rivera is expensive and telling potential buyers you can only ride in a non ac gondola is not an easy selling point to overcome.

Fairly certain that on the DVC forums people that took the tour (I'm taking one in May so I'll now for sure then) are being explicitly told that their transportation to Epcot and HS is the Skyliner, except when shut down which hasn't been defined yet, and that buses will run to DS, MK, AK, and water parks.

Most reporting to have bought are buying specifically for the Skyliner access and avoiding the buses.

 

[Spaceguy55]

I guess I will bet another Mickey bar that the buses will continue as they are now for the foreseeable future..

 

[vacationer1954]

I don't think anyone has said that they won't. All people have said is that the frequency of buses will be reduced given the new capacity offered by the gondolas.

 

[Tigger's ally]

I don't think anyone has said that they won't. All people have said is that the frequency of buses will be reduced given the new capacity offered by the gondolas.

If I am a bus driver I want those routes.

 

[SgtTibbs]

I guess I will bet another Mickey bar that the buses will continue as they are now for the foreseeable future..

Done.

Reminder set for one year from now.

 

[vacationer1954]

If I am a bus driver I want those routes.

I wouldn't. It seems to me that those routes would tend to have more complex passenger situations, prompted by unwillingness to use the gondolas.

 

[Spaceguy55]

They didn’t spend $300 million on gondolas to not change anything else.

One Catastrophic bus crash and a few good lawyers that can prove it was due to overloading the bus will make that number seem insignificant .

 

[rteetz]

One Catastrophic bus crash and a few good lawyers that can prove it was due to overloading the bus will make that number seem insignificant .

If Disney was improperly loading buses there would bigger issues. Yes they pack the buses but they are doing nothing wrong doing it the way they do.

 

[Spaceguy55]

Because of the short distances between the Skyliner resorts and DHS/Epcot there are probably only 2 or 3 buses for each resort to each park, depending on the time of day. They said the buses will continue as an option , of course they didn't say at what time interval yet....so how much would they really save compared to making guests who will not use the gondola's wait for a long time ? The normal wait is about 20-30 minutes, which depending on the time of day is about how long it takes to drive there.

I know I've rode the bus in the middle of the day when there couldn't have been more than 2 on the route...maybe only 1 on some days.
I also know that if I eat breakfast at the food court I don't want to hike across the resort in the rain or heat to get on the gondola...and that's just me. I can't imagine if I still had to do that with my kids again when they were much younger.
Right now you can get to the bus in about a minute or so from the food court....so for that reason alone, I think the buses will remain the same ..at least in the morning.
At night I would ride a gondola back to resort in a hurricane rather than standing on a overcrowded bus.

 

[jade1]

If they are going to have buses as an option it will have to be as they are now, otherwise guests might be missing FP's and ADR's.

I think the app show bus arrivals now, as do the bus stops.

That should give at least some level of planning to get to ADR's and FP's.

That said, if I were currently staying at CBR and had a 6PM Japan ADR, I would leave the room at least an hour before. I suspect we will be able to leave probably 30 minutes before if taking the Skyliner, and from Riviera like 20 minutes. That's a big selling point IMO.

The Rivera is expensive and telling potential buyers you can only ride in a non ac gondola is not an easy selling point to overcome.

I think the Skyliner is the major draw here, I would have zero interest in Riviera (stays or purchase) without it.

 

[Spaceguy55]

If they are still going to offer bus service as reported by WDW Magic..I just don't think that taking 1 or 2 buses out of the rotation here and there is going to save them that much money. They still need to have enough drivers and buses ready for when the weather turns bad without taking them from other resorts and parks. The last thing they want are drivers in a hurry...which from my experience ..they never are

 

[scrappinginontario]

If they are still going to offer bus service as reported by WDW Magic..I just don't think that taking 1 or 2 buses out of the rotation here and there is going to save them that much money. They still need to have enough drivers and buses ready for when the weather turns bad without taking them from other resorts and parks. The last thing they want are drivers in a hurry...which from my experience ..they never are

2 buses x 3 resorts is 6 buses that can be used elsewhere. If I’m somewhere waiting for a bus I’ll be happy there are 6 more in the rotation. I would think it would be more than 2 per resort though. When we were at Pop in December they had at least 4 if not 5 buses doing the Epcot loop at park opening. Similar was happening with DHS. I can easily see them taking 2 if not 3 out of each of those loops and that is at Pop alone.

I really do believe the Skyliner will free up buses to ease the load elsewhere while still providing timely service to those who choose the bus over the Skyliner.

 

[Spaceguy55]

Not to go down the math rabbit hole too far but..percentage wise ..6 added to the overall fleet is a very small percentage with not much if any effect, compared to taking 6 from a small fleet for the 3 resorts and a not yet open DVC being a much higher percentage with a noticeable difference.

 

[OSUZorba]

I never thought of these as a replacement for the buses but as a supplement form of transportation that will reduce the unsafe overloading of the buses and to encourage guests to not drive their cars. When these are working the buses will be less crowded and those who would drive instead of getting crammed in a bus..especially at close will consider riding the buses again or try the gondola's.
If they are going to have buses as an option it will have to be as they are now, otherwise guests might be missing FP's and ADR's. It's just unrealistic to expect all guests at the Skyliner resorts to give up what has always been advertised and expected..especially if your a DVC owner at Rivera.
The Rivera is expensive and telling potential buyers you can only ride in a non ac gondola is not an easy selling point to overcome.

As opposed to people at BWV that have to walk on non-AC walkways to the parks or ride in boats with basically no AC while waiting with little shade and no AC.

 

[OSUZorba]

I guess I will bet another Mickey bar that the buses will continue as they are now for the foreseeable future..

I'll take that bet.

 

[Spaceguy55]

This may be the first time ever that some insight on this subject from an actual bus driver could be true

 

[OSUZorba]

If they are still going to offer bus service as reported by WDW Magic..I just don't think that taking 1 or 2 buses out of the rotation here and there is going to save them that much money. They still need to have enough drivers and buses ready for when the weather turns bad without taking them from other resorts and parks. The last thing they want are drivers in a hurry...which from my experience ..they never are

This is how they handle boat resorts now when there is lightning. They pull busses from elsewhere, they don't have busses running to them otherwise.

 

[rteetz]

If they are still going to offer bus service as reported by WDW Magic..I just don't think that taking 1 or 2 buses out of the rotation here and there is going to save them that much money. They still need to have enough drivers and buses ready for when the weather turns bad without taking them from other resorts and parks. The last thing they want are drivers in a hurry...which from my experience ..they never are

Not about saving money really. They would likely still use those buses but elsewhere in places that have high demand.