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

I'm kind of wondering how they're gonna get 3,000 people an hour thru.

Looking at YouTubes of the Medellin and Mexicable gondolas, the cabins run about 15-20 seconds apart. At 8 passengers per cabin, that's only 1,920 per hour. There's maybe 5 feet between the cabins when they go thru the stations, but I think they need to keep most of that for safety. Running them faster thru the stations would increase thruput, but also be less safe.

Even 1,920/hr is a full bus every 3 minutes, so I think the capacity will be fine, but the 3,000/hr estimate seems high, let alone 5,000/hr. Maybe those numbers were based on Doppelmayr's 15-passenger cabins.

Let's look at this from a transportation perspective. Each resort sees a bus to either park come every 15-20 minutes, correct? So 3-4 buses an hour for one resort to each park. There are three established resorts and a fourth coming online, so we're talking about replacing 12-16 buses an hour. At your estimate of a full busload every 3 minutes, this would meet current bus capacity after 48 minutes and still have 3 additional buses worth before the hour is up. Any capacity improvement would be in excess of current standards (and the only two logical reasons I can see them pushing for significantly higher is if they decide that Skyliner will be the primary mode of transport for park hopping DHS <-> Epcot and/or reducing boat service for the IG resorts).
 
I'm kind of wondering how they're gonna get 3,000 people an hour thru.

Looking at YouTubes of the Medellin and Mexicable gondolas, the cabins run about 15-20 seconds apart. At 8 passengers per cabin, that's only 1,920 per hour. There's maybe 5 feet between the cabins when they go thru the stations, but I think they need to keep most of that for safety. Running them faster thru the stations would increase thruput, but also be less safe.

Even 1,920/hr is a full bus every 3 minutes, so I think the capacity will be fine, but the 3,000/hr estimate seems high, let alone 5,000/hr. Maybe those numbers were based on Doppelmayr's 15-passenger cabins.
1,920 per direction so 3,840 both directions combined?
 
what do you guys think is a reasonable guess at how much pop will increase per night because of this?
 


what do you guys think is a reasonable guess at how much pop will increase per night because of this?

they will probably spin it so that on average or the "starting from" rate isn't that much higher than now ... but I bet during Food & Wine it is up quite a bit

So I'd say it will move to like $5-$10 more a night but in peak season it could be like $30 more a night
 
what do you guys think is a reasonable guess at how much pop will increase per night because of this?

I actually don't think it will be a lot - probably about $10 a room. @TheMaxRebo is probably right it might be more target directed where it rises more at certain times of year - but I am not sure it will be that big a difference. I think for that resort - it's more about them saving on buses. Pop and AoA uses a ton of buses, and now you can funnel half the people through this new system. Remember, it's still a two stop process for Pop and AoA visitors, so won't be as appealing as CBR and Riviera.
 
I actually don't think it will be a lot - probably about $10 a room. @TheMaxRebo is probably right it might be more target directed where it rises more at certain times of year - but I am not sure it will be that big a difference. I think for that resort - it's more about them saving on buses. Pop and AoA uses a ton of buses, and now you can funnel half the people through this new system. Remember, it's still a two stop process for Pop and AoA visitors, so won't be as appealing as CBR and Riviera.

I think it is about being able to charge more as well, just doesn't mean it will be like $50 more a night. But I do think they will market this and AoA as "Gondola resorts" and thus worth more

Even if $10/night more - there are 2,880 rooms at Pop ... if they run at 85% occupancy rate (which is lower than all of WDW runs at I believe), that would be $10*0.8*2880*365 = $8.4m
 


I think it is about being able to charge more as well, just doesn't mean it will be like $50 more a night. But I do think they will market this and AoA as "Gondola resorts" and thus worth more

Even if $10/night more - there are 2,880 rooms at Pop ... if they run at 85% occupancy rate (which is lower than all of WDW runs at I believe), that would be $10*0.8*2880*365 = $8.4m

Right - that's why I said $10. Disney runs about 90-92% occupancy, and the values / mods tend to run higher than the Deluxes which I think usually run in the 80-90% range. (Some like Wilderness Lodge and Poly were running in the 70-80% range, thus converting a % of rooms to DVC.)
 
they will probably spin it so that on average or the "starting from" rate isn't that much higher than now ... but I bet during Food & Wine it is up quite a bit

So I'd say it will move to like $5-$10 more a night but in peak season it could be like $30 more a night

I actually don't think it will be a lot - probably about $10 a room. @TheMaxRebo is probably right it might be more target directed where it rises more at certain times of year - but I am not sure it will be that big a difference. I think for that resort - it's more about them saving on buses. Pop and AoA uses a ton of buses, and now you can funnel half the people through this new system. Remember, it's still a two stop process for Pop and AoA visitors, so won't be as appealing as CBR and Riviera.

Bahahaha. I think you guys are dreaming and/or are setting aside (cause I know you are aware) disneys entire business model the last few years: increased profits off increased prices.

Those rooms are going up $50 a night easy.

They aren't renoing and putting in gondola access for $10 a night.
 
Bahahaha. I think you guys are dreaming and/or are setting aside (cause I know you are aware) disneys entire business model the last few years: increased profits off increased prices.

Those rooms are going up $50 a night easy.

They aren't renoing and putting in gondola access for $10 a night.
They won't go up $50 overnight. It will be a progressive increase. So maybe once open we see an increase of $10 a night. Then months to a year later it goes up again, and so on. They won't go from charging $120 a night to $170+ right off the bat.
 
Bahahaha. I think you guys are dreaming and/or are setting aside (cause I know you are aware) disneys entire business model the last few years: increased profits off increased prices.

Those rooms are going up $50 a night easy.

They aren't renoing and putting in gondola access for $10 a night.


Pop Standard Room, Rack Rate
February 2019: $160
July 2019 (after gondola opens): $165

Not $50...not even $10
 
I'm curious how much time it will take to get from the resorts to the parks via the gondolas? Anyone read that anywhere?

upload_2018-8-18_15-8-29.png
Longest trip, from Pop/AoA to Epcot, is 2.2 mi. I think 12mph is a reasonable estimate for online speed, which gives a trip time of 11 minutes. That's only the time spent traveling while on the cable.

The cabins move at much lower speed when they come off the cable to pass thru the stations, so I would add up to 10 minutes (purely a guess) for time thru the stations and the transfer at CBR. From Pop to Epcot, you'd be passing thru 4 stations including the transfer, plus the turn at BW where the cabins will probably slow down but not as much as at a full-blown station.

ETA: In Medellin, the cabins pass thru an intermediate station in about 1.25 minutes. In the example above, you'd actually be passing completely thru 2 stations, and just the departure or arrival part of the other 2, so I think my estimate is realistic.
 
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