International Gateway Expansion

[rteetz]

Yeah I know where it is being constructed (not been drinking around the world today, oh but if only I could ). I was just questioning the pp about where she said there was open space to make the IG bigger. I do see by the picture though that they could actually cover the whole area from the river to the buildings and make the boat landing, security and IG under one big cover.

That is a possibility but there hasn't been any evidence of it yet. You would think if an expansion of that area was happening they would be started or at least starting soon.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Ah I didn't know where the gondola station was going in, haven't been there in a bit.

 

[Tigger's ally]

Ah I didn't know where the gondola station was going in, haven't been there in a bit.

No Problem, I wouldn't know either if I didn't spend half my day looking at pic's on the Aerial pictures thread on this board. I don't recommend it though, you'll get hooked.

 

[Tigger's ally]

That is a possibility but there hasn't been any evidence of it yet. You would think if an expansion of that area was happening they would be started or at least starting soon.

Well, I was thinking more as in covering it like they do the boat wait area, the tapstyle area and the security areas currently. At the IG (and in that pic), I don't know for sure but they look like awnings but might be more substantially built. Wouldn't take too long to do the same over all the area if it was needed.

 

[Lesley Wake]

I wonder if the boats and gondola could really remain within the security perimeter. Gondola stations would be easier, but do they want to have bag checks/metal detectors at every hotel dock around Crescent Lake? I'm even trying to remember, do they keep CMs at every dock at all times, or just when boats are loading/unloading? And then what about people going to DHS, would they have to go thru security again, or would they extend the DHS perimeter out to that dock and gondola station, which would really be difficult with the bus drop off locations?

 

[tjkraz]

alright i did some math... feel free to double check it... cbr, riviera, pop and aoa total to about 7000 rooms (many are suites so u can probably average total occupancy to about 3-4 ppl per room which cld be 21000-30000 more people at the IG

the current ig resorts are just shy of 4000 rooms (yacht, beach, boardwalk, and swan and dolphin)

can IG accomodate close to 3x the guests that it does currently? anyone else have thoughts?

I think your math is a bit off.

Yacht: 630
Beach Club Hotel: 583
Beach Club Villas: 208
Boardwalk Inn: 378
BoardWalk Villas: 383
Swan: 758
Dolphin: 1509
Total: 4449

Taking into account estimates for the number of rooms lost at CBR and how many will be added at Riviera, I'm coming up with about 6600 at AOA + POP + CBR + RIV combined.

Then when we start to factor room occupancy, things get tricky. Most of the Deluxe rooms in the BW area can sleep 5 guests. That includes rooms at Yacht, Beach, Boardwalk and Dolphin. The DVC Villa numbers are expressed in terms of 2 bedroom equivalencies, so that's around 600 rooms which allow up to 9 guests.

On the other side, the AOA suites are capped at 6. The AOA hotel rooms and POP (3800 of the 6600 rooms) are capped at 4. We can only make estimates for Riviera. Disney has said it would have about 300 rooms, but no details on the makeup of those rooms. DVC resorts are often all 2B equivalents, but at Riviera there have been rumors of an unusually high number of studio rooms (4-5 occupants) in that count.

Add it all up and I'd estimate about a 125% increase in traffic. And that assumes guests from the Skyliner resorts visit Epcot as often as guests at Beach/Yacht/BW/Dolphin/Swan. Maybe people staying in the Epcot area already spend a disproportionately high amount of their time at Epcot.

Regardless, figure the IG traffic will a little more than double. But it's also arriving at a slow and steady pace rather than overwhelming masses one normally sees at a theme park gate when a monorail/tram/bus/boat arrives and deposits literally hundreds of guests at once.

There will be more guest traffic in the International Gateway area, but personally I don't think the entry gates will often be overwhelmed. Things may get backed up at times, but I don't think we'll often see lines 40 people deep like a main entrance.

Leaving the park after fireworks will be a different story, but it won't impact guests staying at the Epcot resorts who are leaving on foot.

 

[ParrotBill]

I think there is plenty of room for a brief renovation to double the tapstyles especially assuming security will be pushed back.

 

[llrain]

From our stay at the boardwalk a few weeks ago we had a conversation with the cast member we know, who has worked this entrance for years now (at least 15)so they are pretty trusted. They indicated that the IG as we know it will be completly re-imagined with the gondola system at some point. They said it will be completly unrecognizable as we see it today.

 

[poetz]

I'm not sure putting security at the boat docks would work. It might at YC becuase they have the whole pier out to the lighthouse to work with, though it would look god awful there and really devalue the theming. They could add it at the studios before the dock. But do they have space on the BW dock? I think it would have to be right there where people are walking and shopping and narrow the walkway in front of the dock entrance significantly. And do Swan and Dolphin have a good pace to put it? I think you can enter that dock from two sides.

I think they'd have better luck somehow fencing off the exit of the skyliner to bypass security at IG if they intend to make the gondola secure on the epot line. My guess is that they'll just have security stay on the park side of it, which would definitely call for an expansion or push back of security at IG.

 

[ParrotBill]

Here's why I think security has to push back to the boat docks.
1. Trend to secure transportation
2. IG Security for walk-in has to push back about 50 feet to make a secure lane from the Gondola to the tapstyles. That makes it awkward for boat arrivals. I believe the boat dock will be a secured zone for that reason.
3. The Gondola arrival at Studios is supposed to be secure also. That means security has to be pushed back closer to the buses and likely to make the Studios dock a secure zone.
3. Plenty of room to secure the boat docks at all 3 resorts. It does not need to be any bigger than the small security stations at the monorail resorts. True they have to work out how the exit works at BW since it is the middle lane today, but no reason they cannot make it one side and use two adjacent lanes for the entries.

 

[tobikaye]

I think they will do something like what ParrotBill describes.

My other thought is that the new security features will be part of the area they are building the gondolas. Once they remove some of the fencing, that opens up a lot of space that they could put the security section. Then if they needed, they could expand the tapstyles in the covered section where they currently have security. I could see WDW adding at least a few more tapstyles since they are funneling more guests to that entrance.

 

[SteveDude]

An expansion of sorts could be kind of included with the gondola station construction. The walled off area wouldn't be just the station but would include a queue/exit path, landscaping and, in turn, more of a main pathway to accommodate the higher foot traffic. I'm sure they're planning on adding more security and tapstiles to make up for this.

 

[hertamaniac]

Don't even get me started on that. The Epcot entrance (security and tapstiles) is the worst.

Didn't realize how atrocious it is/was until we left to get the tram. Markings were scarce and felt like I was "swimming upstream" to the incoming guests.