Rumour: Ropeway Coming to Walt Disney World?

They need to have one at Disneyland. They could have it go from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland. Maybe they could put some holes in the Matterhorn for it to go though.

 

Hmm. Disney (and the San Diego Zoo, and the Palm Springs Aerial Tram, and probably a few others) have always used Von Roll equipment.

 

This has been a pie in the sky (no pun intended) rumor for many months now, but I've been following it pretty closely since the details started coming out earlier this week. To me, it makes a lot of sense and is a good solution to WDW's mostly-mundane transportation network. Although there are obvious drawbacks to route layout, it's a far cheaper solution than almost anything else, including dedicated bus infrastructure. Gondolas can easily move more than 2,000 people per hour in each direction, which would require dozens of buses for the equivalent capacity

Arlington County just turned down a proposal for a gondola to Georgetown in Washington DC over the weekend, so I'm surprisingly well-versed in urban gondolas at the moment. The main reasons that proposal was turned down were the lack of connectivity to the existing transit network and the novelty factor that leads to the appearance of wasted taxpayer money. In WDW, the network is a series of point-to-point lines without needing connections, and the novelty is an added bonus. It seems like a great fit

As for manufacturers, the most common at US ski resorts are Doppelmayr and Poma, so I would expect one of those would be used here

 

Think of all the poor alligators watching their food fly by out of reach.

 

Hmm. Von Roll sold their aerial ropeway business to Doppelmayr over 2 decades ago. Shows you how much attention I'm paying to these things.

 

While not a complete shock, this certainly wasn't the announcement I was expecting to hear today:
More Guest Experiences and Dining Options Coming to Disney’s Coronado Springs and Caribbean Beach Resorts

They've confirmed that there is some ambiguous work going on at Caribbean Beach, but the majority of the information is about the new tower at Coronado Springs. The artwork looks nice but doesn't seem to have any relation to the existing theme at the hotel; considering the massive size of the tower, I'm surprised that they didn't seem to take any inspiration from the Mexican/southwest theme. Given the height, it will be one of the tallest structures on property, and will surely have fireworks views from the restaurant on top

There have been rumors of Coronado Springs moving more toward the Deluxe category, and this certainly seems to confirm that. I've also heard they're trying to move more conventions there and away from the park-adjacent hotels, so this should be a nice selling point for those visitors

 

I've been thinking about it, and the nicest thing I can say about this concept art is that the palm trees are great. The way they're painted, they look like something straight out of a Herb Ryman concept painting for EPCOT Center. It's a far cry from some of the terrible renderings we've seen in recent years (MK's Fantasyland expansion was the bottom of the barrel, IMO)


As to the rest of it, the more I think about it/look at it, the worse it is. This is essentially a plain old hotel tower that you could find at any interstate exit in the country, with a few arched windows and a couple decorations pasted on the middle section. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Coronado Springs theme, and pulls nothing from the context around it. It's just bad design.

 

Agreed. Reminds me of the hotels in the Disney hotel plaza that have been there since practically Day One.

Boring

 

I like the new red/sliver Disney Transport color scheme that they've been slowly introducing for a couple years, however I agree that the buses themselves look pretty plain and many are quite dated. On the bright side, it's a sign of good maintenance that they can last so long (properly maintained buses can last for decades), but I agree that they don't seem terribly special either (and adding flashing lights and loud noises inside isn't the answer either)

From what I saw in Europe, a lot of the buses were designed to accommodate larger numbers of passengers on smaller roads than US buses. WDW doesn't need to worry about the smaller roads like in Europe, but the high-capacity designs could certainly be beneficial; I know the Values often run articulated buses to MK. European buses also tended to have lower floors, which would make for quicker loading and unloading for guests with mobility impairments, which is a frequent cause of bus delays in WDW

 

Glad the hear the gondolas are a definite. I always thought there should be a walkway or moving sidewalk between the Pops and Hollywood Studios. They are just across the road from each other. Gondolas are a great idea for short hops. Ultimately this is just linking two WDW resorts to two parks. And WDW needs more gondolas particularly on the south west side linking All Stars and Coronado Springs to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. My other thought is that bus traffic between the largest resorts; Pops, Art and All Stars has gotten toxic. Road closures due to the frequent WDW road races has taken its toll. And the surge at park closures.

 

I agree that the All Stars area can get very congested at times. Having a single guard booth for the only road to 6,000-ish hotel rooms simply isn't adequate when everybody has to stop and show ID or scan their Magic Band. Although the low cost of the rooms probably discourages Disney from doing extra transportation there, the high volume of traffic should be reason enough

And although I've gotten stuck in race traffic myself, they're just not common enough to justify permanent infrastructure changes. There are only 7 days (spaced on 4 weekends) of the year that require race-related road closures, and they schedule the events early enough that most roads reopen by 9am or so. Yes, it can be kind of terrible if you're trying to take a bad route at a bad time (say, the Contemporary to Shades of Green at 6am during a half/full marathon), but considering the size of the events, they do a good job of minimizing the impacts to non-runners

 

Agreed that on weekends the roads in and around WDW are going to see more traffic than weekdays. Obviously, road congestion has to be toxic enough for Disney to consider installing an independent transportation system just between two resorts and two parks. In terms of the marathons, the full marathons shut down roads till 11 AM. But, I have to admit. I have not been to WDW lately. And for all I know all marathons are happening at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. I really don't view the gondolas as a permanent structure. In my opinion, if Disney needs them moved at a later date. It would be very easy to do. Far less expensive than monorail or road/bridge construction.

 

I don't love the character designs (especially the hitchhiking ghosts, since this won't service MK), but those would be easy to change. It will be interesting to see how this changes other transportation in that part of WDW, and how much the hotel prices increase as a result

 

Last week Disney released renderings for 3 of the stations. The central station at Caribbean Beach looks pretty nice, but the ones at the parks don't do much for me. They just look like standard designs that you'd find at any ski resort, with some minor changes painted on the sides; definitely a big downgrade from WDW's usual transportation designs, which tend to be simple but still well themed
https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...of-the-disney-skyliner-transportation-system/

And based on the shape of those standard stations, it would seem to confirm they're using Doppelmayr equipment, whether that's been officially acknowledged or not