Originally Posted By dshyates There have been several comments recently about the old skyway and it reminded me of an idea I had several years ago. What do you guys think about the idea of a modern gondola like this one: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/55dl3y" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/55dl3y</a> at DAK? It would be air conditioned/heated. There would be a onboard sound system playing african/asian background music with a narrator explaining, "As we cross into Asia you can see the peaks of Mt. Everest. It is the tallest....""We are landing in Camp M-M. Be sure to catch the Festival of th Lion King. Where Simba, Timon and our flatulant friend (bwhaaaaa) Pumbaa...". Some cool interior lighting. The windows wouldn't open, so there wouldn't be the problems of the old skyway. I was thinking it could run in a big square with 4 stations. One each in Camp M-M, Dino, Asia, Africa. The key is, keep it, for the most part, in the canopy of the trees. I wouldn't be anywhere near the safari ride. So it wouldn't get in the way. I think the park could use it as an air conditioned transportation system. It screams Disney in the old skyway tradition, and it could be tricked out with led strip lights and such inside to be modern cool and yet on the outside run silently overhead and blend in by being dark forest green and silently overhead in the canopy of the trees. What do you guys think.
Originally Posted By Mr X I think it would be very cool, but EXTREMELY difficult to make unobtrusive enough. With the exception of (yuck) Chester and Hester I love the fact that Animal Kingdom mostly looks very remote and isolated. I think a skyway would kinda kill that vibe, though it IS possible if they do it very carefully I guess. I'm just waiting for them to clone some dinosaurs for the park. Now THAT'D be cool.
Originally Posted By dshyates I think the hardest stretch to hide it would be from the Nemo theater to the Asian area. You pretty much can't block the view on either side of that bridge. So either you put it pretty high right above the bridge or you put a very short tower on Discovery Island on the Asain side and bring it low over to the west side of the asain land.
Originally Posted By dshyates Also I think the place it would be ok to see it is the stretch between Camp M-M and Dino. It would bring it over the plaza behind the entrance gates. It would be quiet and give the area a mild kenetic energy that lets you know its a theme park. Or you could bring it over the Rainforest and actually have it cross over outside the gates. Right where the big red "ENTRANCE" tag is in this link. <a href="http://www.wdwinfo.com/maps/AK.htm" target="_blank">http://www.wdwinfo.com/maps/AK.htm</a>
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Basically what you are proposing is a train around the park, except this is up in the air, and air-conditioned. To be honest, I'm not fond of the idea. The cabins would completely clash with the overall look of the park, even if they were painted green. In my mind it screams "Busch Gardens." The only part I do like is the idea of providing a place to cool off; DAK is a hot park, with precious few places to escape the heat.
Originally Posted By Mr X I'd say it doesn't *have* to scream "Busch Gardens", if it was done in a subtle yet incredibly cool "disney" way. I also don't agree that the "only" plus is a place to cool off (though I agree that DAK is a hot park and a cool zone would be nice). Another plus would be to save peoples feet, obviously. It's a HUGE park. Another plus would be to be able to see some of the habitats from above (a HUGE plus in my book). The real trick, and obviously this is tricky, is how could you make the thing unobtrusive and YET make it something that affords good views. If you could figure all that out, you'd have yourself a first class attraction.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss I see your point about seeing the park from above, but as you say, it would be incredibly tricky to make it unobtrusive... that's why I think it would be too much like Busch Gardens; I don't think it could be done. What fits the spirit of the park would be hot air balloons. But obviously that would be totally impractical capacity-wise, and would not offer the benefits of transportation or a cool place to sit and ride.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Okay, I take back what I just wrote. I think it could be done of the system were routed in such a way that it offered views of the park, but could not be seen by guests within the park. Not sure how much of an overhead view it would provide though, because if it's using trees to camofulage the system, those same trees are going to prevent a lot of the views.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I'm not sure if I really like it or not, but I do think that it could be done to have good views and not obstruct views. It sounds a lot like the gondolas they have (had??) at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The entire park is deep within the forest, so all the coasters and other attractions weave through the trees. All you really see of the gondolas is the stations and the place where they cross the river about 100 feet above it. It runs through the trees which hide it, and make it really interesting, since you're so close to things. Then, everything drops out, and you're flying over the water for a couple seconds. The part where they can be seen doesn't really hurt the beauty any, since they just glide along above what you look at. While I'm not entirely sure if it's the right thing to add to DAK, I do think that the views can be worked out.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh I'd rather see them bring back the boats, but spread the docks apart. Say one in Camp MM and one near the Theater of the Wild.
Originally Posted By dshyates The reason why I though of this is when I was visiting the park with my folks that are in their 70s. That is when you begin to realize how big the place is and that there is no transportation system. It is very similar to both a train around the park except much quieter and Busch Gardens Europes skyway in that it is a curcuit tranportation between lands. And I did think of BGE when talking about how to hide it. The big dif would be that the gondola cars would be SOOOOO much nicer. Glass enclosed AC/heat, sound system, and cool interior lighting. Like the Mark VII of gondolas. Start with gondola cars similar to these. They rotate. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/43htj8" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/43htj8</a>.
Originally Posted By dshyates This may be better link to the above picture <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3gaene" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/3gaene</a>
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn I always thought about making a skyway sort of like the original MK one, but themed to a Tarzan concept. Guests would "swing" from tree to tree (pylon to pylon) across the DAK. Each pylon would be themes like jungle trees, some populated with real primates, others with tropical bird, etc.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn Could even have a Tarzan themed ride much like the Pteronodon Flyers at Islands of Adventure.
Originally Posted By barboy The sky tram would be a great idea. BUT, it needs to be about the same height as Universal's "Pterodactyl Flyers" in IOA. but with a 20 times longer track and with a huge capacity. If it were too high up one will start to notice imperfections and distractions like the parking lot and "back stage" stuff also the ride could distract non riders as well who are walking around the park. Yes, you got my full thumbs up.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 My stomach just did flip-flops just thinking about swinging gondolas. I won't be getting an FP for them!! Ah, but the boats, now they were nice & relaxing
