- Buses at WDW travel up to 50 mph, and sometimes have to make sudden maneuvers to avoid other traffic, or stop quickly if the driver doesn't anticipate a red light. Gondola lifts at WDW will max out at 11.2 mph, and have no interfering traffic.
- Tie-downs on buses are required by FDOT regulations; there's no such requirement on gondola lifts.
- I don't know how quickly the gondolas will decelerate for an emergency stop, but consider the physics:
- When a bus stops, all of the inertial force on the riders is directed forwards.
- When a gondola stops or decelerates, the gondola will swing forward and tilt, causing the inertial force to be at an angle partially towards the floor, or downward from the rider's perspective.
The vendor, Doppelmayr, says the seat width is
460 mm per person, which is 18.11". Economy seat width on almost all airlines is
17"-18".
This is not the actual Disney Skyliner Gondola, but similar in size with photos of three guests on the left and two guests on the right with what appears to one guest taking the selfie. It looks like the photo is taken of the sliding doors in the background. And everyone seems to lean toward the center of a photo since one guest's head is passed one the sliding glass doors.
I am not saying this is what guest would look like in the Disney Skyliner Gondola, but it is just a suggestion of what it may look like.
This is an actual photo of the Disney Skyliner Gondola looking from the sliding glass doors. I like the extra expense on the wooden benches. It reminds of the decades ago when they used to have resting and people watching all over Magic Kingdom park.
They could have used these cheaper aluminum benches that appear to be the same gondola by the same manufacturer shown by BlogMickey at a convention show floor. I think that I would rather sit on wood than metal.
It looks like they added a lot more to the design of the Disney Skyliner Gondola.
Since I learned to "snip" photos from a video. I took these photos for the first post video.
The measurements for height show 2,220 mm = 87.4 inches or 7.2 feet.
I'm not sure what the two lengths mean. Maybe one is an interior length and the added length might be the total outside length.
I don't know.
The measurements for length show 2,256 mm = 87.4 inches or 7.2 feet.
The measurements for length show 2,256 mm + 220 mm = 2,476 mm
The measurements for length show 2,476mm = 97.4 inches or 8.1 feet.
The measurements for entrance show 80 mm = 31.4 inches or 2.6 feet.
I don't know if this is also the exact measurement of the Disney Skyliner Gondola.
Another photo of the entrance measurement between the Disney Skyliner Gondola sliding doors open.
The measurements for entrance show 800 mm = 31.4 inches or 2.6 feet.
These are two photos of one video scanning across the bench showing their estimate of seat width. The white lines are showing their estimate of seat width.
There were a total of four spaces in the video. They estimate a 460 mm width per seat.
The measurements for one seat area show 460 mm = 18.1 inches or 1.5 feet.
So the whole bench is 6 feet long.
I repeat that I don't know if this will be the same measurements as the Disney Skyliner Gondola as this is a similar gondola made by Doppelmayr.
I am getting excited about seeing them in action when I visit in a few weeks.
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