I think the Skyliners are pretty much the only double-loading gondolas in North America. They join Quicksilver Super6 in those “rare credits” category. Of course, what makes them different from Quicksilver is that Quicksilver is only double loading at the bottom and not at the top, whereas the Skyliner lines have double loading at both ends of each route.
Had the privilege of riding the Disney Skyliner(s) this past August. I must say, Very impressive setup and operation. They appeared to run each line near or at full speed, It rarely ever came to a complete stop, had a wicked smooth ride and was open from 7am to 10pm daily. The views from the lift and of the lift around the Caribbean Beach stations are very pretty. Disney did a very nice job on this project.
I think that gondolas would be able to withstand hurricanes better than you might think. Hurricanes have two main dangerous threats. Wind and Flooding. For wind, just park the cabins in the terminals and you should be good. Ski lifts, especially gondolas are designed for high speed winds (for obvious reasons) and as long as there are no cabins on the, the towers should be fine. I am not sure if they built the gondola with the ability to store cabins in the terminals, but they probably did for this exact reason. A modern gondola tower should be able to withstand very strong winds with no cabins on the line. The one threat is flying debris, like trees and stuff, but hopefully that won’t cause too many problems. As for flooding, you just have to hope that the terminals are high enough. Even with abnormally high floods, the most important part of the gondola (the terminals) should be fine. The cabins might sustain some water damage but that is repairable/replaceable. the floods would have to be abnormally high to get to the terminals. just look how high to TIG angle station is:
you could probably park some of the cabins in the TIG angle station and they would not even get touched by the water. As a bonus, here is a lift that got flooded in Europe: (they would have greatly benefitted from parking the chairs at the top terminal)
Lift Blog 
Are you getting mt. Gushmore?
LikeLike
Blizzard Beach is currently closed for refurbishment. The Tampa gondola is also closed so I will have to come back some time.
LikeLike
Doesn’t Lowery Park Zoo also have a skyride?
LikeLike
Negative. http://northwestcoaster.com/project/sky-ride/
Now in Boise, Idaho. https://liftblog.com/sky-ride-western-idaho-fair-idaho/
LikeLike
I think the Skyliners are pretty much the only double-loading gondolas in North America. They join Quicksilver Super6 in those “rare credits” category. Of course, what makes them different from Quicksilver is that Quicksilver is only double loading at the bottom and not at the top, whereas the Skyliner lines have double loading at both ends of each route.
LikeLike
Skyliner is having more growing pains and still managed to surpass 1M passengers already.
https://wdwnt.com/2019/11/disney-skyliner-experiences-additional-downtime-due-to-issues-with-ada-load-station/
LikeLike
here is an old photo of the VonRoll gondola 4
/Users/rfdffpm/Desktop/DSC00089.JPG
LikeLiked by 1 person
Had the privilege of riding the Disney Skyliner(s) this past August. I must say, Very impressive setup and operation. They appeared to run each line near or at full speed, It rarely ever came to a complete stop, had a wicked smooth ride and was open from 7am to 10pm daily. The views from the lift and of the lift around the Caribbean Beach stations are very pretty. Disney did a very nice job on this project.
LikeLike
How do you prepare a gondola for a hurricane?
LikeLike
I think that gondolas would be able to withstand hurricanes better than you might think. Hurricanes have two main dangerous threats. Wind and Flooding. For wind, just park the cabins in the terminals and you should be good. Ski lifts, especially gondolas are designed for high speed winds (for obvious reasons) and as long as there are no cabins on the, the towers should be fine. I am not sure if they built the gondola with the ability to store cabins in the terminals, but they probably did for this exact reason. A modern gondola tower should be able to withstand very strong winds with no cabins on the line. The one threat is flying debris, like trees and stuff, but hopefully that won’t cause too many problems. As for flooding, you just have to hope that the terminals are high enough. Even with abnormally high floods, the most important part of the gondola (the terminals) should be fine. The cabins might sustain some water damage but that is repairable/replaceable. the floods would have to be abnormally high to get to the terminals. just look how high to TIG angle station is:
you could probably park some of the cabins in the TIG angle station and they would not even get touched by the water. As a bonus, here is a lift that got flooded in Europe: (they would have greatly benefitted from parking the chairs at the top terminal)
LikeLiked by 1 person