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i did a quick search and found topics about the latest major monorail accident ('09) and didn't see anything after a quick skim through that topic. anywho, would someone please tell me the age of the current fleet of monorails at the walt disney world resort? also, how many fleets of monorails has walt disney world had since it opened? oh, and just as a side note, it's been reported that the walt disney world resort is currently in the testing stages with monorail peach, the two damaged halves salvaged from the monorail accident in 2009.

But from a corporate viewpoint, they can't be doing too well if their hours have been severely cut back just to afford them that many more hours of maintenance each night, right? At Disneyland, the longest a fleet ever went without complete replacement was 1987 - 2008, or about 21 years (which is about where Disney World is right now, 1989 - present). I also think there's a big difference since Disneyland's is basically an "attraction" that was later expanded to stop at the still-not-very-far-away Disneyland Hotel, so taking a day off isn't really a big deal. But Disney World's is really quite integral to the resort's operation - if the monorail fails, then every single guest who wants to get in or out of The Magic Kingdom must go by ferry. That's a lot of ferries! Also, it allows guests to unite at the Transportation and Ticket Center and switch very easily between Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Without the monorail, it's all up to the busses (which people have noted, are feeling the sting of higher gas prices). I think that the excessive downtime really shows that Disney World's fleet will need replaced sooner rather than later, and as Screamscape noted, an order would need to be placed a few years ahead of time, so that even if an entirely new fleet were ordered today, it probably wouldn't be in full public operation for a good while, right? So with that in mind, I hope they have some backup plans... There's 1980s technology powering a multi-billion-dollar resort's transportation system. Weird.

For a couple weeks at Christmas time I wish they'd open the shops, Starbucks, and maybe fire up the "Starlight" lights at night...no big deal, just have International Street open. They could charge $5 to park, sell pics with Santa, etc. to help make it profitable.