Sorry to disappoint, but I'll happily eat my words if I'm wrong.  (I really want them too, in either variation.)

I'll bring the ketchup.  ha ha!   


Oh I hope it's real, but we'll see.  I'll believe it when I see it Monday or Tuesday.   

What theme parks use ski lifts? I want gondolas!!

While I totally agree that gondolas would be awesome, Kennywood has the ski lift style cars.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kennywood_2006.jpg

And a hopeful thing is that if Frontier really pulled off a chairlift (regardless of what the devs made it do in the station) it gives us hope that a gondola ride will come eventually. 

Seeing these pictures is like finding our mailboxes stuffed with Holiday cards almost every day. Thank you, JP.

Alright, if we are going into lift specifics then tag me in.

*Warning* This post contains information that most will find useless and boring. If you just want to get to the point then skip to the end.

First, there is no difference between a "ski lift" and a chairlift. They are one in the same and is just a personal choice in what you want to call it. If you want to get technical then aerial lift or passenger rope way is the way to go but we'll just go with lift. (Note that gondolas are also covered under this.) It's ANSI standard B77.1 if you want to dig in more.

So in parks the lifts we typically find are chairlifts or gondolas. The majority of chairlifts do not require a stop and usually run at extremely low speeds in parks due to the fact you are walking on and off. Also, the chairs do not detach from the haul rope so stops would stop the whole thing. The technical term is called fixed grip, which are still very common and built Some parks that have chair style lifts are Lagoon, Hersheypark, Great Escape, and Knobels. It appears from the leaked pics that it is a chairlift.

However when you think lifts at a park you are most likely thinking of "sky rides". (Despite their numbers which are really quite low.) These rides were built in huge numbers by Von Roll. These lifts were some of the first detachable lifts in the world. (Where the carrier is physically detached from the haul rope when in terminals.) Unlike today's detachable lifts which you find at ski areas, these lifts never had propulsion around the terminals. Rather people had/have the dubious task of pushing the cabins around the terminal. Therefore these lifts do indeed stop but only for that reason. Today there are only 10 in the world with much probably thinking about Cedar Point's. What we have seen in the pics is not this.

So in conclusion yes, lifts at the majority of parks stay in motion. The only exception is a few older gondola sky rides from Von Roll. Obviously what we have seen is a chair lift but it will probably stop knowing the game.