Amusement Park News

Dutch ride manufacturer Vekoma Rides has opened a new office in Orlando as part of its plans to continue expanding in the U.S. The company has made over 100 coasters in the U.S. alone.

Vekoma began back in 1929, producing farm equipment before moving to the manufacture of steel products for a wide range of industries before switching its focus to amusement rides in the 1970s. It grew an increased concentration in the North American market by 2019.

The company's VP of sales and marketing, Americas, Ricardo Etges, the company's first employee based in Orlando, relates that the new expanded office is “a result of our growth in the market and a testament to our solid plans to increase our presence and our support to local customers in the Americas market.”

Vekoma Rides CEO says Anne-Mart Agerbeek adds that the company has a “clear customer-centric mentality” and that means having an Orlando team to support their market is something crucial serving area theme parks.

The company is known globally for its innovative development and manufacture of roller coasters and other rides, including recent installations of the Good Gravy! family coaster at Holiday World, Big Bear Mountain at Dollywood, TRON Lightcycle Run at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, the family focused Snoopy's Soap Box Racers at Kings Island, and The Flash: Vertical Velocity at Six Flags Great Adventure. The latter debuted in March, the first “super boomerang” coaster in the U.S.

Close to its new Orlando home at Disney World, Vekoma also built Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Epcot's Guardians of the Galaxy indoor coaster, and Animal Kingdom's Expedition Everest, along with Flight of the Hippogriff at Universal. There are several new projects in the pipeline for the company in the region in the next few years. Among them is Siren's Curse, a tilt coaster currently under construction for Cedar Point in Ohio.

According to Etges, the ride is a “a traditional lift-hill coaster with the seesaw element on top.” He explains that “The train parks in the horizontal position, and there is a track section that goes from horizontal to vertical, like a seesaw.” Only once the track reaches the vertical position does it release a train, adding to guest thrills.

 

Scheduled to open this summer, the ride's theming is based on “the legend and lore of mysterious creatures living beneath the surface of Lake Erie comes to life…the sirens of the lake, who lured sailors to their underwater den” per Cedar Fair's press release on the project. The ride will be the tallest, fastest, and longest tilt coaster in North America. It will run a full two minutes and reaches a height of 160-feet, soaring on 2,966-feet of track, and speeding up to reach a top speed of 58 miles-per-hour. The ride will be located near the park's marina, across from the Iron Dragon coaster. As the train ascends, the ride's soundtrack will offer up the haunting musical sounds of the sirens themselves.

The ambitious project features a dead-stop on a section of track that appears to be broken off, as the platform that holds the train tilts into a 90-degree vertical position. Designed for riders a minimum of 48-inches tall, the wild attraction includes three weightless airtime moments, two 360-degree, zero-gravity barrel rolls, and a high-speed “triple-down” element on a twisted and overbanked track. The ride's trains offer an over-the-shoulder lap bar with a flexible vest restraint, and feature two “firsts” for the Ohio park. These are onboard audio to surround riders with the sirens' songs, and LED lighting on the car exterior, designed to imitate the motion and nature of the sirens themselves.

Vekoma has other projects ahead as well, but they are currently under wraps, with Etges pointing out that the park involved needs to announce the rides before Vekoma can discuss them. However, he stresses that “at IAAPA this year, we're going to have some surprises.”

Vekoma and the Orlando Economic Partnership (OEP) worked together on the location of the office. OEP president and CEO Tim Giuliani, relates that “Vekoma's decision to relocate in Orlando underscores the region's global reputation as a hub for the attractions and tourism industry — not just for destination experiences, but for the companies that power them behind the scenes.”

Etges notes that “The theme park industry is the main engine and the main driver of the economy in Central Florida,” adding that Orlando is “the place to be for theme parks” as well as “the whole supply chain behind the theme parks...” With a goal of building a long-term market presence, he adds that Vekoma will “need more resources and more parts and more people to service those growing number of rides.”

While the company did not receive any financial or tax incentives for its presence in Orlando, Etges says “We needed more space to accommodate our increasing number of team members, as well as to create room for further growth of the local group…We basically have an extension of our engineering department in the Netherlands.”

Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer asserts that “Orlando continues to be the place where companies like Vekoma choose to grow and thrive,” saying that the city looks forward to supporting the continued success of the company.