ORLANDO, Fla. — With properties across the country, if not the globe, having made the hypercoaster a commonplace theme park staple, it is rather surprising that the vacation Mecca of Orlando, or even Central Florida, has somehow missed out on that component over the past quarter century. But, no more.

SeaWorld Orlando has just recently introduced Mako, a 200-foot coaster that breaks through all sorts of records for the tourist destination. A hypercoaster is typically known for numerous drops without any type of inversions. Although the region is known for a complement of outstanding coasters, many of which are manufactured by the Swiss firm of Bolliger and Mabillard (B&M), it is not until the release of Mako that park goers in Orlando can now enjoy this missing ingredient of the theme park spectrum.

Along with sister park Busch Gardens Tampa just over an hour away and Universal Studios down the street, the B&M catalog is highly represented: multi-looping, dive machine, inverted, floorless, flying — those are all accounted for. Now, with two to three years in development, a hypercoaster can be added to the list.

“Our relationship with B&M goes back to the early 90s (with Busch Gardens Tampa),” said Mike Denninger, vice president of theme park development and design. “This is our 10th B&M coaster in our system of parks. We’re very familiar with B&M and we love B&M. When we set out to do this project, we knew we had several products of theirs in our parks, so we saw how Apollo’s Chariot (Busch Gardens Williamsburg) was a fan favorite. We needed to do something like this in this market.”

Mako is the third B&M coaster in the SeaWorld Orlando park, following Kraken (floorless) and Manta (flying).

— Tim Baldwin

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