So I was surprised to learn there is an indoor roller coaster in a theme park inside a mall in Ukraine. This isn’t just any roller coaster though, but a Vekoma suspended family coaster called “Suspended Family Coaster – MK900” located at Galaxy Family Amusement Park in the Lavina Mall in Kyiv, Ukraine. It’s not the most creative roller coaster name, but it is the first indoor suspended roller coaster I’m aware of anywhere. The ride also appears to be operating daily which says something given the war going on in Ukraine!

The ride itself appears to be a standard Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster 400 model and is even listed as such on the Vekoma website as part of that model’s installed base. It opened in 2016 and is 395 m (1,296 ft) in length with a 19 m (64 ft) height and a max speed of 50 km/hr (34 mph). Freedom Flyer at Fun Spot America Orlando is also listed on the Vekoma site as the exact same model. Having ridden Freedom Flyer and other Vekoma suspended family coasters I can say that they’re a bunch of fun for what they are even without the huge drops or inversions you find on regular suspended coasters.

“Spinning Family Coaster” is the centerpiece of the park and the Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster 400 website touts that the design allows for foot traffic under 80% of the attraction. This can make for great views and good use of space in a small indoor environment. It’s footprint of 90 m x 50 m (think slightly smaller than a football field) isn’t small, so being able to use space underneath it is a huge benefit. The park appears to charge on a per ride basis. The charge for Suspended Family Coaster is listed as 205 UAH which converts to about $5 making it the most expensive ride in the park.

The rest of the park is pretty amazing too in that there is a great collection of rides including a Zamperla Disc-O, pirate ship, 4D theater and many more. There’s also a second roller coaster which is called “creatively” Compact Spinning Coaster which appears to be an SBF-Visa Spinning Coaster. In what might be the most unique feature of the park, you can hire a “nanny” to watch your kids for an hour while you shop at the adjacent mall. The price for nanny service is wild at only $5/hour for weekdays and $10/hour for weekends and holidays!

A suspended Vekoma is pretty common, but an indoor Vekoma is still quite rare. However, they got a lot of press recently as Disney announced the “door coaster” which appears to be a Vekoma Family suspended coaster themed to Monsters Inc. for Disney Studios. There are a handful of indoor suspended coasters out there currently with most being in China. They include “Reversed City” at Wushang Dream Park in Wuhan, China (yes that Wuhan) by Jinma Rides, “Laoshan Flying Dragon” at Qingdao Sunac Land, by Jinma Rides “Fast and Furry-ous” at Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi by Intamin and a funky powered coaster with water blasters called “AirSea Battle” also at Qingdao Sunac Land. Of these the gem seems to be “Reversed City” that combines launches, spinning cars (somewhat similar to “Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts”), sounds, screens and dark ride elements in a pretty amazing package you can see in this video.

The park is pretty active on social media, especially Instagram, and they post a fair amount of video and pictures of all the rides. The website has HUNDREDS of pictures and even a presentation about all their rides. According to the presentation they’re seeing over 1,000,000 guests a year! I’m guessing most people won’t be vacationing to Ukraine anytime soon, so viewing the park virtually like this may be the best way to experience “Suspended Family Coaster” for a while. Alternatively, you could just ride Freedom Flyer at Fun Spot Orlando too and have an identical experience on a 70 degree spring day. I’m thrilled this park is still operating today, nearly 3 years into a war, for the local population to enjoy and hopefully a time will come soon when even more people can enjoy it.