The Premier Rides Rapid Response Service Team performs inspections on the rides at

The Park at OWA immediately following Hurricane Sally.

Premier Rides, best known for the design and supply of cutting-edge attractions, dispatched their Rapid Response Service Team to provide reopening support to the Park at OWA located in Foley, Alabama following Hurricane Sally.

The area between Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, took the brunt of the category 2 storm with widespread wind damage, storm surge flooding, and over 20 inches (510 mm) of rainfall. Several tornadoes also occurred as well. The Park at OWA contacted Premier Rides after Sally, the first hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Alabama since Ivan in 2004, and a storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 km/h), had finally traveled beyond the park.

Steve Honeycutt, General Manager of the Park at OWA commented. “I appreciate Premier Rides jumping in to help us out during a very difficult situation, and the promptness in which they responded is nothing short of impressive.”

The Premier Service Rapid Response team traveled to the park to perform inspections of all 22 rides and attractions at the park to identity damage sustained from the hurricane, to work with the maintenance team to perform simple repairs and to determine any other necessary repairs to be completed prior to the park’s reopening.

Jim Seay, president of Premier Rides, commented, “Steve Honeycutt is one of the most passionate leaders in the industry so when he calls you jump. Premier has supported Steve with other technical challenges in the past and we appreciate he turned to us again. It is impressive how quickly the team at the Park at OWA reacted following Hurricane Sally. They worked very hard and not only had their hands full taking care of their own facilities, but the park’s parking lot became ground zero for the regional recovery effort with over 1,400 linesmen from all over the Southwest setting up fully operational living quarters. I am honored that Steve called on us again. We are humbled that our reputation for quality and service prompted the call to action.”

The Park at OWA reopened to the public just sixteen days after Hurricane Sally passed. Locals were welcomed to the park for free to in recognition of the difficult recovery and as a way of providing a welcome break from the countless hours everyone had been spending on cleanup efforts.

Seay added, “In these challenging times, Premier Rides recognizes that the ability to pivot and to support our valued clients in different ways is an important facet of our business.  We are pleased to be able to support clients like the Park at OWA.”

Premier Service, a division of Premier Rides, offers the largest after-market service division in the attractions industry, providing spare parts and service to all manufacturers’ rides, not just those supplied by Premier.

ATTRACTIONS / SAFETY / TECHNOLOGY

With attractions and theme parks planning to re-open following COVID-19, the Premier Service division of Premier Rides is working with their clients to provide 24-hour a day support for areas such as ride rehab video link support, real-time service bulletins, and online training conferences.

As theme parks worldwide consider and implement new operating strategies for their facilities to reopen, the Premier Service team is emphasising its tech-savvy approach to customer support, using a wide array of existing and cutting-edge technology platforms.

Premier Rides’ focus on safety and service is why clients rely on Premier Service for support during this reopening phase.  The Premier team has experience with challenging regulatory environments and has even worked with clients to help them open other manufacturer’s rides.

Premier Rides President Jim Seay advises “the focus of our industry has always been one of providing amazing lifetime memories. We have all faced challenges before, and although this season has been delayed, we are seeing parks start to reopen.  Premier Rides is here to help our clients navigate through these uncharted waters as the reopening process begins to emerge.

While the pandemic has closed the doors for many, Premier Rides’ tech-savvy service team is proud to provide support and to be able to continue fabrication of products for valued clients around the world

During the pandemic, Premier Rides has been able to remain open for business and fully operational.   Seay notes “as soon as facilities started shutting down, our clients’ focus shifted rapidly to the service side of business.  And even though the logistics of delivering service has become far more challenging, our team has risen to the occasion and has been both providing global support and expediting shipments of rehab product worldwide.

“Many parks are facing limited time to ramp up for reopening once restrictions are lifted, and many have limited staff to perform all the necessary work related to opening.  That is where the Premier Service team can help.  Whether it be support related to maintenance inspections or providing guidance to socially distance riders on an attraction, the Premier Service staff is working to ensure our clients get in business as quickly and as safely as possible so the focus can return to creating lifelong memories of fun.”

Celebrating 25 years in business this year, Premier Rides has extensive experience not only in the development and delivery of new attractions but also in providing service to clients around the globe.  The majority of the service work performed by Premier Service is on non-Premier attractions.  During the past quarter century, the Premier Service team has worked onsite alongside clients to perform maintenance on all rides and to train park staff.

They have performed ride rehabilitation, safety analyses and modifications, provided spare parts, ride upgrades, and replacement fleets of roller coaster trains.

Seay adds “the attractions industry is a close-knit community, and occasions like this highlight how we support each other and our communities for success.

“Thank you to the global attractions community for coming together…thanks not only the committees in our global and regional associations, but also to the individuals and entities who are working long hours to explore ideas and develop guidelines, technologies, and best practices  that have been shared around the world in an effort to ease the challenges of reopening.  We are in this together.”