They said yes last year , but that was never the case in actuality. Not sure this year. 

If they bought KI, they could very well sell KK. KK is a less than ideal situation. They don't own the land, there is a height limit and the scope of what the park will be able to draw compared to KI is limited. 

And, I have heard that if you get the unlimited dining plan for 2027 added to your pass and you currently have a 2026 dining plan, you do not get the two hour interval and unlimited meals during the day until 2027.  However, if you out right purchase a new pass with the unlimited dining for 2027, you can start using that immediately this season. On a family trip this July, we swung by Lost Island, in Waterloo, Iowa on a Saturday.  The park was dead when we were there.  Granted, it was in the mid-90s with high humidity. The park lacked shade, but all of the employees we encountered were extremely friendly.  We had our five kids with us, and the cashier told us to go get a table and sit when they finished making our pizza.  Then they brought the pizza out to our table, complete with paper plates for everyone to eat the pizza.  Upon leaving around 2pm (we drove back home to Cincinnati, after leaving), one of the workers told us as we were leaving "Thanks for coming out today.  We really appreciate you stopping by and enjoying the park today.  We know its hot.  We hope you had a fantastic time."  We felt like all the employees really cared about our experience and valued us being there.  Of all the parks we visited on that trip (Indiana Beach, Six Flags Great America, Mt. Olympus, Mall of America, and Valleyfair), we had the most fun at Lost Island.  We will definitely make a return visit to that park in the coming years.  Excited to see what else they have in store for that park. As for Six Flags, I am encouraged by the direction that they are going.  However, the lack of open drink stands, being out of ice, etc. is certainly a big concern.  As is running rides like Cargo Loco with only one operator on a Thursday evening.  It takes forever for one operator to unload all of the cars.  I am encouraged by the comments that John Reilly made about wanting all the rides to be available for guests.  (It seemed like the last several years they started not having as big of an inventory of spare parts, so when something broke, there was a lengthy downtime while waiting for the replacement part to come in.  Hopefully that is fixed now).  And I am encouraged by the fact that several parks, including KI have park presidents again.  My hope is that Kings Island continues to see some kind of investment in new capital in the coming years.  The Vortex plot badly needs something.  And I still think a flat ride package like Carowinds got with Aeronautica Landing several years back would do wonders for KI.  Will that ever happen?  Who knows.  I hope KI gets something in the next couple of years.  But the debt level of SF is unsustainable at current levels.  Their main focus is on deleveraging. If KI somehow ended up in the hands of Herschend, I would be thrilled.  They do own Newport Aquarium.  But as others have said, I wonder if they are stretched too thin with their recent purchase of the Palace Entertainment parks.  I often wonder if they will try and sell some of those off to someone else (Enchanted perhaps?) to focus on the more strategic parks.  They seem to be on the right track with Kentucky Kingdom.  But with them owning KK, I don`t know if they would ever be interested in owning KI.

It's not supposed to, but I've already seen complaints that the cashier is able to ring them up on the "wrong" dining plan and use one of their 20 or 30 meals instead of their 2026 dining plan.

Correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that those who had a 2026 meal plan and renew for 2027 with a non-unlimited meal plan are already "on the clock" for their 2027 meal count. That is, any meal they eat in 2026 after renewing counts against their total number of meals for next year. If true, THAT is without a doubt the biggest issue. Renewing your pass causes you to forfeit meals you already paid for. Totally asinine and dishonest.