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If we can't get an RMC any other way, then I want it for KI. Maybe that's me being selfish for our park.

Don, I have a ton of respect for you and generally agree with your statements. That being said, why is it bad to get enthusiasts talking about an overall positive purchase? Didn’t you know “what was in the shed” for a year and had park fans talk about it? What is the difference here? It’s fair to be harsh on SF when it is warranted but this does not seem like one of those situations. Would you rather these forums just be silent? Isn’t that the whole point of this website? When people are unjustly harsh it makes statements that are warranted hold less weight.

I for one am glad they bought it. It could have just been demolished and that be that. Parks do stuff like that all the time. The fact that it has been bought and has a chance at living on somewhere else is great. While a ground up RMC has always been a dream for a lot of us, if this ends up at our park, I know I for one wouldn't be upset in the slightest. In fact, quite the opposite. I never got a chance to go down and ride AF1 and with all the hype about how great it is, having something of this caliber have the potential to take up residence at our park would be a great thing. Something that people have raved about having a second chance at life at a well traversed park wouldn't be a bad thing. It would strir up a lot of hype and give KI something that truly packs a punch and fills a void in our already great line-up. Imagine being able to ride 3 RMCs in just a few hours of each other. Steel Vengeance at CP, Wind Chaser down at KK and if AF1 ends up at KI, we'd have that as well. I see no negatives here if we get it.

Thanks beastfan. It's been a rough two years. I lost my dad a year and a half ago to liver cirrhosis... It was a very long and painful process, and I think I'm still dealing with the grief and coming to terms. He was the one who got me into my love for amusement parks and roller coasters. Been dealing with a lot of financial trouble too lately. Things just keep snowballing, but I'm trying to be strong for my family. This website helps me from completely losing it.

This is definitely feasible for KI to accept its relocation. The ending of it can be changed, much in the same manner that Wildcat's Revenge was changed. I also think it was stated that it can be altered. Now, to what extent, I'm not sure. Since it won't be installed until 2028 at the earliest, I'm not even sure where it will be re-located to. I would not mind this being moved to KI for sure. IDC if it's not a ground up RMC. It seems to be considered a great coaster widely by the public, so I'm all for it being moved to KI.

The entire point of… well, all of this fandom, is escapism. At least in my opinion. Sorry things are tough for you right now. Mean that. You don’t deserve to feel like that way. And I’m also sorry some on this site (and beyond) feel the need to use their faux-insider knowledge as a way to gate keep actual discussion about the park. Being realistic and knowledgeable is one thing, even if it comes across as harsh. But when you’re shooting fish in a barrel (like all of us here) and still missing, it’s a bad reflection on the fandom when that type of attitude is put out on display. Appreciate you continuing to share your opinions on the matter. That’s what makes this fun.

To add on what KI Guy said above, Mystic Timbers provides a different experience than The Racer and The Beast. The Racer is the classic out and back racing coaster with floater airtime (PTC was good at this), The Beast is a terrain hugging wooden coaster built like a monster prowling through the forest and designed in house, and Mystic Timbers provides a more snappy ride experience. All three built by different manufacturers. I don't think the same can be said for two RMC I-Box coasters with similar enough experiences to be compared. People already do that with Diamondback and Orion despite their differences in the ride experience.

I think Six Flags very well bought it with a handful of parks in mind as to where it could go, but I also think the decision hasn't yet been made. That will depend on permitting, land surveying, and cost to construct new supports/level the land needed for it. In my opinion, if AFO is going to be shipped nearly wholesale and as-is to a park then it should not go to Kings Island. I also don't really like that they've said they're keeping the name Arieforce when it's named after the Arie family who owns FunSpot. I'd probably like it more if they were able to turn it into something new at Kings Island (while retaining the elements in between new track) and change the name/colors. It very well could fit in Area 72 with some demolition and help beyond just modifications for a third train. All of this said, I'm being very selfish because I'd much rather Kings Island get a hybrid with a custom layout and a good theme that fits with other areas of the park. I'd also really like to see The Vortex plot filled with a non-hybrid coaster first as well. Marcus Leshock is a Chicago-area newscaster who covers a lot of amusement/theme park industry news for his station. He does a lot of stuff up at Chicago's Great America and is kind of like John Matereese is with Kings Island. I think he gets some of these news stories before a lot of other people because he and his team are very diligent and have an eye out everywhere for this kind of thing.

I guess you forgot about the events leading up to 2009? How many pages and pages did we go through of speculation? I mean its always been our M.O. And then I see you made a post on Facebook promoting discussion on where AFO will end up...

A new horror theme area at Kings Island. Guys Action Zone might be finally getting a retheme it deserved.

The last time I checked, this was not a junior high school hallway. Since you guys want to air your grievances with each other on every thread (and I thought my message was clear the other day about treating everyone with respect here), either cut it out, or you can find somewhere else to argue with each other besides KIC, for I have had enough. This is a place to have fun and forget about the outside world for a bit.

I think there are MUCH MUCH bigger issues in the world right now than lack of ice at an amusement park...just sayin'

I think I got the scaling right on this. I put it together pretty quickly so it might be a little off. Would require changes to the service road, and require removing timberwolf, and possibly removing Congo Falls. But it goes behind Invertigo, next to the storage building and the haunt. Would require a new entrance for The Bat as well, but a lot of people have been asking for a shorter queue for years.

Sorry for being unoriginal? Sometimes I like to come here just to escape my awful life, and often that means just a little taste of some mindless talk and speculation. Rare are the days where I feel hope again, so when something... anything positive about this park... even a mere whisper... I'll cling to it. The speculation part is fun to me. The varying opinions is fun to me...

A Tilt Coaster would make for a great replacement for Inveritgo. A big ominous tilt drop that can been seen from patrons walking into the main gate. Without the tacky flyover that ruins the ambience.

I was assigned to be a ride operations team lead at Flight of Fear this season; I wanted to celebrate its 30th Anniversary so I built the new alien at the end of the ride. The two (then one) old aliens that sat there were very crusty and old, basically falling apart as they sat there. The new alien is entirely 3D printed, I didn't model the alien itself, but I made modifications to make the head turn left and right. The head turning is very subtle as you ride by, but I can assure you it does move. Flight of Fear Alien Animated Figure If you're wondering about the old aliens, I kept them around in backstage areas of FOF for a few weeks before people above me took them and threw them out (to be fair we were wasting time messing around with them).

It shouldn’t be this hard. They need to put themselves in the shoes of the guest before rolling things out. They’d eliminate a lot of the questions, confusion, frustrations if they did.

A lot of what Don says feels like sour grapes anymore. We get it. Everything KI and Six Flags does is bad now. Talk about being a broken record saying the same things over and over again.

I am very surprised to see SIX buy this coaster. It seems Carowinds or Kings Island is the good top tier park for this coaster. I don't want to rule out a lower tier park for it, for they might get a bigger ROI.

Although this is mostly a criticism of Six Flags, it comes off as a criticism of us at KICentral. I think it's nice to have something exciting to talk about. The lifeblood of this place is talking about changes and potential changes to Kings Island. I do definitely agree with you that they know exactly where this coaster is going regarding park and location within that park. I've noticed that wood coasters are the exception to the rule for coaster redundancy. I've been to several parks with three full-sized wood coasters and no one bats an eye. Perhaps this is because wood used to be all there were and people got used to seeing more than one wood coaster long ago—or it's just that each wood coaster has more character. I've never been to a park with two RMC I-boxes, two dive coasters, Arrow loopers, mine trains, stand ups, or inverts (from same manufacturer), etc.

Also the fact they're also saying 2029 is there's likely a lot of unknowns about permitting and the timeline of dismantling the ride and shipping it to its new home. In fact didn't ArieForce originally get delayed a year bc of permitting issues down there? However, I feel if it ends up at KI or Carowinds they shouldn't have much in terms of problems of permitting. I also think since they said they plan to announce the new home later this year that we'll start seeing parts showing up at its new home later this year and they may want to announce it before it becomes obvious. May want to keep our eyes out and look for survey markings/land prep later this fall to see if we find any potential clues.

Who is this guy and why is he the only one who seems to have this information?

I think it goes into Area 72 behind Orion using the leftover Firehawk and Dinos area and goes towards the storage area towards the river if it comes to KI. The new Six Flags is big into making their new major rides fit a themed area. AF1 would fit the theme of Area 72 perfectly. That's part of why I think KI and Carowinds are the front runners right now for this.

What I find sad in all of this is we lost Cedar Fair as a company. Before purchasing SIX, they had a good reputation. Sure the purchase of the Paramount Parks in hindsight wasn’t the best decision for them at that time, yet they made it out in the late 2010’s looking good. Matt Ouimet as CEO got Cedar Fair back on its feet enough to the point Zimmerman could take over in 2018. Maybe that optimism the takeover team was feeling led to the SIX purchase. A lot influenced that choice. In the end Zimmerman is the one that made the handshake with Selim. I’m not going to bother having to explain what has happened since, the sentiment is very loud among the enthusiasts, general public, and stockholders.

I’m on the boat that would totally jump onboard the idea of Premier doing a total retrack, trains, support treatment so we can have this ride around 30+ more years!

I have no knowledge of how things are structured under SF, but anecdotally it seems like the best results are had when individual parks' P&D groups are left alone to do their thing with little, if any, oversight or parenting from "corporate". I'm not saying that is or isn't happening in this case, but talented as Ken Parks may be, it could be the structure of things within SF that produces uninspired names like "Thrill Glider".

That right there is why having so many parks in one chain is not a good idea. Especially a mix of very big and small parks. Under Cedar Fair now merged with Six Flags there just isn't room in budgets to invest in these smaller parks when you have these big destination parks that need investment year and year out.

Which again bears to question WHY? Why charge different prices for anything other than one park silver? Now that they are touting this whole “visit all parks” idea, then charge way less for other parks, they are just asking for people to do this.

Well, sure. But that doesn't mean they are certain they know what park is getting this thing. That's a pretty "snarky" way to refuse to substantiate a claim. But doesn't that imply the chain is not yet certain where the ride will go? What seems most likely to me is that SF has a very short list of places where the ride would be a good fit and can be installed, in terms of available space, justified ROI, etc., (they wouldn't have purchased the ride without such a list, obviously) and is working down that list to confirm the best fit. In other words, they aren't yet certain where the ride will go.

Whether the coaster is relocated won't matter with time. Ask the Phoenix fans at Knoebel's.

Not gonna lie, my first thought when I heard they bought this was "With what money?" Judging by how they staffed Kings Island this weekend, it would seem like Six Flags doesn't have any room in the budget to spare. Operations across all departments felt like they were at bare bones despite it being a holiday weekend with great weather. Regarding the actual sale itself, I can't help but feel lukewarm about it. I'm glad the ride lives on, but I also can't really feel hyped about it. So much of the anticipation comes from the gradual reveal, piecing clues together, and looking forward to whatever the ride experience may be; but I feel like once we know where it's heading, that's going to be the end of the excitement. It might be nice to ride it again if it ends up nearby, but it's not something I'm itching to get on no matter where it ends up... And if it does end up at Kings Island, for me, it will always feel like a hand me down. There'd be no finer point to it not belonging to the park than it retaining its original name.

From Coaster101: https://www.facebook.com/share/14xUTQxusAf/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Yeah, man. We know. You've said it ad nauseam since leaving your position.

At least you can rest assured that, if you're given incorrect information, you'll be told it was "subject to change" anyway.

They know where it’s going. Delaying saying where it’s going keeps people talking about this instead of the issues they’ve experienced at the parks this year.

I haven't seen the release as it's been a busy work day. Whichever park gets this, I hope they don't ask the manufacturer to completely redo the ride, only as much as is necessary. SV has been such a maintenance load, and I'd conjecture that many of the issues were with Cedar Fair wanting so much stuff AND a completely new train design. From a non engineer perspective: change what needs to be changed with the elevation and hopefully allow it to run three trains if feasible.

Well said!

Just released from Marcus Leshock on his X account, Six Flags has purchased ArieForce One, now on to speculation to where it will go!

There is a valley right here they could gain some additional drop height. Also there being woods it would enhance the nighttime ride experience.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this coaster stays SBNO for a while. All these new announcements from Six Flags this past week has led to about an 18% drop in the company’s value. Big changes need to happen immediately.

Well that's super cool! Thanks for sharing!

I would take the Halloween themed area over anything the park could ever add, by an enormous amount. I now will never be able to enjoy the park until that happens.

Unless they do something about the capacity, I would think 900 riders an hour would be a tough add for KI.

Check your privilege man. It isn't "meaningless drivel" in the grand scheme of things. Being able to attend an amusement park let alone be able to discuss them IS a privilege, ice or otherwise. We could round back that the state of the world in it's current form IS having a mass effect on parks and other industries that lean into entertainment. Entertainment isn't a priority to a lot of folks in these current times. People can complain about ice all they want. Sit down and realize your privilege. You are able to drive to/ride to an amusement park, attend it, partake in it and either enjoy it or be miserable. But you still get to be there. Many folks don't have the ability or opportunity to. And you ever stop and think about some folks not even being able to feel safe going due to who they are? Must be nice to never have to worry about that. Yes, there are many things that could and should be resolved on a molecular level. However, I focus on the bigger picture that I can even go in the first place.

I didn’t renew my All Parks, All Season Fast Lane for 2026 because I find little value with it when visiting Kings Island, which is my home park. For this reason I would only purchase daily FastLane tickets for my visits to other Six Flags parks and so far, I’ve saved a lot of money doing so that way.

It makes sense given the financial position of SIX. They are unwilling or unable to spend big capex on the large former Cedar Fair parks that were taken care of pre-Covid. All the big money is going to the legacy Six parks in big markets. They must realize though that one of their parks could use AF1 especially at fire sale prices. This is probably the best possible ride for the money out there or they wouldn't be doing it. This is a top 10 coaster in the United States per most enthusiasts.

I arie on the side of caution and a bit torn on Kings Island getting ArieForceOne. Just a recap on hand me down coasters given to KI. You had Firehawk, mechanical issues and poor capacity. Eventually removed to make way for another hand me down coaster being MegaBite which was modified to “fit” giga standards and renamed Orion which is the worst giga coaster in the country. There’s a chance this won’t be the same coaster after modifications are made to fit the capacity, topography, and other park needs are for installation at wherever they plan on putting it. On the other hand, given the track record of recent coaster installations at Kings Island, one could argue that Orion, and RiverRacers are a bust. The kids area ranking literally dropped after the installation of Snoopy’s Soap Box Racers. So acquiring ArieForceOne might be a safer bet in terms of ride experience if the coaster doesn’t recieve major modifications.

One of the associates at the turnstiles recently told me that the delay is especially bad with "older" season passes that were first purchased 10+ years ago, as the system has to scroll back to those earlier passes. I don't know if that's actually possible but it made enough sense to me and provided some small talk while waiting for my pass to come up. Tuesday's announcement could entirely be an investment plan for the next however many years. I can imagine that we'll at least see some of the Six Flags America rides being announced as coming to operating SF parks. It's plausible that we'll also see either the extension of pass sales and/or the announcement of a new pass sale. Park sales and payment plans don't really fit into what I read of the announcement teaser. There's a package of 3-4 Intamin rides on the market from a park in China that didn't end up using them, which could be an easy win for Six Flags if they can get them for a low enough price. I was thinking about AFO after seeing some more speculation this weekend and made the joke that it'll be sent to Walibi for the Loup-Garou conversion/replacement. That got me thinking that it could actually be cool if Kings Island were able to take most of it and frankenstein it into a custom layout that rises from the Son of Beast station and dives down toward the stage of Timberwolf. That would be much better than just plopping it down somewhere on the outskirts of the park like has been suggested.

The drink system works well at the Herschend parks. I’d love to see KI and other Six Flags parks do something similar.

Coke needs the same system they have at Herschend parks with the barcodes on the cups. It could work with passes for the paper cups as well. Scan your cup/pass and you have 20 seconds to fill up your drink. Then you have fewer staff at stands and they could be keeping the drinks and ice filled instead of scanning passes and asking if you want to convert to a souvenir cup instead of paper when you already have said plan. Back on topic. I don't think KI is getting AF1. I would be totally surprised if it does. Nor do I think this announcement on Monday and Tuesday has anything to do with it either.