Losantiville Mining Co.

I saw a theory earlier today (I think on Facebook) that Six Flags (FUN) purchased it to make sure a smaller chain like Enchanted Parks didn't get it for one of their parks. That isn't what I think happened, but it would make an interesting story. I never expected Herschend to buy it since it's a big thrill coaster, nor did I expect United Parks to buy it since they're currently focusing more on family coasters. I wonder if keeping the name is actually baked into the purchase or if it's just a show of good will. Carowinds would be a good spot for it if they figured out how to make it fit without ripping out a ton of stuff in the process. Dorney is almost entirely hill and does not have land that is suitable for coasters near Steel Force. Great Adventure could absolutely fit it in if they put it on the Boardwalk and were a little creative with the placement, but they're already getting Bakunawa in 2027. Darien Lake and Frontier City aren't likely to be in the running at all. Cedar Point, Discovery Kingdom, Kings Dominion, Magic Mountain, SFOG, SFOT, and most of the other legacy SF parks already have RMC hybrids. I'd hate for this to be the only way for Kings Island to get a hybrid thrill coaster, especially considering that it seems that's how we got Orion. There are a lot of people saying some form of "Everyone knew this was coming", "This isn't a real announcement", or "So you had nothing new to announce". To those folks I ask this: you do realize that companies have to announce things whether it's "known" beforehand or not, right? I know it's mostly useless to speak to the general void, but I felt it needed to be said either way.

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.

Are you clicking on the name of the topic or are you clicking the "unread" star/circle that comes up to the left of it?

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.

I would demolish Jukebox and have the larger restaurant replace its functions. If they reuse some of the layout from the Grand Pavilion then the lower floor could serve the hamburgers and chicken tenders while the upper floor has the bar and/or second restaurant. (cough... Coney Potato Works 2... cough) This is a concept I made a while back with the new Grand Pavilion-style restaurant and pathway straightening. The orange circle could be some new Flying Eagles or another flat ride. Would it be the easiest addition to the park (especially considering Jukebox's "recent" renovation)? No, but I think it'd be worth it for guest flow and area revitalization. It feels much more achievable than the admittedly-impressive Starlight Plaza.

LMC here again with an update to my Rivertown expansion idea. I've been thinking about what flat rides Kings Island needs, and I've come to the conclusion that it could be nice to have another Drop Tower in the park. This one would be a mid-size space shot tower around 100-150ft tall. The launch upward would differentiate it from Drop Tower while the lower height could be more appealing to families. Drop Tower's 300ft height may be too intimidating and the Kite Eating Tree isn't a ride for adults. Another 1-2 towers would add capacity if needed. I'm not sure how many towers would fit in the space I allocated for it, but my map was also just for visualization purposes. Rivertown really needs a traditional flat ride to add to its collection of three coasters, water ride, and railroad. It would be even better if Linus Launchers and CBRRLR could be folded into Rivertown and rethemed to match the area.

It looks really nice, but my biggest issue with it is that the inspiration feels like it was taken from the wrong Coney Island. I think the description even says that it was inspired by Luna Park (at Coney Island in NYC). If we get a renovation of Coney Mall I'd prefer it to at least be in the spirit of our old Coney. A new Grand Pavilion-style restaurant with the look of Moonlite Gardens would be really good replacement for KillMart's building. That would also allow for the midway to be realigned and get rid of that odd kink in the path created by KMAA. Keep Shake, Rattle, and Roll and let The Vortex successor rise above it. If WindSeeker gets demolished then that would be a good plaza for a new big dark ride on the plot of Action Theater.

Update on this: I was trying to figure out how to capture evidence that it's happening and finally got a screenshot tonight when I logged on and went to check the 2026 KI Food Reviews discussion. As you can see I've posted in that thread at least three times since July 28th, but it still started me out before super7's post when I clicked the button to start me at the first unread. I can't figure out why it would do this beyond something not counting posts as being "read" correctly.

I emailed Enchanted Parks at least 1.5 weeks ago with a question about my pass and haven't even gotten anything back from them! That is, aside from the very long process of me attempting to reset my password. Fun fact: you cannot see whose passes you have scanned into your Enchanted Parks mobile app, nor can someone else add a pass to their account once it's been added to yours. (Great work team! That will definitely help on my upcoming trip! /s) On the topic of Haunt events, ValleyScare is now a separately-ticketed event and it sounds like the rest of the Enchanted parks will be moving to that model as well in 2027. I appreciate that Kings Island and Six Flags are only using maze upcharges to help run their various Haunts and Fright Fests.

I think it could work out for a while, but if KI splits I think it should bring a few other parks with it. Some independent parks are run wonderfully while others miss the mark due to poor management. An overhead corporation might help to ensure the park has some wiggle room in the event that something unfortunate happens. (I want a new KECO soooo bad!)

I could see that plot being used sooner than Vortex's plot, especially if Six Flags wants to prop up Magic Mountain even more. It may all depend on how much they have to pay during/after these all of these lawsuits. If the park does wait to add a new ride to that area then I hope they fit the new ride better with the layout of the paths. The current location has a great presence at the entrance to the parking lot, but is so far from everything else. I don't know that the park needs to have the most coasters out of any other park while they work to fix the longstanding issues it's had for years.

It's so that webcam watchers like us can't see them replacing all of the Peanuts items with cheap Looney Tunes props from Six Flags America! /s My actual theory is that the something related to that webcam got jostled around in a storm and they haven't sent anyone to fix it yet. Park staff seem to be going slower than in previous years (as seen by the fact that Pumpkin Eater is almost entirely assembled but nothing else for Haunt or Tricks and Treats is). Meanwhile, Cedar Point have a ton of their HalloWeekends decorations up already and are visibly building new items as well. There's been a lot of doom and gloom online about the Six Flags parks within the past week between the new news about X2, the guy saying he worked for Carowinds' ride maintenance and now does not trust their safety, and the people who are rumoring that Haunt will see some massive cuts this season. I'm not going to think too hard about it lest I go into a spiral, but for now I'll take all of those with a grain of salt. The company is currently in hard times and is trying to get through it. I'll just keep looking forward to going to my happy park.

An important note for Enchanted Parks: the "Mid America" name should include a hyphen since it is describing the location of "Mid-America". Without the hyphen it gets opened up to being a completely separate word. Luckily they've included a star where the hyphen should be on the logo, it's just in plain text where they've left it out. My biggest criticism about the new logo is the inclusion of the stars on the left and water splashes on the right. I don't think they needed those at all. I wonder what they're going to rename Hurricane Harbor to. I think the two HH locations and Schlitterbahn Galveston are the last "parks" that need to be renamed before 2027. (SG has the name "Galveston Island Waterpark" on its website, but that's an incredibly bland name that I can't see sticking around.) I could see the waterparks receiving WildWater Adventure-style names.

X2 may be a good ride but I agree that it's probably time to pull the plug. It's a dead coaster model with a bad reputation and an has had increasingly variable uptime. Hopefully the park can find something good to replace it quickly enough while keeping Ninja and Viper open a little while longer. I've been hearing that there are a few Intamin coasters for sale, so maybe one of those? This would be a great opportunity to start a rebuild of the entrance plaza as well in case that's something Magic Mountain is wanting to do.

What are the chances that this move and possible downsizing will prepare for / lead to a private equity takeover? Someone introduced the thought into my head and I'd like to read some more thoughts on the matter. I still think the move is based on Texas' favorable conditions for corporations and that it won't mean anything major for which parks do/don't get additions. Cedar Point got lots of big budget additions each year because it was Cedar Point, and that didn't change with the move from Sandusky to Charlotte. They didn't receive anything in 2026 because, like other parks in the chain, they had received major investment in 2025. One thing I am hoping for with this move is that they take that godawful legacy Six Flags logo off of the walls and at least replace it with the new corporate logo. The same goes for their corporate presence online. If they want to be seen as a different company than before then it needs to happen.