Losantiville Mining Co.

I like to rank coaster names based on how cool they sound and how they relate to the story of the roller coaster's theme. Some names get lowered by the addition of unnecessary taglines (Ruined by TradeMark). Other names have been ruined for other reasons. I don't hold steady to these rules, but they generally guide my opinions. All-Time Greats: The Bat, The Beast, The Boss, The Legend, The Racer, Thunder Road, GhostRider, Gemini, Grizzly, Vortex, Loch Ness Monster, Colossus / Twisted Colossus, Raging Bull Good: Apollo's Chariot, Banshee, Big Bad Wolf, Diamondback, Rebel Yell / Racer 75, Screamin' Demon, Steel Vengeance, Thunderbird, Phoenix, Sooper Dooper Looper, Shooting Star, Raven, Wildcat, Wilde Beast, Dragon Fyre, Drachen Fire, Beastie, El Toro OK: Mystic Timbers, Twisted Timbers, Shivering Timbers, Millennium Force, Adventure Express, Firehawk, Nighthawk, Orion, Wild Eagle, Roller Coaster (bonus points for being a classic), The Bush Beast, GateKeeper, Thunder Striker, Copperhead Strike Ruined: Pantherian (should've gone with Panthera), Bakunawa Serpent's Wrath (RbTM), Tormenta Rampaging Run (RbTM), Maxx Force, X-Flight, Goliath (overused), Ninja (overused) Bad/Ugly: Valravn, Flight Deck, Thrill Glider, Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf's Revenge, Scream!, Blue Hawk, Woodstock Express (only bad for the KECO wood coasters), Red Force

I think there's some truth to what you said, but I also think the issue is big enough to warrant some introspection. There are probably a ton of legacy Six Flags guests who can just go enjoy the parks as they have for years. Where it matters is with the sizeable chunk of guests who had not previously bought into the Six Flags brand (cough, legacy Cedar Fair fans, cough) and who saw it as the biggest value brand of amusement parks. One big reason why I'd like to see them shift to a new branding strategy is because it would show that the current Six Flags is not the same one that has consistently made bad decisions since being acquired by Premier Parks in the 90s. I wouldn't necessarily hate seeing Six Flags cease to exist in its current form, but I also don't want to see Kings Island get trudged through years of a Six Flags bankruptcy declaration. Split the company up? Yes. Let the company get to a point where it goes bankrupt? Please no. Some of these scenarios are what lead to a private equity takeover, and I definitely don't want to see that.

I'd take the step to also say that their seeming refusal to step away from most of the legacy Six Flags branding is contributing to the harm/dissatisfaction that it has been causing for nearly 20 years. At the very least they need to strip it from their corporate social media accounts and all three HQ locations. If I had the chance to sit down with John Reilly that would probably be the first thing I'd tell him. People will see the accounts posting about all of the fun stuff going on, but their brains have been trained to see that logo and associate it with something of low quality. (They should also start rebranding some of the legacy SF parks to remove the SF name, but that could take a few years depending on the park. There's no reason for Darien Lake or Frontier City to retain their legacy Six Flags branding IMO, especially when Frontier City has an entire unique logo.) I see it as a hand-me-down mostly because it was built for a different size of park and will require a lot of effort from Six Flags to fit into one of their existing parks. For it to fit anywhere at Kings Island would require either a ton of new supports or the loss of another roller coaster. If it does land at KI then I just hope it doesn't make us wait another 4-8 years for a Vortex replacement.

Congratulations to Kings Island, Sally Dark Rides, and Plague Productions for their parts in bringing this dark ride back to life so wonderfully! It's very well deserving of the Best New Family Attraction award in my eyes, and I hope we can see Kings Island bring some more Golden Tickets home in the near future.

We swapped from season passes to memberships in 2027 to avoid the credit-based payment plan (good for the chain because it gets that off their hands, bad for consumers) and I just wanted to share some of our experience. Prior to purchasing the memberships, I contacted the park to ask what I should do about purchasing an All-Season Haunted Attractions Pass. Guest Services responded saying that I would be able to add the HAP to my 2026 pass and that it would be fine even if I switched to a membership. When we began our new memberships during Labor Day weekend I noticed that it gave us new pass numbers. Seeing this, I again contacted the park to make sure that I would be able to use my HAP without any big issues. This time I was told that both my 2026 pass and my new membership are currently active, and that I would need to scan into the park using my 2026 Gold Pass on nights when I go through the mazes. I purchased my 2027 dining plan separately (ouchie!) as well. We'll see where I land when I get to the park for Haunt, but I'm going to trust those Guest Services emails for now. The bigger question will probably be whether I can use my new 2027 Dining Plan Unlimited now in 2026 when I scan in using my new membership. Both passes and both dining plans say that they're ready to use and are active in my Six Flags app.

Those trees are my #1 reason for not wanting a front gate coaster, however I think a tilt coaster could look really good if they managed to only have the tilt tower occupy Invertigo's land. The park has already taken out enough foliage over the years. I'm not a fan of the front gate coaster idea for other reasons, so it's a no from me. It seems that survey with the same 15-20 options went out to most of the larger parks, so I wouldn't be so set on the idea of KI getting its own record-breaking tilt coaster anytime soon. I think that would be a really good location for it if the park wasn't already building some new water treatment stuff next to the tank located near the brake run on your layout. If they do put it right there for some reason, I'd demolish the Alien Abyss building and either rebuild it to be parallel with the lift hill or replace it entirely. My guess is that the spot where it might actually fit best at KI is down the hill from Orion where Firehawk's final turnaround and helix were. The ramp and service road right there could be reconfigured to fit the new queue near Orion's entrance and queue. That also puts the coaster on flat(ter) ground than the top of the hill provides.

That's also a possibility! The new Six Flags doesn't want to reuse coaster names between their parks, therefore the Quantum Accelerator name went to the coaster that opened with it first.

My theory is that they had a name, either "rethemed" the ride or found out that it was already in use, and then changed it to the easiest possible name. This isn't the first time we've seen Cedar Fair Six Flags use a model name for a thrill coaster: see Invertigo at Kings Island. This could've always been the name they had in mind as well.

I'm sure there is also some excitement among the passholders related to being part of a new chain. We don't know where Michigan's Adventure will place among the 8 parks of the Enchanted Parks chain, but now they at least have some hope for continued investment. I'd really like to see Enchanted put in at least one brand new major coaster at each of their parks by 2036. Hopefully they can have similar successes in their other new parks as well. Six Flags currently has about 19 parks in North America (not including stand-alone waterparks) and has been very slowly working toward improving some of them. Bowing out of the contracts for Darien Lake and Frontier City would bring them down to 17. After that, they could either split the company in half or continue to sell/spin off parks until they're down to a more manageable number. I don't personally feel it is wise to have a chain consisting only of major parks, but I do agree that Six Flags has a few too many parks in general. Then again I also think Herschend has too many parks. They seem to be proud of their "Largest Theme Park Operator in North America" title so we'll just have to see how the next few years go in terms of park sales.

A better summation of my thoughts exactly. I think the chain has a list of places that it could go, with one of those being a fallback spot that would require little-to-no modifications. From now until (presumably) December they'll send out surveys and gauge interest for which park might want it most. The surveys that are going out right now are very interesting to me because of how they each seem to have a few vague-ish options alongside Arieforce One. For the Kings Island survey I'd rank it as 1) Tilt Coaster, 2) Halloween Area, 3) Single Rail Coaster, 4) Arieforce One. I really just don't want it at KI. I did find it odd that they would suggest a generally Halloween-themed area considering the fact that Holiday World already has theirs about three hours away. I'd be more open to a more medieval-ish area (called Knightly Kingdom in my headcanon). The tilt coaster would be nice if it actually broke some records and isn't just the "longest coaster in the Cincinnati area with a twister layout" or something like that.

All of this right here. The chain probably still needs to get quotes for land grading, modifications to add capacity/adjust the layout to fit in a park, and look into permitting to make sure they can even install it in a park. I bet that's why the location announcement will have to wait until the end of this year and why the coaster construction may not even be finished until 2028/2029.

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.