Double0Kevin

Well... Penguins are much cooler than Harry Potter. And this is coming from a pretty intense HP nerd here.

Are you for serious with this? They actually did a decent job with Pony's tunnel. And it's not even made out of plywood... I'm sadly going to have to get used to the tunnel idea. I feel like it would have been cooler with just the arches, that way you still had the view. I guess we'll see if my opinion changes when I get to ride it and know for sure. I'm sure it will still be an excellent ride.

Interesting to see the Non-Disney parks in Orlando really make a push to be relevant and competitive in a tough market. This thing looks really awesome and I love the giant penguin rock entrance.

Well, it's wood and drops suddenly from a higher elevation, sooo... It's kinda like Gold Striker

I have a few friends at the parks right now, apparently most of Paradise Pier just lost power and they had to be evacuated from Midway Mania. Tough couple of days at DLR with ride shutdowns.

^ Yeah... it's called sarcasm. Yeah you are right, I remember riding Stealth in 2003 as well. I guess I associated the death of Stealth with the birth of Boomerang Bay. I doubt the park would wait to open a ride at all. When it's ready, you open it. You want to advertise it being open ASAP to boost attendance ASAP. No money in waiting.

Yeah, it's not August 15. First rule about The Doctor, The Doctor lies. You must be confused, Boomerang Bay opened in 2003. Gold Striker is the new attraction this year. Sorry, I'm in one of those moods. But in my joking I just realized that Boomerang Bay is 10 years old! Crazy how time flies.

^ Pirates yes, the rest is just personal interest. I would do Haunted Mansion cause it's awesome. Winnie is kinda lame but the line is always short so it's not going to cause you to miss other stuff. Astro Blasters is also fun, but nothing that will blow your mind, also it's line is typically short. As far as all those unique rides you listed, they are all pretty fun and worth at least one ride. They are all very basic dark rides (except Nemo) with fairly fast moving lines. Nemo is slow and cramped. It's a cool ride but not likely one you'll want to ride over and over again.

^ Roger Rabbit and Grizzly are about all I can think of as being unique to DLR (other than what you just said). Other rides are a lot different in design than their WDW counterpart, but mostly the same idea.

^ Ditto, Sounds like a good deal to me! I got stuck on Pirates once for about 45 mins and just got a front of the line pass. Not complaining, cause that pass was sweet, so these people got an extra awesome deal with getting dinner too.

^ Do you remember who won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2004 without looking it up? No one else does either, cause no one cares. Awards are pretty pointless regardless of how high their honors are. And this is coming from someone who loves WoC.

August 15. But seriously, Lately I keep hearing Memorial Day weekend, if that's the truth, who knows.

^ Personally I don't get these... They aren't funny at all. It's the same thing in all of them, just a bunch of people wiggling around for 30 seconds. iRAT looks good though.

Carousel roof? I got nothing...

I guess we'll wait and see, I'm just not convinced. And the drop isn't really "pointed directly at a few office buildings," It runs more parallel to them with a garage buffer. Besides, wasn't the noise issue the Prudential turn, not the drop? I think that the arches look like they are just added theming and not a tunnel.

Uh oh.. here comes the local bitching. I look at this as a positive. DLR is finally becoming the tourist destination that they had hoped for it to be 12 years ago when it expanded, and less of a local hot spot. I hope that it discourages the locals from going more and we get the better variety of people who appreciate what they get to experience at the parks, like what is more of the case at WDW. It's really weird to see the sudden 180 DCA has made. I assumed the relaunch would be successful and the park would begin to gain popularity, but the fact that it was SO big so quickly and has maintained it is awesome! Interesting to see what comes in the near future. It's their way of coping with the size of their Disney resort. If WDW was tiny and didn't have so much to do, they would probably not have to discount either. Some Californians just have to compensate for what they are lacking by putting down the financial success of WDW.

^ Well... One force, Gravity.

^ Knott's isn't Disney so it's pointless to compare. Also, Families make parks money, that's what they are interested in, not what makes enthusiasts warm and inspired. Some day enthusiast will realize these are businesses and not personal playgrounds... well, maybe not.

Looks a lot different than what I was expecting, I was thing an immediate bank rather than a little bit of straight track at the beginning. It looks amazing though. I hope the drop doesn't become enclosed and looks like how it does now. I don't thing it will be enclosed though, we would have see signs of that by now I think.

Running and going to Baseball games. Go Giants! Woo!

I thought Die Hard was great. It's definitely a zone out kind of action movie, but it's a lot of fun and in keeping with the other 4 movies. The plot is light for sure, they could have spent more time in the beginning hashing out the motivations for everyone doing what they were doing (especially since this one was 30 mins shorter than all the other ones). But otherwise it was a decent film, and the plot twists at the end were fun too, something we aren't used to in Die Hards.

^ Thank the lawd! As spoiled as we are in CA with a short off season and year-round parks in Southern California, I still can't wait for the park to open back up. I feel like this is going to be a CGA heavy year for me.

I say Robb pretty much hit the nail on the head with that. The only variables left are nighttime entertainment (WoC, Mad T Party, Fantasmic and Fireworks). It's easy to do all 4 in 2 days (WoC and Mad T one night and Fireworks and Fantasmic the other) but it would require you to stay in DCA all day if you start in the morning or to hop to DL during the middle of the day. EDIT: I see now Robb already covered nighttime stuff too, missed that the first time. Pretty much just listen to Robb on this one. If you're like me, DCA can be made into a full day through food and shows. Meals and treats (like Ghirradeli) help fill in the gaps between rides as does Aladdin and the small shows in Buena Vista Street and other areas of the park. Even then you will likely have to stretch it to get a whole day. DCA also has alcohol to help pass the time Robb's advice on RSR is dead on, get it done with FP and stand-by to start the day. If your group doesn't care, single rider is a great choice too. After that, it's pretty easy to do the rest with normal lines and Fastpass.

Was the park really like that on a normal day? If it was, how did those rides pass inspection? That is a great question. I have no clue how they passed. Those photos were taken near the end of June 2010. So yeah, normal summer day where you'd expect them to be busy.

There is definitely a point on 5 where you get a decent view of Knott's. Easier if you aren't the driver and have the ability to look as it's only visible for about 15 seconds. That paint job on Boomerang is hideous, but then again so was the old one. I guess we are just cursed with and ugly ride. Also, I wish CF would buy the new trains for this thing if it's going to hang around. I'm sure the purchase would be worth it, I can't imagine it's cheap to maintain the old Arrow train for year around ops.