I have gone to both parks more times than I can count, ever since I was a child.
Had season passes to both last year. Haven't been to either yet this season, but hopefully soon....
I know OP has decided to do BG (have fun!) but I wanted to comment on a couple things in case anyone else is intersted.
Re; gangs-There have been some incidents at KD in the past, and they have resulted in higher security at the entrance (they have had metal detectors since long before 9-11). Overall, it is a younger, less family-oriented crowd than BG or WDW, but I can say I've never felt unsafe there with my kids, and no one has ever treated us badly.
KD is not as well maintained as BG, and it saddens me, because KD is the park I grew up in.
I also want to warn parents of Scooby-doo fans that it seems that KD no longer has the licensing rights to Scooby or any Hanna barbera characters, because I am told that all Scooby theming has been removed. The Buzz-like Scooby laser ride has been rethemed to a generic shoot-the-ghost ride and is pretty lame, I understand. Again, this upsets me so much- my ds is a huge Scooby fan- that was his favorite ride. They have rethemed the kids area to Planet Snoopy. We love Peanuts characters, too, but it's not the same...
My kids like BG a lot, too. It is much prettier. The new kids area is Sesame st. themed. The rides themselves remind me of Shamu's happy harbor, at Sea world. There is a seperate kids area themed to dragons that has very young child rides and climbing/ webs.
One neat thing about BG is that they still have a skyride, with three different stations. Can't ride that at KD or WDW anymore. My ds would have ridden the skyride at BG all day.
