Travels in a Tin Can

children out of the way as she went, but for some reason he would not let her
sit on his lap. Of course Emma only asked as a joke but Santa's confused and
serious reaction revealed a national lack of ability to recognize sarcasm.
California Adventures is a relatively new addition to Disney's
playground and is less coherently linked to a theme, unlike MGM Studios or
Animal Kingdom in Florida - fortunately this does not stop it being a lot of fun.
It includes elements of the movies-led MGM from Florida, a few more adult-
orientated rides (in terms of speed and height restrictions, not in terms of
sexual content) and some rides themed on California itself. One of these,
called California Dreams or something, was a film showing the history of the
state and narrated by Whoopie Goldberg as the persona of California. The
show was inevitably cheesy but also left us feeling quite uncomfortable as it
glossed over or made light of the harsh reality of parts of the state's history.
The other California ride was called Soarin' over California and combined a
simulator style ride with an IMAX film and special effects such as fake wind
and the smell of oranges and was actually very well done. More rides like this
and less of the 'look how great we are' variety would have been very
welcome.
On our first day in this park we managed to try nearly all the rides,
mainly leaving the water rides as the weather took a turn for the worse during
the afternoon. Rain forced us to adopt a policy of running between rides and,
eventually buying bright blue 'Mickey' ponchos. We decided to stick around for
the evening parade in spite of the downpour - sadly the parade did not return
the favour and was cancelled, setting the scene for the next day.