Today at Disney California Adventure: Summertime Fun

Last weekend's visit to California Adventure was a very short trip, but we returned this afternoon for a more extended visit!

Buena Vista Street is one of my favorite places in any Disney park, with wonderful period atmosphere thanks in part to the Red Car Trolleys:

We headed over to the Hyperion Theatre to see ALADDIN for the first time in ages.

Attendees of the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival will recognize familiar signs for the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the El Capitan Theatre, recreated next to the Hyperion:

The real version of this El Capitan sign can be found in a post I wrote last year:

One of the nice perks of California Adventure is that the 50-minute ALADDIN musical is included in the cost of admission.

It's quite a good show, including a wonderful flying carpet sequence:

The Genie's jokes are regularly updated, and my only complaint about the production on this occasion was that most of his jokes were meaningless to anyone such as myself who doesn't watch reality TV shows. I think Disney is missing the boat in writing topical jokes with such a narrow focus. A couple such jokes would be understandable, but I pretty much had no clue what he was talking about, other than knowing the name Kardashian! I loved the music and special effects but didn't enjoy the Genie nearly as much as I have in past productions.

After dinner we headed to Radiator Springs to watch the neon lights turn on during the playing of "Sh-boom":

After a spin on Radiator Springs Racers, we headed to Paradise Bay...

...and saw the World of Color show for the first time in a couple of years. It had a special opening this week set to "Stars and Stripes Forever" and other patriotic songs.  It made a great start to the holiday and the long weekend.

Happy Independence Day!