Yes, I much preferred Over California versus Around the World, too. There is way too much, way too obvious CGI in the new one. Original Soarin’ was a multiple must-do for me every single visit. The update… meh. I’ve seen it and I can easily bypass it now.
When they changed it to Around the World, I still think they should have set it up like they did StarTours and have a bunch of scene options that are randomly spliced together so that you get something different each time. I was actually surprised that they didn’t do it that way.