It’s been several years since our last visit to Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue out at Disney’s Fort Wilderness. The last time we went was 2019, and while we had enjoyed the show, the food back then was lacking. However now it’s 2023 and vegan options are easier to come by while at Walt Disney World! We recently stayed at the cabins at Fort Wilderness and decided to give Hoop another try.
Check in for this was a bit chaotic, but when checking in 200 people at once that is to be expected. What I didn’t know, but I want you to know, is that once you check in you need to go to the special diet window and let them know you will be having the plant based option. Even though we had noted our sons allergy, no one told me to go to this window after I received my ticket to wait in line.
Once we were seated our table was already full of food for the appetizer that we couldn’t eat. We told the server, who then asked me if I had gone to the special diet window, I told him no one had told to, and he just told us it might be a few minutes until we receive the vegan option and cleared our table.
He brought out the plant based option much quicker than I had expected. For vegans the meal starts with a Garden Salad and vegan Oven Fresh Corn Bread. The corn bread comes with vegan butter and there is a vinaigrette for the salad.
The salad was enjoyable and the vinaigrette had a nice tang to it. It was a good mix of veggies and a nice light fare to start the meal. The dressing came on the side with the corn bread.
The corn bread was delicious. I’m not a huge corn bread fan and I ate three slices of it. It was moist and just a tad sweet. The savory butter on it was the perfect combo. We would have eaten the whole loaf if we didn’t have to prep for the main course.
The main course comes out on a platter and was a bit difficult to scoop/add to our plates with our forks. The vegan entree features Green Beans, Roasted Potatoes, BBQ Jackfruit, Crispy Cauliflower, and Plant-based Italian Sausage.
Out of the whole platter our favorite was the crispy cauliflower. It had a mix of a savory and sweet flavor to it and the tiny cauliflower bits were actually crispy. I would happily eat just this as a meal because it was that good.
The bbq jackfruit was mushy and did nothing for me. I get why it’s there, but I think I ate one fork-full worth of it. I don’t mind when jackfruit is in addition to something, but it’s literally just jackfruit I don’t want it. The green beans were good but not amazing. They could have used some seasoning for me though.
The sausage was good, it was the spicy Italian one so it had a slight heat to it. It was also topped with what seemed to be a sweet chili sauce on it, or something similar. Our son refused to eat it because he’s 6 and it had a sauce on it that he didn’t know, so that was a bummer. But it was cooked well and I enjoyed it with the sweet heat.
The only thing our son ate actually was the roasted potatoes. I think I got to eat 2 because he ate the rest. They were seasoned well and I enjoyed that they were whole tiny potatoes.
For dessert here we get to enjoy a vegan Strawberry Shortcake, which is the highlight of any meal at Hoop (vegan or not). For the vegan one we all get our own little ones to enjoy. The cake part of mine was a bit tough to cut through on the edges, but the cake with the strawberry and whipped topping was so good. I was full from dinner but powered through for dessert.
Overall we really enjoyed this experience over our last one. The vegan options are relatively on par with the meat eaters, they have one additional appetizer but otherwise same amount of food. The one issue I had was that our kid didn’t want to eat anything other than potatoes and whipped cream, so I wouldn’t say the food is the most kid friendly, unless you have a more willing to try foods child, but he really loved the show so that made it worthwhile.
If you’re looking for dinner and a show during your stay (I recommend on a rest day) you should book one of the 3 dinner times at Hoop-Dee-Doo! The whole dinner is just shy of 2 hours and you need to arrive 30 minutes prior to start to check in. Just note they are closed on Monday and Tuesdays currently and you have to pay for it when you book it.
Do all the plant-based options default to vegan, or did you request vegan? I’m a vegetarian and I’m wondering if they include items from the standard menu (like Mac and cheese) to the plant-based platter if they are vegetarian-appropriate
Plant based defaults to vegan. But if you were with non vegans you would likely be able to eat with their platter too. I don’t know though.