It was the night of our first full day in WDW, so you KNOW what that implies...Hoop Dee Doo Revue for dinner!!
This is our family's one and only legitimate MUST DOO
every trip! It is such an important part of the Disney trip experience to us. We went without it once (2008), in the spirit of doing everything differently, but we really missed it and regretted our decision to skip it.
We have taken to booking the 9:30 show over the past few trips for a few reasons. We did it the first time in 2010 because we were using a TiW card and could only get Cat. 1 seating with a discount at the late show. So we gave it a try. We found the humor seemed a bit more "adult" and a little bit different from the earlier shows we had experienced. We also found it fit nicer into our schedule, without having to rush out of a park or from whatever we were occupied doing in order to get over to FW at an earlier time. This time, it worked out perfectly with our ridiculous DxDP dining schedule, having the 3 meals this day...there's no way we could have even thought of eating anything any earlier than 9:30, given our eating frenzy at the amazing, shocking and unbelievable Via Napoli at 2PM! (Oh, yeah, did I mention we enjoyed Via Napoli?
)
Since we made our ADR's at the 180-day mark and booked Cat. 1, our table was perfectly located near the center of the stage, one row back. BTW, because of lower attendance at the late show (when it's showing at 9:30 anyway), almost everyone gets pretty much Cat. 1 seating, regardless of what they book. The 3 times we have gone to the late show, the balcony has been empty and so has about 1/3 of the floor.
This is what our table looked like when we were escorted to it (Eeyore was anxious to get in the photo):
We love the metal plates, the checkered linens, and the buckets of food. Before we even sat down, we were all set up with a bucket of salad, 2 loaves of corn bread, butter and a "menu." The meal is served family-style and is all-you-care-to-eat. The menu tells you what you will be served, it doesn't present multiple choices. Other foods are available if you have dietary restrictions, and it's recommended that you plan for this ahead of time.
Here is a close-up of the salad and the corn bread:
The salad is very good, it is dressed with a light viniagrette. The corn bread is delicious!!! To us, it is just the right amount of sweet, which is to say, not too much. I think a real southerner would say this is on the sweet side, but it's not as sweet as what we usually find in the north. Maybe a perfect compromise?!
My beverage:
My second sangria of the day! This is delicious (not as perfect as VN) and pretty potent...I was feeling it a little about half-way through. Our waiter offered me more, but I declined because I was so full and didn't want to overdo it. But I would have enjoyed another, and it would have been included!
I don't have pics of my family's drinks, but Aladdin got a Bud Light (which he declares perfect for the scenario), Hercules probably ordered a milk, and Belle probably chose ginger ale (neither of them here to confirm); whatever they ordered, their glasses were always full, guaranteed!
A bucket of fried chicken:
It was dry! This has been perfect on past experiences, but on this night it was very dry. I took a bite and couldn't finish it. If we had been starving, I would have asked our server for a different bucket, but there was plenty on the table to top off our still half-filled tummies!
A bucket of ribs:
These were perfect, fall-off-the-bone, finger-lickin' delicious, and to compensate for my disappointment over the chicken, I ate more than one...can't remember if I had 2 or 3, but I remember thinking it was too much! These are spare ribs, not baby backs, so they are big and meaty, and these were so tender! If you like ribs, there was nothing to complain about here!
Corn:
I didn't taste this. It looked like your typical canned corn. My family enjoyed it, since we rarely eat this at home. I think the last time we had corn in this form was HDDR 2011! Aladdin described this as "salty, sweet perfect HDDR corn."
Mashed potatoes and pork and beans:
The mashed potatoes are amazing. We asked for seconds of these and almost finished the second bowl! So rich and creamy! The beans were very good, if you like BBQ beans, and had huge chunks of pork in them.
Strawberry Shortcake:
So delicious! This is the perfect strawberry shortcake, no joke! We devoured the whole thing, even though we were really stuffed by this point. The cake is not sweet, the strawberries delicious, just the right amount of topping. I am a big strawberry shortcake fan, and this one always takes the cake!
The show was as terrific as always...great singing, piano and banjo, lots of laughs for us. It was corny and hokey, which is exactly what we expect and enjoy about it...the experience was all-around terrific. We didn't notice as many different, ad lib kind of jokes in this show, but it was still great, and we will definitely be back.
Again, rating this experience is difficult for us! It's a 5 for experience, but food-wise it wasn't perfect due to the dried-out chicken. Should we down-grade it for a piece of imperfect chicken? Nah! We have had perfect chicken in the past, and probably could have gotten another bucket that was perfect if we had asked. Anyway, we don't go to the HDDR for the chicken. We go for the show and the ambience. According to Belle, "if you're willing to let your hair down, slap your lap, play a washboard and hoot and holler, this is the perfect experience. If that's not "you," you're better off skipping this event. For us, HDDR rates an overall:
5/5!
The total cost of this event for 4 adults in Cat. 1 would have been $271.88 including tax, tip and unlimited beer, wine, sangria. We "paid" 8 TS credits.
And we'll be having desserts of course. Yum!!
:
I was so surprised when Hercules ordered the same think I was ordering, and I thought I'd make the switch at the last minute so we could all try the pepperoni! Oh, well, I know we will be back, and next time, we will hopefully taste the pepperoni!
), but I'm glad to see it's still great as always. 
