Hoop Dee Doo on Animal Kingdom Day or Waterpark Day?

[1hero2princesses]

Well the title says it all. I have decided to try hoop dee doo based on all the great revues. I could do it on our animal kingdom day or our water park day. It will be the first week of August so super hot. Anyone have any thoughts on which might be a better day? I guess we would just take the bus from where we are to that resort. I am leaning towards animal kingdom day. Any suggestions on how long it might take to get to the park to the restaurant? And also any idea on how early we should arrive for the show?

 

[beccasmom]

If you get there about 15 minutes early, that would work well. A caveat -- Pioneer Hall can be quite cold, so bringing a light jacket/sweater is a great idea IMHO. I think you would be closer to FW coming from Typhoon Lagoon as opposed to BB/ AK, but that is a guess; we normally get to FW from the MK or CR by watercraft.

Here is a link to some info about Fort Wilderness that includes a map link showing where the buses drop off and where Pioneer Hall is located.
http://allears.net/acc/faq_fw.htm

 

[Jeanieblue114]

I'd probably go on an AK day. (See the safari first while animals are awake, and the nemo show, and lion king show, and it's tough to be a bug inside the Tree of Life...and of course Everest).

After the waterpark you will be super exhausted from the activity (and kids might be cranky if you have any) and you would probably need to cut the day extra short to get cleaned up and changed.

For transportation, get a bus straight to Ft. Wilderness or to MK. At MK, there are boat launches right near the bus stops that take you right to Ft. Wilderness.
I think it would be easiest to just take a direct bus there. It's easy to just follow the crowd there. From either location I would give yourselves an hour at least for transportation (that is the general recommendation by Disney and I agree for a show that closes the doors after the show starts).
If you like horses, there's a disney horse barn called the Circle D ranch, right down from the Hoop Dee Doo. It houses the disney working horses and has a tiny museum inside about walt's horses. It's free to wander into and is a nice little 10 minute peek into the behind the scenes things. There's also a great little general store down by the boat dock to check out.

 

[singleinthe city]

I would plan it for the waterpark day, but I would plan on being at the Waterpark first thing in the morning so you can ride the big rides with little wait. You will probably be wiped out by 2pm. Head back to your resort to change and get a little cat nap and get reservations for the 7:15pm show. You can then maybe walk out to the beach and see the Water Pageant.

 

[kmedina]

We did Hoop Dee Doo on our AK day. Since the park closes earlier than the others, I did not feel like we were losing any park time. On a water park day, we would want to go back to hotel first to get showers and cleaned up. I do not think it is necessary to get cleaned up after an AK day, so we went straight to the show from the park. If you are comfortable enough to get cleaned up at the water park or do not mind going to your hotel in between the two events, you really could do either one. Using Disney transportation, you would need to go from the waterpark to your hotel, your hotel to DD or another park before you can transfer to Fort Wilderness. That is at least three legs. Consider that before you decide. It takes a lot of time for that many transfers.

 

[kmedina]

I just realized I did not answer all of your questions. If you are going straight from AK to FW, I would plan about an hour for travel. It may be less, but I would rather be a little early than a little late. If you are going from a waterpark to your hotel, from your hotel to another park and another park to FW, I would plan about two hours. Seats at Hoop Dee Doo are assigned, so you do not need to get there that early. I would plan to get there about 30 minutes early to give you some buffer in time as well as get your picture taken. They do this before the show and offer to sell it to you during the show. We bought ours and added the code to our PhotoPass CD.

It is an indoor show, so the weather will not be an issue (unless you do get cold easily, than bring a sweater as a previous poster suggested). The show is awesome. Have fun.

 

[DonaldTDuck]

I would do AK day, but not a waterpark fan. From AK take the bus to MK or CL and hop on a launch to Ft. Wilderness. Pioneer Hall is a 3 minute walk from the dock. Taking a bus to Ft Wilderness means you'll have to transfer to an internal bus. When given a choice, I always take a bo-at.

 

[mickey&minniealways]

I would go with what you can get an ADR for. It can be tricky even in august.

 

[1hero2princesses]

Thanks for all the replies so far. Still not sure what I am going to do. Strangely enough adr's seem wide open for when we are going. I was past my 180 when we booked the trip. I got cinderellas royal table for dinner at 7pm, Ohana, Tempan Edo - really haven't had a hard time at all. Not really sure why. Definitely want the 7:15 show. My kids will be 7,6 and 4 and although they stay up late the 9 pm would be really really late to get back to POR. How do we get back to POR by the way? Have to go to MK?

 

[kmedina]

If you dine at the 9:30pm show, there will be buses that take guests back from the show to their hotel. No need to transfer. If the bus does not fill completely, it may stop at a nearby hotel first (like the Beach Club resorts sharing a bus with Caribbean Beach). This is only done for the last show.

You can also get category one seating with the dining plan at the 9:30pm show. We did not like the boat transfer from MK, because we did the campfire with Chip and Dale first. You cannot see the entire movie and still make the show on time, but it was still fun to enjoy the campfire and watch some of the movie. We then took the internal bus to the show.

If you are going straight to Hoop Dee Doo, the boat transfer could work (although this can be time consuming at times). Otherwise, take a bus to FW and enjoy the campfire before the 9:30pm show.

 

[nonnasally]

Thanks for all the replies so far. Still not sure what I am going to do. Strangely enough adr's seem wide open for when we are going. I was past my 180 when we booked the trip. I got cinderellas royal table for dinner at 7pm, Ohana, Tempan Edo - really haven't had a hard time at all. Not really sure why. Definitely want the 7:15 show. My kids will be 7,6 and 4 and although they stay up late the 9 pm would be really really late to get back to POR. How do we get back to POR by the way? Have to go to MK?

We did the 9:00 show when our DK's were your kids ages and in August as well. It was too late for even my night birds, plus no one wanted to get up the next day for breakfast, which made me crazy! I would definitely go to the AK that day, spend the morning there till about 2. then there is plenty of time to return to hotel, swim, shower, nap whatever and then leave at least one hour earlier for your dinner show depending on your mode of transportation. Have a great time

 

[singleinthe city]

Your other option is to make your afternoon nap a LONG nap if it is a EMH at the MK that day. You could then see HDDR and then head to the MK via boat and enjoy the much cooler evening temps! August is brutal! If you decide on a late EMH then just plan on sleeping in the next day.

When I was a kid we never even started our MK days till almost 3pm in the summers. We slept in, swam in the worst/hottest part of the day and only hit the parks in the late afternoon/slash evenings when the sun wasn't beating down. The parents always joked about how many parents they saw carrying pooped out kids when they were just entering with happy, well rested kids. Many times in the summer the parks are open till midnight. Sure sleep schedules may get off, but it is summer and it is easy once you get home to get kids back on schedule.