When we booked our trip, I was unaware of the evening event called Night of Joy. This is a two night Christian concert that is held in the Magic Kingdom. With our BBB and CRT schedule for that day, I knew we would not be able to change our plans and would have to leave the park by 7pm. I was looking for a fun experience for that night that would not included another park pass. Originally I had dinner plans at Ohana for 6pm. I must have made someone’s day when I cancelled it to book the Hoop Dee Doo Revue at Ft. Wilderness. I had read tremendous reviews about this dinner show and how frequently many travelers make it their first night tradition. I booked the 6:15pm show. I also thought that if we had time, it would be really cute to go to the Campfire with Chip and Dale. My husband loved those two silly chipmunks when he was little and so this was my little surprise for him. I figured we would take the boat from the Contemporary to Ft. Wilderness.
Well, when we arrived to our hotel room, the rain began to fall. Lily and Chris had put their swimsuits on to take a quick swim before dinner and the pool was closed. I kept calling the concierge to confirm that the boats were still running. Just as we were heading to the dock, the sky opened up and the thunder and lightning started. Oh no! The boat service had been shut down. Our only option was to take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom and then take a bus to Ft. Wilderness. We rushed to the monorail deck and boarded the first one that arrived. And…then we just sat there. My nerves we getting the best of me as the clocked ticked later and later. There was a monorail stuck on the track. Pretty soon we were on our way. As we approached the other deluxe hotels, the sky began to clear. We debated getting off at the Grand Floridian and taking the boat from there. However we decided to wait until we got to the MK. When we arrived, the boat dock was pretty full. We entered the righthand line for Ft. Wilderness. Everyone in our line had either a Mickey’s Backyard BBQ or Hoop Dee Doo Revue reservation for 6:30pm and 6:15pm respectively. To the left a smaller line began to form for people wanting to take a boat to the other various resorts. These guests were just leaving the Magic Kingdom. It was getting later and later. The CMs knew our situation. We all had prepaid pending reservations and it was getting very late.
Our boat arrived and we all were so relieved. We would be about 10 minutes late for our 6:15 ressie but at least we were on our way. This was my first experience with rude CMs. This young male CM with a cocky attitude opened the gate for the resort guests. They all began to board our boat. For some crazy reason, this CMs boss decided to let these resort guests use our boat (theirs would have docked in a different place) and we were stuck waiting for the next one. Wow! This make the crowd very upset. One woman had prepaid for 8 people at the HDDR and she was furious. It was past 6:15pm now. I said to the CM that they really needed to do the right thing and get a boat for us. It made no sense that they allowed these resort guests, that arrived AFTER us all to take OUR boat and casually head back to their hotels. There were 40 plus very upset guests waiting for two special dinner shows and the CMs had made a very bad call on this one. Then the cocky CM said that another boat would come in 15 minutes or so but it had to make one stop before it could take us to Ft. Wilderness. We were like WHAT…ALL of us are going to the same place and we are all now so late for our reservations!
We finally boarded a boat and headed to Ft. Wilderness. We arrived at the back door of the HDDR to the surprise of the staff at Fort Wilderness at about 7:15pm. They were SO accommodating. The escorted us (about 6 different parties) to our tables and calmed us by telling us that the food had just been served and that the show is just about to start. YAY!
We had the sweetest server. She brought me a sangria and Chris a cold beer! The unlimited beer and sangria make this a rowdy good time! Then the food kept coming! Fried chicken, ribs, corn, salad, baked beans, corn bread, and that heavenly butter! Lily ate better during this meal than she had the entire trip! They asked the crowd if anyone was celebrating anything special and Chris and Lily raised their hands. They happen to both share the same birthday and this was Lily’s special birthday trip. The cute red head came to our table to announce Lily and Chris! She was a trip!
The show began and Lily was entranced! It was corny, a little dirty!, and so much fun!!!!!
Towards the end of the performance, they did the strawberry shortcake song and dessert was served! They brought Lily a wash board and she took a part on the celebration! This was one of the highlights of the entire trip!
After dinner we headed outside and the bus situation was a little confusing. To my disappointment, it was a little too late to head to the Chip and Dale thing so we went down to the dock to catch the boat to our hotel. That was fun experience! I would highly recommended a reservation at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue. In fact, I asked Lily what would be the very first thing that she would like to do the next time we go to Disney and she exclaimed – The Hoop Dee Doo Revue! Count me in!
My First Disney Vacation 