Cronut. Croissant Donut. Epcronut. Whatever you want to call it, Epcot’s epic croissant/donut hybrid still stands as one of my favorite desserts at Walt Disney World. Grabbing a croissant donut from Refreshment Port and taking a stroll through the World Showcase has become a mandatory part of my WDW itinerary. Disney recently sweetened the trendy treat by adding a topping of vanilla soft serve ice cream. Of course, I had to try it.

My hopes were high. This combination reminded me of the funnel cake topped with soft serve ice cream from the Oasis Canteen in Hollywood Studios (which is another one of my favorite desserts at WDW). It’s the kind of decadent dessert that you can justify by telling yourself “Well, I’m on vacation.” The croissant donut currently sells for $4.69, while the ice cream topping brings the price up to $5.99. Not an outrageous up-charge, but something to consider.

The donut actually makes for an attractive container for the ice cream. The ice cream is placed in the hole in the middle, finally solving the age old question for what that hole is actually for. The croissant donut looked so good with that ice cream that I couldn’t wait to dig in.

Epcot Croissant Donut with Ice Cream - Disney World Dining

But then I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t just pick it up and eat it like a normal donut. Refreshment Port had forks, but no knives when I was there. It was extremely difficult pulling apart the cronut with just the fork. Eventually, I decided to sit down at a bench, rip the cronut into little pieces, and dip that into the ice cream. It was time to get down to business.

Once I resigned myself to eating this caveman-style, I actually quite enjoyed what this dessert was offering. The cinnamon sugar of the croissant donut goes great with the vanilla ice cream. The mixture of hot and cold is very nice, as well as the range of textures from the crunchy exterior of the donut to the soft croissant to the smooth soft serve ice cream. Overall, it’s a great combination of flavors and textures that makes for a surprisingly sophisticated treat.

The only flaw with this is how difficult the whole thing is to eat. Yes, you can rip into it with your bare hands like I did, but it was a huge mess by the end of it. If you really want to try this, I definitely recommend grabbing a plastic knife from nearby Promenade Refreshments or Yorkshire County Fish Shop. I am fully aware that “this trendy dessert hybrid is too difficult to eat while I’m at Disney World” is high up on the list of first world problems. But I think Disney could improve this dessert a lot by chopping up the cronut and placing the whole thing in a bowl. It would make it much easier to eat while not sacrificing any of the flavor.

While I did think that the croissant donut tasted great with vanilla ice cream, I keep asking myself if I would order this again. Ultimately, I don’t think I will. The dessert has so much going for it. But between this being more difficult to eat and more expensive, I think I’d rather stick to being able to walk around Epcot with a plain croissant donut.