Ample Hills Creamery opened this past weekend as the latest resident of Disney’s Boardwalk. The new specialty ice cream shop replaces the ESPN Yard Arcade and fills the void left by the closure of Seashore Sweets (which is now set to become part of the AbracadaBAR and Flying Fish). Ample Hills operates a location in Brooklyn, New York already making this just their second location, however, Ample Hills pre-packaged ice cream is now available across the country.

The menu is fairly straightforward: 16 flavors, large or small cups/cones, sundaes, and milkshakes.

Take a video tour of the interior and all of the ice cream flavors:

Some pre-packaged Ample Hills ice cream is also available.

The interior evokes feelings of the northeast amusement boardwalks in the 1920’s, but still has a lot of the Ample Hills personality evident.

Here’s the menu. Many of our readers have commented that Ample Hills is overpriced, but I’m not entirely sure I agree that these prices are crazy for a specialty ice cream shop at Walt Disney World. Comparably around the resort, Dole Whip is $4.19, soft-serve ice cream in a cup or cone is $3.69, and most items at Plaza Ice Cream are priced around $5 each. At $0.50-$3 more for specialty ice cream with a variety of toppings or even a specialty hand-made cone, I don’t think anything here is unreasonable, except for the milkshakes.

OK, let’s talk about what we ate: this is the Sally Sells Seashells ice cream (exclusive to Walt Disney World) with an M&M filled cone. The flavor was a little too orange-y for me, but the cone was pretty spectacular. I highly recommend a specialty cone no matter what flavor you decide upon for your ice cream.

Here’s butter pecan brittle and ooey gooey butter cake in a chocolate chip cone. Again, you are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t get one of these cones.

I also decided to try a milkshake, this one with the Chocolate Milk and Cookies flavor. The milkshake wasn’t very big for the price, but I was a big fan of the service provided. I have never been asked how thick I would like the milkshake to be made, but the server here asked and made it just to my liking. This flavor was also fantastic; nothing crazy but basically chocolate instead of vanilla with cookies and cream, which is pretty neat.

With all 16 flavors at the very least sampled, the resounding favorites were Chocolate Cookies and Cream, Peanut Butter Wins the Cup, and Butter Pecan Brittle. Malty Salty Pretzel Punch and the Sally Sells Seashells were a bit of a disappointment based on how the description sounded, but otherwise there wasn’t a flavor I necessarily thought was terrible.

Ample Hills is a good alternative in the Epcot Resort Area when Beaches and Cream is a little too crowded, but if I had to choose, I would still probably pick Beaches and Cream over Ample Hills. Regardless, it is a HUGE improvement over the pre-made Edy’s ice cream that was served at Seashore Sweets and a welcome addition to Disney’s Boardwalk.

Special thanks to Elizabeth Chatron for her assistance in this review.

Tom Corless