Afternoon Tea At The Grand Floridian's Garden View Lounge

Being British, I'm never one to pass up an opportunity to go for Afternoon Tea, so you can imagine my delight when I learned that the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa offered this in their Garden View Lounge! It just had to go into the plan on our upcoming trip for mine and my husband Simon's, wedding anniversary. When the 180 day window opened to make dining reservations I tried online to make a reservation however the website told me it was fully booked. I didn't think this could be possible so I gave the nice people at Disney dining a call and sure enough there was plenty of room, it seems that its not something that can be booked online currently.

Simon at the Gardenview Lounge

When we arrived at the Grand Floridian we went through reception to the opposite end of the lobby and there tucked in we found the Garden View Lounge. We were deliberately early as I wanted to take some time to sit in the lobby and listen to the Pianist, we did however check in for our reservation and then took a seat. Before long a lovely lady approached us and lead us through to a table in the Tea Room. I noticed not many of the tables were occupied, which gave a nice quiet atmosphere. We had decided to dress up for our afternoon tea and we noticed lots of other guests had too, some ladies even wore hats, though I don't think you could look out of place in any outfit.

A Careful Presentation of the Tea

We were presented with menus and left to peruse, we both decided on the Buckingham Palace Tea which included sandwiches with an onion tart, scone and jam tart followed by a choice of trifle, strawberries and cream or 2 pastries from the cake tray and your choice of tea. I decided to go for the Mango oolong tea, whilst my husband had the Thunderbolt Darjeeling. We noticed there was little notice stating that if we wanted more tea that it would be charged, which is a bit different to afternoon tea here in Britain as usually you would have as much tea as you liked, and try as many as you liked - but hey, this is Disney after all...

Tea Sandwiches and Onion Tart

I have some food allergies so I didn't have the full selection of sandwiches on offer and stuck to curried chicken, Simon having no food problems had the normal plate which included, curried chicken, cucumber and watercress, smoked salmon, pear and gorgonzola and egg mayonnaise. These were delicious! When we had finished we were brought out our scones and jam tart, okay the scones probably weren't the best I had ever eaten but they were still not bad. They came with strawberry jam, lemon curd and Devonshire cream. This was also a little different to afternoon tea back home as you would be brought 2 scones, 1 with currents and one plain, and no jam tart. They would be served with 2 jams and clotted cream.

Artful Design On The Strawberries and Cream

We had decided that Simon would order the strawberries and cream while I ordered 2 cakes from the tray, with the intention of sharing them. The cakes were beautifully presented, I chose a rhubarb and plum swan and Simon chose a coconut cake. They were both very good but for me, the strawberries and cream stole the show! They came out so gorgeously presented and the cream was slightly sweetened. I was sad that I hadn't just ordered them to myself.

Guest Author - Robyn Watson

We paid our server and thanked her for her help with my allergies and headed out of the tea room feeling very relaxed and happy. It might not have been quite traditional in the British sense however we thoroughly enjoyed our time here and cant wait to return on our next trip!

Our thanks go out to Robyn Watson for sharing a little bit of her vacation with us and offering a British perspective on the Grand Floridian Tea. Have you had Afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian? Did you enjoy the experience? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts on this fun Disney activity.