Grab your fancy hats and let’s head to the newly reopened Garden View Lounge — Tea Experience at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort.

This experience reopened for the first time since the 2020 closures, and we couldn’t be more excited to share all the details with you. From what the best teas are, how adorable every snack-sized bite is, and the overall aesthetic, sit back and relax, and be ready to book a reservation because you’ll want to get here immediately.

Atmosphere

The whole space has been renovated and is absolutely stunning. There are touches from Alice in Wonderland incorporated throughout. There are massive windows that bring in natural sunlight, and comfortable seating with pillows and cushions. We loved the stained-glass details featuring birds, which tie into the Grand Floridian’s overall theming.

There are some Hidden Mickeys throughout the carpet, too.

We were even obsessed with the designs on the teacups and plates, and it made the whole experience feel fancy and beautiful.

Advanced Reservations are highly recommended for the experience, especially in the beginning, since it will be so popular. You can do that directly on the Disney World website or app.

Menu

The menu has the Tea Room Experience priced at $79 per adult and $49 for children ages 3 to 9, plus tax and gratuity for both. From there, you can choose from the Twinnings Loose Leaf Tea Selections, which include offerings like Orangery of Lady Grey, Redbush Caramel Velvet, and classic options like Longdon Strand Breakfast.

The Afternoon Tea Tower includes small bites all themed to Alice in Wonderland, like the Caterpillar Cucumber Roll, Tea Party Tart, Painting the Rose, and more.

There’s also a Children’s Afternoon Tea, which is available for adults to order as well, and you can either replace an Adult Afternoon Tea with it or add it on as an additional charge for $49. It has more bites geared toward kids, like a Sunflower Seed Butter and Jelly Bun, Queen of Hearts Cheese Toastie, and White Rabbit Cupcake.

You can also choose from the Plant-Based Afternoon Tea selection…

…and Gluten/Wheat Allergy Friendly Afternoon Tea.

If you’re looking for more, you can grab some Enhancements, including Seasonal Cheese Selection for $21 and Royal Ossetra Caviar with Mini Chive Biscuits and Traditional Accompaniments for $120. You can also grab Cocktails, Champagnes, Sparkling Wines, and Non-Alcoholic Specialty Teas. 

Enough about the menu, we’re ready to dive in!

Eats

Before the tea and food came out, our server brought over warm, rose-scented towels to wipe our hands, which was a nice touch.

You’ll also get to smell each of the teas as the server describes them before you decide on what you want to drink. We thought this was extremely helpful, especially if you don’t have tea drinkers in your party.

Our server, Tyler, did a great job explaining all the teas and the notes, and was knowledgeable to help us decide which ones we wanted to try.

Then, some warm Cranberry-Orange Scones with accompaniments were brought to the table. The scone was wonderful — it wasn’t too dry, it stayed nice and moist with that buttery, crumbly texture you’d expect from one. The cranberries and orange bits added a bit of tartness to the otherwise rich pastry, and we loved the accompaniments as well.

The accompaniments included Whipped Butter, Orange Marmalade, and Devonshire Cream. Our favorites were the Devonshire Cream (which added a lovely, sweet creaminess to each bite) and the Orange Marmalade (which complemented the orange in the scone SO well and was equally tart and sweet).

Tea time! We had the Afternoon Tea Tower, which comes with three tiers of food.

We had the Curried Chicken Salad Playing Card Tart, which is savory curried chicken salad filling topped with cherry gelée.

This was a great savory option with excellent textures. The chicken salad is tender and flavorful, with a hint of curry flavor — it wasn’t too overpowering, which allowed us to be able to taste the butteriness of the crust along with the sour (but sweet!) cherry gelée.

Then we had the Footman’s Feast, which is a Wonderland Salmon Crisp with a salmon rillette on a miso brown butter crisp.

This bite was also a hit — even for our reporter who doesn’t especially love salmon. There was a hint of that fish-forward flavor, but it wasn’t too fishy or overpowering. It tasted like smoked salmon, with that nice smoky, salty taste you’d expect. The miso brown-butter crisp complemented the soft texture of the rillette and added even more of a perfect, salty bite.

Check out the Tweedledee Egg Salad Sandwich, which is a traditional egg salad on beet bread.

This was a classic egg salad sandwich that had a hint of sweetness from the beet bread. It was served with crumbled bacon on it, which added a nice saltiness. It was pretty messy, and while it was cute, it didn’t really “wow” us — not that egg salad is particularly “wow” to begin with, but this felt like a missed opportunity.

Our final savory treat was the Caterpillar Cucumber Roll, which is a combination of butterfly pea-infused cream cheese and cucumbers on pumpernickel.

This was a fun take on a traditional cucumber sandwich that you’d find at other tea services. It was bright and fresh-tasting, and we appreciated the presentation. The butterfly pea-infused cream cheese had a floral taste to it, and we think the sandwich could have benefited from an herb or two. It was very watery tasting.

Now onto the sweets! We were obsessed with this Matcha Mad Hatter, which is a sponge cake with apricot jam and yuzu buttercream.

This was fluffy and enjoyable. The cake was dense, and the matcha was subtle and mostly on the outside, so it wasn’t an overly grassy or earthy flavor. The apricot jam and yuzu buttercream both added a fruity, citrus flavor. There was a good amount of icing, and we appreciated how adorable this was. Fair warning, though, it will stain your fingers green!

We also had the Tea Party Tart, which is a vanilla tart, coffee custard, and chantilly cream.

This was another adorable dessert with decent flavors. We tasted more chocolate than coffee with this one, but the custard was still delicious. The chantilly cream was nice and light, but overall, this was just a bit boring.

The Flamingo Croquet Choux, which is filled with passion fruit cream and raspberry crunch, was so pretty.

We LOVED how this one looked — the reference was incredible. It tasted like a regular cream puff, but with a passion fruit cream instead of vanilla. The pastry itself was fluffy and spongy in texture, but we wish there had been more of a prominent fruit flavor to give this an extra punch.

Finally, we ended on the Painting the Rose, which is an Earl Grey-flavored teacake painted tableside.

Our server came over and poured the red sauce on top as a reference to the Queen of Hearts, which tasted like strawberry to us. This was a fun and unique experience, but we think it would have been more fun if we had been able to pour the sauce on it ourselves.

Taste-wise, this primarily tasted like buttercream icing with a hint of floral notes from the Earl Grey flavoring. We got a hint of rose flavoring in there as well. The cracker was a nice, shortbread flavor that had a great crunch.

We also opted to add on the Seasonal Cheese Selection for $21. From left to right, these cheeses were: Stilton Cheesecake (formerly served at Victoria & Albert’s — but this is now the only place you can find it!), Goat Cheese Tart with Tomato Confit, Truffle Whipped Brie with Oregano Bloom, and Comte with Quince Paste. There were also figs served on the side.

To be honest, this cheese plate was the highlight of our tea experience. Each one was SO good. The Stilton Cheesecake was creamy and had that funkiness you’d expect from Stilton — even one of our reporters who doesn’t like funky cheeses liked this. The Goat Cheese Tart was strong, creamy, and smooth. We would have liked the phyllo to have been a bit crunchier, though. The Truffle Whipped Brie was incredible. The truffle scent was really strong, but it was on the mild side. It paired really well with the brie, which had a lovely texture. The Comte with Quince Paste was the least exciting cheese, but it was still lovely. The cheese was mild, but paired really well with the apple and pear flavors of the quince paste.

The cheese plate was served with crispy crostini that tasted like it had been brushed with garlic butter. It was SO good!

For the Children’s Afternoon Tea, it’s a little bit smaller but includes equally adorable bites.

We began with the Queen of Hearts Cheese Toastie. This is a homemade cheese cracker with pimento cheese spread inside. We really liked this! It tasted like an extra toasty Cheez-It with a mild cheese spread inside. We think cheese-loving kiddos (and adults!) will love it.

We dove into the Fanciful Turkey Wrap. This was slow-roasted turkey with tomato and lettuce on a wrap. This was your basic turkey wrap — there wasn’t anything too fanciful about it. Still, it had great flavor and was fresh tasting. It would probably be a great option for those with picky palettes who don’t love a ton of strong flavors.

This Sunflower Seed Butter and Jelly Bun was super fun, too. We loved the mushroom presentation of it. It was a bit salty from the sunflower seed butter, but the jelly added a nice sweetness that rounded everything out. The bun itself was a bit on the dry side, but we think the familiar flavors would be great for picky eaters.

How about this Cheshire Cat Raspberry Macaron? It’s SO cute. It tasted like any other raspberry macaron we’ve had. The pastry was mild with a hint of vanilla flavor, while the raspberry on the inside was perfectly sweet and tart. The best part was the presentation!

You can also try the Chocolate Brownie Branch. This was definitely a branch of chocolate! The outside was nice and crunchy with a great chocolate flavor. The brownie itself was dense and chewy, not light and fluffy like you might expect a brownie to be. Chocolate lovers will appreciate this!

Finally, we ended on the White Rabbit Cupcake. This was your basic, vanilla Disney World cupcake, only a bit smaller. If you’ve ever been to a Disney World buffet, we’re pretty sure it’s exactly the same as the vanilla cupcakes you’d find for dessert during lunch or dinner. It was fine, but nothing to write home about. Kids will probably love it, though!

WHEW! That’s a LOT of little bites.

Drinks

To drink, we tried the Orangery of Lady Grey Tea. This tasted similar to an Earl Grey or Lady Grey tea, but with a hint of citrus notes — primarily orange. It was light and fragrant with hints of bergamot. If you’re a fan of classic black tea, we think you’ll like this!

Next up, we had the Exotic Mango & Ginger Tea. This was a rich, fragrant blend of mango and ginger — it tasted fruity and tropical while being light thanks to the green tea.

The Lemongrass & Peppermint Tea was an herbal one that we tried. It was refreshing and fruity with sweet peppermint and created a smooth, herbal, citrus infusion. This one was also caffeine-free!

We also grabbed the Curiosi-TEA Refresher. This was made with Twinings Refreshers Strawberry Raspberry Herbal Tea with a touch of shimmering magic. It was nice and fruity, and we could really taste both the strawberry and raspberry for a sweet and tart combination. This is a great option for kids or those who aren’t big on tea flavors.

For some alcoholic libations, we picked up both that are offered on the menu here, starting with the Mar-TEA-Ni. This is made with Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, Twinings Earl Grey Tea, Lemon, and Honey. We LOVED this. It was a great combination of lemon, honey, and Earl Grey with a bit of a kick from the gin. Fruity, a bit tart from the lemon, with a great tea flavor.

And, we also had the Mint Tulip. This is made with Old Forester 1870 Original Batch Kentucky Straight Whisky, Twinings Refreshers Peach Mango Herbal Tea, and Mint. It tasted like if peach iced tea and a traditional Mint Julep had a baby — it was delicious. The first flavors you’re hit with are whisky and mint, followed by a bit of fruitiness from the peach, and the final flavor is tea. It was complex, and we really liked it.

So, should you visit the Garden View Tea Room?

Nosh or Not

You have to head to the Tea Room if you…

• You’re looking for a unique dining experience — While you might not be adding this to every Disney World vacation, it’s a great way to do something different during your visit. It can also be great for special occasions and celebrations since it’s on the expensive side, but so much fun.

You might want to skip if…

• You don’t love tea and are not looking for a fancy experience — While the desserts are super adorable, if you’re not into tea, you might not enjoy the overall experience. It’s also a fancier experience, and if you’re looking to keep it casual, you might want to head the other way.

Overall

This was a lovely experience, though we can’t help but feel like it’s expensive for what you get. At $79 per adult, you likely won’t leave hungry, but none of the bites we had really “wowed” us. We were hoping for more elevated flavors, and most of the desserts tasted like something you’d find in any Disney World bakery case. For the price, you’re definitely paying for the experience itself — which we did really enjoy. Our server, Tyler, was wonderful and SO knowledgeable about the teas and treats, and the atmosphere is truly lovely.

We can see this being a great spot to celebrate something special, or if you’re just a really big fan of high tea. When compared to the $95 tea service at Cake Bake Shop, we still think we’d pick the Grand Floridian option for the atmosphere and grandeur alone. Otherwise, though, we think this is something you can probably skip — especially if you’re looking for a heartier meal.

In the meantime, make sure you keep following Disney Food Blog for more of the best food reviews before your next Disney World vacation. We share everything from tips and tricks, the best reservations to grab, and everything in between.

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