Afternoon Tea Questions

[singingpixie]

Hey everyone! After making most of my ADRs for our Jan 4-10 trip, DBF decided he really was interested in doing afternoon tea at the GF during our trip (he's a big tea drinker), so I went ahead and added it. The best day for it is Sat 1/7, so here's how it works with the ADR I just made: Start in AK w/ EMH, stopping for lunch (tusker house?) maybe around 11. Tea at 320, then over to MGM probably staying till fanstasmic. Then we'll hop to Epcot just for our 840 dinner at Le Cellier. Now for my questions:
1) Will we be too full to enjoy le cellier? Should we maybe share food at the tea or share lunch? Or would we be ok?
2) What kinds of tea sandwiches are served? I'm a vegetarian who doesn't even really like eggs (I'll eat them in things, but egg salad isn't exactly a favorite), so I'm wondering if there's anything I'd eat. Otherwise I'd just go with the Sally Lunn Tea or something.
3) Is DBF going to enjoy himself? He seems like he'll be fine, but I'm wondering how fancy/girly it is.
Thanks!

 

[minkydog]

My DH loved the afternoon tea! Not too frou-frou at all.but i'll warn you--pace yourself. Everything is so delicious it's easy to fill up. We had our tea at 3pm and were full the rest of the night.

I can't remember off-hand what kind of sandwiches they had, but they were all unusual--i do remember one that was a grilled pear sandwich. Very yummy! I'm sure if you call & tell them you don't eat meat or eggs, they will accomodate you. DH doesn't really like drinking tea, so they brought him his own pot of coffee

Hang around in the lobby either before or after. They often have musicians. We listened to a Big Band group and a wonderful pianist. such an elegant atmosphere, I took my Birks off and put my feet up on the table. Oh, yeah, we're just reekin' with class

 

[mrscoobs]

I believe you will be able to still enjoy Le Cellier. We went to afternoon tea on our arrival day in May. We had breakfast, a snack around lunch, afternoon tea at 4 and Cali grill at 7:30pm and felt were fine. We had the Buckingham palace tea and remember watercress, cucumber, a salmon, and another that had an apple flavor that I cannot remember what was in it tea sandwiches. Then there were wonderful jam tarts, scones, and the strawberries and cream and devonshire cream where lovely. I think your BF should be fine, especially if he is used to high tea. We thought it was wonderful and relaxing, and reminded us of when we used to have tea everyday at 4 when we lived in London for 9 months. Have a wonderful trip and enjoy!

 

[mello]

One of the boys asked if we can go to tea twice next time we go to WDW. So, I'd say your dbf should be fine. As to whether you'll be too full or not, hmm... maybe, unless you're really hungry. You might want to share something somewhere along the way; we wound up doing that a couple times when we had too many meals planned in a day. We had the Buckingham Palace tea, and the sandwiches were a watercress & cucumber, a grilled pear & gorgonzola, an egg salad, and a chicken with almonds (1/4 of a sandwich for each type, so the equivalent of 1 full sandwich). Then there were scones with real devonshire cream and jam, along with a tiny berry tart. And finally, strawberries & cream - delicious! I didn't feel greatly stuffed afterwards, but we had breakfast and not lunch that day. Whatever you decide to do, enjoy your tea!

 

[barbeml]

DH and I did the tea in May, and we both enjoyed it very much. (It was actually better than the tea I had at Harrods in London). DH doesn't go for the floofy stuff, but he thought the tea was great and he still talks about it.

We both had the Buckingham Palace Tea, and we added the cheese plate, which was outstanding.

We had tea at 2PM and DH had a moderate appetite for our 7PM dinner, I just picked at mine (but the food at Boatwrights was pretty blah).

Enjoy!

 

[minkydog]

Of course, i did drink 4 pots of tea

 

[SeaSpray]

My DH and DSs enjoyed afternoon tea because the food was great

I think you'll be fine with the reservations you have booked. On the day we did the tea we spent all day at Typhoon Lagoon, then got back to the Grand Floridian and showered and cleaned up, then went to tea at around 4 pm. That night we went to Downtown Disney and weren't hungry until around 10pm so we went to Planet Hollywood for a bite to eat.

You're ADR is for 8:40pm at Le Cellier so even if you are seated pretty much on time, you won't start eating really until close to 9pm. Just pace yourself I think you'll be fine. If you find yourself not very hungry that night, just split your entree, or just get appetizers, etc. Or like you said, share your lunch and/or the food at the tea.

Regarding the tea sandwiches, I remember one of them being cucumber and watercress, so that'd work out for you. Just tell them you're a vegetarian and I'm sure they'll be accomodating

Have fun!

 

[greg126]

Realizing this is a highly individualized experience and some folks could probably spend quite some time at this - I'm just wondering roughly how much time to figure on for this - closer to 1 hour, 2 hours or what?

Say there is something else we'd like to get to at some point that afternoon so there wouldn't be dawdling on the part under our control (consumption). For the items I see on the menu it appears food preparation would be minimal, so I'm wondering primarily about how efficient they tend to be taking/delivering orders and bringing/taking up the bill......

Thanks....

 

[daisax]

We spent about an hour over ours -- a very leisurely hour. I suppose you could spend more time, but the women who were just starting when we arrived and the couple that arrived after we'd been there 10 minutes left at the same approximate time we did. It was a very slow time, so we weren't rushed -- I think some people felt some pressure from the service during very busy weeks. Wasn't our experience, though.