Any reviews on the special Sleeping Beauty Party at the GF

princesscrazydaughte

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Jul 18, 2003
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I think the first day for this was the 23rd. Just wondered if any of you had been to this trial for this expensive event? It sounds like so much fun, I hope they extend it and lower the price a bit.
 
I haven't heard about this, but my DD5 would absolutely LOVE to see Sleeping Beauty. She's her favorite. What can you tell me about the party? Thanks! princess:
 
I've seen pictures of this. Sleeping Beauty is wearing the same dress in a different color. It matches the blue dress perfectly, but now its pink. I wonder if she switches back and forth between the two now?
 
Originally posted by Samirella
I've seen pictures of this. Sleeping Beauty is wearing the same dress in a different color. It matches the blue dress perfectly, but now its pink. I wonder if she switches back and forth between the two now?

Aurora in pink? Flora must be happy about that.
 

This was a trial event where a child and a parent get to have a royal tea party with Sleeping Beauty at the GF. I believe it is called the Perfectly Princess Grand Tea Party. In any event, you can read about it at the Disney Gallery web site. It was a trial event from Oct. 23 through Nov. 2, included a doll and present. I was hoping it would be a hit and would be extended. My daughter's absolute favorite princess is Aurora.

I'm still hoping someone out there will post a report.
 
wow. i hope they continue this for next year. even though i'm 21 i would love to go to this. princess aurora is my favorite princess. i was fortunate to meet her, in blue, last june. it was definitley one of the high lights of our last trip (the biggest one of course is the engagement)
 
If that's the case than I can't afford to go to it. I've always wondered what Walt would think of Disney's current prices :(
 
We would have gone otherwise, sorry but I think $200 is quite steep! $19.99 is steep enough with another $9.99 for a child who doesn't eat what they serve for breakfast ...but I'll pay that for her, but not $200, for that, they should have all the princesses for an hour!! with lobster!:tongue:
 
I'm going to move this to our resorts board for you.
 
OH MY!

Did you say there are pictures of this event? Where are the pictures. I would LOVE to see them. Does anyone have a link???
I can't wait, I am making my PS's this week for our trip so I would LOVE to do this for my DD.

Thank You,
Wendi
 
Boy, I wish this wasn't so expensive.

I would love to see pictures too. Maybe they will make changes to it (and hopefully one of the changes is in the price).

DJ
 
Hi,

Yes, my sister and I did this with 2 of my neices and I hate to say it, but it was disappointing in our opinion. All of us have multiple Disney trips and are DVC members, so we are pretty Disney savvy and we really love most of what the mouse has to offer. This was not, pardon the pun, our cup of tea!! Sorry, I couldn't resist....

Also to qualify, this is our opinion and experience only and someone else may have loved it.

There were 23 people at our party, still plenty of room for more - I think the lady said it was a 43 person capacity for the event. It is held in the garden view tea room at the Grand Floridian. You check in and wait until it starts. Seating is preassigned, so it does not do any good to get there early. The room is small and all the seats are good as far as interaction goes.

It was a bit slow moving, and and 1.5 hours a bit long. At the end, you felt like they were trying to stretch it out. I think an hour would be fine. Note we also have done Mary Poppins Practically Perfect Tea at Disneyland (1 hour) and the girls really enjoyed that and it was only $25 or so per person....much better deal.

Alot of the little girls wore princess dresses, we did not, but did not feel out of place. We did dress up in nice clothes.

What happened for us:

The night before they put personalized invitations under our door at the hotel inviting the little girls to tea with Princess Aurora. This was a very nice touch and it created a great first impression for specialness, but unfortunately the event did not keep up this initial great first impression.

When they are ready to seat, they call each girl up individually to enter the tea and give her a "crown" and call her princess "so-and-so". The crown is plastic beaded with trailing curly ribbon and they sprinkle her with rose petals. They allow you to take a picture with Miss Petal, your hostess. Then they seat you and the dolls are waiting where they seat the girls.

The dolls were not that great. They were on the "cheap" side (quality), not what I was expecting for the $200/couple price tag. But they are dressed in a pink Sleeping Beauty dress with a crown and scepter. The bracelet they give the girls is the plastic silver coated 1/4" beaded on elastic (think mardi gras beads). It is used as the napkin ring on their napkin.

Then they serve you tea (cold apple juice for the girls) and sandwiches while Miss Petal, the performer, sings and tells you the story of her and the story of Aurora. There are sandwiches and cheese/crackers and fruit. Then they offer cake for desert. (This was actually funny...they have a beautiful pink princess cake that they show you to serve and then they take it in the back and out comes presliced cake with white icing (strawberry filling)....not the beautiful princess cake they took behind closed doors. Even the 5 year old asked if she could have the pink cake. We tap danced around that and all was good.

There is a bit of a sing-a-long and they teach you the sign language for Hail to the King/Queen/Princess Aurora and then at the end Sleeping Beauty shows up and does visit with each girl individually for pictures and autographs. Then there is more singing and it is over.

They send you up to the gift shop on the 2nd floor to get the naming of the doll certificate and a plastic protector sheet with a very few scrapbooking supplies.

My honest opinion....
The girls (7 & 5) said it was boring (and the 5 year olds favorite is Aurora!!!) ....My sister and I had a hard time arguing with them on that point, but I did say it is always good to try new things and at least you could say you did it. It was definitely very slow moving.

Would we do it again? No.
Would I recommend it? Unfortunately, no.
Quality of food? Poor (stale bread and crackers - they had premade and refrigerated it and the bread got very dry)
Quality of doll, crown and bracelet? Cheap dollar store plastic - honestly not what I was expecting for $200

The price tag is way out of line with the quality of what is there for food and merchandise. And Miss Petal, although very talented, carries the whole event and after the first half dozen songs, we were done with the sing-a-long.

On this event, at this price, Disney is making a fortune!!! I honestly felt a little ripped off and felt sorry for those that might have scraped their pennies to make this happen for their daughters

I know some are die hard princess fans, and you want your little girl to see them and I completely understand, but unless you can afford the $200 price tag, there are definitely better ways to check the princesses off your list.

Okay, so this is just my opinion. If you have any specific questions, please let me know and I will tell you what I can.

Wish my review could be better.
Best,
Michelle
 
Michelle - thanks for the honest review. I didn't expect any great shakes out of the tea/food portion of the event. We have done afternoon tea at the GF and I guess I expect the food would be about the same. I had hoped to hear better about the doll and bracelet. Didn't the description of the event say something about a gift for the adult as well?.........or did you get a napkin ring....er...I mean bracelet too? I was also hoping the special dessert would actually be special (something like the glass slipper dessert they offer at the GF) as opposed to a slice of cake. I would have hoped to hear that your girls felt special, as opposed to being bored. I'm sure every kid will react differently, but for the price no kid should walk away with bored in their vocabulary. Sounds like Disney could have done more to make this event worth the price tag. There is no way they should let anyone walk away being the least bit disappointed after dropping $200 for an hour and a half and $75 worth of food/gifts. It's not like this event is the only place you can see Sleeping Beauty. How long did she spend at the table with your girls? If the interaction is no better than either of the Princess breakfasts it kind of takes away some of the potential benefit of this event.

It will be interesting to see how other peole react, but at least right now I'm not still hoping they will extend the dates.
 
Good review. You wouldn't happen to have any pictures from this would you?
 
When I saw this event I couldnt believe the amount of people who thought it was a wonderful idea at that price. I cant imagine what they could do to make it worth this. The Princess breakfast at Epcot was worth every penny, even though my daughters ate very little. They were so excited, even more so than at Cinderella's breakfast. But what else could you really do to make it worth $200.00, and that is 1 child 1 adult. You have pay more for a second child. I would have to take Aurora home with me for that.
 
I would have to bring Cinderella home with me for that price....including her broom and mop (to clean my house). THEN maybe it would be worth it! :sunny:

DJ
 
.....or Mary Poppins be my child's nanny for a day. Take DD5 on all the rides...do whatever my child wants...all day long. That might be worth $200. (Okay, only kidding. I love to see how DD5 reacts on the rides, and her face when she sees a character....) :hyper:
 
I cant imagine what they could do to make it worth this.
I could............but apparently Disney is more interested in a huge profit margin than a lower per guest profit for a truely special event.

Look at it this way:

If you took your daughter for afternoon tea at the GF (a very nice thing to do) and bought the Buckingham Palace and Mrs. Potts Tea you spend about $30. If they offered the neat glass slipper dessert they have available for receptions and special order (looks really neat..and what little girl wouldn't love that) you could tack another $17 onto the value. They could provide a nice collectible doll worth, say, $50. A real bracelet worth $30, a $10 gift for mom, and a $25 premium for a one on one Aurora meet and greet event..............Disney could easily have provided $162 worth of value for the $200 price......................and still made $38+ per couple. Back out cost of the host and any other supplies and Disney still could have made a hefty profit..............and sent mom and daughter away with a truely magical experience. Any way you slice it it would still be expensive, but they easily could have made it worth the money.

Instead they took the low cost route and left at least one guest feeling ripped off. What a shame.
 
Thank you so much, NEM, for your honest review. I was feeling a little sad that my DD and I would not be attending as one of the parties is on her 7th birthday, Nov. 1. Not that we will even be in the World at that time :(

DisneyKidds, I like your plan much better. ::yes:: If/when my family is next at WDW, I think I'll make a point to take DD for afternoon tea. I've attended with a group of adult women friends, and it was wonderful! :chat:
 












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