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