After we checked out our room and got settled we decided it would be nice to grab a bite to eat before our afternoon tea reservation at the Garden View Tea Room. We thought that since we were staying at the Grand Floridian we would see what they had to eat at Gasparilla Grill and Games. Now heres an odd side story that I noticed out of the corner of my eye. We were walking into the main doors of the food court and close to the entrance there is a set of self-serve ice cream machines. Out of the corner of my eye I see a man walk up to the ice cream machine and he stuck his finger into the machine and scooped some of the ice cream and ate it. It was just one of those now why would you do that? moments. I mean what about the next person who is actually going to buy some ice cream. Needless to say, he was not the only person I saw doing that during our trip to Gasparilla Grill and Games.
Anyways, we checked out the menu for lunch/dinner time and decided that there was nothing really there for us to eat. We dont really like seafood, so that certainly narrowed our choices. Instead of eating at Gasparilla Grill and Games we decided to eat at the Polynesian at Captain Cooks Snack Company. Now thats a place that we know has something that we all like to eat.
Hint to a Surprise: Could this possibly be building our case against staying at the Grand Floridian?
So we walked over to the Polynesian. I might add that it felt like it was extremely hot considering that when we left Canada it was 40F and when we landed in Orlando it was 87F. This was our first real time being outside in the sun for more than 5 minutes. But anyways, Captain Cooks was not busy at all. Which reminds me of something that I forgot to mention the Grand Floridian was B-U-S-Y!!! Of course it was the last night of peak season but you couldnt necessarily walk in a straight line, rather you had to weave in and out of people to get where you wanted to go.
Hint to a Surprise: Could the crowd levels foreshadow what is to come?
Here is what we decided to eat for our lunch/early dinner at Captain Cooks: >> Pulled Pork Sandwich with Polynesian Chips
>> Chicken Caesar Salad with Wonton Croutons
>> Nesquick Chocolate Milk
Chicken Caesar Salad with Wonton Croutons
Pulled Pork Sandwich with Polynesian Chips
** Next time, I would order the salad without the chicken. For some reason I'm not that fond of cold chicken anymore. Either way the salad tasted really nice! My parents really enjoyed the Pulled Pork Sandwich but they felt that it was too much for them to eat, even though they split the sandwich. They too would eat the Pulled Pork Sandwich again. It has been their favorite for over a year or so.
We didnt really want to eat that much considering that we had tea booked in just a few hours. It felt nice to eat at the Polynesian and it offered a sense of finally being at home.
Do not get me wrong, I was grateful to stay at the Grand Floridian but it was not worth the price in my opinion. With the price we were paying for the room youd expect it to be decent. I know that the price is technically also for the amenities, but still with the reputation of that hotel I dont know. Maybe I was just biased towards the Polynesian but all I knew was that I did not want to leave the Polynesian to go back to the Grand Floridian. And trust me, I was not the only one.
Dont get me wrong, I mean the Grand Floridian is a very nice place. But for us the Grand Floridian is a nice place to visit, not to stay. Just like to others the Polynesian might be a nice place to visit and not to stay. Everyone has their own opinions, and its always good to try new things to see if your opinions may change. As we were walking back to our room at the Grand Floridian, we all somewhat were thinking the same thing. The Grand Floridian does not really have a theme like the Polynesian does. There is something about the Polynesian that makes you feel like you are actually on vacation. As we would walk up the concrete stairwell beside our room in the Conch Key building, we would think of the Polynesian wooden stairs that added to the theme of the resort.
By the time we were done eating at Captain Cooks it was time to head back to the Grand Floridian for our afternoon tea reservation.
We all really enjoyed the Afternoon Tea at the Garden View Tea Room when we tried it for the first time in 2010. We decided that it was a nice treat to have as a light dinner after having either a big breakfast or a big lunch. You will notice that we will be frequenting the afternoon tea quite a bit. That is how much we enjoy it!
So we all ordered the same tea: Princess Breakfast Tea. Its organic rooibos tea with a light flavor of vanilla and a hint of strawberries. It smells delightful and it tastes even better than it smells.
My parents both ordered Strawberries and Cream and I ordered a small selection of pastries. They bring over a tray of pastries for you too choose from and you can choose however many you would like. I decided that it would be best to stick with two pastries since we would be having some treats back at the room later on in the evening. So I chose a chocolate cannoli and a fruit tart. Let me tell you right now that the fruit tart was absolutely delicious, and you will see how delicious it really was when you hear what I order later on in the week at the rest of our tea reservations.
Our tea came in a press pot, which will be relevant later on in the week again at our next tea reservation. We were all able to finish the entire press pot of tea simply because we were so thirsty and we hadnt had any tea to drink since 5:00am. I would recommend the Garden View Tea Room to anyone who enjoys drinking tea. Its a nice little place to enjoy a little cup of tea and a small snack.
After our tea at the Garden View Tea Room we decided to head to Gasparilla Grill and Games to buy refillable mugs. We noticed at the Polynesian they were only selling the yellow refillable mugs, so we were hoping that the Grand Floridian would have a larger selection of colors for us to choose from. My mom chose a pink mug, my dad chose a yellow mug and I chose the turquoise mug. Later on in the trip I noticed that they had black mugs, which my dad would have bought if they had it when we first bought our mugs.
When we got back to the room my dad decided to take a nap since it had been a long day. While he was taking a nap my mom and I were talking about how much we missed staying at the Polynesian and how staying at the Grand Floridian felt unusual or out of place. Once my dad woke up we all decided to ride the resort monorail around. Now this was not the smartest idea considering the Magic Kingdom closed at 7:00pm which meant that everyone would be trying to get onto the monorails at the Magic Kingdom stop. On the monorail we were met by screaming kids who were being encouraged to scream by their parents. Oh well. We decided to get off at the Contemporary to look around.
Being that it was the last day of peak season, even the Contemporary was really busy. We still were able to look around the shops, but we wanted to head back to the resort to settle down for the night. Once again there were kids who were screaming at the top of their lungs with their parents encouraging them. I know that its Disney World and kids are supposed to have fun, but when its 8:00pm, piercing screams could be taken down just a notch. Especially since everyone else on the monorail were giving the family with the child looks, so it wasnt just us who thought it was a little loud.
Regardless we were all happy to get off the monorail and walk back to the Grand Floridian from the Polynesian. After we got back to our room we decided to settle down for the night. With our first park being Disneys Hollywood Studios we needed to have the most amount of energy!
Ooh I love the pulled pork sandwich from the Poly!!! The Garden View Tea Room sounds so nice! We have never tried it, maybe that'll be our next adventure in WDW! And I'm liking where your hints are going... haha
Today is Sunday, May 1st 2011. Today will be full of surprises both inside the park and out. But before we get to those surprises we need to discuss our morning, and what we had for breakfast.
My mom and I like to go for a morning walk while my dad gets ready to meet us for breakfast. If we were staying at the Polynesian we would walk from our longhouse to the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. Since we are staying at the Grand Floridian we walked from our building to the Polynesian main lobby and back. We would have walked further into the Polynesian resort, like perhaps to the Tahiti longhouse, but because I wanted to take some pictures along the way we decided that we didnt have time to walk all that way.
Our breakfast reservation was for 7:30am at the Grand Floridian Café. We tried this place for the first time for breakfast in 2010. We really enjoyed it, so we decided to make the majority of our breakfast reservations for the Grand Floridian Café. Plus its nice to have breakfast at our hotel so that we could eat, get ready and head out to the park.
We had a server that we have had before at the Grand Floridian Café. The one time we had him my brother referred to him as Texas and as soon as I saw his name on our little reservation receipt I said to my mom Our server is Texas! Sure enough we were correct and we all thought that he was a pretty good server. Here is what we had for breakfast:
>> Citrus Pancakes
>> Maple Vanilla French Toast
>> Cranberry Juice
>> Pineapple Juice
>> Hot Tea (English Breakfast, Ceylon Orange Pekoe)
We would give our breakfast an 8/10. It was nice, but I found the pancakes to be a bit sweet because Im not a big fan of having nuts in pancakes. My dad enjoyed his French Toast, but again we found that it was not as good as we remembered it to be.
Hint: we have lots of reservations for breakfast at the Grand Floridian Café but will we keep them all?
After we were done eating breakfast we headed back to the hotel room to get ready to go to Disneys Hollywood Studios!
The Garden View Tea Room sounds so nice! We have never tried it, maybe that'll be our next adventure in WDW! 
And I'm liking where your hints are going...
haha
