From Europe to Africa in America - A Sisters' Expedition

[All7OfUs]

I saw a write up for a place not too far from you. I giggle every time I hear Wild Wadi. I think it is the Wa sound.

Did you know a whwole new line of "swimwear" was developed around the same time Wild Wadi was built? To find swimwear that covered sufficiently and was also lightweight enough not to impact the swimmer was needed.

Here's what I know...

They were anal about not letting ANYONE on any slides with regular cotton t-shirts or shorts on- AT ALL!

You had to have smimwear that was made of lycra or other synthetic.

We saw LOTS of "burkhinis" Women were covered from head to ankle in the wave pools and beyond, and they looked rather comfy to me. Sure would cut down on the burns and cancer, I imagine. Anyway, I can't imagine going down a slide in one, either. I have pix, but not on photobucket. They are on my blog though from my posts about our Dubai trip. INteresting to be sure.

 

[Flossbolna]

That place is HUGE. My place is listed at 29,000 sq feet and so tiny. Since we are a Park and Recreation we had such a small foot print to work with.

I love those huge places, so much to do and see.

It is huge, but the main focus isn't on the slides and such like this. It is more like a vacation resort, with a large area with steam rooms, saunas and such (Germans love this), a "beach", the rain forest, a shopping/dining village and shows.

Here's what I know...

They were anal about not letting ANYONE on any slides with regular cotton t-shirts or shorts on- AT ALL!

You had to have smimwear that was made of lycra or other synthetic.

We saw LOTS of "burkhinis" Women were covered from head to ankle in the wave pools and beyond, and they looked rather comfy to me. Sure would cut down on the burns and cancer, I imagine. Anyway, I can't imagine going down a slide in one, either. I have pix, but not on photobucket. They are on my blog though from my posts about our Dubai trip. INteresting to be sure.

I remember some pics you had from your retreat in Uzbekistan (where you had so much trouble to get there and back) and then you and your daughters were also wearing swim suits which were very covering - were those bought for Dubai?

 

[Flossbolna]

Our destination was the Grand Floridian where we had an ADR for afternoon tea in the Garden View Tea Room.

This afternoon tea seems to be a favourite among the ladies on the DIS, but I want to explain a little bit about it: As you will see, this is a real tea service, I think it is also called “high tea”. It does not only include the beverage tea, but is a meal in itself. I still remember how during my time at university in London my English flatmates confused me constantly by calling meals dinner, supper or tea and all seemed to take place in the evening, until someone had their “dinner” at 1 pm.... I never really understood the English nomenclature for meals... But tea is a meal! And this one especially.

The Garden View Tea Room is just off the lobby of the GF on the first floor, the end opposite the entrance into the lobby. It is only open for the afternoon tea service from 2 to 5pm and it very much requires an ADR which is only available over the phone, not in the online booking engine. It isn't large at all and ADRs tend to go fast.

Katharina and I love tea – the beverage – and we love English tea shops where you would get scones with clotted cream or crumpets or toasted tea cakes or lemon drizzle cake... I think this was one of the first ADRs we were sure we wanted to get and we thought it would make a perfect birthday treat!

We had an ADR for just when the Tea Room would open at 2pm and were running a bit late, therefore the taxi. Every park (except the MK) has a taxi stand in the bus area and there are always taxis waiting. To my surprise the taxi had to drive in strange ways (first away from the MK area than turn around...) until we could get on our way to the GF, so the fare was a bit higher than I expected, on the meter it was 13.25 $ in case anyone wants to know. The taxi driver was certainly not a Disney CM – he was not actively rude, but gave us the feeling of being intruders in his vehicle by ignoring us....

We arrived at the GF just in time – after a brief visit to the lovely GF bathrooms (good choice to wait until we arrived instead of using the ones in Epcot) and a brief look at the lobby – it was time to check in for our tea!

There was quite a line, but the process was quick and we were seated nearly immediately. After I asked, they also confirmed that they had the note that Katharina needs to avoid dairy, but seemed a bit surprised by that...

Soon after we were seated our tea lady appeared with an apprentice in tow – a college program CM who was earning her ears. End of January seems to be the time they start, we saw so many college program CMs on that trip. And I thought if you end up with a job in food and beverages, serving at the tea room is actually a really good one! The tea lady explained the teas and confirmed to us that the Russian Earl Grey (me) and the Imperial English Breakfast (Katharina) were both going to be served with a tea cosy! We really wanted to get a real tea pot with those beautiful cosies we had seen in other people's reviews!!

Here is Katharina looking all excited about the experience:

Before ordering any food, we of course had to speak with a chef. We had wanted to order the Buckingham Palace Tea which is a three course meal which includes the following:

Buckingham Palace - Our traditional tea sandwiches, scones and jam tarts complemented by fresh strawberries and cream, or a selection of freshly baked pastries, along with your choice of tea.

Once again we had a very nice chef talk to us about the non-dairy requirement and he told us that we could order the Buckingham Palace Tea, there was no problem, he would be able to make special sandwiches for Katharina and also provide a special sweet course. However, this might take a bit longer. We had no huge plans until dinner later in the evening, so we were fine with a more relaxed meal!!

We were then served our beverages and each of us really liked her choice. However, those tea cosies look very fancy, but they are not nearly as good at keeping the tea warm as the ones we have at home! I guess it is an issue of design before function... or they just don't have the need so much for it, they rather want people to leave again so that they can turn over the table – but after our coming experience I rather doubt it...

you even get this lovely tea strainer for your tea:

Soon after the manager came to speak to us. He was very nice and gave Katharina a rose for her birthday.

Then nothing happened, everyone around us (a lot of people were seated at the same time as us) already had finished their first course and then were already starting their second course...

Then the manager reappeared asking Katharina to confirm again what it was that she could not eat... He said sorry for the delay and promised to head off to clarify things in the kitchen again... Nothing happened, finally our tea lady appeared and asked Katharina whether eggs were dairy? There seemed to be some confusion about whether Katharina could eat eggs or not. I have no idea how this happened, I think it might have been the manager who was confused, because I really hope that a restaurant chef would be able to distinguish between dairy (food produced from milk) and eggs (normally laid by birds – which are not mammals and therefore don't have any milk!)!!!

Katharina and I were rather amused by this, we were still enjoying the atmosphere of the Tea Room and just sitting there relaxing. On our first trip to Disneyland Paris we had found the lounge of the Disneyland Hotel – which has a view down Main Street and has a very similar atmosphere (we will make sure to visit it in March and post pictures). It was fun to compare the two.

Finally our sandwiches arrived at 2:50pm(!), these are mine:

And these are Katharina's:

I did not make a note of what it was, but I think it was cucumber, egg salad, pear and some blue cheese (gorgonzola possibly), shrimps, chicken salad and an onion tart. I had asked them to substitute the shrimp (which I don't like) with the blue cheese.

The sandwiches are pre-made for the tea and even though we were served pretty early, they were already a bit dry. I thought I could tell a difference between Katharina's freshly made ones and mine. I wonder whether they would be really stale if you had tea towards the end of the meal or whether they continue making them during the time of the tea? They were still very delicious. Every sandwich had different bread with its own seasoning which complimented the filling. I loved the blue cheese one and was glad that I had two of these! To me they were a real highlight of the tea.

The next course took some time as well, my pictures of it are from 3:20pm.

The second course normally was scone with cream and jam tart and that's what I got:

This was very nice, the scone was very soft, not nearly as crumbly as I am used to, but I enjoyed this. I thought that the cream portion was very small. In England I am used to get about as much as an ice cream scoop of clotted cream. Also, this was more like double cream than clotted cream, but since I never was able to get real clotted cream outside of England anyway, I wasn't really expecting it.

But I was a bit disappointed in the presentation of the jam: the foil container just looked cheap and out of place to me.

Katharina however got this exciting plate:

It was some angel food cake, a brownie Mickey and a macaroon. I loved the presentation!!

This was quite a surprise! It was all good, but a little bit too sweet for my taste. And I think I didn’t like the brownie Mickey as much, but I loved what they made out of a prepacked vegan brownie...

At this point we started to feel like time was running away. We were fine with a comfortable meal, but by now we had been there nearly 1.5 hours!! Even people who had arrived much later than us already had gone again. So we asked for the check at the same time as our last course was being served. Here we both chose the strawberries. After all the cake we were looking forward to some fruit:

I got them with cream, Katharina without cream. For whatever reason, these were not nearly as good as the many strawberries we already had had in different places all over WDW. They were a bit tasteless. I also wasn't too fond of the whipped cream, but this might just be a difference in taste between the European and the American palate. I thought it was whipped too much and too sweet. Also I missed the slight vanilla aroma we usually add to our whipped cream.

One good thing during our long waits was that we got refills on the tea, which was very much appreciated! We were offered not because of the delay, it seemed standard.

Typing this I realize that the review sounds rather negative, but I know that we truly enjoyed the experience. We weren't in a rush and enjoyed the atmosphere of the lovely surroundings. It wasn't until the very end that we thought it was a bit ridiculous how long this took. I have read many reviews from people who really hated restaurants due to long waits, but waiting normally does not bother me very much. And in this case it was due to everything being made special for Katharina. Also, me being not too thrilled with some of the foods was also a bit due to me choosing poorly. I knew before that there were some other menu items that I found more intriguing, but I wanted to have the classical afternoon tea for my first visit to the Tea Room. And none of the food was really bad or so.

It was a wonderful experience and I am planning on a return visit on my next trip, I would even take Katharina with me, they can't get confused about eggs and dairy every time we visit!

I agree that this was perfect for my birthday and next time I’m sure we would order something else – and I would love to come with you!

Take a detour to: Bonus Feature: Tea at Hotel Adlon in Berlin

Or go directly to: Chapter 33: The First Last Visit

 

[podsnel]

I always enjoy that tea- we have it planned for the 3rd time this May! In the past, the jam came in a little glass jar- I would agree with you that the little tin is cheesy. Next time you go, try to have the pastries for tea- they are soooo delicious, we all loved the swan!

 

[Flossbolna]

I always enjoy that tea- we have it planned for the 3rd time this May! In the past, the jam came in a little glass jar- I would agree with you that the little tin is cheesy. Next time you go, try to have the pastries for tea- they are soooo delicious, we all loved the swan!

Perhaps the glass jars were out? That's what I would have expected. Or even some jam served in a bowl similar to the one where the cream was in? I hope it was only temporary!

I think next time I would go for the Gentlemen's tea with the pate and stuff like that. Sounds delicious to me!

 

[englishrose47]

I loved your review of the "TEA" !! In England traditionally the Main Meal is eaten around 1 pm and then around 5pm it is TEATIME. The afternoon teas are usuallyfor when company comes over and are just tea and biscuits(cookies) The mid morning break is called Elevenses

The High Teas are much more fancy and the Clotted Cream is best known in Devonshire . A popular finger sandwich in England was cheese and cucumber !!

 

[Flossbolna]

I loved your review of the "TEA" !! In England traditionally the Main Meal is eaten around 1 pm and then around 5pm it is TEATIME. The afternoon teas are usuallyfor when company comes over and are just tea and biscuits(cookies) The mid morning break is called Elevenses

The High Teas are much more fancy and the Clotted Cream is best known in Devonshire . A popular finger sandwich in England was cheese and cucumber !!

Thanks Rosie! And thanks for the additional tea information!

I absolutely adore English tea rooms and the High Tea is really a fun event! Will post more about that soon in a bonus update....

 

[glennbo123]

I'm glad Katharina enjoyed her birthday tea!

It did sound like it took an extra-long time for tea and sandwiches, but that happens sometimes.

 

[Flossbolna]

I'm glad Katharina enjoyed her birthday tea!

It did sound like it took an extra-long time for tea and sandwiches, but that happens sometimes.

Well, at first it was just the issue of Katharina's special order and then we think it was the manage trying to be smarter than the cook... After that things proceeded quite ok... And everyone else around us had no problem, the food is all there, ready to be served.

 

[kid-at-heart]

The tea looks wonderful, the wait - not so. I also agree that the jam in the little tins is not very classy. The jam would have provided better presentation even if it had been spooned into a small bowl.

We also add vanilla to our whipped cream. I thought everyone did.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

The taxi driver was certainly not a Disney CM – he was not actively rude, but gave us the feeling of being intruders in his vehicle by ignoring us....

That was the exact impression my parents had of their two cab rides on our last trip.

Katharina however got this exciting plate:

It was some angel food cake, a brownie Mickey and a macaroon. I loved the presentation!!

Oh, that's gorgeous! I love the way they drizzled the sauce so artistically!

The Tea sounds just wonderful - I'd really love to try that sometime!

 

[Flossbolna]

The tea looks wonderful, the wait - not so. I also agree that the jam in the little tins is not very classy. The jam would have provided better presentation even if it had been spooned into a small bowl.

We also add vanilla to our whipped cream. I thought everyone did.

That was exactly my idea, why didn't they use the same little bowl they used for the cream which was presented very beautifully?

Interesting about the vanilla, I guess you would use vanilla essence? Here in Germany we mainly use vanilla sugar, but when I translated some Christmas cookies recipes, I found out that vanilla sugar appears to be something typical German. So I thought maybe the vanilla in the whipped cream was as well...

That was the exact impression my parents had of their two cab rides on our last trip.

Oh, that's gorgeous! I love the way they drizzled the sauce so artistically!

The Tea sounds just wonderful - I'd really love to try that sometime!

During these last days of the trip we did take quite a few cabs and he was definitely the most un-Disney-like driver. The others were not spectacular, but at least friendlier.

I am sure your daughters would love the tea! We saw quite a few girls in there, but also people on their own, couples and one larger group which seemed to be locals. Quite a bit different from your typical theme park restaurant, but they made everyone feel welcome!

 

[manntra]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHARINA!!!​

​

Your tea review sounds delightful...well not the amount of time you had to spend there
I think we talked about doing this for our East meets West trip in May but I don't know if we booked it...I don't think so but I will definitely check it out sometime....I am not a coffee drinker at all but I do enjoy tea
Your trip is right around the corner!! So exciting!!

Tracy

 

[eandesmom]

I read your review and then tried to look at my pictures as I don't recall the jam being in a tin, I think that would have stuck out to me but it appears we ate the scones and tart so quickly, that I didn't get a picture of that course!

I have to say, it was not a "quick" event, even without the restrictions but I agree, just a lovely experience and I'm glad we did it. I am glad they took such good care of Katharina, even if it was slow...

 

[englishrose47]

Good Morning !! I am still at work and entertaining myself so I don't fall asleep !!!

 

[Millie12591]

Awwww, I missed her birthday by 4 or is it for you 5 days now. Oh well, better late than never!


Happy Happy

~KATHARINA~

 

[lovealldisney]

What a nice afternoon! I would love to do this with my DD. We both love tea. I can only wish for now, someday we will be back to Disney. Nice update ladies.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Looks like a nice, relaxing time for the two of you at the GF. Sorry it took so long, but I'm glad you didn't feel the need to rush. It's hard to slow down when you're at WDW!

 

[All7OfUs]

Without giving too much away from my how Tea update- and actually, after seeing yours I am VERY tempted to do mine now, out of order- I can't wait to do mine as a comparison. There were some very striking similarities, and yet, there were also some big differences; the most notable being that I order the Prince Edwards.

I think the confusion of eggs being dairy, although there really should be no excuse for this!, is that eggs are kept next "dairy" section next to milk oftentimes in grocery stores. I have never been able to figure that out? Anyway, without really thinking it through, some people may think that they are part of the milk-product food family when obviously they are not.

Anyway, I can say, as we experienced as well, you CAN NOT be in a hurry for this event!! It needs time to be relaxed over and will require pretty much an afternoon.

 

[Kleese]

I love going to a teas. I go to one every year and it's so wonderful and special All the ladies wear hats and some wear gloves. Did many people dress up to go? Or was it just casual? Did they serve lemon curd at the tea? It's one of my favorite things to eat with scones. Thank you for posting your tea. I want to go but I'll have to wait till we go with another couple with a willing female. I can't image dragging my husband there. Talk about bringing a bull into a china shop