Lots of new experiences for all of us on the next day of our trip report! To catch up on what we’ve done so far…
Find day 1 here!
Day 2 here!
Day 3 here!
And day 4 here!
Pre-Park Opening Breakfast
Our first order of business was breakfast! Usually when we travel, we do breakfast in our hotel room to save some money. We stay in studio rooms at DVC resorts, so we have access to a mini fridge, microwave, etc., and we bring our own food to prepare a quick breakfast. Way cheaper than eating in the parks! This time, however, we wanted to try something different – a pre-park opening breakfast!
There are options at every park for a breakfast reservation before the park officially opens. We opted to go with Magic Kingdom, so we could take advantage of some of the more popular attractions without using a FastPass+ on them. We picked Be Our Guest so we could enjoy the ambiance of dining in the Beast’s castle! Plus, we could order off the kid’s menu (as I’ve stated before, buffets are just too much food for us!).
Tip: For breakfast or lunch at Be Our Guest, place your order in advance through the app or MyDisneyExperience.com – it’ll make your arrival & dining experience easier & quicker!
We arrived at the Magic Kingdom about 30 minutes before our reservation. Our reservation was for 8:15am, and the park was set to open at 9. We used the turnstiles on the far left, where they verified that we had a reservation for dining. Regular day guests were directed to the turnstiles on the right, where they were going to be held for a while. They held us at the train station at this point. The vast majority of guests, probably about 95% of them, were at the tunnel on the left, but we noticed some guests were off to the right. We wandered over there and verified with the Cast Members that we could wait over there. Might as well wait where there’s nobody!
A few minutes later they let us in! I’m glad we were over on the less crowded side – not that it was particularly crowded, but it’s always nice to have a little extra breathing room. Walking towards Cinderella Castle, it was pretty empty – we stopped for some pictures on the way, and as we got towards the end of Main Street, U.S.A. we were ushered towards the left.
At some point we were handed a slip of paper when they verified our reservation (I believe this was before we entered the park). Important note: DO NOT throw away this slip of paper! This is how the Cast Members on the left of the Castle check to make sure you’re in the right spot! Anyways, when we got to the left side of the castle, we showed our slip of paper and were let into an empty Fantasyland. We checked into Be Our Guest (I believe at this point it was around 8:05am) and went straight ahead to verify our order and pay!
At Be Our Guest for breakfast or lunch, you can choose to sit wherever you want! At this point in the morning, they had the main ballroom and west wing open. We chose to sit in the main ballroom. All meals for breakfast come with a drink included. The kids meals that my friend and I ordered also came with small water bottles that we saved for later. As far as drink options – the soft drink machines were running, and we also had the choice of tea, coffee, or juice. The table was also given a plate of pastries to share. Tip: bring a Ziploc bag to take the remaining pastries to go! We snacked on them over the next day.
The food was pretty good – my friend and I ordered the kid’s oatmeal, and our husbands ordered Feast a la Gaston – pretty standard scrambled eggs, bacon, and potatoes. It was nice to have a sit-down breakfast, have the park to ourselves, and also not have a waiter check on us every 5 minutes. (Don’t get me wrong, I like being waited on, but there’s also something nice about having a private meal too!). I felt the price was fair given that we got to go into the park early, we got the pastries to share, and all the meals came with a drink. Had we had a later reservation, I don’t think it would have been worth it.
First Attraction of the Day!
We had FastPass+ reservations for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so we decided to queue up for Peter Pan’s Flight. We probably could have done both attractions, but we were on a bit of a tight schedule due to other reservations later today! We were the first guests in line for Peter Pan’s Flight, and we chatted with the Cast Member while we waited for the park to officially to open. Once it opened up, he walked us through the queue. I’m glad we didn’t have a FastPass+ for this one, because the queue has some fun effects that we got to experience that we wouldn’t have otherwise seen! We were officially the first riders on Peter Pan’s Flight, which was a fun experience.
Tomorrowland Time
We then headed over to Tomorrowland for a spin on the Astro Orbiter! I really like this one at Magic Kingdom because it’s up high in the air! Disneyland’s used to be high up, but when it was remodeled in the 90s it got moved to ground level and just isn’t as thrilling anymore. After Astro Orbiter we did the Peoplemover, an old favorite that no longer exists at Disneyland. (Disneyland execs, if you’re reading this, please bring it back!! We miss it!!) Tip: Astro Orbiter & Peoplemover don’t offer FastPass+, so do these early on or late in the day. We then blasted off through Space Mountain using our FastPass+!
A Few More Attractions…
Next, we headed over to Frontierland for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad using our FastPass+. I love this one at Magic Kingdom; it’s just slightly different than the one at Disneyland. Plus, I love the homage to Tony Baxter in the queue! After the wildest ride in the wilderness, we ran over to Hall of Presidents to catch the next show, before enjoying a 3D musical adventure with Philharmagic (by the way – Disneyland locals – the Magic Kingdom version of this is slightly better). We timed it perfectly so we could use our final FastPass+ on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train… then it was time for a new experience!
Tea Time!
We hopped on the Monorail outside Magic Kingdom to get a quick tour of the Magic Kingdom area resorts (Contemporary, Polynesian, and Grand Floridian) and hopped off at the final stop – the Grand Floridian! We had a reservation at the Garden View Tea Room for Afternoon Tea! Nobody in our party had ever done this before, and we were all looking forward to sitting down and enjoying a fancy tea.
If you’re wondering what to wear, just show up in whatever you feel comfortable in. There was a wide variety of guests: regular theme park guests like us, dressed casually; a group of older ladies dressed in fancy dresses and hats; a mom and daughter duo, wearing sundresses; really, wear what you feel comfortable in. We were in no way made to feel out of place or uncomfortable!
The tea room is small, so I recommend reservations. However, since the food side of menu is pretty much just sandwiches, cheese, fruit, and dessert, it doesn’t take too long to order and get your food.
Menu
Speaking of menu, there are three “levels” of experiences to choose from, plus the children’s option. The Bedfordshire Tea ($35) is the most basic option and includes finger sandwiches, a scone with accompaniments, your choice of dessert, and your choice of tea. The Cheshire Tea ($50) includes all that the Bedfordshire Tea includes, but also includes a selection of fruits and cheeses. The Berkshire Tea ($150 for 2) is intended for 2, and includes all that the Cheshire Tea includes, plus caviar and 2 pots of tea. Champagne is available for all packages at an additional charge. The children’s option, Mrs. Potts Tea ($23.79) includes sandwiches geared towards younger guests, pastries, and choice of drink. APs do get a discount here!
When you order, you’ll let your waiter know which experience you’d like to purchase, what dessert you’d like, and what tea you’d like. The tea menu is quite extensive and divided into varieties of tea – black teas, flavored black teas, herbal teas, green teas, etc. There were dozens of teas to choose from. There were only 3 dessert options, and to be honest they all sounded good! You can choose from a trio of house-made pastries, strawberries with cream, or a seasonal English trifle (when we went, it was cranberry).
What We Ordered & Thoughts on our Afternoon Tea
Three of us ordered the Bedfordshire Tea, and my husband ordered the Cheshire Tea because he loves cheese. I ordered champagne to go with my experience, and I chose the Fig & Rose White Tea. For dessert I chose the cranberry English trifle.
Service was pretty prompt – because there are no hot dishes, the food is ready to go as soon as we place our order. One of our party members is vegetarian, and requested the sweet curry chicken sandwich to be replaced with another option – not a problem! Our waiter asked which sandwich she would like instead, so she got to pick.
The tea arrived first and it was piping hot! We had to wait a bit for it to cool off. Shortly thereafter, our finger sandwiches arrived. Oh my goodness, these were so good. There were 4 sandwiches total, and I think my favorite was the poached pear & gorgonzola cream cheese. Next, we got our scones with accompaniments and strawberry tarts. Scones have a tendency to be crumbly and dry, but not this one. It was moist and didn’t crumble apart. Finally, dessert! I was the only one who ordered the cranberry trifle (I’m a trifle fan!) and it didn’t disappoint.
I was nervous there wouldn’t be enough food for this to constitute a meal, but it was certainly plenty of food. In fact, I couldn’t even finish my dessert! Other members of our party couldn’t finish their sandwiches and scones, opting to save room for dessert, so we ate off each other’s plates.
In all, I would definitely make the trip over to the Grand Floridian to do this again. I recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of tea experiences, or if you’re looking for something a little off the beaten path at Walt Disney World. Tip: if you’re interested in the cheese plate, have one person in your party order the Cheshire Tea and share the cheese plate! Or… hoard all the cheese to yourself 🙂
Back to Magic Kingdom!
We only really had one thing left to do in Magic Kingdom, and that was the Jungle Cruise! We scored FastPass+ for it but had some time to kill, so on the way out of the Grand Floridian we stopped by the Disney PhotoPass Studio and took some goofy pictures!
Then we headed onto the Monorail, caught a showing of the Tiki Room, and took a ride through the jungles of Adventureland! After that, our group split up a bit. My husband and I stayed behind to do some adventuring of our own, while our friends went back to the hotel to relax.
We grabbed FastPass+ for Aladdin’s Flying Carpets (this one is really easy to grab additional FastPass+ for!) and then we snagged FastPass+ for Tower of Terror in Hollywood Studios.. time for an adventure!
Adventure Time!
We headed out to the bus stop and waited forever, and ever, and ever for a bus. Eventually we gave up and just hopped on the next bus that showed up: Disney’s Riviera Resort. Cool, there’s a Skyliner station there: we can check out the grounds of the new resort and take the Skyliner to Hollywood Studios.
We arrived at the resort, uh-oh. Skyliner down! No telling when it will be back up. The resort is beautiful, though, and we spent time wandering the grounds for a bit. After hemming and hawing over what to do, we decided to walk over to the Skyliner station at Caribbean Beach Resort (which was a pretty long walk). At that point we were finally able to catch the Skyliner and take it over to Hollywood Studios. By the time we got to Hollywood Studios we were really tired from all the walking and didn’t want to go all the way to Tower of Terror, so we decided to hop on a Friendship Boat to Epcot.
I wanted to do some shopping in Epcot. At that point my husband was fed up with all the walking (sorry!) and just wanted to go back to the hotel. He headed out of the park towards the buses while I ran into Mouse Gear to pick up a spirit jersey and t-shirt, as well as a t-shirt for our son, and the AP magnet. I headed out of Epcot ASAP hoping to catch up with my husband but I just barely missed the bus that he was on. Rats.
I called him and let him know to get off at Jambo House so we could go have dinner at Mara. I met up with him there, and found that he had caught up with our friends. We had dinner together and talked about our days and devised our plan for tomorrow… our day at Epcot!
Highlights of the Day
- Pre-park opening breakfast at Be Our Guest was really cool!
- We had awesome luck with FastPass+.
- We all loved Afternoon Tea at the Garden View Tea Room.
Letdowns of the Day
- Sorry for making you walk all over Riviera Resort, Caribbean Beach Resort, and Epcot, dear husband.
