Day 6 (Monday, March 2nd), Part 1: A Tense Teatime
Happy Friday! I've been trying to get through all morning to someone at Disney about my pass extension, but all numbers are saying "all circuits are busy." My dad and sister's passes have been extended, but mine hasn't, which means when Passholder park pass reservations open up tomorrow, I won't be able to reserve time in February when my friend is visiting. I know that's a complete first world problem, but I don't think it's cool of Disney to say, "You have to have a valid ticket to reserve time in the park, BUT we aren't selling new passes right now, BUT don't worry because your pass will be extended anyway, BUT we won't do it in time for you to make a park reservation." Anyway, back to the report.
We woke up this morning around 10. It was our last full day together, and another day that we did not have any park plans. But that didn’t mean we were planless!
Rebekah and I got ready for a reservation we had really been looking forward to. While we got ready, Dad and I took some videos of April, who my dad swore was smiling. Weird to look at videos of her when she was so serious all the time. She's a super smiley baby now!
(By the way for those of you watching the video: Saba is the Hebrew word for grandfather, and it's what my dad wants her to call him).
But after my dad entertained her so I could get ready, soon April got dressed up in her fancy garb.
We headed out around noon, towards the Grand Ceremonial House. On our walk over, I got a text from DH that unfortunately would set the tone for the day. I won’t screencap it here, but given the timing on our trip, it was just when COVID was starting to make an appearance in the states, and he was starting to get worried. Which, in turn, made me worried. But I resolved to put it out of my mind for now and enjoy this time with Rebekah and April.
We took the monorail over one stop, to the Grand Floridian, and went downstairs to check in for our special lunch at the Garden View Tea Lounge.
Rebekah and I ate here the year before and had a really lovely time. Since she doesn’t travel on her own, I rarely get to spend one-on-one time with her, and since afternoon tea is deemed “girly” by my dad, it’s a fun thing for us to do together that he doesn’t really want to participate in. Not that we need his permission to do something without him, but it makes it easier.
It was actually really hard to get this reservation. I had hoped to get it for earlier in the trip, but this had been the only time and day available that really worked for us.
We checked in and were seated pretty promptly. If you’ve never been to the Garden View, it’s really worth a trip. It’s enough food to easily replace a lunch or early dinner as well.
Our waitress was very nice, and we let her know we’d been before so that she didn’t have to explain the menu. I wore April in her sling and she slept the whole time.
We both got the Bedforshire Tea. I believe I chose the black tea with rose and Rebekah got apple & elderflower white tea.
This is the base offering, $35 a person, and it comes with so much food. First, a course of five finger sandwiches. Due to Rebekah’s health issues, she sometimes has trouble with aged cheeses, which are present on at least one of the sandwiches, but I believe this time since there was such a small amount she decided to go ahead and eat them all. Otherwise I would have helped her out!
The second course is a strawberry tart and a golden raisin scone with clotted cream, lemon curd, and raspberry jam.
And the final course is a choice of dessert (one choice each). A seasonal trifle, selection of pastries, or strawberries and cream. I always get the pastries. Rebekah got the strawberries and cream last year, but it looks like she got the trifle this time. But I can no longer for the life of me remember what flavor it was! The swan pastry, which is also seasonal, I believe was churro flavored, and it looks like the macarons were lemon and strawberry or raspberry. There’s also a chocolate covered strawberry behind that trifle.
One other thing to note: all three courses come out at once on this beautiful stacked silver plate holder. You’re encouraged to switch plates out as you move through each course. Of course there’s nothing stopping you from eating the courses in any order you choose, or mixing them together, but we like to be sophisticated and go in the order the tea gods intended!
Each person also gets their own whole pot of tea, so you get a good number of cups out of it. They provide a very nice tea cozy that keeps your tea warm in the pot for the duration of your time there.
We had a really lovely time, catching up in a way we hadn’t really had the opportunity to do before this point in the trip.
It was, however, marred by a few more texts from DH. I want to be clear that he wasn’t telling me to do anything, but he was confessing that he was really starting to worry about COVID, and that he had in fact been worried for the duration of my trip, but it had come to a head the night before when Last Week Tonight covered it. The thought of him sitting at home, worried about our safety was really awful and I hated to put him through that. If he had told me to come home, I would have done so, as April is his daughter too and I think the parent with a higher level of concern trumps the parent who is less concerned.
Rebekah and I finished up our meal and paid the bill. We got some nice pictures of the three of us on our way out of the hotel.
We started walking back to the Polynesian via the path between the two hotels, so that we wouldn’t have to take the monorail the rest of the way around. I texted Dad to let him know we were on our way. And I also warned him of something I was starting to see no way around: I was probably going to go home early.
