Garden View Lounge Opening Date & Menu for Alice in Wonderland Tea Service
Walt Disney World has announced the opening date for Garden View Lounge, and revealed the full menu for the Alice in Wonderland Tea Experience. Here’s the latest, including food photos, reservation dates, and everything else you need to know.
In case you’re unfamiliar with it, the Garden View Tea Room or Lounge is not brand new. It is newly-reimagined, though, as part of the overhaul of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa as a whole. This resort reimagining has been a triumph, from the rooms to the lobby to the Club Level.
There are a number of ways the Grand Floridian looks and feels fresh, and is once again worthy of being considered the crown jewel of WDW resorts. See our Review: Walt Disney World’s Flagship Hotel Finally Fits Its Status & Sky-High Prices.
The original Garden View Lounge has been closed since March 2020, and it finally reopening 6 years after closing is one of the final phases of the massive resort reimagining, which is finally winding down. Walt Disney World previously announced that the project, which was originally slated to be finished before Christmas, will now continue in “select areas” through mid-2026.
Today’s news concerns one such select area of the hotel: Garden View Lounge.
The Garden View Lounge – Tea Experience will be opening its doors once again at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa to bring guests on a whimsical afternoon tea extravaganza starting March 19, 2026. Advance Dining Reservations will open on February 19, 2026.
With new touches from the Walt Disney Animation Studios film Alice in Wonderland, guests are invited to have an unforgettable experience. From sweet & savory small bites to a selection of teas, the Garden View Lounge now serves up an all-new menu. The elegance of this beloved location still shines through, too, now with a whimsical touch. There are options for both adults and kids, making Garden View Lounge a space that the whole family can enjoy together.
Walt Disney World’s beverage and culinary experts have gone down the rabbit hole (the Alice in Wonderland variety, not the online one, thankfully) and have a lineup of brand-new flavors. Here’s a first look at the menu at the reimagined Garden View Lounge…
Garden View Lounge Beverage Menu
The first step of this experience is the tea selection. Walt Disney World has worked with corporate alliance partner Twinings to select premium tea blends that offer something for everyone.
Delight in the Twinings Loose Leaf Tea Selections, including special flavors and classics like London Strand Breakfast and Spicy Chai, as well as more unique flavor combinations like Orangery of Lady Grey, which is a unique black tea featuring bright, orange notes that is exclusive to the Walt Disney World Resort.
The Nutty Chocolate Flavoured Assam black tea is a must-try with smooth chocolate and roasted hazelnut flavors and if you are looking for something caffeine-free, enjoy the Blackcurrant and Lavender herbal tea.
After selecting your tea with the guidance of Cast Members who serve as your own tea guide, you’ll be able to create a tea that is customized for you. Next, you’ll choose an aromatic designed to accompany the tea which is added during the steeping process.
There are also two signature tea-based cocktails – the Mint Tulip featuring Old Forester 1870 Original Batch Kentucky Straight Whiskey, Twinings Refreshers Peach Mango Tea Instant Beverage, and mint, and the Mar-TEA-ni with Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, Twinings Earl Grey Tea, lemon, and honey.
Guests can also enjoy non-alcoholic specialty teas – the Curiosi-TEA with Twinings Refreshers Strawberry Raspberry Herbal Tea Instant Beverage with a touch of shimmering magic, and the This Way, That Way with Twinings Refreshers Peach Mango Tea Herbal Tea Instant Beverage and mint.
The drink menu at Garden View Lounge also offers champagne and sparkling wines.
Garden View Lounge Food Menu
The culinary creations bring to life the ultimate afternoon tea experience. Before getting to the tea tower of treats (yes – you read that right), your taste buds will be delighted with the Orange-Cranberry Scone with traditional accoutrements. Now for the three-tiers of food.
The savory selections include:
- Curried Chicken Salad Playing Card Tart: Savory curried chicken salad filling topped with cherry gelée
- Footman’s Feast: Wonderland Salmon Crisp with a salmon rillette on a miso brown butter crisp
- Tweedledee Egg Salad Sandwich: A traditional egg salad on beet bread
- Caterpillar Cucumber Roll: A delicious combination with butterfly pea-infused cream cheese and cucumbers on pumpernickel
Enjoy a sweet finish with the following desserts:
- The Matcha Mad Hatter: Sponge cake with apricot jam and yuzu buttercream
- Tea Party Tart: Vanilla tart, coffee custard, and chantilly cream
- Flamingo Croquet Choux filled with passion fruit cream and a raspberry crunch
- Painting the Rose: Earl Grey-flavored teacake painted tableside
And for those looking for plant-based options, there’s also an afternoon tea selection for you too.
For some added delights, there are also indulgent enhancements: Seasonal Cheese Selection or Royal Osetra Caviar with Mini Chive Biscuits and Traditional Accompaniments.
For the little ones, the Children’s Afternoon Tea features adorably delicious bites, including savory minis like the Queen of Hearts Cheese Toastie, a Fanciful Turkey Wrap, and a Sunflower Seed Butter and Jelly Bun.
For dessert, kids get the Cheshire Cat Raspberry Macaron, the Chocolate Brownie Branch; and don’t be late for the vanilla White Rabbit Cupcake.
Honestly, I’d be perfectly fine with the Children’s Afternoon Tea service. I’ve never quite understood the appeal of adults ordering from the kids’ menu, but I’ve long felt the exception to that should be at teahouses. There is a huge untapped market for a “Reluctant but Supportive Husband and/or Father Menu.” Whenever I find myself at one of these types of things (which is surprisingly often), I’m always wishing for an alternative menu.
UPDATE: Full Menu with Prices
Since Walt Disney World first posted the first look photos and menu details, they’ve updated the official website for the Garden View Lounge, revealing the full menu with prices.
Here’s a look at how much the experience, enhancements, and a la carte offerings at Garden View Lounge will cost:
Honestly, this isn’t as bad as we were fearing! A lot of our commentary below revolved around pricing, and as you can see from that, we expected this to cost more. Although the price has increased a lot since the Garden View Lounge closed, so has everything at Walt Disney World. And this is still less expensive than Cake Bake Shop!
Obviously, whether the experience is “worth it” will come down to execution, and Cake Bake vs. Garden View will likely hinge on attention to detail, personal preference, preferred setting, ambiance and location. In any case, this is pricey but not as bad as it could’ve been. We’ll make a point of doing it something in 2026!
What follows is our original commentary from before the menu prices were published, preserved for posterity…
Our Commentary
The new-look Garden View Lounge and the Alice in Wonderland Tea Experience sound good! Like the right blend of sophistication and Disneyfication. It’s classy. It’s whimsical. It hits the right notes. It’s unsurprising that there’s an IP integration, and while I was hoping for a Duffy & Friends Tea Experience, obviously that was not going to happen.
Alice in Wonderland makes a lot more sense, anyway. This or Mary Poppins is what the Beauty and the Beast bar should’ve been in terms of style and inspiration, and I still can’t help but wonder whether that was originally planned for Disney’s Riviera Resort but got shifted to the Grand Floridian. But I digress.
As great as this all looks and sounds, and am happy as we are (and by we, I actually mean Sarah instead of me or we) to have the Garden View Lounge back, the full extent of that excitement will be contained until seeing a menu with prices. The potential prices make me nervous.
While we’ve largely become numb to Walt Disney World pricing, we’re also fully expecting the tea experiences at Garden View Lounge to be one exception to that. I’m already willing to bet that we’re in store for a flurry of headlines highlighting prices, because they’re going to be that attention-grabbing.
For reference, the Garden View Lounge offered a wide variety of tea experiences pre-closure, ranging in price from $35 to $150. There was even one special offering that was over $300. This was all back in 2019/2020. At the risk of stating the obvious, prices have changed a bit since then!
There aren’t many great benchmarks for tea experience pricing at the domestic parks. Grand Californian has offered afternoon tea with Santa for a couple of years, but obviously, that’s not quite comparable. (For whatever it’s worth, that had starting prices of $84 to $124 for adults, and $44 for kids…which honestly isn’t too terrible!)
Meanwhile, the Roses of Gold Afternoon Tea at Cake Bake Shop costs $65 per child and $95 per adult, plus tax and gratuity. I’d imagine the Alice in Wonderland Tea Experiences will land somewhere in that range for the core offerings, with some higher-end enhancements like the Royal Osetra Caviar pushing that price to $200 or more.
For a family of three doing the ordinary options, that would probably put the out-the-door cost above $300, which is more than we’ve spent on many dinners at Signature Restaurants. Not that I really need to be worried about this any time soon. Thankfully, our daughter is just a little too young to appreciate the finer things…but I can already tell that day is coming…and fast. The warning signs are all there, flashing orange.
What About Grand Floridian Cafe?
As noted above, Walt Disney World’s current construction bulletin indicates that the Grand Floridian overhaul will last until mid-2026. By my math, March 19th is not mid-2026, it’s spring.
The one remaining piece of the puzzle after the Garden View Lounge reopens is Grand Floridian Cafe. It really sticks out in the redone hotel, looking like a vestige from a different era (the 1990s, not the Victorian era). Then again, Enchanted Rose also sticks out, so maybe they’ll leave Grand Floridian Cafe as a 1990s time capsule.
With Garden View Lounge reopening, I wonder if the resort will finally take Grand Floridian Cafe offline for an interior refresh. Honestly, I also wouldn’t mind a menu update–so long as my beloved Buttermilk-Fried Chicken stays. (At the very least, bring back the Lobster Thermidor Burger.) Guess we shall see!
Ultimately, we’re cautiously optimistic about the Garden View Lounge and the remainder of the reimagining, as a whole. The glimpses we caught of the tea room during our most recent stay (when it already appeared finished) looked nicely done. It’s definitely been modernized nicely, with a good balance of elegance, charm, and whimsy.
This is precisely why we want Grand Floridian Cafe to be redone–the team that’s been handling this overhaul has been on a roll. Too bad they won’t get a second crack at Enchanted Rose! As for Garden View Lounge, we’ll keep you posted on further updates. I’m not sure when we’ll have a review; I hope it’s not this year, but I fear it might be.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Looking forward to the Garden View Lounge reopening? Excited for the Alice in Wonderland tea experience? Price predictions? Have you stayed at the Grand Floridian since the lobby overhaul? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I realize the Garden View officially opens later this month, but the calendar shows that it is open only 5 days a week. Is this likely to change?
Well, it’s 6:10 eastern time and Garden View Lounge isn’t available for reservations yet. I thought it would be open for booking by 6:00. :_( *sigh*
6:45 update. Booked out for the day I need. 🙁
Hi Tom,
Any GUESS as to what the hours might be? We have a trip planned and of course our departure date is the 19th! Hoping it will open early enough that we can have tea before departure.
Looks like Disney pulled down the menu entirely – you get the Stitch page now. I hope this does not mean that it plans on charging more!
It looks like the same menu is up now with the same basic prices as before.
Someone with better eyesight should check to see if any of the words have changed, though between Disney IT cuts and the weather it may have just been some error.
I had that same problem–make sure you’re on the US version of the site (top bar), and not the Canadian one. No clue why, but that happens sometimes.
The prices are posted on the menu in the app! $79 for adults and $49 for kids. While not cheap by any means, I feel like this is probably on par with afternoon tea in major cities (and cheaper than Cake Bake Shop!), so I am pleasantly surprised!
Thanks for the heads up on that–I totally missed the menu release. I’ll update now!
This post and especially the photographs (that flamingo!) made me smile. Thanks, Tom. Thanks, Disney. I’ve been waiting for this.
We went twice precovid. The second time, May 2019? I DID order the kids menu! Pbj, ham/cheese, & tuna all the all way! It was hands down, so much more enjoyable for me.
The thought process needs to be flipped here. You want Megatron to enjoy lots of teas now and become bored with the concept before turning 10! You only think you hate paying those Disney prices for your 3-9 year old’s meals until that same 9-year old appetite is living in a 10-year old body and you are automatically upgraded to adult Disney pricing!!
High tea is expensive everywhere and I’d expect the typical Disney mark up here. My family just paid a small fortune for tea at the Veranda Cafe at the Westin on Waikiki Beach, and we did not regret it. High tea is such a frivolous, delicious meal, and so out of the ordinary in modern life, that I don’t mind going all in every few years for an afternoon of elegance and adorable carbohydrates.
‘It’s classy. It’s whimsical. It hits the right notes.’
Sounds very Disney.
My one and only afternoon tea experience anywhere was at the Grand Floridian in February 2020. It was a girls’ trip (Princess weekend, we were all runners) and much to my surprise, I loved it. I know my 5 yo granddaughter will love it, too, and I can’t wait to experience it with her and her mom. I’m sure the boys (dad, grand dad, and 7 yo brother) will choose to spend the afternoon elsewhere. 🙂
I will be partaking in my second Roses of Gold afternoon tea the end of February during Princess Half Marathon weekend. We had such a great experience last time. I must say, we had been doing the GF tea for several years before they closed shop. We both agreed we enjoyed The Cake Bake Shop one a little bit more. We might have to try this one again in 2027, though.
With all the chatter about Disney “pricing out the middle class,” it’s funny if they’re willing to make headlines about an eye-wateringly expensive afternoon tea. But it is at GF, I guess. I’d be shocked if it was reasonable. However delusional it seems, I was/am still rooting for this to somehow have cheaper options than the Cake Bake Shop’s tea. 🙂 I wonder if that’s even seen as competition…maybe it’s too far away for it to matter.
With a couple little Mary Poppins fans in our house, I was really hoping it would be themed to that movie and include some kind of meet and greet opportunity with Mary, Bert, and the penguins. I don’t know if I would’ve been able to resist splurging on that, so maybe it’s for the best. Ha. Do you think there will be any character component (Alice and Mad Hatter)? Or would they definitely have mentioned that already? As for the menu, I’d definitely prefer to swap in some of the kids items. Maybe they’ll let you do that (as long as you’re paying the adult price, of course)?
Frankly I’m impressed that Megatron turned two not long ago and an event with this much glassware is anywhere on your radar. I still have PTSD from taking my son into a Hallmark store when he was three something… you don’t realize how many rows upon rows of glass exist in those stores until you experience one with a rampaging toddler…
My 7YO son and I did an afternoon tea in London this past summer. The hotel was across the street from the natural history and science museums, so they made it science-themed. He got to do a lot of food chemistry to make things change color, etc. It was really fun, and he immediately begged to do it again.
The cost? 40 pounds for kids/65 pounds for adults.
I’m thinking this Alice in Wonderland Tea is going to be a lot more expensive and not nearly as interesting or creative… but Disney is going to Disney!
I suppose I’ll hold my nose and pay for it, as we do.
We just did a very charming holiday afternoon tea at a boutique hotel in the Chicago area. It came with more food than we could eat in one sitting (so they packed some up for us)…plus champagne, excellent service, and loose leaf tea and chocolate to take home. I think it was $75 for adults and $40 for kids, who got the same amount of food as the adults (the only difference were the sandwich ingredients and sparkling juice instead of champagne)! And it costs less when it’s not during the holidays. Very curious if there will be any justifying the “Disney Tax” on this tea at the Grand Floridian…
We have been fans of tea experience at GF from 1992-2019. I look forward to our next visit. Change is hard but it’s been closed for 6 years! It’s about time this space reopened
they better have clotted cream for the scone
Oh how I enjoy your posts! The hilarious thing about this one is I am reading and thinking how can I get my husband to want to do this during our very first GF stay in the fall…reading about the teas I thought…well he might like iced tea…then I got to the children’s menu and thought hmmm I wonder if he’s allowed to get that? And then boom-you echoed and confirmed my thoughts with your comments lol!
As far as your little one is concerned…well…if it were me I would probably withhold the info (my daughters had no clue about bibbidi bobbidi boutique or the former version of this tea when they were younger for example) but…well…you kind of write a blog that presumably she will know about and read…so good luck with that! At least you have a few years to lobby for the “gentleman’s menu” featuring unlimited cheeseburger bites and mini corn dogs:)
“As far as your little one is concerned…well…if it were me I would probably withhold the info”
There’s only one slight problem with this plan: Sarah can read. 😉
As an Alice in Wonderland nut, I’m very excited about this. Hopefully, they have filling dishes for what we pay for. I was so bummed when we stayed at GF in December 24′ and the tea room was closed. We live in the Midwest and were blessed to get AP’s for 2025 with our room deal. Thankfully, we are a Shades of Green family and were able to visit 5 times. Now in 2026, we have to take a break from the AP to pay the bill from last year LOL. I hope the $499 military AP continues in 2027 so that we can check out the new tea room before they change it again.
Tom, just wait until Megatron starts reading the blog and giving her enlightened opinion (which could literally be in the next few years…I was a little ahead of the curve but could read just about anything by age 5). Then you’re really in for it.
Then again, within the next 10 years she should be able to take over some of the blogging duties as well. So you’ve got that goin’ for ya.
Whoops, meant that as a reply under Liz above…
Obviously a blog pitting Alice’s Tea Party vs the Cake Bake Shop tea experience is in the pipeline.
Get ready to RUMBLE!
Please don’t give anyone any ideas.
if you don’t want to take tea with Lady Sarah I am certain there will be no shortage of elegant readers with pinkies raised ready to volunteer !! And yes as soon as I saw the children’s plate, I wanted that! As to price, my mechanic charges $125 per hour and that doesn’t include parts/food!! (which is how I justify many outlandish expenditures)
Oh, I absolutely want to be there for our daughter’s first afternoon tea (and Sarah’s, I dunno, fortieth?). I just want to do so while enjoy zero tea (or matcha? I like that) and a cheeseburger. They could even cut the cheeseburger into adorable little squares to make it fancy!
the Tweedledeeburger D-Luxe!