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.
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!