SuperCaliFragilistic Awesome Disney Podcast

Walt Disney World's Carousel of Progress Is Closing — Everything About the New Version + Garden View Tea Room Review

• Kelli and Chris

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The Carousel of Progress closes July 6th for a complete revamp — and the new version sounds genuinely magical. We break down every scene change, the Walt Disney animatronic making its Magic Kingdom debut, and why we're actually excited about this one. Plus, Kelli reviews the newly reopened Garden View Tea Room at the Grand Floridian, including the full Alice in Wonderland menu, the "Painting the Rose" tableside moment everyone's talking about, and the plant-based options worth knowing about.

In this episode:

  • New Disney Springs transportation rules explained — why Disney changed bus and boat access, and what it means for your trip
  • The Grand Floridian's walk-in Gingerbread House is permanently gone — and why
  • Disney's new projection-mapped animatronic tech debuts on Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland
  • Full breakdown of the new Carousel of Progress: Walt Disney animatronic, new scenes from the 1960s through a Jetsons-style future, and a 2027 reopening
  • Garden View Tea Room at the Grand Floridian: full menu walkthrough including the Alice in Wonderland theming, Twinings loose-leaf tea selections, the plant-based menu, kids' menu, pricing ($79 adults / $49 children), and reservation tips

⏱ TIMESTAMPS
 0:00 Intro & We're Back — Downloads, New Format, New Merch
 3:59 Main Street News: Disney Springs Transportation Changes
 7:20 Grand Floridian Gingerbread House Permanently Gone
 10:24 New Projection-Mapped Animatronic Tech on Pirates of the Caribbean
 12:25 Tomorrowland: The New Carousel of Progress — Full Breakdown
 25:12 World Showcase: Garden View Tea Room at the Grand Floridian

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#WaltDisneyWorld #DisneyPodcast #CarouselOfProgress #GrandFloridian #DisneyNews

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All music for this episode is available through a creative commons license. The background music for the News segment was created by Kevin Macleod: Fuzzball Parade by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5044-fuzzball-parade
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

For more things DISNEY (and Disney food reviews), check out our website: https://scfadp.com 

Unknown:

Superca, Superca, whatever the internal thing is.

Chris:

Welcome, Disney fam. We are back. This is the Supercalifragilistic Awesome Disney Podcast. I'm Chris

Kelli:

and I'm Kelli.

Chris:

We are so excited to be back, new and improved, easy on the eyes. We're still iterating. This is just phase one of this new thing we're doing here, the new old thing that we're doing,

Kelli:

you old thing that we're doing. I don't know if people will notice, but you've got glasses. I've

Chris:

got glass, so much has changed.

Unknown:

Wow,

Chris:

so much has changed. The glasses are the least of the changes around here.

Kelli:

I am wearing..

Chris:

what are you wearing?

Kelli:

My queen ears today. These come from the England section of Epcot, where I showcase, which is one of my favorites.

Chris:

Topic adjacent,

Kelli:

they are.. I think they're on topic. What do you mean, topic adjacent?

Chris:

Okay, if

Kelli:

they are adjacent, they are like, like very close to being on topic, like the closest of adjacents that have ever been adjacent,

Chris:

I'm going with my.. I don't think I've ever actually worn this hat. I think this Mickey through the years is the first time I've ever actually worn this at impossible, but that's not a.. that's not saying much. I mean, I got a whole wall of hats I've never worn. So, okay, look, we have been gone for so long, and so excited to be back. Obviously, there's a lot of new around here, but what's not new is we still get downloads.

Kelli:

We still get downloads. Would you believe

Chris:

it? Unbelievably to us, January of this year, we have not actually recorded a new episode since March of last year, lots been going on, maybe, maybe we'll catch everybody up one day, but January of this year was our largest download month ever, best month ever, best month ever in six years, so best month we've ever had. So, thank you to all those out there in Podcast Land. Yes, we're so excited, and some of the places where we got those downloads from

Kelli:

are

Chris:

Kailua, Hawaii. I know, I know.

Kelli:

Oh my gosh, love you, Kailua. Aloha to you, and you, and you. I

Chris:

know, I'm so, I'm so for the Aloha, situated on the East Coast of Oahu with long stretches of white sand beaches and a beautiful clear blue water. I looked them up and they say this is paradise in paradise. I know I believe them. I believe every word

Kelli:

is I believe it too. I'm questioning. We

Chris:

also, I know, of course, we also have downloads from this. Is very appropriate, Watertown, Massachusetts. Watertown played a central role in the Revolutionary War. I mean, tomorrow is independent. Oh

Kelli:

my gosh, go Watertown,

Chris:

being the site of the first tax protest in America against the British Crown. Look at that, here you are with a little British crown on top of your head. I

Kelli:

wonder if they went to help throw the tea into the sea.

Chris:

I mean, sure,

Kelli:

right?

Chris:

Dyer, Indiana, situated right on the border with Illinois. It's kind of like a suburb of Chicago. I wonder if this is like where they're planning to put that new Chicago Bears stadium, which is really going to be in Indiana, from what I understand.

Kelli:

Okay, do we have.. we're glad to have them, though. Absolutely. Do we have international? We do

Chris:

Sapporo, hi Hokkaido, Japan, ascent, the capital city of the mountainous northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, famous for its beer and skiing. Ski jumps from the 1972 Winter Olympics are scattered throughout the city.

Kelli:

Wow,

Chris:

yeah. And you know, you can get Sapporo beer like pretty much anywhere.

Kelli:

So, the 1972 Winter Olympics were in that city

Chris:

in Japan. Okay, and the in the ski jumps are still there.

Kelli:

Awesome.

Chris:

All right,

Kelli:

take us to the news.

Chris:

Let's, let's talk about Main Street USA. Why don't we? Let's talk about the news. All right, first and foremost, the Disney online folks are just in a tizzy because there are new transportation restrictions in place for Disney Springs. There's been a lot of confusion around

Kelli:

it. Let me guess, this has to do with busses.

Chris:

It does have to do with busses and boats,

Kelli:

boats and boats. Yes, because you know you can take

Chris:

watercraft from Disney Springs to Saratoga Spring, you take them to Port Orleans.

Kelli:

I did not, I don't think I knew that.

Chris:

Yes, you can. Okay, you can

Kelli:

take like friendship boats or just vessels,

Chris:

not the friendships, but like the little water taxi type boats. Okay. All right, so here's the deal. I'm gonna, here's what I'll do. I'll accept, because it's very confusing for some reason. So, what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna explain what people were doing that caused these. To make this change, okay. All right, so let's say you, you and your family went to for on a vacation at Walt Disney World, but you're not staying at one of the Disney resorts, okay?

Kelli:

Yep,

Chris:

but you also don't want to pay $35 minimum to park at Epcot, but you're sneaky, you know. You don't have to pay for parking at Disney Springs, because Disney Springs knows that you're going there to spend money at Disney Springs. So, they don't charge you for parking. So, you go park at Disney Springs, you walk over to the busses, you take a bus to one of the resorts, and then you get on one of the resort busses, or a Skyliner, or a watercraft to the park. Now, that's a lot of effort,

Kelli:

that is a lot, a

Chris:

lot of effort to

Kelli:

avoid $35 to

Chris:

avoid. Look, hey, everybody's got their priorities, but here's what

Kelli:

I'm gonna say, now look, y'all, the mouse is smart,

Chris:

so they figured out what's going on. He's

Kelli:

smart, and there's about a dozen people, you know, managing those bus stops.

Chris:

So, well, there's about to be more, so because they're going to be checking for magic bands to make sure at a resort, or they're going to be making sure that you've got reservations, because if you're, if you're going to a resort where you've got a dining reservation, you can still hop on one of those vehicles too. Now you

Kelli:

can park at the transportation ticket center,

Chris:

that's that's Magic Kingdom parking, that's so that's still the

Kelli:

$35 bill. Okay,

Chris:

I don't know what it is at each part, but I know it was$35 is the minimum parking at Epcot

Kelli:

okay? Right, it's not worth it. That's not worth it. If you told me we're gonna go to Magic Kingdom today, but here's

what we're gonna do:

we're gonna stay ride at least two

Chris:

busses and

Kelli:

ride two busses,

Chris:

you would never do it. I would

Kelli:

say no, absolutely not.

Chris:

I'll just at the resort

Kelli:

at the resort.

Chris:

Also, they, they were running out of parking at Disney Springs, which impacts the ability to be able to spend money at Disney Springs, and that's really the point,

Kelli:

that is the point, right? Money, but we'll talk

Chris:

about another

Kelli:

Mickey is nothing if not capitalist,

Chris:

that's a fact. So, we're going to talk about another impact of this in the next news item.

Kelli:

Okay, the

Chris:

Gingerbread House at the Grand Flo is permanently gone. It's not gonna come back anymore in the holidays. What? And this is the house you could walk into. This is the house that was big enough to walk into. They had people working in there and selling little gingerbread stuff out of it, and all that fun stuff. Yes.

Kelli:

What have people

Chris:

done? I know it's not what people have done, a there's the new bar inside the lobby, there. Okay, so that takes up some space, right? This thing took up a lot of space,

Kelli:

did, but whatever.

Chris:

And along with the space of just the gingerbread house, there was the space of the line of people that were always in line trying to get a good glimpse of it, buy the stuff that they were selling out of it, all that fun stuff.

Kelli:

Okay,

Chris:

the other thing is all the folks that are coming to those resorts that don't stay at those resorts, though they're trying to actually limit that now. Also, and that gingerbread house was a huge draw at the holidays for people that weren't staying at the Grand Flo to come to the Grand Flo and clog up that that lobby, so if

Kelli:

you're not staying at the Grand Flo, they don't want you to visit the Grand Flo,

Chris:

that or at least a lot less than we used to, because they

Kelli:

still get there by monorail.

Chris:

Yes, you absolutely can,

Kelli:

right?

Chris:

Yes, for sure, you can, and it's for sure still easier if you're staying on property to get to these places, right? If you're, if you go to the Magic Kingdom, hop on a boat over to it, is hard to

Kelli:

just drive up to another resort. It's hard to just drive into that, you couldn't get to the Poly just to go to boutiquey,

Chris:

yes,

Kelli:

because you weren't staying at the Poly, absolutely, and you had to go all the way around the world to get there, but, but you made it happen. Thank God for you.

Chris:

That's I will make it happen.

Kelli:

You make,

Chris:

they've, they've made other things, other decisions like this too, to limit the number of people that just show up at a resort at the new Poly Tower. Yeah, those viewing platforms are only available, not just for people staying at Poly, but on that only people staying in that tower. Yeah, you had to be staying in the tower to use those viewing. Use a

Kelli:

different floor than the one you're staying on.

Chris:

Yeah, you can, as long as you're staying in the tower, you can use any one of those viewing platforms. Okay,

Kelli:

but you got to be staying in the tower, so if you're staying in the main area, you don't get to use the towel, use

Chris:

those tower viewing platforms. That's right. Yeah, so they're there. I

Kelli:

mean, those are its true benefits to staying on property, and so if people want to stay, you know, somewhere else, and then think we can still go over to the Grand Flo, it's going to be really hard to get in because you're not paying the premium of staying on property, right? And again, Nikki is a capitalist, that mouse just drinks money. I mean, love him for

Chris:

it, like Scrooge McMaster.

Kelli:

He's not a Scrooge, though. He's really nice with his money, but still, I'm just saying, like, he's a capitalist. And so, people who are paying a premium to stay on property, you got to protect that as well, so that they get to enjoy that they want

Chris:

that experience also, right?

Kelli:

Yeah, absolutely.

Chris:

Okay, so some fun stuff. Disney has debuted its new projection mapped audio animatronic face, announced that they had this technology last November. Now they had done anime projection faces before, they use it on the Seven Dwarfs roller coaster ride, yeah, mine train,

Unknown:

yeah.

Chris:

They have used it in the Frozen ride in Norway at Epcot, but then they, I think, they changed that out because people complain. People, people complain a lot. People

Kelli:

love to complain, but I'm telling you, when they spend several $1,000 they complain more.

Chris:

They've improved on this. This is now like these projections are emotive, and they work with moving animatronics. So, the animatronic

Kelli:

itself, animatronic can

Chris:

move, and the projection still works. That's cool, right? So, where they've debuted it is on Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland. There's a scene at towards the end, I believe, where there's a, there's a skeleton pirate sitting on top of a, of a pile of gold with a chest. Okay. Well, now that pirate is not a skeleton until he reaches into the chest and grabs a piece of gold, the

Kelli:

Aztec gold.

Chris:

It's the Aztec gold. As soon as he grabs the gold, the pirate turns into a skeleton.

Kelli:

That is so cool. And he,

Chris:

and he drops the gold, because now he's a skeleton. And when he drops the gold, he turns back into a pirate. Yes, that's awesome. And he gets excited again, because he can emote now he can emote different emotions, and now he's like, oh, he grabs the gold again, and he turns into a skeleton again, and he drops the gold, and it's just a loop, right, that he's stuck, that's really, really cool looking, you can find the videos online, it's super cool, that's cool, and can't wait to see where else they use that technology,

Kelli:

yes, that is very, very cool,

Chris:

that's the new, that's what's happening,

Kelli:

that's what's happening, right. Fantastic. And so, are you Tomorrowland?

Chris:

I'm Tomorrowland this time. So, let's talk about Toronto. Tomorrowland, of course, as a reminder, this is what we talk about, things we've never done, or we would want, or we're looking forward to, looking forward to doing,

Kelli:

right, which fits

Chris:

the case this time. Okay, I'm going to be talking about the new Carousel of Progress.

Kelli:

Okay?

Chris:

Right, we just.. we found out a little while back that the Carousel of Progress is being completely revamped. In fact, the day that this podcast comes out will be the first day that you can no longer ride the Carousel of Progress, July the sixth.

Kelli:

I mean, it needed to be revamped, because we've made it to the future. We've, we're actually a bit beyond, we're a

Chris:

little bit beyond the last scene, that

Kelli:

last scene.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah. Let's talk about the origin story of the Carousel of Progress, and then we'll talk about the what's what it's going to be in the future, okay? Okay, this is fun. All right, so this is the.. and then they say this in the show, this is the most performed stage show in the history of theater. It was a personal passion project for Walt Disney himself, and it was meant to celebrate innovation, family, and optimism, and it's been running for 60 years. Wow, probably more than 60 years at this point. Yeah, the seeds of this attraction were planted when Disney was working to expand Disneyland in the 50s for an area that he was going to call Edison Square. Okay, it would. Edison Square was going to be kind of about innovation anyway, and it would be anchored by a walk-through attraction called Harnessing the Lighting. It would highlight how technology changed the American family. That's what that attraction was going to be. Okay, Edison Square was never built, but when Disney was famously hired to build attractions for the 1964 65 World's Fair in New York, which we're all familiar with, they reworked the harnessing the lighting idea into the Carousel of Progress for the Progress Land Pavilion at the New York World's Fair, I think they also did Small World for the World's Fair, I think that ride debuted at the World's Fair also. Okay, so this thing was an undisputed smash hit, it was the rave of the Progress Land Pavilion at the World's Fair,

Unknown:

right,

Chris:

um. It also debuted the hallmarks of the famous rotating theater, the music by the Sherman brothers. Also, it's one of those attractions that Walt Disney himself worked on personally. Yeah, like right down to he had strong feelings about how Uncle Orville's toes would wiggle in the bathtub.

Kelli:

Yeah,

Chris:

okay. So, really, really cool about that. It came to Disneyland in 1967 and Disney World in 1975 It was.. it's been updated a couple times, and the last scene is set in what's called Progress City, theme to resemble Walt's personal original version of Epcot, so if you remember, Epcot was originally supposed to be an actual city, right, that he built right in Central Florida, right. Okay, that's what the last scene was intended to be, right, was his vision. Interesting, I never

Kelli:

saw, I never got that, okay.

Chris:

Now I think that they have actually the scene we have was actually an updated version. Okay. Okay. Okay. Right. All right. But the last scene was always intended to be Walt's vision of what the future of a city would be. Okay. Fun fact: Great Be Beautiful Tomorrow by the Sherman brothers was replaced by a song called The Best Time of Your Life for the first two decades that it was in Florida.

Kelli:

Oh, I'm against that. I

Chris:

was against that. I'm completely

Kelli:

against that.

Chris:

And in 1994 they replaced that back with Great Baby, of course, they did,

Kelli:

because that's the better song,

Chris:

of course, right?

Kelli:

That's crazy. Blasphemy, blasphemy. For 20,

Chris:

a 20 year heinous blasphemy. You

Kelli:

don't take away a Sherman Brothers song. Never replace a Sherman. Maybe the

Chris:

Sherman brothers did the other one too, but it doesn't matter.

Kelli:

Doesn't matter.

Chris:

All right, so what's the new one going to include this? it's cool. I'm for this. I wouldn't normally be for this kind of change, but I'm for this change. This is really, really cool.

Kelli:

Look at you being for change. I know this is a totally new leaf on the podcast. You're for change. This

Chris:

is some cheese that they've moved that I'm fine with. All right, so I remember what they're doing here is they're, they're, they've the first scene where we normally today we just get sort of a narration of what we're, we're about to see, right, where they tell us about the origin of the carousel progress. Now we're going to get an actual scene where we get an actual animatronic of Walt Disney, and it's a replication of an actual 1964 special show television program called Disneyland Goes to the World's Fair, where he talked about some of the things they were doing for the World's Fair. That's cute, and you know, Disney used to do these things right, where they would put their ideas on television. It was almost like ads, right? And they're replicating that scene where he was standing. They've got a, they've got a prototype tiki bird, they've got a, it's a small world doll, and this kind of thing, and they've got a Walt Disney there to tell you what's about to happen,

Kelli:

right?

Chris:

Right, he's introducing the carousel of progress,

Kelli:

yeah,

Chris:

rather than just a narration. Okay, that's really cool. That the Walt, the Walt animatronic, you're

Kelli:

gonna want to see Walt,

Chris:

oh yeah, the Walt animatronic that they released not that long ago at Disneyland caught some guff, but because I guess it just didn't look exactly the way folks thought it ought to look, but

Kelli:

okay,

Chris:

whatever, you know, people, I think we talked about how people love to complain,

Kelli:

they do love to complain,

Chris:

but it's going to be cool, this is going to be cool, so then our first scene, little context, the original Carousel of Progress came out. We talked about it in the 60s for the World's Fair. It day it starts about 60 years prior to that, at the turn of the century,

Kelli:

right?

Chris:

That's what we're doing now. We're starting about 60 years from today, so the first, okay,

Kelli:

so we're not going to go all the way back to that original first scene, where they've got like wires, we're going

Chris:

because what they wanted to do was to go back and come forward in a way that folks today can relate

Kelli:

to, okay,

Chris:

all right, so they're going to go back about 60 years, not exactly, but close to, and we're gonna see our favorite family, John, Sarah, Jimmy, Patty, Uncle Orville, some others gathered around the TV watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.

Kelli:

I was about to say that would, okay, that'd be

Chris:

the all right technology, which is

Kelli:

basically how it ends.

Chris:

Is close to the 60s, so

Kelli:

ends with him watching. There's a scene in there where they're watching him walk on the moon,

Chris:

so they're going to be they're going to be gathered around the TV watching them walk on the moon, and that's going to be our first scene.

Kelli:

Okay,

Chris:

and they, and they talk about, you know, the that vision, that all the optimism that comes with what we achieved there, right.

Kelli:

Okay. All

Chris:

right. Then we fast forward to the Hades, by the way. You know, the first, the our current carousel hit holidays, right? Valentine's Day, July 4, right? Halloween,

Kelli:

Halloween,

Chris:

not quite like that here, but it's close.

Kelli:

Okay,

Chris:

1980s is our next stop.

Kelli:

Okay,

Chris:

we find the family here on Halloween night in 1985 and for the first time Sarah takes center stage.

Kelli:

Oh, would you look at that? I know

Chris:

we are progressing. It is truly the carousel of progress. Oh my goodness, she highlights how useful all of her appliances and gadgets are.

Kelli:

Oh dear God,

Chris:

John will be center

Kelli:

stage to talk about all of her home making

Chris:

and stuff. John will be handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters and come to the door. This is where we find Orville in the bathroom complaining that there's just no privacy around here.

Kelli:

Okay. Still all right.

Chris:

All right. After this scene, we go to our third scene. We jump to the new millennium.

Kelli:

Okay,

Chris:

John, Sarah, Jimmy, and Patty are getting ready to party like it's 1999

Kelli:

Wow, they're

Chris:

gonna ring in the new millennium. They will marvel how the internet is making the world smaller and bringing us all closer than ever before. Now I wish I could sit them down and tell them about all the horrors to come, but they didn't seem to be. They say nothing to about the yk bug that everybody was worried about.

Kelli:

They don't say anything about, I don't know, I

Chris:

just didn't read that in the writer. Maybe they do, maybe they do. They should, they should

Kelli:

all be super worried about

Chris:

it, but that's what they say, is they marvel about the internet making the world smaller and bringing everybody closer together. Grandpa, on the other hand, like a lot of us, doesn't make it to midnight, and as soon as Grandpa falls asleep, we know what Grandma does.

Kelli:

What does Grandma do?

Chris:

She turns the TV to wrestling, like she does in the courage,

Kelli:

does she really

Chris:

big give it to suck it to him, your big lug. Remember, she says that in the hall we gotta take you back, suck it to him, you big lug, she says. All right, then our last, you gotta, you gotta go see, okay? Clearly, she's not gonna be able to now. The last scene is the possible future. Think the Jetsons. Here,

Kelli:

there we go.

Chris:

Google sketches by Disney legend John Hinch, and you'll get the idea.

Kelli:

Okay,

Chris:

okay. And, or even the original, the original mock-ups of what Tomorrowland looked like. Okay? Right, this is robot helpful, robot assistance, immediate space travel. You want to go to Mars, go to Mars, right? That, that's what the this last image is supposed to evoke, is very Jetson-esque. Okay, right. And then the promotional photos for the new Carousel of Progress very much look like Jetsons. I

Kelli:

love the Jetsons. I absolutely loved The Jetsons. So, Judy, right, Judy Jetson, I mean that hair.

Chris:

So, no opening date officially is announced for the new Carousel of Progress. It does close down on Monday, July the sixth for the refurb or the revamp, and they expect it to open in 2027 but no word exactly on when in 2027

Kelli:

Okay,

Chris:

it will open back up, but I'm excited about

Kelli:

it. I think so. You know, I'm always sad we go see the Carousel of Progress, or we go to ride it, and there's literally nobody else. There's

Chris:

nobody in there, but it's going to be so bright on to Carousel

Kelli:

of Progress. The only time it gets busy is when it's raining, so when it's blazing hot, blazing

Chris:

hot.

Kelli:

Like, I could use a 15 minute conditioning break.

Chris:

So we're recording on a Friday. I bet the Friday before it closes down. I bet it's busy. This will be chocolate block

Kelli:

full. No, no, we did learn that, that people like to come and see something right before, right before it. We learned that hard on the fireworks, man.

Chris:

People were fighting. It was, it was ugly on Main Street. People were wearing T-shirts. It was ugly. It was ugly. It's. So, yeah, so that's Tomorrowland. I'm excited about the new carousel of progress, but it's gonna be a minute before we can enjoy it. Okay, there you go.

Kelli:

That's awesome. Well done,

Unknown:

hon. All right, okay.

Chris:

You are World Showcase.

Kelli:

I'm World Showcase. What are

Chris:

World Showcase? And

Kelli:

so, as a reminder, World Showcase is where we talk about something that we have done before that we really loved, and so I am, as always, using mild liberties with this, and I did mention that my ears are - I'm gonna say on topic, because I think they're on topic. I

Chris:

think they're on topic, they're

Kelli:

on topic. You said adjacent in the intro, but I think they're on topic. So, here's what I'm - here's what we're talking about. We're talking about the Tea Room at the Grand Flo. Oh,

Chris:

yeah,

Kelli:

yes. So this is the Grand Flo Tea Room. We went December of 2019

Chris:

Oh, my gosh, can

Kelli:

you believe it's been a minute? It has been a minute. So we went December of 2019 It closed in March of 2020 for COVID. It has remained closed up until this past March 2026 It reopened, and it's been slightly re-imagined. I'm saying slightly, and I'll explain what that means, but they announced this re-imagining this opening as part of all of the Grand Flo re-imagining, so all of the changes that they've done at the Grand Flow, they're like, okay, we're gonna bring back the tea room, okay? So this is at the Garden View Lounge at the Grand Floridian, and they call this the Tea Experience. This is one of the best tea experiences we've had out of, you know, outside of Fort Hood and Mason's in London,

Chris:

and that was the Queen's favorite, and

Kelli:

that was where the Queen has her tea, right? She gets her tea from Fortnite and Mason. Hello, ears on topic. Okay, that's what I'm saying now. They do serve Twinings tea in this experience, your face is fantastic. I mean, Twinings is really well known. They do sell it in London. I've been.. I saw it on the shelves.

Chris:

That's right.

Kelli:

I mean, it's English. It's English, and I don't know, you know, how the British, you know, think about Twinings tea.

Chris:

I'm sure they love

Kelli:

it. It's not the Queen's tea,

Chris:

okay,

Kelli:

but that's what you can get in the England portion at Epcot, is twinings, everything's twinings in there, so naturally the tea room sales serves twining, so this when we went in December of 2019 it was garden themed, right, that's what they called it. I would have called it Victorian garden themed, right? Strong Victorian bent and lots of floral type situations. Right now

Chris:

it

Kelli:

has been relaunched as an Alice in Wonderland themed. Okay, now you're gonna get hate on the interwebs. I haven't looked, because I don't. I've got plenty of hate in my life. That's not where I need to find new hate. So, you're gonna find hate on the interwebs, because now it is intellectual property, right? So, they've switched it over to IP. People hate it when they take something that wasn't IP and convert it to IP, but, like, people come to Disney for the IP. I don't know what to say,

Chris:

right?

Kelli:

Right, and so it's Alice in Wonderland, which I think is perfect, because she has a tea party at Alice in Wonderland. So I think it's very on brand and an excellent decision. Here's

what I will say:

in the pictures that I've seen, they're using the same china, so they didn't have new china made,

Chris:

the same china that we used,

Kelli:

yeah, when

Chris:

we went exact same china,

Kelli:

so they didn't have like Alice in Wonderland theme china made, so they're still using the same china, which I can appreciate, right? Nobody wants wasteful stuff now, everybody's into vintage, so it's Alice in Wonderland theme, but we're sticking with the same china. So here's how they describe it. Okay, on the website, they say it is steeped in tradition with a touch of magic.

Chris:

Oh, I see what they did.

Kelli:

You see what they did there. We cordially invite you to settle into a light and airy garden-inspired retreat that calls to mind the grandeur of the Victorian era. Here, classic charm blends seamlessly with comfort, creating the perfect setting for a proper British afternoon tea experience. Once again, just want to mention ears on brand, not topic adjacent. Relax and indulge in a tradition that honors both refinement and whimsy. Now, whimsy is big right now. Whimsy is having a year, and I don't want to take full credit for it, but whimsy is my word of the year.

Chris:

I can vouch for that.

Kelli:

So, whimsy was my word of the year before I started seeing it all over the interwebs, but whimsy is having a year, right? Whimsy and rage is what we're all going for, and. Then there's a second paragraph that says we now have a tasteful menu of tea time treasures, is with the there a tasteful menu, your afternoon tea experience features premium twinings tea selections paired with delightful scones, small bites, and exquisite pastries, adults may choose from the traditional afternoon tea service, including a thoughtfully prepared plant-based option, while younger guests may delight in a special children's afternoon tea experience. All are themed to the whimsical world of Alice in Wonderland. It's tea time as it should be, elegant, enchanting, and utterly unforgettable.

Chris:

That sounds delightful,

Kelli:

doesn't it? Though, I think it is so cute. So, they do

have rules:

guests are expected to dress accordingly in attire that respects the restaurant's sophisticated and upscale esthetic. Everybody understands esthetic now, and so they're expecting you to dress that way, right? Don't come in here and swim trunks being like, I thought the esthetic was swimming. Nope, it's upscale Victorian, right?

Chris:

The esthetic is not March hair.

Kelli:

No, the esthetic is not March hair. It's $79 per adult,$49 per child. Now, here's what I'll say: you made a little bit of a grunt over the kids tea service. I think it's fantastic. The menu for the kids tea service is phenomenal. All

Chris:

right,

Kelli:

okay. You can also add enhancements, such as a cheese serving or a cheese thing, and caviar, non-alcoholic specialty tea drinks, cocktails, champagnes, and sparkling wines. So, there's plenty of accoutrement if you would like that. My French has improved

Chris:

French

Kelli:

as a friend. I'm not even practicing French on Duolingo. Guests at Disney resorts can make reservations 60 days out from your date. So, for example, if our vacation starts on December the first and goes through December the seventh, on 60 days out from December the first, we could make a reservation for december 5, right. So it's 60 days from the start of our vacation, we get the full vacation window. If you aren't staying on property, it's 60 days from the day that you want to reserve, so you get a bit of a headway if you are staying on property.

Chris:

Wonder if anybody's staying at the Grand Floridian.

Kelli:

It doesn't say anything about Grand Flo guest getting, getting any kind of..

Chris:

I'm not worried about that. I'm specialty there. There's any reason that anybody would be staying at the Grand Floridian that might want to go to the

Kelli:

staying at somebody staying at the Grand Floridian, say use

Chris:

the tea experience

Kelli:

in New Year's Eve, might want to use the tea experience. I can't imagine we should ask them. So, you have selections, tea selections from Twinings, loose leaf teas. Now, I will say that the loose leaf teas from Twinings are going to be upscale. What was that? What was that that you just did there? The that, what does that mean? Loose leaf teas, for any loose leaf tea, is going to be slightly more upscale than a bagged tea. The Queen's not drinking bagged tea.

Chris:

I'm wondering if the pots are still gonna have those warm little cozies that they had.

Kelli:

So to be clear, those cozies said Grand Floridian, they didn't say anything about Victorian or Garden or anything, so those still work, so

Chris:

those should still work, those still

Kelli:

work, the cozies were cute. Okay, so your tea selections are orange, orangery of Lady Gray, London Stand Breakfast, nutty chocolate flavored Assam, spicy chai, exotic mango and ginger, lemon grass and peppermint, red bush caramel velvet, and a black currant and lavender. I know lemon and lavender is the new thing, so I don't know about black currant and lavender, but I would give that a go.

Chris:

Nobody's gonna know what that's from. Now,

Kelli:

your tower includes an orange cranberry scone curried chicken salad playing card tart.

Chris:

Yes, yes,

Kelli:

a footman's feast, Wonderland salmon crisp, a Tweedledee egg salad sandwich,

Chris:

yes.

Kelli:

The caterpillar cucumber roll,

Chris:

no,

Kelli:

a matcha mad hatter. That's really cute. Don't judge it, you haven't seen it. I'm sure it's beautiful. A tea party tart, a flamingo croquet shoe, and painting the rose. Now,

Chris:

shoe like a shoe bun, shoe like

Kelli:

a shoe bun. Okay, yeah. So, here's what I will say is when I looked back at our pictures, the menu isn't much different. Okay, it's just been a bit judged up with Alice in Wonderland themes. Okay, we had a cucumber situation, we had a chicken salad in the next salad situation, yeah, all of that. It's just been, I would say, a bit. Judged now the match up Mad Hatter is adorable. It's a little green hat that's like a matchup mousse situation. It is so stinking cute. I don't like matchup, but I'd give it a go. But

Chris:

you do love, I'd give it a go.

Kelli:

Now I also do love that they have a plant-based option, so all of these come with the painting the rose, and when you look on the interwebs, everybody's talking about painting the rose, painting the rose. What an interactive table display, blah blah blah. Okay, here's what I want to say: they have to do it at the table, because otherwise it just looks like blood. Okay, so this is like a white, a white moose in the shape of an English rose. Okay, okay, like a Tudor rose in the shape of a Tudor rose, and it's white when it comes out, and so if they just dumped raspberry syrup on that in the back, it just looks like the rose, like a bloody

Chris:

rose,

Kelli:

just looks like a bloody rose. Whereas if they do it at the table side, they can say we're painting, painting the rose like they did in the movie. Okay, so painting the rose, I wouldn't say it's a big whoop de do, but I get why they're doing it tableside. Okay, the treat, this is an Earl Gray flavored tea cake frosted to look like a white rose. During your meal, your server performs a tableside presentation by pouring raspberry slash strawberry sauce over the white rose, mimicking the famous scene from the movie where the cards paint the roses red.

Chris:

I see.

Kelli:

I think it's a lovely idea. Okay, I'm just telling you, they have to do this tableside, or it looks like blood,

Chris:

looks weird. Okay, people

Kelli:

aren't going to get the movie reference. The plant-based version still starts with orange cranberry scone, has a Queen's curried chickpea tart, a whimsy art show crisp, a delicious garden witch, a caterpillar cucumber roll, a Cheshire checkerboard cake, an un birthday petta for Queen of Hearts raspberry tart, and then, of course, painting the rose. The children get a smaller offering, which still includes that scone. This scone must be phenomenal. Everybody gets it. If you only come, no matter who you are, you are to this tea service, you're getting this scone, by God, and it's going to be life changing. You also, the kids also get a fanciful turkey wrap, a sunflower seed butter and jelly bun, Queen of Hearts cheese toasty. I would love the Queen of Hearts cheese toasty, cheese toasty, the Cheshire Cat raspberry macaroon, a chocolate brownie branch, and a white rabbit cupcake,

Chris:

nice.

Kelli:

Yes, now this bun that they're talking about, the sunflower seed butter and jelly bun, looks like a mushroom. It's like a red top with a white stem with white dots. I want that. I want that. So, like, I don't know, I might say, can I get the kids, but just I don't want the fanciful turkey wrap, because it's all pretty much other food I would eat,

Chris:

I had the fanciful turkey wrap,

Kelli:

just not get the fanciful turkey wrap, but anyway, it's amazing, I'm excited. I think we should definitely go again. It's one of our favorite Disney experiences that we've ever done. It

Chris:

is, it really is. It was, it was delightful. Yeah,

Kelli:

and so five stars definitely recommend it. Is definitely on the pricey side. This isn't something you're gonna do every trip, or maybe it is. Maybe you budget for this and you love it every trip, but it is a fun thing to say you went and had the tea service at Grand Flo, the Garden View Tea Room is really cool. We loved it, and I would definitely do it again.

Chris:

Awesome, awesome. Well, then, then we should do

Kelli:

it. And, honey, I believe that concludes episode 111

Chris:

Unbelievable, unbelievable. We've officially done a podcast episode that's that is the show for this week. Now got a little bit of housekeeping. Okay,

Unknown:

the

Chris:

new iteration of the Supercalifragilistic Awesome Disney podcast is like I said, easy on the eyes. You can see us now, whether that's easy on the eyes or not is interminable, however with this is going to be an every two week engagement. Yes, this is bi weekly. Bi weekly, yes. These are going to be available on YouTube on our YouTube channel, which has been out there for a long time. So you can find us on where can, where can we find us? Can find us. On YouTube, and you can still find us on all the podcast venues, yeah, Apple Podcasts, all the ones, right.

Kelli:

Absolutely, and we'll have shorts on YouTube during those two weeks. We'll also have some reels out on the Insta sharing clips from the show as well. And if you're looking for more things, Disney, please visit SCF adp.com because I spent time updating that too. That's S for super, C for Callie, F for fragilistic, A for awesome, D for Disney, P for podcast. It

Chris:

looks great, and there's all new merch out there. Oh,

Kelli:

that's right, there is new merch. I totally forgot that, right? And so, if you're a Dreamlight Valley person, I got you. Oh, I got you. Okay. There is some really cool Dreamlight Valley Disney Dreamlight Valley merch out there. We've also got some feminist Disney merch, because who doesn't want that?

Chris:

And we've got some cool Super Cali fragilis, awesome Disney podcast T-shirts, absolutely, and hoodies, and right SCF ADP merch, all sorts of stuff out of course. So, please

Kelli:

follow us on all the socials, come out and check us on YouTube, give us some likes and posts. Yep,

Chris:

respond to us, comment on the posts. We, the more the merrier. And guess what, with that we will see you real soon,

Unknown:

you.