tea...it's our jam

my mom introduced me to the tradition of afternoon tea way back in the day, and since then we've visited a ton of local tea parlors together.  and so when disneyland hotel announced that they were going to start serving afternoon tea, we jumped right it and made a reservation.  of course, with our jam-packed weekends, we had to wait like two months before we could find an opening that worked.

it'd been like 25 years since my mom had been to the disneyland resort, so other than living vicariously through my pictures and blog posts, almost all of it was like brand new to her.  and the girls and i adore the disneyland hotel, so everyone was excited for our adventure.

the tea was hosted at steakhouse 55, one of the hotel restaurants.  we tend to stick to downtown disney and eateries inside the parks, so we'd not been here before.  it was pretty OG, all dark woods and decorated with old-timey photos of walt and other old hollywood stars.  the girls liked the chaise in the waiting area.

predictably, afternoon tea done disney-style was not cheap.  definitely a special occasion kind of thing.  although we weren't really celebrating anything in particular.  whatever, you know what i mean.
 

the table was simply decorated, with pretty china and a small floral centerpiece.  i like to think that was a "w" for "wan."

when our teapots arrived, they came with a little arrangement of lemon slices, honey, several other different types of sweeteners, and these:

i'm not gonna lie, it was pretty fun to swish rock candy sticks around in my tea.  and it was delicious to boot.

the bean's tiers of deliciousness were topped off with a special mickey-shaped chocolate chip scone.

she loved the mickey pb&j and the ham & cheese, but turned her nose up at the cucumber sandwich.  i ended up handing her one of my salmon tea sandwiches instead, which she was super happy with.

her sister was pretty excited at the sight of the rest of our delicious meal.

and our scone spreads (raspberry preserves, devonshire cream, lemon curd) were arranged into a hidden mickey.  of course.

my favorite was this teeny-tiny, barely bite-sized tomato and mozzarella business.  i could've happily eaten an entire platter of these.

both of the scones were studded with fruit - currants in one and blueberries in the other.  i just slathered them both with an inch of cream and curd and went to town, doing my best to ignore the horrific feeling of berries between my teeth.  uggghhhhhh, just the memory of it is freaking me out.

the macarons were cute and tasty.

our server was more than happy to take a group photo of us.

and just outside, we hopped into this old autopia car for a fun photo op.

we decided to walk off some of that sugar with a stroll through downtown disney.  the bean and her lola stopped at the lego store to build a quick race car:

and the old lady and i paused for a selfie in the fitting room at anna & elsa's boutique.

i got my mom and my youngest to hop into a photo booth.

and then we were done.  while the afternoon tea at disneyland was fabulous and magical and lots of fun, i don't know that i'd do it again.  for that kinda coin, there are tons of great places out on the west side that are just as good, and maybe a bit more filling.  because we might have stopped at costco on the way home to grab a hot dog snack.  heh.