Monday, June 27, 2011

Grand Floridian Tea Room



Last week I finally got to try out the Garden View Tea Room at the Grand Floridian! We went as a girl's brunch for my friends birthday as none of us had ever been before, despite hearing lots about it! Our booking was for 3pm so we decided to browse round the hotel while we waited, which is always a good idea as its such a beautiful hotel at the high end of Disney's many properties.


I just love the main foyer in this hotel, the chandeliers are stunning, and the human size bird cage is so pretty! Shame they don't let you in it really LOL! If you are ever in the area around Christmas you have to come visit this hotel, as they have an amazing tree in the middle, and a life size ginger bread house to visit! You can smell it as soon as you walk into the hotel! But Summer here is just as gorgeous, especially outside!


Everywhere you look are stunning gardens and beautiful buildings, the grounds are amazing here!


I could spend ages just on the beach here, and in fact last Christmas me and my friend did spend ages there on this very hammock, just being silly and taking funny pictures! Much to the amusement of the passing staff members I'm sure LOL!


After we had walked around and worked up an appetite we went back inside to eat. I had tried to search online what the menu items would be, and had found a few different versions, but when we got there the price had gone up by about $5 on the items I found and the options were different. So obviously they were old menus I had seen, but at least I had a general idea.


The tea room is very quaint and I can see why you would have to book in busy times as its not very big, which gives it a more personal feeling.


We all decided to opt for the Buckingham Tea, which consisted of choice of tea, sandwiches, mini tarts , scones with clotted cream and jam (YES!) pastries and or Strawberries w/cream. The sandwiches are TINY LOL but were very tasty, with the crusts cut off of course!


We all tried a different tea but the best by far was the Princess Tea!!! I heard it was the most popular but the rebel in me ordered something different, and of course, I regretted it! It was really tasty!!! I also loved the china and the tea cosy!!


The scone was really good, with white raisins (insert fancy name that I'm sure they have LOL) and I loved the mini jam pot, mini stuff is always just adorable!


The dessert stand looked so cute I just had to take a picture of him holding it! They had chocolate covered strawberries, fruit tarts, chocolate eclairs and mango mouse swans!


The swans looked so cute you didn't want to eat them....but we did, we got over it! Everything tasted so yummy, even the strawberries and cream were really good!


Even though everything looked like small portions, by the time you get to dessert you feel SO full, I think its due to all the tea you drink at the same time LOL! Was wondering if they did refills but it turned out that it didn't matter as we were all far too full to want any more!

I didn't order the trifle but snuck a picture of it on the way out, it looked yummy except the American version has jam instead of jelly.

After the meal you all get brought a beautiful pink rose to take home, so cute!


All in all it was such a lovely afternoon, the food was great, the tea was great and the tea room was gorgeous!!! It was tasty, filling, and perfect for a celebration! (Or just a treat!) I would certainly recommend it, it was also great for me being a vegetarian, very tasty options! Im not sure how a guy would enjoy it, I'm sure they would as the food is that good, but it certainly felt more of a girly treat day :)

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Joey Fatone from N'Sync's Estate Sale!



Last night I read on TMZ that Joey Fatone was having an estate sale at his Orlando mansion this weekend! As a fan of N'Sync and a lot...a LOT of boy-bands (LOL) and having driven by his house before trying to sneak a peak, I was so excited to read this! His house has been featured on MTV Cribs before, so I knew what to expect and was looking forward to seeing his humongous closet and secret passageways!!!


My husband just wanted to go and see the Thundercats Sword and the revolving garage floor to display his cars!



We got there just before it opened, and we all walked in from the main gate and had the choice of viewing the party room (6 car the garage) first or the house, we chose the house! It was really well organized by Graham's, they were handing out baskets and had registers set up at the exit to accept credit cards/cash. We had to hand in our bags, which was worrying as they didn't label it but she promise she would remember which was mine!!!



We didn't have access to the theatre room but every other room was open! We found out he recently managed to sell the home after trying for a while, so some of the items were to remain for the new owners. Every little item was labelled with a price so it was very easy!






The chef style gourmet kitchen was stunning! Everything was for sale, but the tv. So many appliances, crockery, recipe books etc! There was also a chef's pantry with some wine coolers but they were staying. There were lots of snacks and drinks for sale which was funny. I saw some girls walking around eating some and drinking Redbulls LOL.




The upstairs consisted of 2 guest rooms, their girls room, a baby room, a play room and a game room.  The game room was pretty cool with its own bar! I loved the girls room but a lot of it was still quite pricey, and some personalized with her name/initials.






Some of the items I thought it weird they didn't keep, like her height chart through the years, I would have kept that.




The weirdest thing was the scary demon bunny I found!!! LOL Im sure there's a story behind that!! He was just sat there chilling amongst the Care Bears pretending to fit in!!!



The play room was very cool, again it had some personalized items and a LOT of toys and dolls!




My favorite part was the N'Sync merchandise!! I found a cute Teddy bear collection that were limited edition charity basketball ones! HAD to get one! Then I got a lanyard from the same game, no reason, just thought it was cool.


I got talked out of the N'Sync inflatable chair though :-(


Back downstairs, we headed to the master suite, and what a sweet suite it is!!! Its over 3,000sqft!!!!!!!! The first thing you notice is the amazing foyer that greets you, I remembered this from cribs, as on the right are the double doors that lead to the master, the left is a secret door that leads to his closet!




The closet is AMAZING!!! hands down best i've ever seen!!! it was HUGE! So much storage, and the hugest mirror! Its so big...it had its own phone!!!!









I also spotted another 'not so secret anymore' door, but I'm not sure where that lead, shall have to try find the cribs video!


I was shocked at how many clothes and shoes he had left! Some I recognized from his videos! I know a lot of it he probably got for free but there were some amazing labels and most looked unworn if at all!




We looked at his closet twice, just because it was so amazing!


Then we went into the bedroom, which has a greeting area first with a fire place and double doors to the pool area, and one of those cool fireplaces that looks through INTO the bathroom!!! Then you go down some steps into the actual room, and its huge, so much elaborate furniture, but it was all $500 plus, and I'm sure originally it was triple that but not really my price range!





Then my husband spotted a TV, it was a 36 inch, for only $100 and we needed one for our rental house so we bought that! Feels weird knowing we have Joey Fatone's bedroom tv set!!!










The master bath was equally amazing. It even had a barber shop style sink!!! Huge jacuzzi, TWO toilets, a steam room and a sauna!! You could fit 10 people in that shower!

We ventured outside and saw the outside grill area, which was again huge & ready for any parties! The back porch had lots of sun loungers and chairs.

The back garden was sectioned off so you couldn't go to the pool area but you could see it!

You could see the slide in the rocks, and the grotto which had privacy blinds down but I've seen it on cribs, its very Playboy Mansion esque!

You could see Lake Butler at the end and the boat dock. The grounds were so nicely kept! Felt like leaving one of our Lawnmen Landscape business cards somewhere so they would think of us if they changed.

After I bought the bits we wanted, we went over to the 6 car garage! There were no cars in it, but a lot of arcade games, and Easter decor, and general garage supplies. But it was cool seeing the revolving floor where he normally kept his Knight rider car!



There was some glass frosted doors that kept changing color that were blocked by a funky coach, but i managed to peak in and saw a Superman logo carpet!! I think it was possibly a gym as it had mirrored walls.


We did not see the Death Star replica or the Thundercats sword, i guess TMZ got to them first!


It was such a fun day to nosey at his home, and see how much of a collector he is! Im so glad I got to go even though I didn't buy much!