An afternoon tea by Eric Lanlard

When the Britannia was launched one of the features on board was to have Eric Lanlard afternoon tea at an additional cost of £15 per person. It now seems they have started to roll this out across some of the other ships in the fleet as we were able to have this on board the Ventura.

You are able to prebook this before via your cruise peronaliser and it only available on the sea days during your cruise, We opted for the first sea day and we did prebook in advance, however if you want to wait until you are on board then there were spaces available to be able to do this. There is also 2 different afternoon tea menus and the staff who are walking about trying to fill the specialty dining venues will have the menus for you to read through.

We did have two members of our party with dietary requests and the chefs were accommodating in changing one of the sandwich options, we just had to let them a day in advance.

On the day we went to the Epicurean restaurant for 3.30 and were shown to our table which was already set up with the cake stands and it was one per couple. The waitress first came round and told us to close our eyes whilst she sprayed a mist over each persons head, which was to awaken your senses for the forthcoming experience. She then brought round a menu of with the different teas offer. I opted for the Redbush caramel tea and when it did finally come out did actually taste of caramel.

I have to say the service did seem slow and whilst I appreciate its all about the experience – you don’t expect to have to wait nearly 40 minutes after arriving to get a cup of tea, especially after you have been eating through the goodies on the cake stand then you do need a drink to wash it down.

My favourites on the stand was the cheese eclair, the summer berries and meringue, and the lemon scented scones. Unfortunately not very slimming world friendly but hey I was on holiday so sure they will let me off for one day.

Would I pay to do this experience again? sadly no I wouldn’t, one because I have already done this now, secondly I didn’t feel it was worth the £15, and thirdly I felt the afternoon tea in the main dining room which is free would have been just as good.

Have you done this experience whilst on board and would you do it again? and what were your thoughts?

Have a good couple of weeks, I am now on countdown for Harmony of the seas next month

Kerry

xx