What time should I make reservations for High Tea at Butchart Gardens?

[PittsburghNative]

I hope it’s ok to ask this here since this is a Canadian port. During my Alaska cruise, we will be in Victoria from 9:00am to 6:00pm. My mom and I are going to Butchart Gardens on a DIY tour and want to do High Tea at The Dining Room. I want to make reservations for High Tea but I have no idea what time to make it for. Departure times for this tour are from The Fairmont at every hour.

 

Can anyone give me a realistic time to leave the pier? I’m not sure where The Dining Room is in relation to the gardens. Also, how far is the The Fairmont from the pier?

Edited March 1, 2019 by PittsburghNative

[martincath]

Since it is actually a High Tea (rather than just Afternoon Tea) the Butchart offering is basically a full meal, though it's still a bit carb-heavy it's not quite as froo-froo as the Empress version - I'd therefore suggest booking it as you lunch, at your normal lunching hour whenever that is. The dining room is inside the gardens, so you may want to decide which of those to see in which order as some are larger and further from the dining room than others (IIRC, the Italian garden is right outside so if you're in doubt, be in that one for the chunk of time right before your reso).

 

Even if mom is a bit slow on foot, you can walk to the Empress in not much over 30mins - allow an hour if you want to walk the long way (around the water, very flat, rather than the veeerrrryyy slight hill involved in the most direct route - local tourist info/port actually put up signs with walking route every time I've docked in Victoria, so it's very easy). Getting off the ship is a woolly part of the equation - do you have high Status (i.e. priority disembarkation) is somewhat known, but how many other folks ALSO have Status equal or higher than yours is not! Whether the ship will be on time or not, if the weather will be so bad they can;t dock at all - totally outside your control, it does happen in Victoria a couple of times a season but usually late in the year. If you are running a little tight for a bus slot, cabs will be lined up at the pier and will only cost about $10 to the Empress and have you there in well under 10mins.

 

Ballpark though you can probably expect the first folks to be getting off within a half-hour of docking, and since there's no tendering an hour after docking is a very reasonable expectation for you to be on the pier. From the start point being the Fairmont Empress, I assume it's a CVS shuttle you're taking? Their exact timing varies throughout the year, but if you are booking a specific time slot I would suggest 11am rather than 10am - the latter would be very tight to guarantee being off the ship and to the bus stop. This would put you at the gardens around 11:45am, plenty of time to get inside and to the dining room for lunch.

[PittsburghNative]

As always, thank you for your detailed response martincath! I actually contacted Butchart Gardens and they said it will be Afternoon Tea they will be serving. Does that make a difference with time?

 

And yes, we will most likely use CVS as the tour operator.

[martincath]

Yeah, the phone-jockeys at Butchart are about as clued-in as those at the cruise-lines... go google the couple who went there wearing their 'period' clothing (because that's how they actually dress all the time) for an idea of the top-notch customer service they provide! The garden is a license to print money - they could slap every patron who entered and still be coining it in!!!

 

Afternoon Tea is, strictly speaking, a light nibbly meal for aristocratic types to tide one over between lunch and supper (i.e. should be served strictly at 3-4pm) whereas High Tea is an early dinner for us in the peasantry, including the same basic carb-loaded items (though generally less fancy - scones with cream & jam, sandwiches, maybe some basic pastries) and also at least one hot, savoury meat-based dish - and unless Butchart have changed their menus, they both call it and it meets the minimal criteria of High Tea (current menu has hot sausage rolls, salmon en croute, and a tureky-cranberry pasty for the savoury 'protein' dishes).

 

I have a vague recollection that it might be a seasonal thing, with no more hot savouries come summer and a shift of name to Afternoon Tea to better fit the lighter menu - but regardless the timing these days is irrelevant to tradition, because it's all about extracting maximum money from patrons which means serving it from late morning through late afternoon... come summer time I'd expect it to be available ~11am-5pm, maybe even later. Downtown it's even more egregious: the Empress has taken bookings for 'Afternoon Tea' beginning at 9pm with absolutely no sense of shame! If they added a space I'd even give that a pass - 9pm is indeed 'after noon' - but it's not by any sane definition during the time of day known as 'the afternoon' because that stops when evening begins! Still, if folks are daft enough to drop $75 a pop and want 'Afternoon' Tea when even Barcelona diners are sitting down to their dinner, then by Jove they should be given the opportunity to be deprived of their pennies;-)

 

In short - book it when you want to have it, subject to not being so early there's a risk you could miss your slot; personally I'd swap it in for lunch then you don't have to worry about stopping twice during your garden touring - but if you'd rather have lunch and then do it at a more appropriate time, book it as late as ~90mins before you plan to catch the shuttle back downtown.

[Beachiekeen]

On 3/1/2019 at 7:36 AM, PittsburghNative said:

I hope it’s ok to ask this here since this is a Canadian port. During my Alaska cruise, we will be in Victoria from 9:00am to 6:00pm. My mom and I are going to Butchart Gardens on a DIY tour and want to do High Tea at The Dining Room. I want to make reservations for High Tea but I have no idea what time to make it for. Departure times for this tour are from The Fairmont at every hour.

 

Can anyone give me a realistic time to leave the pier? I’m not sure where The Dining Room is in relation to the gardens. Also, how far is the The Fairmont from the pier?

 

Hi would you mind sharing which cruise you are on?  We are looking at our next Alaskan cruise and I want to choose an itinerary that has a full day or at least the afternoon in Victoria, rather than an evening arrival.

[PittsburghNative]

12 hours ago, Beachiekeen said:

 

Hi would you mind sharing which cruise you are on?  We are looking at our next Alaskan cruise and I want to choose an itinerary that has a full day or at least the afternoon in Victoria, rather than an evening arrival.

I’m on the Celebrity Eclipse on May 9th. I know that’s her only 10-night sailing for the season and I “think” it’s the only time she stops in Victoria. If you start/end in Vancouver, you can always take a tour to Victoria.

[kmerlin14]

23 hours ago, Beachiekeen said:

 

Hi would you mind sharing which cruise you are on?  We are looking at our next Alaskan cruise and I want to choose an itinerary that has a full day or at least the afternoon in Victoria, rather than an evening arrival.

The Queen Elizabeth has a 10 day round trip from Vancouver that has a long stop in Victoria. From around 10am to midnight. You probably won't get right off at 10am and you'd probably want to be back on board well before midnight so you could pack though.