Please reassure me about Inventions!

[missiemouse]

Going to dlp in April with my whole family and it's my mum's 60th birthday while we're there so we want to do something special for her. All along I've been planning to do Inventions dinner as she (and the kids) will love the characters and a buffet meal suits the fussy eaters in the party. But last night I was reading recent reviews on here and other sites and people are saying the food recently hasn't been very good and there's not much choice anymore :-( is that true? We'd love to do brunch but we're not there on a Sunday so it has to be dinner. We were very impressed with the inventions breakfast when we went last time.

Please just reassure me that it is the amazing feast I was expecting! The characters will be fab I'm sure but it's a lot of money if the food is bad.
Thank you

 

[JustJonathan]

Going to dlp in April with my whole family and it's my mum's 60th birthday while we're there so we want to do something special for her. All along I've been planning to do Inventions dinner as she (and the kids) will love the characters and a buffet meal suits the fussy eaters in the party. But last night I was reading recent reviews on here and other sites and people are saying the food recently hasn't been very good and there's not much choice anymore :-( is that true? We'd love to do brunch but we're not there on a Sunday so it has to be dinner. We were very impressed with the inventions breakfast when we went last time.

Please just reassure me that it is the amazing feast I was expecting! The characters will be fab I'm sure but it's a lot of money if the food is bad.
Thank you

To be quite honest, I would do walts if you could any day over inventions.

Inventions setting IS nice, but the food choice is very poor in my opinion... we went in Nov/Dec and if you're a fussy eater you're paying a fortune for spaghetti, meatballs, soup (possibly) and deserts.. they seem to concentrate heavily on fish stuff and even the meats seem to be covered in sauces.. as a "fussy" eater I can tell you I thought it was a rip.

Walts food is amazing, a much more relaxing setting.. whilst there are no characters you could always do that elsewhere for the kids, possibly cafe mickey.. there are also other options sometimes such as character breakfasts, Auberge du Cendrillion (Can't spell it!) do princess/prince's and i've heard their buffet is fantastic.. etc.

Just my two cents

 

[Isila]

Auberge de Cendrillion isn't a buffet, it's a table service and people say food is quite fancy, not to everybody's taste.

walt's is great, but yes, no characters.

 

[Vala]

The reviews are partially right. There has been a wider choice of food before. But if you have not been for dinner before you won't notice that part.

Here's a comparison topic with photos from all meals from October:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3018239

You can definitely see the differences between meals. But unless you have seen the pictures you won't know, and overall I think you'd still be happy. Please don't let my rather negative tone in the report influence you. I've done all meal variations there. I am simply spoiled.

If the characters are an important factor I personally think Inventions is still your best choice. Also it's the only character buffet left. For the other character options Cafè Mickey has seriously decreased in quality overall and Auberge has not only cut the number of princesses, but the food quality has gone down (at least for our taste) and also they have changed from popular menu items to... my boyfriend says to call it "exotic stuff." I would not send a fuzzy eater to Auberge anymore.

 

[disneylandparis1974]

I was eating at Inventions just before Christmas. I was getting my main course from the buffett when a little girl projectile vomited all over me and my food. Staff did not come to my assistance. This was a very expensive meal and no refund was offered.

The next evening I was also very sick all night and had to have the doctor. I don't know if it was the Norovirus but it certainley was contagious.

This obviously ruined our holiday I think I will be giving Inventions a miss next time - obviously if we had been eating at a table service restaurant this was unlikely to have happened.

 

[missiemouse]

Eek that doesn't sound good! Thanks for all your replies. I have looked at Walt's and blue lagoon but there's not one thing on either menu that my dad would eat and auberge is the same (also my boys wouldn't be that bothered about seeing princesses). I really wanted to do something special for her birthday and it would be such a shame if the food was awful. The only other thing I've thought of is to do cafe mickey for lunch that day and do the wild west show in the evening, but I can't say the show appeals to me all that much - boys wd prob love it tho.

We're planning agrabah and res des stars for our other 2 evening meals as I think there will be a few things dad would eat in both of those, but he's very suspicious of any food that sounds 'french' lol. The rest of us will eat anything, kids included!

Any other ideas? What are the restaurants in the other hotels like? I think a buffet is probably our best bet. Thanks for all your help

 

[samtom]

Hi,

How long are you there for?

Just an idea...Would you consider getting the train to Paris? We are doing this one day and visiting Angelinas which is a really special place, I love it! It would be perfect for a special occasion. They serve lunches as well as delicious pastries and the MOST AMAZING hot chocolate you'll ever taste!

Really luxurious decor too, my boys love it as a little treat and they are real 'boys boys'!

Xx

 

[missiemouse]

Ah good idea but unfortunately we're only in dlp for 3 nights so want to make the most of Disney for this trip. Think I'm leaning towards sticking with the original inventions plan and just hope we see lots of characters and that the food is ok... Such a shame it's gone downhill as I heard great things about it in the past and was so looking forward to the meal, now I'm going to worry about it being a disappointment - hopefully I will get a nice surprise and it will be lovely! Just out of interest how does it compare with plaza gardens? We ate there last year and it was quite nice but not 'wow' - would you say it is similar quality/choice or better? (hopefully better for the price!?)

Thanks all for your advice (esp Vala for the thread with all the photos - amazing!) - I'm still open to ideas though if anyone has anywhere else we should try!

 

[Ware Bears]

I'd stick to the Inventions dinner if I were you. As Vala said, you won't notice anything lacking in the food offerings as it's your first time there. I understand what she means when she says she's been disappointed in the dinner lately as when we went to the Sunday Brunch last summer we found it wasn't that different to dinner (as we knew it, having not eaten there for a couple of years) apart from a more extensive choice of shellfish and fois gras. So it does appear the dinner buffet has been 'dumbed' down in the time since we last ate it there but honestly, not having eaten there before you'll have nothing to compare it too.

Whilst Walt's is my favourite restaurant at DLP it doesn't have characters which I think would be a lovely treat for both your mum and your children ..... and you, of course!

Plaza Gardens is nice food and IMO it's good value however at Inventions the array is more sumptuous which justifies (or not if you're a picky eater!) the much higher price. You can't really compare but for an example think Pizza Hut against Strada ..... hope that helps a bit!

 

[missiemouse]

Thanks everyone, I think we'll stick with the plan then. Sounds like the food is still pretty good, even if it's not as good as it used to be. And the characters will make it special I'm sure. Thanks again for all your advice