Character Dining at Inventions – Disneyland Hotel Paris

When we booked our holiday to Disneyland Paris we knew the girls would love the chance to be able to dine with Disney characters at Inventions, located in the Disneyland Hotel.

Even with using our Disney plus dining vouchers to contribute toward the meal it’s not cheap.  However having the opportunity to meet Disney characters in a lovely relaxed environment instead of waiting in the cold in the parks seemed worthwhile to us.

Inventions is one of the two restaurants inside the beautiful Disneyland hotel, the other being the California Grill. There is also a great bar called Cafe Fantasia located at the other end of the beautiful main street lounge within the Disneyland Hotel.

Inventions is a buffet restaurant, but don’t let the word buffet put you off the quality of food on offer is truly excellent.  We made our reservation at Inventions for lunch which is served from 12.30pm until 3pm.

The Victorian architecture of Disneyland Hotel is stunning and as we entered Inventions we were warmly greeted by cast members who led us to our table in a beautiful area of the restaurant.

Inventions consists of two spacious dining rooms connected by a long wide area that houses the buffet.

From our dining table we had great views through the window of the Disneyland Park, where we could see main street station, the tops of the buildings of Main Street USA and the Sleeping Beauty Castle.

The dining room at Inventions is filled with so many beautiful details in keeping with the theme of the late 19th and early 20th century. Suspended from the ceiling of the buffet area were lots of antique bicycles, typewriters, vacuum cleaners etc all contributing to the Inventions theme from the Victorian era of discovery and travel.

At Inventions we were told before our visit that we should see at least five Disney characters which will rotate through the restaurant and will meet with your family one at a time. It can take a while for them to make their way to your table so for the full experience I would recommend being there for at least two hours.

As soon as we were seated, our waiter brought over a bread basket and took our drinks order and we met our first Disney character, Captain Hook. Watching the girls mesmerised as he spent time with them, signing their autograph books and having photos, they were so excited.

The quality and presentation of the food was unparalleled. The buffet consists of several stations, each offering a course for your meal from an extensive selection of starters, fish and seafood, mains and desserts.

The girls had mickey mouse shaped plates to eat from, which they loved and there was a great range of child friendly meals. Options during our visit included dishes such as cheese and tomato pizza, spaghetti, beautiful homemade chicken nuggets and chips. There were also artisan Disney themed cakes, bowls of sweets, marshmallows and ice cream along with a variety of fresh fruit and yogurt. There was really something for everyone at this buffet.

As we were eating, more characters made their way around to our table starting with Rafiki from the Lion King. Rafiki was brilliant and the girls had so much fun interacting with him, where he would pretend to steal their autograph books, playing with their hair and being mischievous.

By the end of the meal at Inventions we managed to see eight characters, Captain Hook, Rafiki, Pluto, Eeyore, Goofy, Daisy Duck, Donald Duck and Gepetto. Unlike the character meet & greets in the parks where you often feel rushed because there’s a big queue behind you, at Inventions you have plenty of time to interact with the characters.

The characters we met spent lots of time at our table and were great fun. The look on the girls faces was just priceless and so many magical memories were created during our Inventions character dining experience. This alone was worth the price as Inventions is one of the more expensive places to eat at Disneyland Paris but the experience is well worth the cost.

Dining with the characters at Inventions in the Disneyland hotel was just an incredible experience that I would recommend visiting at least once if you have never been before. For us it has become a must do dining experience for all future trips to Disneyland Paris, it was pure Disney magic.

I would strongly recommend that you make your reservation before your trip, especially for their dinner and brunch dining options. However you can sometimes find reservations the same day during non-peak times.

Dining at Inventions for lunch costs €65 for adults and €35 for children. If you have paid for a premium meal plan or the hotel meal plan and are staying at the Disneyland Hotel, then you can use your vouchers to eat here.

However you don’t have to stay at the Disneyland Hotel to dine at Inventions. If you have the plus or standard meal plan then you can use your vouchers to exchange and pay the difference of your meal.  We used our plus vouchers which were worth 50% of the cost of the meal, so we had to pay an additional € 35 each for adults and € 17.50 each for children.