With two brothers bouncing about the house my daughter doesn’t always have the opportunity for purely girl based play. In fact when I told her that Toys R Us were sending over this dolls-house and we were going to write a Disney Ultimate Dream Castle review she didn’t seem all that excited at first. Thankfully the castle has inspired a huge amount of play and a rather surprising reaction from all my kids.

The excitement started as soon as my kids saw the completed castle, standing at over 3ft tall it’s huge! That alone makes this one impressive toy as far as most kids are concerned and all my children were thoroughly impressed.

The castle has three storeys, six themed rooms and a Rapunzel hair ‘elevator’. Your dolls enter via the front door arriving in Snow White’s Kitchen complete with oven, trolley and various cooking accessories. A short walk over and you enter Belle’s Dining room with large dining table and chairs. Lumiere and two napkins sit in the centre and can be rotated with special dials on the side of the table.

On the second floor your princess can relax in Ariel’s bathroom complete with bathtub and toilet. In the centre of this floor Sleeping Beauty can ask the giant mirror who is the fairest of them all as she primps and styles herself to perfection at her vanity station. Moving across leads to Cinderella’s sewing room where Suzy the Mouse sits upon an elegant chair.

On the top floor there’s a grand bed fit for any of the princess dolls (Merida from Brave lives there in my daughter’s castle) and a tower balcony for Rapunzel to let down her hair or ride it instead with her hair elevator. The elevator can accommodate any of the princess dolls and is great fun to watch them spin down to the ground floor.

Surprisingly enough (or not if you don’t bow to gender stereotypes) all my children, including the boys enjoy playing with this castle. The elevator seems to provide a lot of amusement and with prince dolls readily available there’s plenty of scope for the boys to get involved as well. After all they all enjoy the films that these characters are based on, so playing with them seems natural to them. My daughter is no longer forced to play with typical ‘boy’ toys if she wants to play with her brothers, they can now play along with her castle as well.

Durability

The castle is only made of plastic and I did wonder if it would survive enthusiastic play from three young children, thankfully it still looks as good as the day it arrived.

Value for money

With an RRP of £199.99 (£149.99 at Toys R Us currently) clearly this toy is a considered purchase, however included in the pack you receive 35 play pieces including elegant furniture and accessories (ovens, table, chairs, cutlery etc.) It also includes Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast, Pascal from Tangled and Suzy Mouse from Cinderella.

No dolls are included which seems a shame however anyone considering this castle will probably own a princess or two before purchase anyway.

Would I recommend this product?

If you have the space to house this castle and any children who are ardent fans of Disney films then your kids are bound to thank you for the acquisition of this toy house. It obviously commands quite a high price but relevant to other similar options (Barbie etc) it doesn’t stand out as being overly inflated.

Could it be improved in anyway?

My only complaint with the entire castle is that one of our turrets would just not fit on, we think it may have been squashed or warped in the box. Thankfully my daughter hasn’t noticed its loss but if I’d bought this castle then it would annoy me.

I think a special edition doll only available with the castle would have been a lovely touch as well.

Details

The Disney Princess Ultimate Dream Castle is available right now from Toys R Us stores and their website!