Friday, December 14, 2012

Shopping for a Princess–Disney & Walmart

DVDAs my readers well know, I love Disney. Having kids makes Disney stuff all the more fun. Lulu is a true fan of Disney Princesses. She loves to dress up and play with a wide variety of Disney Princess toys. This past week I’ve been very involved in the world of Disney Princess products…Perfect timing for Christmas. The Disney Princess Augmented Reality App is available for Android and iPhone/iPad (free). I installed it on both my iPad and my Droid and checked it out with Lulu. There are three areas in the game: The Princess Boutique where you select your princess attire, The Carriage Shop where you design your carriage and The Royal Palace, your final destination for the Royal Ball. You can “unlock” additional features in the app at Walmart by scanning the QR code on the Disney PrincessIMAG0644 Displays and/or completing the full Royal Ball Dance in the app. Lulu has loved playing with the app. Her favorite feature is designing her Royal Ball outfit and then taking her picture—the app superimposes the dress, jewels and tiara on you. So cute. The app was released along with the re-release of Cinderella on Blu-Ray/DVD in October.

I headed out to Walmart to look for Disney Princess items and to buy some of them. I was looking for: Mattel Disney Princess Ultimate Dream Castle, Mattel Cinderella Transforming Carriage, Mattel Cinderella Magiclip Castle, Fisher-Price Little People Princess Palace, 16” Huffy Cinderella bike, 12” Huffy Princess bike, 12V Disney FJ Cruiser, 6V Disney Quad. I ended up visiting 3 Walmarts looking for the items. I highly recommend using the Walmart website to order and

choosing the “site to store” option which allows you to pick up your items without having to hunt around for them. Walmart.com has a really well done Disney page that is a great jumping off point for getting a grip on what Disney products are available in all departments. I had difficulty finding everything on my list. I eventually managed to find 6 of the 8 items. I decided to buy the Mattel Cinderella Magiclip Castle and the Mattel Cinderella Transforming Carriage. I really liked the castle because it has a lot of versatility. The age range is open ended (3+). The castle has 5 sections that allow for lots of imaginary play. To be honest, the Cinderella Transforming Carriage is something I would want, so that’s why I chose it. The ability to transform from a pumpkin to a carriage for Cinderella is so straight out of the story. I also think it pairs perfectly with the Magiclip Castle to create even more storylines.

I will be donating both of them to a local charity that provides Christmas gifts to local families in need. I have worked with this charity over the past several years and they do so much great work. One of their annual events is having a holiday party for children undergoing cancer treatment at our local county hospital. This party is really special as the kids’ parents and siblings are invited and everyone receives presents from Santa. Of course Lulu was intrigued by the Cinderella toys and “wanted” them. But when she heard who we were donating them to, she was totally on board. She and Chip have gone with me every year to volunteer and put together “santa sacks” of toys for the needy families. The whole family talked about the “little princess” who will receive the gifts. Of course, Santa knows Lulu loves the toys as well. He may very well come down the chimney with something from the above list…We’ll have to wait a couple of weeks to see! I put together a Google+ Album of my Disney Princess Shopping Trip to the Walmarts.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Disney Consumer Products, Inc #CBias #SocialFabric #DisneyPrincessWMT. All opinions and content are my own.

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