Bettendorf Castle — Attraction in Fox River Grove

I have actually bought tickets twice but they canceled tours (prior to covid) both times and the regular tour times to reschedule are so weird and particular that it’s hard to juggle with a normal workweek.

When I expressed my concern for the cancellations I got a generic response that came across like “here is a refund and sorry if our make-up date didn’t work for you.” Making it seem like it was my problem I can’t just reschedule my entire family’s busy schedule last minute.

You also cannot go inside, which to me, is the whole point. There are thousands of gardens, but few castles. Other private residence castles allow you inside, why not this one? I’ve even been to castles where the owners tour you their actual living space and offer to put you up to stay for a night for an extra fee. Even the Biltmore Estate is a private residence yet provides a very large indoor section.

I used to work for Disney and we bent over backwards for our guests. It just doesn’t seem like the owners really care to make it a good tourist experience.

I would give it 1-star but I am giving them the benefit of the doubt. I’d be happy to update this review in the future, but being super selective with timing and access and seasonal operations…I just don’t know if I’ll ever make it back to try again… it’s become a “maybe one day I might visit” destination but I’m not getting my hopes up and not making...

We went for the Princess Tea Party and I wasn’t really impressed for a $200 price tag for 1.5 hours. Pro’s: the 3 Princess’s were really nice and attentive to my girls. They sang a personal Happy Birthday to my daughter and they sang plenty of songs and read books.

Con’s: why Snow White? There are so many modern Princess options.

The theme was a tea Party. No cute cups or anything to show as a tea party. We were given punch in a big solo cup. Paper towels as napkins and only desserts (cupcakes, mini brownies and Oreos) I think for $200 a table there could have been cute tea cups from Amazon and little tea sandwiches. Would have also been nice to have some photo backdrops or maybe a bounce house for kids. If the Princesses were interacting with other tables we were told we can wonder around the castle grounds. Which is just little grass area’s.

Oh, and the castle is on a residential block. We could not go inside and there is a outdoor bathroom. The gift store has nothing in it but a few t-shirts with the castle logo.

Overall my kids had fun because they are obsessed with princesses but the value of the experience was...

Unfortunately.. our Egg hunt this year was not as I expected. It was a MESS. We were informed by 3 different people from the staff about different locations, times and ages for egg hunts. So our poor toodler son (and my friends' son) run to find 0 eggs left cos everything started way before they told us. We barely made it to the last open to all ages egg hunt that we didn't even know about, just followed the crowd. My heart broke when I saw our sons telling us there was nothing left for them in their age group (not sure if there were age groups, according to one employee there was, the other there wasn't). It is for sure NOT worth tickets at that price point. Plus the guy giving out special prizes for tickets found inside the eggs was giving them without the ticket, but when my 5 year old went to ask if he could get one, a man denied. I would never recommend going there for egg hunt. I regret spending so much money on this poorly organized and...