Shopping for a Night time in Cinderella Citadel Suite?

“How a lot does an evening inside Cinderella Citadel Suite value?” That’s a surprisingly widespread query from readers who’ve seen  photographs from inside Walt Disney World’s most lavish “resort” room. This solutions that, with the sale value a uncommon 1-night keep in Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Citadel Suite. We’ll cowl how this room works and is used, and what further magical extras the suite keep contains. (Up to date December 1, 2024.)

We’ve been contained in the Cinderella Citadel Suite in Magic Kingdom twice, and it’s unimaginable–positively the best lodging (for those who may even name it that) at Walt Disney World. Each inch of the opulent lodging is meticulously detailed and thoughtfully themed. Like its namesake, the Cinderella Citadel Suite is match for royalty, with regal consideration to element and lavish flourishings all over the place you look.

Not solely that, however the design is extremely intelligent. It showcases Imagineering on the high of its design recreation. Area within the is suite utilized brilliantly, reworking what’s in actuality a fairly small house into one thing that feels extravagant. For these followers who bemoan who resort rooms at Walt Disney World have gotten generic and unthemed…that is the precise reverse of that.

Designed to resemble a seventeenth century French chateau, the ornately-decorated Cinderella Citadel Suite options glowing stained glass home windows, coffered ceilings, an vintage limestone fire topped with a ‘magical’ portrait of Cinderella, elaborate mosaics and murals, and splendid furnishings match for a princess or prince. Naturally, the Cinderella Citadel Suite additionally encompasses a gilded clock caught completely at 11:59 p.m., since Cinderella’s magic spell ended at midnight.

For any followers who complain that Imagineering is incapable of doing resort rooms and solely makes bland and generic designs, that is the most effective counterpoint. All you must do is improve your lodging to inside Magic Kingdom’s icon. Shouldn’t value an excessive amount of greater than a keep at All Star Sports activities, proper?!

For these unfamiliar with it, the Cinderella Citadel Suite is a comparatively latest addition that’s not practically as previous because the 50+ yr previous centerpiece of Magic Kingdom. The suite opened in January 2007, and was created to function a each day prize for randomly chosen friends throughout the 12 months of a Million Desires.

Previous to that, it was a utilitarian backstage cupboard space; earlier than that, Walt Disney World cellphone operators used it as a workspace. (Discuss concerning the final workplace!) The Cinderella Citadel Suite is seldom used nowadays, save for giveaways or when celebrities like Mariah Carey or Tom Cruise make a particular go to.

Actually, we haven’t heard something about superstar stays or giveaways within the Cinderella Citadel Suite for the many of the final 4 years. In right this moment’s period of social media, we’d most likely have a fairly good concept if The Rock, Ryan Gosling, Blake Full of life, or different Disney-obsessed celebrities (or frequent movie stars) lately had the prospect to spend the evening in Cinderella Citadel.

The most important exception to that was a sequence of sweepstakes for Solid Members as a part of the “Magic Backstage” program a few years in the past. There have additionally been auctions and sweepstakes for most of the people, largely of the charitable selection, within the final a number of years.

As for the price of a keep in Cinderella Citadel Suite, let’s break down the assorted sweepstakes and their said values, from which we will reverse engineer the price or approximate retail worth of a keep within the Cinderella Citadel Suite from Walt Disney World’s perspective.

In 2024, Disney Trip Membership provided the prospect for one fortunate winner and 4 friends to take pleasure in a once-in-a-lifetime Magical Celebration Trip Package deal that includes a one-night keep within the Cinderella Citadel Suite, as a part of its “Keep Magical” sweepstakes.

The approximate retail worth of all the trip bundle is $15,488.65. We are able to take the recognized approximate prices of every thing else within the bundle, take away these from the equation, and provide you with an ballpark “value” for an evening within the Cinderella Citadel Suite. The whole of the opposite bundle elements is $8,895 to $12,845.

That’s an enormous vary, however that’s the character of the beast given variations in airfare and social gathering measurement. Walt Disney World can’t assign a variety to the worth, they want a selected value. However, from that we will conclude that Walt Disney World considers the approximate retail worth of 1 evening within the Cinderella Citadel Suite to be between $2,643 and $6,593.

Previous to this, there was a fundraiser for Give Children the World, which is a great trigger that’s greater than deserving your help. (A little bit of an apart, however we strongly consider within the group’s mission, and have been moved by our visits to the Village. We’ve requested readers to help Give Children the World with previous fundraising initiatives, and would encourage you to recollect the group on Giving Tuesday.)

For that fundraiser, the approximate retail worth of the holiday bundle was listed as $9,308. As soon as once more, we took the recognized approximate prices of every thing else within the bundle, eliminated these, and got here up with an ballpark “value” for an evening within the Cinderella Citadel Suite. In that case, the entire of every thing else was $2,917 to $5,898.

That places the approximate retail worth of 1 evening within the Cinderella Citadel Suite to be round $3,410 to $6,391. Not that far off from the earlier giveaway! We’ve truly seen a couple of different giveaways/sweepstakes/fundraisers for the Cinderella Citadel Suite, and most fall within the $4,000 to $6,500 vary. If I needed to ascribe a selected approximate retail worth to the Cinderella Citadel Suite primarily based on the mixture of those, it’d be proper round $6,000.

It’s value mentioning that the approximate retail worth is an imperfect measure of the Cinderella Citadel Suite’s worth or potential value had been it made bookable. Walt Disney World is aware of the precise worth of the opposite elements, as costs are set at market charges primarily based on what friends pays.

That’s not the case with the Cinderella Citadel Suite, since friends can not merely shell out $X for a keep. So the price of the Cinderella Citadel Suite in these is considerably arbitrarily set for the sake of the competition and authorized compliance. It’s all however sure that if the Cinderella Citadel Suite had been bookable, the free market would set its value at a a lot, a lot greater stage.

We’re pretty assured of this primarily based on its exclusivity, attraction, and pricing patterns of different suites round Walt Disney World. And likewise as a result of there was an precise public sale a couple of years again that roughly did precisely this–discovered the precise worth of the Cinderella Citadel Suite that folks had been keen to pay. This occurred as a part of an public sale by ESPN throughout V Week.

As with the aforementioned giveaways, that public sale was not only for a single evening in Cinderella Citadel Suite. It additionally included a trip bundle for 3 nights and 4 days at Walt Disney World, with airfare, floor transfers, normal lodging, park tickets, a present card, VIP tour information, and keep contained in the Cinderella Citadel Suite.

Crucial two issues are that the estimated retail worth of the holiday bundle is $10,644.80, which is the estimated worth of the entire Walt Disney World trip bundle add-ons. Which means that we may roughly take the ultimate successful bid and subtract $10,644 to find out the per evening truthful market worth of an evening in Cinderella Citadel Suite by itself.

With that stated, this finally a “for enjoyable” train to reply the age previous query of “how a lot is an evening within the Cinderella Citadel Suite value?” Essentially, it gained’t even be capable of present a definitive reply. For one, this goes to charity, so bidders could be extra beneficiant than if the only beneficiary had been Disney.

For an additional factor, there’s the matter of shortage. To my information, that is the primary time for the reason that Cinderella Citadel Suite opened that you possibly can purchase your manner into it. There’s possible lots of demand and disposable wealth that might evaporate shortly if the Cinderella Citadel Suite had been obtainable to be booked twelve months per yr.

Previous to the public sale ending, my prediction was that the successful bid could be $64,499.49.

That’s an obscene amount of cash, however there are many extremely prosperous Disney followers keen to blow their cash. After all, if the Lopez brothers and John Stamos caught wind of this, it may’ve resulted in a six-figures bidding conflict!

Ultimately, there have been 114 bids positioned on the Cinderella Citadel Suite public sale and the winner paid $75,600 (plus $7.75 for transport…for some cause). Not too far off from our authentic guess!

We’re guessing that if an evening within the Cinderella Citadel Suite had been auctioned off each single day, the common value would drop significantly beneath that…however nonetheless possible above $10,000. In any case, there are suites on the Grand Floridian and 4 Seasons Orlando that fetch practically that nightly charge!

Provided that, it’d most likely promote for between $15,000 and $20,000 per evening. Once more, which may appear obscene and unlikely, particularly after Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser failed spectacularly at decrease costs, however there are a pair issues to contemplate.

First, Starcruiser had extra room stock. Just a few voyages would quantity to all the yr of availability for the Cinderella Citadel Suite. This alone is a giant distinction, as restricted provide and exclusivity are big promoting factors for the suite. (To not point out it being the one resort room inside a theme park at Walt Disney World, however that’s a part of the exclusivity!)

Second, Starcruiser was way more area of interest. When you’re a rich funding banker or no matter taking their youngsters for a rite-of-passage Walt Disney World journey, you’re going to be way more within the Cinderella Citadel Suite than Star Wars cosplaying. The suite has cachet and bragging rights even amongst non-fans, whereas Starcruiser primarily appealed to weirdos (I say that lovingly, as a weirdo) and never the rich.

Obscene because it might sound, I don’t suppose Walt Disney World would have any issue discovering 365 superfans or wealthy folks every year keen to shell out $20,000 for an evening inside Cinderella Citadel. Given the extensive attraction of such an expertise, the market charge would possibly find yourself being even greater, who is aware of!

If you wish to see extra glimpses of the rooms contained in the suite, take a look at our Cinderella Citadel Suite Photograph Tour put up (that loo is past perception!).

In that, we cowl why it’s not practical for Walt Disney World to make use of this on a nightly foundation for Make a Want households and even money bookings. However, it feels nearly prison that it simply sits empty most nights.

It’d be cool if there have been a extra egalitarian method to Walt Disney World providing nights within the Cinderella Citadel Suite regularly, such because the random giveaways like throughout the 12 months of a Million Desires. It was all the time extremely thrilling to see somebody who was randomly chosen return from their journey and put up about it. You couldn’t assist however really feel blissful for the winners, albeit with only a bit of good-natured jealousy.

With Walt Disney World probably not having something occur in 2025, and Epic Universe opening simply down the highway, it will be a terrific alternative to revive the 12 months of a Million Desires or one other bold advertising and marketing marketing campaign that might get folks enthusiastic about visiting Walt Disney World once more. Few prizes are fairly as thrilling as an evening within the Cinderella Citadel Suite!

Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Study lodges on our Walt Disney World Resorts Critiques web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Critiques. To economize on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys put up takes a singular take a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Trip Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the most effective place to start out is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every thing it is advisable to know!

Your Ideas

What would YOU pay to spend an evening right here (assuming no budgetary limitations)? Do you would like that Walt Disney World convey again random, each day giveaways of the Cinderella Citadel Suite? Assume it may occur for the corporate’s one hundredth Anniversary? Any questions we may help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!