Dreamaversary: Cinderella Castle Suite Visit

There are some days in your life that you remember. Your clothes, the weather, what you had for lunch – the memories of those days are permanently etched not only in your head, but in your heart as well. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few of those good days, those unbelievable experiences that, even in my memory, seem impossible.  

Saturday, August 31st, marks the 5th anniversary of one of those days – my “Dreamaversary.” I’ve been asked often about my visit to the Cinderella Castle Suite because I can’t imagine anyone – old or young, boy or girl, believer or not – has ever stared down Main Street at those glimmering spires and not wondered what it would be like inside Cinderella Castle. Maybe you haven’t wished for it as often as I have, but you must’ve wondered…right?

The Year of a Million Dreams – 2008 – was the year that wish came true. Here’s the short version of how it came about: I was on my lunch break at work and saw an invitation from Disney to visit the suite, which was to take place just a couple of weeks after that day. I immediately told my Disney family (some related by blood, some related by pixie dust) about the event, never believing we’d hop on a plane and actually GO. There were all kinds of reasons not to. 

But we did. Because there was one major reason we HAD to: when you wait your whole life for something magical to happen, you don’t make excuses. You make magic.

Literally, within the span of our lunch break, plans were confirmed for me to join Lisa and Molly, my pixie dust family, as we celebrated Molly’s 9th birthday with a visit to the most exclusive hotel room on Disney property.

Molly didn’t know about any of it. She jumped in the car after her first day of school thinking she was joining her mom for a boring ride that MIGHT end with ice cream for dinner. A few hours later, there was a palm tree outside her window.

We didn’t tell her about the Castle Suite either. Now, to be fair, I guess I was more excited about it than she was – I mean, I HAD waited almost 20 years longer to see it – but surprising her was special for me as well. I’m sure she didn’t know what to make of the “royal decree” and tiny skeleton key presented to her with her birthday dessert at Prime Time Café, but I still have my key in a special treasure box with the badge we wore during our tour. 

The first thing you should know about the Cinderella Castle Suite is that you’ve probably passed by the entrance a thousand times without realizing it. To this day, every time I walk through the Castle, I pause for a moment at the door with the giant “C,” hoping it’ll creak open and I’ll be whisked inside. 

I never have been, but I’ll keep hoping.

Inside, there is a tiny room with a tiny desk and a giant clock and a mirror. That’s where the suite’s concierge waited to respond to any request a guest might have. Sure, you’re pretty much a prisoner because you can’t leave without permission (seems a bit more like Rapunzel than Cinderella, doesn’t it?) but on the other hand – WHO WOULD EVER WANT TO LEAVE?

One of my favorite details in the suite is the clock in this foyer, with its hands magically poised at 11:59, just on the cusp of midnight, where the magic will never end.

I was an adult when we were invited to that suite. I am fully aware that the artifacts displayed – you know, Cinderella’s crown, scepter and, of course, that glass slipper that changed everything – are props. I know that the Suite was a utility closet prior to 2008 and not the guest room of a timeless fairy tale. I understand that the windows that look out over Fantasyland are frosted not because they’re medieval glass, but to hide the maintenance happening outside the suite while guests sleep upstairs.

I get all of that. But I still felt like a 6-year-old as we rode that elevator decorated with gorgeous gold-accented mosaics, and I was a totally enamored invited guest of Cinderella. That little cinder girl did pretty well for herself.

I remember the bedroom feeling smaller than I had expected, possibly because the regal headboards on the beds seemed so gigantic. Everyone was excited about the bathroom, with the amazing starry ceiling and beautiful tile work throughout, and, yes, the details in it (and the lights changing color in the Jacuzzi!) made it the coolest bathroom I had ever been in, but for me? It was the sitting room that really took my breath away.

Someone once told me, looking at my photos, that the sitting room resembled what she imagined the Gryffindor Common Room at Hogwarts would look like. I can see that. It’s the room with the best view to the outside, which also makes it the room I can stare up into from the Magic Kingdom below. I know that if I ever visited the suite again, that’s the place I’d spend most of my time.

When we left the suite, I remember calling home to tell my family how amazing it was to step into a fairy tale. I also remember literally erupting in tears as I tried to tell the story, standing in the breezeway outside that door crested with a C. It happens a lot to me in Disney World – the littlest thing can make my eyes sweat – and I remember Lisa taking a picture of me as it happened. And then she told me we would get to go up again, so that we’d have a chance to see it at night as well.

Sooooo…yeah, something got in my eye at that point too.

We watched Wishes that night, from my favorite spot on Main Street. I call it my “wishing spot,” but I didn’t make a wish that night. I didn’t need to. 

I have bigger things to accomplish in life than visiting a well-decorated room in a Disney theme park. I have more to do than that, bigger dreams, more important wishes. But that night, standing on Main Street with Molly and Lisa, I felt both satisfied and invincible. Satisfied because a wish had come true, and invincible for the same reason. 

That day fulfilled a dream that a much younger me cooked up without realizing it was implausible. There wasn’t even a suite to visit when I made that wish more than two decades ago. And that just makes anything else seem possible.

Molly started high school this week, which seems like a lifetime away from that surprise trip we took only five years ago. She’s still a great kid, she still loves Disney World, and I hope she still knows that wishes CAN come true. 

She should know. She was a witness to one of mine, and I hope I can be there for a lifetime of hers.