King Stefan once hosted a banquet

Image: DisneyTheme park tourists know that the finest dining at Walt Disney World occurs at Cinderella’s Royal Table. Sure, a few other restaurants offer better cuisine, but there’s nothing else in the world like eating inside Cinderella Castle. More than 20 years ago, people knew the place by a different name, though.

Park planners (rightfully) worried that eating with Cinderella didn’t sound high-brow. After all, she’s a peasant who only gets to eat whatever’s left after her wicked stepmother and evil stepsisters are finished. From a certain perspective, Cinderella is a Charles Dickens character, complete with gruel for dinner. Given the prices Disney wanted to charge for a meal at Cinderella Castle, they didn’t think the (eventual) princess was the best option.

Image: DisneyInstead, Disney chose a different royal family as the host of the banquet. King Stefan, the father of Sleeping Beauty, became the name character of the most impressive meal at Magic Kingdom. Why Disney picked someone outside the Cinderella mythology is a bit of a mystery. Guests still wanted to eat at King Stefan's Banquet Hall since they knew it meant a meal at Cinderella Castle. They just didn’t understand the theming. In 1997, Disney acknowledged their mistake, switching to the (much) more appropriate current name, Cinderella’s Royal Table.

Disney parks are competitive

Image: DisneyFor years, Hong Kong Disneyland has struggled with the perception that it’s a lesser Disney park. That’s due in part to the cost-cutting moves in place during the park’s construction. Claiming the first Disney offering in China, Hong Kong Disneyland officials thought that guests would come to interact with Mickey Mouse, negating the need for huge expenditures. They even built a cookie cutter castle for this reason.

Then, Shanghai Disney Resort opened in 2016. Its castle is immaculate and probably the finest in the world today. Suddenly, Hong Kong’s team felt threatened and understandably insecure about their offering, which is basically a replica of the original Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. Hong Kong Disneyland is renovating their castle and the surrounding hub to overcome the current castle deficit. Disney execs are just as susceptible as the rest of us in their compulsion to keep up with the Joneses, even when the Joneses are also Disney execs.

The ultimate in castle living

Image: DisneyThe dream of every Disney fan is to spend a night at one of the beloved castles. Technically, that’s possible, although the odds are admittedly poor. Disney does have a “Dream Suite” available at Cinderella Castle. It’s only available to contest winners or others specifically selected by Disney to spend the night there. The suite is basically the greatest night possible at Walt Disney World, as guests feel the same way that Walt Disney did when he spent the night at his park.

At Disneyland, that wasn’t inside Sleeping Beauty Castle, though. Uncle Walt had an apartment on the second floor of the Main Street Firehouse. Disneyland has a couple of “Dream Suite” options, too. They’re just not at the castle. One is called the Fairy Tale Suite at Disneyland Hotel, and it features an homage to Sleeping Beauty Castle as a bathroom mosaic that basically takes up an entire wall.

The Disneyland Dream Suite was built for Walt Disney as an expanded space for him and his family, but he died before it was finished. Since 2008, a few lucky guests can stay at this location above the actual Pirates of the Caribbean attraction inside the park. While very cool, it’s just not the same as spending a night inside Cinderella Castle. Nothing is.

David Mumpower is the author of the Disney Demystified series, which you can buy here.