British Royal Family Spending: Prince William and Kate Middleton in NYC
For most of us average Americans, a trip to New York City is expensive any way you do it. Train, plane, rental car cost, and taxi fare all add up to a hefty transportation tab and room and board is a whole separate affair. Add in that you can’t get a cocktail for less than 10 dollars and that constant urge you get to donate to subway performers and you have officially drained your bank account. Add in the exorbitance of British royal family spending and the possibilities of excess spending is limitless.
Imagine being royal. Imagine being royal and being two of the most talked about figures of our time. Imagine being Prince William and Kate Middleton during their first trip-ever to the big apple. The price tag on their trip, as British royal family spending usually is, might be hard for you to fathom, and that’s why we’re doing it for you. Let’s analyze how much money Prince William and Kate Middleton will spend on their first New York City trip.
Staff: $100s per day
While our idea of having a personal assistant is using an owed favor against our best friend to go get us a bacon, egg and cheese while we’re in the thralls of a hangover, the royals are a classier bunch by nature. For the three-day-trip alone the duo will be traveling with two private secretaries, two media aides, an adviser, a personal assistant, and a hairdresser. Amanda Cook Tucker, a long-time stylist of Kate Middleton, is said by British media to earn $368 a day and all of her expenses paid for.
Hotel: $51,000+
The duo, along with five other guests, are staying at the Carlyle hotel, a fancy place historically favored by British royals and famous figures alike. With peasant accommodations running at $450 a night, you won’t believe what the creme de la creme costs. The rate of the best accommodations in the hotel is over $17,000, which becomes a little more believable when reading the description (because, unfortunately, that’s as close as we can get). The site describes its Empire Suite as blurring the “line between hotel accommodation and a residential apartment.” It occupies two floors and has 4 1/2 bedrooms and every amenity possible, plus a breath-taking view of Central Park from floor length windows. Pretty awesome, and while it’s not confirmed, reports claim that duo’s room has Central Park views, and it definitely seems like a room fit for royalty.
Kate’s Ensemble: $2,000+ a Day
Kate Middleton is known for her fashion sense and style, which includes her choices of maternity wear. While we might just make use of those extra-large free t-shirts we’ve procured over the years, knowing they’d come in handy one day, Kate makes maternity wear trendy. At five months pregnant, Kate arrived in New York City wearing a plum colored coat from Seraphine Maternity, which runs for a very affordable$300. For dinner afterwards, she changed into a dress from Beulah London’s spring line, which considering exchange rates costs about $1050. Add on $300 shoes and multiple hundreds of dollars worth of other accessories, we can figure that Kate’s ensembles have an average price tag of $2,000 a day.
EVENTS
Fundraising Dinner for the American Friends of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry- $2,000,000 raised
The event reportedly only had a guest list of 30 people and yet between them managed to raised 2 million, which is nothing short of impressive. Apparently the smallest donation was $100,000; just submitted a request to do Secret Santa with these folks instead of the office peeps.
Barclays Center, Brooklyn Nets vs. Cleveland Cavaliers Game, $1000s
We can imagine that Will and Kate will get the best options when making their appearance at Jay-Z’s Barclay Center for their first NBA game. If we assume this, we can assume with pretty certain confidence that they will be sitting courtside. Courtside tickets run over $1,000 per tickets, so at minimum the seven-person group will spend around $7,000 for the seats alone. Never mind food, drinks, and other luxuries that cost significantly more than face-value at sports arenas. That’s about the price we’d pay to get Prince William to comment on if he thinks LeBron is the modern age Jordan. We digress.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala- $104,300 a Table
The last event the royal duo will be a part of is in support of the 600th-anniversary of the Scottish University, Saint Andrew’s, where Prince William and Kate met as students. Tom Hanks and Mary-Kate Olsen are rumored to be guests at the $104,392 per table event.
