On Aug. 26, Hilton New York Times Square announced the opening of the new “‘Lion King’ Royal Suite,” designed as an extension of the long-running Broadway musical and an elevated hospitality experience. Curated and decorated by Devin Sparkles of Devin Sparkles Design, the room was borne out of a partnership between Hilton Times Square and Disney Theatrical Group. It boasts props and art from “The Lion King” on Broadway, custom furniture, saharan lighting — there’s almost too much to take in here.
The suite marks an expansion of the relationship between Hilton Times Square and Disney, as the two entities collaborated in summer 2023 to launch the “‘Aladdin’ Times Square Palace Suite.” Hilton intended to welcome guests to that room during a period of 90 days, but it became so popular, the Palace Suite is still available for booking; the two-room, ADA-accessible “Lion King” Royal Suite will be available for an unlimited time, as well.
Its customized rooms are part of Hilton Times Square’s efforts to provide a 360-degree experience for travelers — a priority of the location since reopening under the new ownership of Apollo Global Management and Newbound Holdings in October 2022. (The hotel had previously been owned by Sunstone Hotel Investors.) “I love this hotel,” said Thom Caska, general manager of Hilton Times Square. “The service is excellent. The friendliness is great, cleanliness is great, the quality is excellent. But we would be naïve to think that people are coming here because of the hotel — they’re coming here because of everything else that New York City has to offer.”
In that vein, Caska and the Hilton team brainstormed ways to integrate elements of Times Square and New York City into the hotel, which is located on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. “We started looking at our neighbors on the block that were attracting our guests,” Caska said. “The vast majority are really coming here to see a Broadway show, and with the New Amsterdam [Theatre, home of ‘Aladdin’] being a stone’s throw from our entrance, it was almost a no-brainer.”
While the Palace Suite features silk pillows and Ottoman-inspired carpets to transport guests to the musical’s setting of Agraba, the Royal Suite capitalizes on the African setting of “The Lion King” and references to the production.
“The pillows on the bed are made from mudcloth from the show, and the panels hanging above the bed are extra fabric from Simba costumes,” said interior designer Sparkles. “Those are Simba’s pants behind Simba’s mask. That’s a real bird kite [from the show] on the wall.”
