Prince William and Duchess Kate to invade NYC in December

Prince William and Duchess Kate to invade NYC in December

Brace yourself, America, Will and Kate are coming. After being subjected to the other two Middleton siblings, Pippa and James, America is getting smacked in the face with the third Middleton sibling when Prince William and Kate Middleton invade New York City and Washington, D.C. from December 7-9. Unfortunately for all of America, the Cambridge invasion does not include the Almighty Grumpy Faced Guardian of the Galaxy Prince George. His Almighty Guardianship will be left at home with Nanny Maria, or Carole Middleton, while his parents hop across the pond. Boo.

This will be the first visit for both to New York City and Washington, D.C. in any capacity – both public and private. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s last official visit to the US was in 2011 when they visited California. William visited Memphis earlier this year, privately, for the wedding of Guy Pelly (privately as in not part of official duties, it was very much captured by the media).

[Will and Kate arriving in California in 2011]

Will and Kate will carry out 6 joint engagements, while William will have 4 solo engagements and Kate will have 2 solo engagements, for a total of 12 engagements (10 for William, 8 for Kate).

The itinerary:

December 7, Sunday

William and Kate, NY

  • Private engagement on behalf of American Friends of the Royal Foundation.

December 8, Monday

William, Washington, D.C.

  • Anti-corruption conference at World Bank to discuss zero tolerance on transportation of illegal wildlife parts.
  • Working lunch at World Bank to discuss a number of programs in support of the fight against illegal ivory trade.

William, NY

  • Reception organized by Royal Foundation in recognition of work carried out by Tusk Trust and United for Wildlife partners: Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy.

Kate, NY

  • Visit to local child development center with First Lady of New York, Chirlane McCray.
  • Lunch hosted by British Consul General in NY to celebrate achievements of British community in NY from culture, arts, hospitality, and business sectors.

William and Kate, NY

  • NBA basketball game to launch collaboration between Royal Foundation, United for Wildlife, and NBA.

December 9, Tuesday

William and Kate, NY

  • Visit to a youth organization to see work carried out in partnership with an inner city youth development foundation.
  • Event celebrating British talent in creative industries in NY in association with UK Government GREAT campaign.

William, NY

  • Technology themed event hosted by a New York-headquartered technology company.

William and Kate, NY

  • University of St. Andrews 600th Anniversary Dinner at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Date not listed

William and Kate, NY

  • Visit the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center.

In case you’re wondering, those generic “A child development center”, “A youth organization”, “AN inner city youth development foundation”, “A technology company”, are actually that generic in the full press release from Kensington Palace.  It makes me wonder why they didn’t release the names of all the places, like do they not have those things finalized yet?

PS.  Based on Kate’s usual pattern, I’m guessing this trip will be the last we see of Kate in December until the Christmas walk to church.  If she does make any other appearances, I’ll be really surprised.


32 thoughts on “Prince William and Duchess Kate to invade NYC in December

    1. I really hope my peeps ask him exactly what personal steps *HE* is taking to ensure the wildlife are protected. They should totally put him on the spot. He’s such a hypocrite, and gets away with it because in the UK, Royalty is still put up on a pedestal and it’s highly taboo to slap them in the face with their own hypocrisy. I hope the US doesn’t put on similar airs.

  1. To me, it sounds like the trip was slapped together in a hurry. I don’t know what the purpose of this is – they could’ve waited until springtime to discuss these topics (none of them sound urgent enough to meet right.this.very.second). My guess is William was supposed to come alone in March/April (right around when Kate would give birth) and Kate wanted to come to NY very badly, so she insisted the trip be pushed up to December, when she could travel. Maybe that’s why William is pissy with her. I guess he wanted some time away from her and ended up being trapped. Again.

    1. I understand why William is going because of his involvement with the United for Wildlife stuff – like, if this is when those things are meeting, then it would make sense for him to go since he’s been involved with that since the beginning. But Kate’s involvement in the whole trip I don’t understand. Nothing on her agenda is something super specific to her – they just threw in some events that sort of relate to her patronages but don’t actually have any direct involvement in them as far as I can see. I think it’s very telling that most of the specific named events have to do with United for Wildlife. Other than the St. Andrews dinner, the WTC visit, and the GREAT campaign none of the events are specifically named, they’re generic. And all of Kate’s events are generically named. I kind of feel like this trip was thrown together as well. Like, William was planning to attend the United for Wildlife stuff on Dec 8, and would have just flown in for that one day, but then the trip was extended (maybe because Kate insisted on going, but who knows really) so they had to throw in extra things for them to do.

      1. I honestly wonder if it was Kate that wanted to go or more so that she was pushed to go since she has been making so few appearance. Maybe the Queen told her she needs this PR and must go. I agree that her events seem very thrown together. It totally seems like they just put in a few quick visits for her so that it would seem like worthwhile trip for her to go. If Kate is seen shopping in NYC, then we all know that she was the one who wanted to go.

        1. Well, if she’s seen visiting the high-end fashion stores on Madison and Fifth avenues, we’ll certainly know what her motive was!

          And in a way, I’m glad they’re not bringing George if that’s true although I’d love to see his grumpy face. It’s a shame that they’re stingy about showing George to the British public and threaten lawsuits against the British media for taking and publishing his photos, but are more than happy to bring him on trips to other countries as a PR ploy.

  2. I want photos/video of Kate with Chirlane McCray. The first lady if New York is an accomplished lawyer and author. Kate will look like a fool next to her. They need to pair her with someone vapid and just as fluffy as her. This visit will do her no favors.

  3. Oh, the 9/11 Memorial: a somber and moving site of remembrance–just the kind of place where Kate giggles maniacally and flicks her hair around. She had better not mess this up.

      1. No doubt. Our press is savage compared to Britain’s. That would be a joy to read about. People in the US LOVE Willy and Waity… even though we fought two wars to be free of the Royals.

  4. I think you are right that this NYC trip will be the last time we see Kate until the Christmas walk. She always needs a rest after her trips abroad to recover from all her hard work…

  5. Agree. This isn’t a working visit – they British Counsel pulled this together so she could visit NY. She’s the guest of honor, not leading a cause. Compare this to when the other European Royals are in NY – they are either there to give speeches on behalf of causes, or they are there privately for some relaxation. Kate’s going to 5 parties, one basketball game, and will drop by 2 children’s centers for about an hour each day. Not releasing info on the visits to far in advance may have more to do with security — while we certainly don’t want anything to happen to UK’s royalty — we sure as heck don’t want to pay a dime more for it then necessary. We didn’t invite them to the country for a visit – they are coming for their own reasons. The private visit to the Memorial may be to satisfy an “official” reason to supply security for them during this visit.

    1. That’s why I think this trip was supposed to just be William’s trip originally. He is actually going to be doing something related to one of his charities. Kate’s stuff is not relevant to her charities and just seem like filler.

      I understand the security reasons, but they released William’s visits regarding United for Wildlife and the St. Andrews thing so I don’t see why they would withhold the other stuff.

      1. Those buildings are secure. No one is getting into the World Bank or MET who isn’t suppose to. Those charities Kate is visiting have no use for that level of security nor do those lunch venues unless they are being held at the Consulate. New York City is a huge multicultural city — too much notice on a high target foreign national could be a problem.

        1. True. Though I went back and looked at the itinerary release for the Oz/NZ tour and a month out they did say exactly which children’s hospices Kate would be visiting. But NYC is much more of a target, terrorist-wise, I suppose than Waikato, NZ and Manly, OZ. From a security POV it makes sense not to release the names too far in advance.

          1. It still doesn’t make sense to me. The Duchess of Cambridge is absolutely not as high a terrorist or security priority as others. The Queen, the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary are the highest value terrorist targets. Compared to the President of the United States or the President of Russia, the risks to the Queen is much lower. So the Duchess’ overall value as a threat target is comparatively low. They will have their usual complement of Met bodyguards with them as well as high-visibility security from the United States Diplomatic Security Service (only heads of state receive US Secret Service protection) and likely NYS and NYPD officers for crowd control and outer ring protection. I have no worries whatsoever that either of them will be in appreciable danger with the security measures that will be taken.

          2. Yeah, I mean I wouldn’t think anyone would go to the trouble of targeting Kate when there are other people who are far more valuable. But you never know. Some royal reporters had mentioned that due to security they weren’t allowed to say on Twitter when Kate would be arriving to her appearance the last time she worked. Maybe there have been threats against her or something? I don’t know. This NYC trip still feels thrown together to me.

    2. It really can’t speak for the other European RFs but Mary was recently in NY attending a big conference (UN?) along with many other royal women. She and Frederik has also visited NY in the past as part of a official endeavour to promoted Danish culture, art and design. A few years back Queen Margrethe visited NY in a private capacity in conjunction with the Danish Royal Ballet’s tour. That was because she has a very keen interest in ballet and has worked together with the ballet designing costumes for a couple of ballets. I have actually seen her very often in the Royal Theatre when I gone to see ballets and operas. She always enters the royal box quitely after the lights are out. She is course always noticed and people stand up but it is very obvious she has a great love for the theatre. Ironically, the royals have one of the abolutely worsts seats in the theatre. You can only see half the stage from that vantage point and much of the backstage area. I suspect that’s one reason she became so interested in art direction. Her father, King Frederik IX, was very interested in music and conducted the Royal Chamber Orchestra several times.

  6. everytime these two visir foreign countries, they are quickly forgotten as well, kate and her flashing is the only reminder that keeps people talking!

    1. ..and all of a sudden: the HG is just gone!! She looks very healthy, she wants to travel to NYC… nobody talks about this annormalities and mysteria going on with the cambridges anymore, because her PR kind of works even on this platform. I also agree with most of the writers here, this trip looks thrown togehter in a hurry, because MADAME wants it and by the way it could people convince that she´s a hard worker and make them stop her criticising. To me it seems, the first trimester something happend within the marriage of Willnot and Kannot, she used to be hypocritical (taking a rest is appropriate to a newly pregnant, but not lying- not being able to work, but shopping and hanging around with her partens!) and now she wants to show everybody that she works almost a full month lenght (WOW!!!BRAVO!!!!) to earn her then following/upcoming holiday, till the child is born….I wonder where her belly is? My daughter was born in March, in November everybody asked me if I would give birth to twins, but she ha a normal weight. There has to be a bump now!

  7. I wonder if she’s going to pull out of this in late-November b/c her HG is “so” “BAD”. Of course this is the Big Apple we’re talking about, so it promises to be glitz and (relatively) work-free, which is Darling Katie’s M.O., so we will see. We live in interesting times.

      1. How much input in decorating do you think he had? Do you think he cared much? I’m curious. I know there were reports of Kate decorating the palace in all beige – and then it turned out a peasanty purple color which it seems she’s had corrected – which totally suits her personality. But do you think Will had any input? Like, he must have had say over his office, right? Or would he have let Kate decorate that, too? If he did decorate it himself it means he’s just as beige as Kate. Or is that one of the rooms they don’t actually use (because in that, what, 50+ room palace there must be rooms they don’t ever use)? Gah, I want to know!

        I do like the building thing on the desk, that’s cool.

        1. The building is cool! Will seems to be the type of guy who either is overly involved or could care less. I would think that Kate would have a richer color palette. She has access to paintings and art that would be any curator’s dream. The color of the room washes him out. You are right, they probably chose one of the rooms via the eeny meeny miny mo method.

      2. Wow! That is A LOT of beige! And no congtrast colours the break the uniform blandness of the beige. I doesn’t surprise me though given that Kate is behind the decorating scheme. She always like to colour code her outfits from shoes to hat, not realizing that not every single item has to colour match.

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