Dates Set for Disney’s Art of Animation Resort First Major Year-Plus Room Refurbishment in 2027 & 2028

Walt Disney World has announced dates and details for the first-ever Art of Animation Resort hard goods refurbishment, with the reimagining starting in Summer 2027 and continuing for over a year into 2028. This shares dates & details, plus our commentary about the scope, scale & impacts of the work–and whether you should avoid staying at Art of Animation during the project.

In the last few years, Walt Disney World has done a pretty good job of ‘catching up’ on room refurbishments that were deferred during the COVID closure and phased reopening. When it comes to the Value Resorts, Disney already wrapped up the latest Pop Century refurbishment, and the All Star Resorts are currently underway with a project that will likely last until 2028 or 2029.

There have been several high-profile projects, a few of which are slated to wrap up soon that’ll free up resources for other big overhauls. That means that more new hotel renovations will be announced for 2027-2028, which is precisely what we’re now seeing with this year-plus hard goods refurbishment at Art of Animation Resort. For a high-level overview of what’s currently underway, recently completed or upcoming, check our 2026-2027 Walt Disney World Hotel Construction Tracker.

Walt Disney World has announced that from mid-June 2027 through October 2028, rooms at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort will undergo refurbishment. This will include the Little Mermaid standard rooms, as well as the family suites themed to Cars, Finding Nemo, and Lion King.

The room renovations will happen in phases, with one themed area being refurbished at a time. Guests may see or hear maintenance work in the area during daytime hours, and alternate paths of travel may be in place until work is complete.

Note that refurbishment dates are subject to change, and we’ve seen the start date pushed back for multiple recent room overhauls at Walt Disney World. The difference between those and this is timing, both of the announcement and the project itself. The Art of Animation overhaul starts when occupancy is lowest in Summer 2027, and ends right before the busy period in Fall 2028. Walt Disney World will want to maintain that exact timeframe if at all possible, making delays far less likely here.

Walt Disney World previously confirmed during a media event prior to the start of Cool Kids’ Summer that Disney’s Art of Animation Resort would receive its first top-to-bottom hard goods room refurbishment. Having opened nearly 15 years ago, the hotel is actually overdue for a fully-fledged room reimagining.

For those unfamiliar with the terms, a hard goods refurbishment is typically a gut-job during which the furniture, flooring, fixtures, and other elements are replaced. We refer to these as room reimaginings, as they usually result in materially-different rooms.

In between hard goods refurbishments, there are soft goods refurbishments to extend the life of a particular room design, and to give them a fresh look that takes advantage of industry trends and innovations in design. Soft goods refurbishments typically involve updating furnishings, including but not limited to wall coverings, flooring, linens, decor, and some furniture.

Disney shared that Imagineering and Facilities Asset Management has been working on the Art of Animation project to maintain what makes the resort a special place while evolving and enhancing the guest rooms. They shared a first look at the new rooms with us to showcase the style. (Unfortunately, no photos have been shared outside the presentation.)

From what we saw during the presentation, the redone rooms are a marked improvement. The new Little Mermaid rooms will finally be redone in the style of all other Value Resorts, with the pull-down Murphy bed that doubles as a table. This is the big substantive improvement, and should make the Little Mermaid rooms much more appealing to guests.

I’ve previously sung the praises of these Murphy beds for their space-saving design, flexibility, and the comfort of the bed over a typical sofa sleeper. Our family actually prefers this style of Value Resort rooms that most Moderate Resort rooms thanks to these Murphy beds.

Beyond that, the design looks better. One of our biggest criticisms over the years is that, rather than having elaborate theme and details, the Little Mermaid rooms have had fairly cheap decorations scattered around. There are some fun details, to be sure, but the cutout decor has a DIY quality.

What Walt Disney World shared of the new-look Little Mermaid rooms is a marked improvement. The style is a good mix of fun and detailed, while also feeling slightly more adult. Think a mix between the current Little Mermaid rooms and the ‘Under the Sea’ Little Mermaid-inspired rooms at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort (pictured above), with the functionality and layout of the redone Pop Century rooms (pictured below).

WDI and FAM have presumably learned lessons from these recent projects, and this is the next iteration on those designs, applied at Art of Animation Resort. For my tastes, it threaded the needle nicely, being neither too subdued nor too over-the-top. If you want a better idea of the outcome, check out First Look Photo Tour of New Rooms at Disney’s Pop Century Resort. Expect something similar to that, but in the style of Little Mermaid.

The recently redone Pop Century rooms are probably about two-thirds of the way there in terms of what the redone Little Mermaid rooms will look like. Most of the remaining one-third that differs will be in the thematic window-dressing, along with some ‘quality of life’ improvements Disney has picked up in the year since.

For the most part, the form and function of the rooms should be pretty similar. This overlap is good news from our perspective. The room reimagining that started in 2017 with Pop Century was one of the very first ‘modern’ generation of resort room designs at Walt Disney World, and subsequent soft goods refreshes built on that foundation.

These redone Value Resort rooms offered marked improvements to make them fresh and functional, with a bunch of clever space-saving design features added. While the footprint remained the same, the resulting rooms feel much larger. There’s more storage, one of the beds folds up into the wall to reveal a table, and more.

For the most part, the new layout has been uncontroversial with Walt Disney World fans. There’s a reason that all three All Stars adopted the exact same design as Pop Century; it was incredibly well-received among guests.

Multiple managers at the Value Resorts have indicated to us that guest feedback has been incredibly positive, with higher satisfaction scores. In fact, Walt Disney World shared that the recent soft goods refurbishment at Pop Century improved scores by at least 5%.

If the smaller-scale refresh yielded that significant of gains, the original hard goods refurbishment back in 2017 likely resulted in a double-digit increase. It’s fairly safe to say that the end result of the Little Mermaid overhaul will be a hit with guests, even if some nostalgic fans might be skeptical.

From our perspective, the bigger question mark is the Cars, Finding Nemo, and Lion King family suites.

We have not seen or heard any details about the hard goods refurbishment coming to the family suites, and from our perspective, there’s less room for improvement with these units. These rooms are dramatically different from the Little Mermaid accommodations, and even the family suites at All Star Music.

For one thing, the Art of Animation family suites are all purpose-built, as opposed to being retrofits. They are 565 square feet, with a wall and door separating the living room and main bedroom. I’m a big fan of the Art of Animation Family Suite layout, which is thoughtful and utilizes its footprint incredibly well.

Thanks to frequent discounts, we stay in the Art of Animation family suites with some degree of regularity, and our impression is that they’ve held up pretty well. The rooms could certainly benefit from a refurbishment, but they don’t really need to be gutted and reinvented in the same way that the Little Mermaid rooms do.

It’ll be interesting to see what Walt Disney World does here. The most significant functional change is likely to be swapping out the sofa sleeper in the living room for a unit similar to the aforementioned ‘Under the Sea’ pull-down sleepers that doubles as a couch. There’s already a pull-down sleeper that converts into a table, so adding another of those would be redundant. And also awkward across from the television in the living room. Other new furniture is likely, as well as space-saving design features.

Our hope is for something that utilizes the space similarly, while updating and upgrading the furnishings, maintaining the same degree of design and fun details. Whereas the redone Little Mermaid rooms will be an obvious improvement, the family suites are a more delicate needle to thread. We’re nevertheless optimistic, but don’t expect this to yield a night-and-day upgrade like the redone Little Mermaid rooms. Those feel antiquated compared to recent Walt Disney World designs, whereas the family suites are still fairly modern.

Art of Animation first opened in 2012, rising from the ashes of Pop Century’s Legendary Years. The hotel features family suites themed to Finding Nemo, Cars, The Lion King, along with Little Mermaid standard rooms. It also debuted with the best amenities of any Value Resort.

Art of Animation was a smash success for a long time, and the first several times we stayed, we paid full price because it was so popular. This might seem like a foreign concept today, as the family suites are often deeply discounted, but there were several years when Little Mermaid rooms were excluded from all discounts.

In recent years, the family suites at Art of Animation have been far less popular, and are often included among the deep Disney+ discounts. Not only are they included, but they’re frequently the most aggressive. In fact, the Cars suites were over half-off for the last few months! (See Walt Disney World’s Biggest Hotel Discount for Summer is ~60% Off Best Value Resort Rooms!)

The Little Mermaid rooms haven’t received any meaningful upgrades since they first opened way back in 2012.

During that time, the resort as a whole has had a variety of projects. The biggest change was undoubtedly the construction of the Skyliner, which was built over Hourglass Lake and is shared with Pop Century. There were also refreshes to the lobby around that time.

The only room refurbishment has been a soft goods refresh that took place between 2019 and 2021. During this project, the family suites and standard rooms had their carpeting replaced by clean, modern laminate flooring. Additionally, full-sized beds were upgraded to queens, furniture and light fixtures were updated.

From a practical perspective, expect the 2027 guest room reimagining at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort to be done not just area-by-area, but also building-by-building. This is pretty standard, and has meant that Walt Disney World takes an entire building out of the room inventory, overhauls it all at once, and then reopens that building.

This is done to minimize the construction impact. This way, no one is getting stuck in a room right next to one that’s under active construction. It’s good for guests and also for Disney, as they don’t have to deal with the inevitable complaints and relocating guests.

It’s entirely possible that you could stay at AoA in the next year and not even realize there’s construction happening if the building being redone is on the other side of the resort. This is doubly true when it comes to the Cars, Finding Nemo, and Lion King family suites. Unlike the Little Mermaid standard rooms, all of these buildings have interior hallways, which should further minimize the visual blight and construction noise during the overhaul.

With that said, there have been times when they do multiple buildings at a time and take rooms in one of those offline and bring them back online in two phases. We’ve had reports from some readers who were close to rooms being worked on and could see or hear it during the daytime hours.

It is also common for Walt Disney World to refurbish regular hotels floor by floor. This is what happened recently with Yacht Club and Animal Kingdom Lodge, and means it is possible to be stuck above or below a room that is being worked on. And that noise most definitely travels through the floor or ceiling.

However, those are also massive hotels that are a single building, and Art of Animation is not. When it comes to the Deluxe Resorts within outlying buildings and interior hallways, refurbishments have been done building by building. This is the most direct comparison to the Art of Animation family suites, so it’s the template we expect to be used here.

Art of Animation having clusters of outer buildings makes refurbishments less impactful than they’d be at many other resorts. At this point, you do NOT need to avoid Disney’s Art of Animation Resort in 2027 or 2028. A room request to be located away from construction should suffice.

You might nevertheless opt for one of the other Value Resorts out of an abundance of caution…or simply to get a room that’s not at the end of its life. Until the halfway point (or so) in this project, we’d actually continue to recommend Pop Century over the Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation simply for the sake of those newer and nicer rooms.

The same is not true for the family suites. We would still recommend the ones at Art of Animation over those at All Star Music. Even pre-refurbishment, these family suites at Art of Animation are superior to the ones at All Star Music. Just make a room request to avoid the area of the resort being redone.

Once the room reimagining kicks into high gear, we’ll have progress updates as to which buildings are being renovated, so you can make room requests accordingly. We’ll do this both so you know which buildings to avoid to steer clear of construction, and what to request to increase your odds of getting a new room. Sign up for our Free Walt Disney World Newsletter for updates on this and other developments.

We’re looking forward to the room refurbishment at the Art of Animation. As I’ve made clear over the years, I’m not the biggest fan of the Little Mermaid rooms. They have grown on me over time, but the current/original version still doesn’t compare to any other Value Resort standard room.

After this room refresh is complete, the biggest downside of the Little Mermaid rooms will be the location. That’s remediable with a room request and isn’t as big of an issue with the addition of the Skyliner, anyway.

I’m excited. Art of Animation already performs well on our Rankings of All Walt Disney World Resorts from Best to Worst, but that’s largely due to the Family Suites. Those are among our favorite room types in all of Walt Disney World, but the standard Little Mermaid rooms are much more budget-friendly, and this refurbishment should make them much more attractive.

Ultimately, as parents to a daughter who already loves the Little Mermaid and as fans of the family suites, this reimagining is a huge win for us. We had already been coming around on the Little Mermaid rooms, but still viewed them as a ‘warts and all’ option. This hard goods refurbishment should instantly make these the best standard rooms at any Value Resort, striking the perfect balance of form, function, design, and Disney whimsy.

We’re less certain about the family suites. Walt Disney World’s recent track record with hard goods refurbishments is strong enough to give the benefit of the doubt, especially since there are a couple of layout changes that could better utilize the space.

However, we’re still slightly nervous that some of the design, which we find fun and whimsical, has been deemed garish and over the top by average guests. If so, these suites might lose some of their personality in the process of the hard goods refurbishment. Hopefully that’s not the case, and the end result is as themed as ever, while gaining functional improvements and quality of life upgrades. We’ll keep you posted!

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Your Thoughts

Are you a fan of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort or do you prefer the style of the other Value Resorts? What major changes or incremental improvements would you like to see made? Agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!