2026 Disney Vacation Club Resort Refurbishments & Construction Timeline

Disney Vacation Club has released its timeline for room refurbishments, resort reimaginings, and other construction projects at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond in 2026. This resource provides the scheduled dates and details for work on the Deluxe Villas, and what to expect from each overhaul.

Typically, resort refurbishment schedules are released at the annual Condominium Association Meeting. During this, Disney Vacation Club executives present their plans for updating villa interiors over the next 2 years. There’s usually a timeline shared as part of the presentation that indicates every resort scheduled for updates, and the scale of the project.

The last few years have thrown a monkey wrench in those plans, with several resort refurbishments being delayed due to the closure and its aftermath. Perhaps as a result of that, a timeline was not presented during annual meetings for a couple of years. Fortunately, a new timeline was unveiled for 2026 at the Disney Vacation Club Condominium Association Meeting held last year in mid-December. Here’s what we learned during that and from subsequent updates by Walt Disney World…

First, several Disney Vacation Club resorts received a smaller scale refresh this year and many more of those are going to occur in the next couple of years. If you’re familiar with our Walt Disney World Hotel Construction Tracker, you’ve probably seen this referred to as a soft goods refurbishment. This typically means updating furnishings, including but not limited to wall coverings, flooring, linens, decor, and some furniture.

In recent years, the definition of a ‘soft goods’ refurbishment has “evolved” and I mean that in a good way! (All too often, using air quotes around evolve in relation to Disney means a downgrade. Not in this case.) Both the Grand Floridian and Polynesian Villas received soft goods refurbishments relatively recently that included installation of the new Inova pull-down sofa bed and couch combo. This feature first debuted at Disney’s Riviera Resort, and was subsequently added to Saratoga Springs Resort during its full refurbishment.

Based on what we saw this year, the resorts receiving soft goods refurbishments going forward should all continue to have the Inova pull-down beds added. This is a colossal upgrade over the pull-out couches, and has been a huge hit with Disney Vacation Club members. It has been one of several functional improvements that have really improved the ‘quality of life’ of DVC rooms–while Imagineering has also done a solid job weaving themed design into the upgraded units.

There are also a handful of Disney Vacation Club resorts slated to receive full refurbishments in the next few years. Typically, this is a complete gutting of the room, and results in an entirely new villa interior. The footprint of the room usually remains the same, and its overall square footage size always does.

Changes typically include new furniture, cabinets, countertops, appliances, flooring, tiling, fixtures, and more. Some items can be reused from the prior rooms, especially little details that members enjoy, but these are usually considered “new rooms” whereas soft goods refurbishments result in “reimagined rooms.”

Disney Vacation Club attempts to schedule resorts to receive a soft goods refresh every 7 years and a full refurbishment every 14 years. In the last several years (since around 2018, so even before the closure), they had started to fall behind this schedule. That problem only got worse in 2020-2022, but DVC is finally turning the corner. Pretty much everything that was scheduled the last two years actually got completed, and more or less on schedule.

If you are not a Disney Vacation Club member, this post still might have relevance to you! For one thing, all of these accommodations are bookable directly from Walt Disney World or Disneyland via the “Deluxe Villa” tier, which is treated just like a traditional hotel.

For another thing, you can use our Tips for Renting Disney Vacation Club Points to step into the shoes of a DVC member–and save money in the process. (We strongly recommend the second route, as Deluxe Villas are usually significantly overpriced, whereas renting DVC points offers tremendous savings–they’re basically like polar opposites.)

We do regular resort stays at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, usually emphasizing properties where there are new things, changes, or ongoing construction to see how that harms, improves, or otherwise impacts the guest experience. If you’ve yet to book accommodations for your vacation in 2026 and want to be notified about all of the latest resort changes, sign up here for our FREE Disney newsletter here.

When booking a Walt Disney World or Disneyland vacation, we highly recommend taking into account recently-completed and ongoing construction projects at the various resorts, as these absolutely can impact the quality of your trip. (Speaking of recently-completed, both Boulder Ridge at Wilderness Lodge and the Beach Club Villas have wrapped up refurbishments in the last year and are looking excellent!)

Booking a hotel with a closed pool or construction noise and cranes right outside your window is obviously going to be a worse experience than a resort that just finished its big refurbishment and still has that fresh feeling and ‘new hotel’ smell.

Suffice to say, a lot is happening on the Disney Vacation Club construction front on both coasts. Let’s take a look at all of the current and upcoming projects that have the potential to impact guests…

Animal Kingdom Villas (Kidani & Jambo House) – Through May 2026, guest rooms in Kidani Village at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge will undergo refurbishment, followed by refurbishment work at the Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House from May 2026 through January 2027. During these times, guests may see or hear construction work in the area. All amenities will remain available throughout the refurbishment.

We covered what to expect from this construction at length in Room Reimagining at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge Through 2027. What’s still unclear about this project involves the hotel side of Animal Kingdom Lodge, or just the Animal Kingdom Villas. The latter is the DVC side of the resort, and what is overdue for a refurbishment. Even so, by the time the DVC work is done in 2027, the hotel rooms might be due for another refresh.

Animal Kingdom Lodge completed an awesome room reimagining a few years ago that perfectly threaded the needle on form and function. At the time, the DVC rooms weren’t quite ready to receive an update. They are now. If these are done with the same balance as the Jambo House hotel rooms, I’m fine with it.

Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs Resort – Honestly, I’m worried about this one. We love the Treehouse Villas, and regularly dream about doing a return stay there for a big family reunion with the grandparents from both sides of our family.

We really love the quirky, rustic style of the Treehouses, and hope Disney doesn’t get too heavy-handed with modernizing these rooms. While the new rooms at Saratoga Springs are a nice upgrade for that side of the resort, if that same style is applied to the Treehouses, it wouldn’t work. It’d be too bland and generically modern. Here’s hoping that Disney realizes this and looks to Wilderness Lodge for inspiration, instead of Saratoga Springs.

There’s no official timeline for the Treehouse Villas just yet. DVC reps previously said 2025, and then the first construction permits were filed last summer. We’d expect work to commence soon and continue unit by unit throughout 2026. This should be a hard goods refurbishment.

Old Key West – What a difference ~8 months makes. To the best of my recollection, Old Key West was the final room refurbishment completed as part of the last era of projects at Walt Disney World. The line of demarcation is Disney’s Riviera Resort and the Inova sleepers, which came less than a year after this project was finished.

While the old Old Key West rooms were showing their age and looked like something your grandparents would’ve had at their cottage in the early 1990s…this isn’t much better. The above photo reminds me of a DoubleTree Suites. That’s not even a random example meant to insult OKW–I recently stayed at a DoubleTree Suites and it looked strikingly similar to this.

Suffice to say, I’m really curious about what DVC can do with these spacious OKW rooms combined with the better themed and functional designs of recent rooms! This refurbishment will start sometime in 2026.

For comprehensive planning advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide or our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know! If you’re considering joining DVC, first be sure to read our Ultimate Guide to Disney Vacation Club. If you still can’t decide whether membership is right for you, “try before you buy” with the recommendations in How to Save BIG on Deluxe Disney Accommodations Renting DVC Points.

YOUR THOUGHTS

Thoughts on the 2026 room refurbishment timeline for Disney Vacation Club resorts? Have any recent observations or experiences with hotel construction at Walt Disney World or Disneyland to share? Where are you planning to stay this year? Any resorts you’re intentionally avoiding? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments of these resort refurbishment or reimagining projects? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!