2026-2027 Hotel Construction & Refurbishments at Disney World
Hotel refurbishments, resort construction, and character-inspired makeovers continue at Walt Disney World from now through 2027. This resource provides info on room renovations, what to avoid, where to book, and what to expect in terms of hotel work at Walt Disney World.
Walt Disney World continues to undertake refurbishments in an effort to modernize or refresh several of its resorts, as well as finish deferred maintenance that was postponed during the phased reopening. Consequently, there’s a growing number of smaller-scale projects that take certain buildings or a portion of rooms out of commission as part of more-targeted, rolling refurbishments.
We do Walt Disney World monthly hotel stays, usually emphasizing resorts 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 a hotel for your upcoming Walt Disney World vacation 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 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. 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.
Note that this does not include DVC villas if they do not impact the hotel side of a resort. For those projects, see our Disney Vacation Club Resort Refurbishments & Construction Timeline. That covers all of the room reimaginings at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond that we just announced at the condo association meeting. Those projects also impact Boulder Ridge, Bay Lake Tower, and both Crescent Lake DVC resorts.
Suffice to say, a lot is happening on the hotel front at Walt Disney World. Let’s take a look at all of the current and upcoming major hotel projects that have the potential to impact guests, starting with the latest updates…
Ongoing or Upcoming Hotel Refurbishments
Disney Skyliner – From January 24, 2027, through January 30, 2027, Disney Skyliner will be closed for refurbishment. Complimentary bus service will be available.
Impacted Resorts:
- Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
- Disney’s Beach Club Resort
- Disney’s Beach Club Villas
- Disney’s Boardwalk Inn
- Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
- Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
- Disney’s Pop Century Resort
- Disney’s Riviera Resort
- Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
We strongly recommend avoiding Skyliner resorts during this time, which does not include the Crescent Lake hotels. See Disney Skyliner Gondolas Closing for Quick Refurbishment in 2027 for more info and detailed advice.
All Star Movies Resort – Beginning in late May 2026, the rooms at Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort will undergo planned refurbishment through the end of January 2027. During this time, Guests may see or hear construction work in the area, and alternate paths of travel may be in place.
This will almost assuredly by a soft goods refurbishment similar to the one recently completed at Pop Century. That  means updating furnishings, including but not limited to wall coverings, flooring, linens, decor, and some furniture. The redone rooms at Pop Century look great: First Look Photo Tour of New Rooms at Disney’s Pop Century Resort.
This is also almost assuredly the start of a phased multi-year soft goods refurbishment to all of the All Stars. See Walt Disney World Gearing Up for Years-Long Value Resorts Room Refurbishment, Likely Lasting to 2028 or 2029 for more.
All Star Sports Resort – From now through late April 2026, the Surfboard Bay Pool and the kiddie pool at Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort will be closed for maintenance.
During this time, the Grand Slam Leisure Pool (pictured above) at Disney’s All-Star Sports will continue to be available. Additionally, Guests are welcome to use the other pools throughout Disney’s All-Star Resorts, including the Calypso Pool, Piano Pool and kiddie pool at Disney’s All-Star Music Resort; and the Fantasia Pool, Duck Pond Pool and kiddie pool at Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort.
We’re big fans of the Grand Slam Leisure Pool, but it’ll probably be busy as a result. Accordingly, our second-favorite All Star pool is Calypso Pool at Music. Duck Pond at Movies is also a winner.
Animal Kingdom Lodge – From now through May 2026, guest rooms at Kidani Village at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge will undergo refurbishment, followed by refurbishment work at 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.
Beach Club Resort – This hotel is undergoing visible exterior maintenance through late 2026, which will impact views from various locations throughout the resort, and at times, require alternate paths of travel.
As part of this work, the Tidal leisure pool will be closed for routine maintenance through early May 2026. Guests may see or hear refurbishment work in the area until the work is complete.
BoardWalk Inn – Throughout 2026, refurbishment work will take place in select areas of Disney’s BoardWalk Inn. While Guests may see or hear work during daytime hours, most Resort amenities—including dining, recreation, and merchandise locations—will remain available.
Walt Disney World still has not revealed what, exactly, this project entails. Based on what BoardWalk needs done, there’s a wide range of possibilities. At minimum, we know it’s a major project by virtue of it lasting throughout 2026. As for possibilities, see our comprehensive discussion in Big BoardWalk Mystery Construction Project in 2026.
From January 11, 2027 to April 2027, the Luna Park Pool, the Luna Park Crazy Play Area, and Leaping Horse Libations at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn & Villas will be closed for routine maintenance. Guests may see and hear construction until the work is complete. However, the Villas Pool and the Inn Pool will remain open for Guests to enjoy.
Luna Park Pool is the feature pool at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, and it was last redone back in late 2020 to remove the “creepy clown” from the water slide. Hopefully this project is to reinstall that beloved, dead-eyed, spaghettios-haired clown!
Contemporary Resort – From now through late 2027, refurbishments will occur in select areas of Disney’s Contemporary Resort—including Bay Lake Tower and the main A-frame atrium. Please allow for extra travel time. Guests may also see and hear construction during their stay.
This multi-phased project has been underway for over a year already, and previously revolved around BLT. That’s finished now, and the description has been updated to drop the Convention Center and add the atrium. No visible work has begun in the A-frame, but is expected to start soon.
Additionally, from now through early May 2026, the Bay Cove Pool, the water play area and the whirlpool spa at Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort will temporarily be closed for maintenance. The Bay Lake Pool, the Cove Bar, the feature pool, the water play area and the whirlpool spa at Disney’s Contemporary Resort will remain open for Guests to enjoy.
From now through Late May 2026, there will also be exterior elevator landing repairs taking place at Bay Lake Tower. Consequently, the Skyway Bridge connecting Bay Lake Tower and the Contemporary Main Tower will be closed Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., reopening daily after 5 p.m. and remaining available evenings and weekends through May 1, 2026. Guests may need to use alternate paths of travel at times and may see or hear construction activity while work is underway.
Fort Wilderness Campground – Walt Disney World has introduced New DVC Cabins to Fort Wilderness Campground. More than 350 new cabins have replaced the old cabins, turning the resort side of the campground into a Disney Vacation Club property. This occurred loop by loop over the last two years and is now finished.
From now through mid-2026, construction will take place near the Meadow Swimmin’ Pool area. The Meadow Swimmin’ Pool and Wilderness Swimmin’ Pool will remain open for Guests to enjoy. During this time, seating availability around the Meadow Swimmin’ Pool may be limited and Guests may see or hear construction in the area. The nearby tennis courts, volleyball court and the Meadow Playground may be closed temporarily. Please note that Guests may see and hear construction in the area until the work is complete.
Right next door to Fort Wilderness is the construction of Disney Lakeshore Lodge (formerly Reflections), which has now reached its top height of 10 stories tall! This quite literally towers over the Settlement area, and construction has an outsized impact on Fort Wilderness guests, as cranes build that massive new resort about 100 yards from Fort Wilderness.
Grand Floridian Resort & Spa – Disney Vacation Club overhauled the Big Pine Key building of hotel rooms at Walt Disney World’s flagship resort. This building has since reopened and the new rooms have debuted–see Grand New Rooms at Walt Disney World’s Flagship Resort for a look inside. These reimagined rooms have since debuted on the regular resort side of the Grand Floridian, and all of the outlying buildings are now finished.
As part of the ongoing enhancements at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, refurbishment work will continue in select areas, including the porte cochere, through early 2027. Guests may see or hear refurbishment work during daytime hours or need to take alternate paths of travel. This project was recently extended from mid-2026 to early 2027 with the “including the porte cochere” line.
As part of this work, from mid-July through October 2026, Grand Floridian Cafe will temporarily close for a refresh. During this time, brunch will continue to be offered but will temporarily move to CÃtricos. All other dining locations at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa will remain available for Guests to enjoy. Guests may see or hear refurbishment work during daytime hours and may need to take alternate paths of travel.
The main fruit of this project is the lobby overhaul, which is now completed. This includes “The Perch,” or the Birdcage Bar that replaced the iconic aviary in the lobby.
Old Key West Resort – Now through late April 2026, the South Point Pool and Spa, BBQ area and playground at Disney’s Old Key West Resort will be closed for routine maintenance.
During this time, Guests may see or hear maintenance activity during daytime hours and are encouraged to use the Sandcastle Pool or one of the resort’s other two leisure pools – the Turtle Pond Pool and Miller’s Road Pool.
Speaking of which, this follows the completion of the Turtle Pond Pool, Turtle Pond Pool Spa, the BBQ area refurbishment. It seems that Old Key West might be doing a phased refurbishment to its leisure pools.
Polynesian Village Resort – The good news is that the Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows between the existing Polynesian longhouses and Wedding Pavilion, near the Grand Floridian, is now open. The bad news is that work at the Polynesian isn’t finished.
Through 2026, some areas of the Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows are being refurbished. This work includes the reconfiguration of the front entrance roadway and bus area. While construction activity will be noticeable during daytime hours, efforts will be made to minimize disruptions.
Walt Disney World filed permits for a new entrance to the Polynesian (which would also impact the parking lot and bus loop), and there’s major work being done to re-route and expand Floridian Way, so that’s probably what’s referenced for the construction and refurbishments through 2026. This will be a lengthy project that is very minimally impactful to both the Poly and Grand Floridian.
Additionally, some views of the theme parks and other surrounding areas may be impacted. This is now noticeable around the Great Ceremonial House, to the point that Walt Disney World is warning guests who book ‘Ohana about impaired views of Magic Kingdom. Although this impacts ‘Ohana, we recently dined at the adjacent Tambu Lounge and enjoyed unblemished views.
Finally, there’s a new construction notice that was just added: from May 11, 2026 through late June 2026, the boat dock at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort will undergo routine maintenance. The dock will be closed and boat transportation to suspended from May 11-June 5, 2026. Please allow for extra travel time when arriving at or leaving the Poly.
We’d recommend heeding this ‘allow extra travel time’ warning, especially when leaving the Poly during peak periods. We already encountered long lines more than once for the monorail at times in April 2026, and that was before the boat dock refurbishment started. Without that to help absorb some of the crowd, the monorail station will be even busier.
Pop Century – From now through late April 2026, the kiddie pool deck at Disney’s Pop Century Resort will be closed for routine maintenance. During this time, the Hippy Dippy Pool and all other amenities will remain available. Guests may see or hear maintenance activity in the area during daytime hours.
The good news is that Pop Century is otherwise in tip-top shape, with the year-long resort refurbishment having wrapped up. We stayed at Pop Century this month (April 2026) prior to the pool deck closure, and the resort is looking fantastic!
Port Orleans Riverside – Walt Disney World has started its next slate of room reimaginings at Port Orleans Riverside, from now through August 2027.
The first phase of this project, impacts the Magnolia Bend rooms, which are mostly the Royal Rooms. When Magnolia Bend is done (which should be really soon), it’ll be time for Alligator Bayou to receive its next round of room redos and crews will move to that side of the resort. Accordingly, making a room request for Magnolia Bend in Spring 2026 and beyond will mitigate exposure to the second phase of this project.
Although not officially confirmed, it’s a near-certainty that the normal rooms in Alligator Bayou receiving a hard goods refurbishment is the second phase of this project. See Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort Room Reimagining Extended by Year-Plus to 2027 for more.
Saratoga Springs – Through mid-September 2026, The Turf Club Bar & Grill and The Turf Club Lounge at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa will be under refurbishment. During portions of the refurbishment, some areas will be temporarily closed, including:
- Through early August 2026:Â The Turf Club Lounge (The Turf Club Bar & Grill will remain open with a pop-up bar serving a modified Lounge food & beverage menu)
- Early to mid-August 2026: The Turf Club patio
- Mid-August – mid-September, 2026: The Turf Club Bar & Grill (The Turf Club Lounge will remain open)
Turf Club Bar & Grill is the restaurant itself, so the notable portion of this refurbishment doesn’t start until August 2026 and should wrap up in the span of a month. Fortunately, there’s ample options a short walk away at Disney Springs.
The tennis courts at Saratoga Springs are now closed for refurbishment and are expected to reopen in June 2026. During this time, the basketball court will also be closed.
Wilderness Lodge – Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge are undergoing exterior refurbishment work expected to continue through late 2026. These enhancements may impact views from various locations throughout the Resort. While most resort amenities will remain available, Guests may see and hear construction work during daytime hours.
The exterior work could actually impact Wilderness Lodge until 2027 if permits are accurate. As we discuss in greater detail in this post about Wilderness Lodge construction, that doesn’t really give us pause about staying there. With room requests, you may not notice any of the work at all.
In addition to this, there’s the above-mentioned resumption of work on Disney Lakeshore Lodge on the former River Country water park site. That will be less impactful to guests staying at Wilderness Lodge than Fort Wilderness, but there will be audible and visible construction from the Boulder Ridge side of the resort, especially.
From now through late July 2026, the boat dock at Wilderness Lodge will undergo routine maintenance. The dock will be closed and boat transportation temporarily suspended through May 1, 2026. This is the second phased closure of the boat dock this year, and bus transportation was available as an alternative during the first. We’d expect the same this go-round.
Yacht Club – Disney’s Yacht Club Resort is undergoing visible exterior maintenance through late 2026, which will impact views from various locations throughout the resort, and at times, require alternate paths of travel.
As part of this work, from now through early May 2026, the Admiral leisure pool will be closed for routine maintenance. Guests may see or hear work in the area during daytime hours until the refurbishment is complete.
In addition, Crew’s Cup Lounge is now closed, and is expected to reopen in May 2026. Following that, Yachtsman Steakhouse will temporarily close for a refresh in May 2026 and is expected to reopen by August 2026.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Have any recent observations or experiences with hotel construction at Walt Disney World you’d be willing to share? Where at Walt Disney World are you staying this year or in 2027? 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 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!
The other impact at Fort Wilderness is that the walking/bike path between Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge is closed. It doesn’t sound like it’s reopening any time soon even though Reflections construction has stopped.
My husband and I are in late 70’s . We want to go for the Food and Wine Festival in early November. Where is the best place to stay on property for adults. Thank You
Any of the Epcot area hotels would be great. Boardwalk and Yacht Club are more on the grown up side. Beach Club is awesome but is attractive to families. You can walk from any of these to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios, and there are also boats that will get you there. Nice at the end of a long day of walking! All of these also have easy access to the Skyliner system with a station close to the entrance to Epcot at the International Gateway. That will get you to Hollywood Studios with stops at Caribbean Beach Resort (you have to transfer here) and Riviera Resort, if you want to check these out. It’s fun just to ride and take in the views – unless riding in an enclosed gondola 100 feet in the air causes anxiety, that is.
If the Epcot monorail line is running again, the Magic Kingdom resorts are all really nice – Contemporary, Grand Floridian, and the Polynesian Village. But the service is not direct, you have to transfer from the resort line to the Epcot line at the Ticket and Transportation Center.
Food and Wine is a lot of fun. Bring a big appetite and a bigger budget! I like to buy Disney gift cards every now and then during the months ahead of our Food and Wine trips, and combine them into one, and use that to pay for the food and drinks. If you’re staying long enough, plan to visit over several different days, to be able to take in all the events and to sample all the delicious foods. Our plan of attack is to visit another park in the morning, then hop to Epcot in the afternoon.
Be aware though that Friday and Saturday nights, it gets a bit raucous and very crowded at Food and Wine. It’s OK until about 4 or 5:00, but after that, the locals come out to “Drink around the world” and it gets a bit wild. This blog has lots of reviews and information about Food and Wine, including the situation on weekend nights.
My husband and I have gone to Disney for the Food and Wine Festival for years now. Last year, we stayed for three weeks at the campgrounds and had an absolute blast! We’re now planning for next year.
Have fun!
Yacht Club or Boardwalk. Both walking distance to Epcot. If you’re looking for a moderate, Caribbean Beach has the Skyliner that takes you to Epcot. But big resort so you’d want to look at the map to request the area you’d like to be.
For the food and wine festival in Epcot I recommend one of three resorts.
The Yacht & Beach Club
And
Boardwalk
Both of the above are walkable to Epcot so you are not relying on any transportation which is real nice!
The Riviera is also a BEAUTIFUL new resort and easy to get to Epcot via the skyliner.
All three resorts above are considered Deluxe Resorts so they can be expensive.
For a lower price point you can find Caribbean Beach which is a moderate resort also able to use the skyliner. It is a very large resort and some rooms are on the second floor with stair access only.
Have a wonderful trip!
So we just came back from our weeklong annual Disney vacation. We postponed a number of times but couldn’t do that to our kids anymore so just decided to give it a go. We have to plan because we are not local and have over an 8 hour drive to get to WDW and we are an avid Disney family. Ahead are my observations and opinions, but mine alone about hotel, dining and the parks themselves. First and foremost the mask policy was never an issue and after buying a few Disney masks for $9.99 we hardly noticed due to the comfortable material. Masks are not the reason we will not be returning in the near future.
So first the hotel, we normally stay on Bay Lake due to ease of access to MK. This time we stayed at Contemporary. The resort was great, especially the pool. My only gripe was housekeeping, which currently is nonexistent!! You have 2 options when you check in, no housekeeping or limited housekeeping. We were staying a week with 2 little crumb makers so we took limited. Limited consists of emptying trash, replacing towels, and new consumables (TP, shampoo, coffee, etc.) every other day. No vacuuming, no new sheets or made beds, no wiping down surfaces, etc. We tried to make a concerted effort to be out of the room between 11am-4pm so they would service our room with their limited service. Out of the whole week they took out our trash and replaced our towels 1 day!! To say the least the room got in disarray with our crumb makers!! This was highly disappointing to us for paying the price for those rooms!! The dining was also a disappointment as well.
Dining overall for us gets a moderate rating mostly because dining options are so limited and the ones that are open their menus are almost cut in half. We normally do the Disney dining plan (DDP) and we missed it thoroughly because we had some trouble making reservations where the menus had items our picky crumb makers would eat, but we persevered nonetheless. Our go to restaurants were mostly on point except for one poorly cooked fish dish. For any stands that don’t have mobile ordering the lines were longer than some rides which is caused by the limited options. (Open the EggRoll Cart!!) Also, having no topping bars at Cosmic Rays or Pecos Bill made the meals at those locations, meh. Also, the character dining options that are currently available are very muted for kids. It was hard telling the little ones they could only wave when before they were able to take pictures with their favorite characters, but they were troopers!!
With character meet and greets currently unavailable at parks, other than at a distance, you can try to catch them on the singular floats roaming MK at random times traversing from Splash Mtn to the Firehouse on Main Street. You can also catch them at MK on the balcony at the train station, again at random times. As for the rides, as well as the Disney app, the wait times are all lies. We waited over 30 minutes at a 10 minute posted wait time and on the flip side walked on a ride posted at 30 minutes. Rides normally that are walk on have much longer wait times than some of the A list rides due to distancing measures. They had social distancing tape on all the wait lines, but from my experience hardly any guests were following it unless we pointed it out to them and there was little to no enforcement by Disney employees. It was also disheartening to still see guests abusing handicap (party of 10 accompanying someone in an ankle brace you can get at CVS as they hop out of their rental wheelchair and with no effort hop on ride) and service dog policies (lady carrying her lap dog that was scared of everything). A hint for those staying at Disney resorts, they are opening certain rides 1 hour to 30 minutes before the parks listed opening time (At MK at least: Peter Pan, Snow White, etc). We are expert Fast Passers and that not only drove where we would go but became a contest between my wife and I on who could get the best FastPass (FP). Without FP it felt like we were chasing the wait times and we rode on about 50% rides. Also, all of the interactive features at all parks are down. The waiting lines interactive features at Winnie Pooh, Dumbo, Snow White, etc. are closed so nothing to keep you little ones preoccupied. At Epcot all of the interactive rooms at Figment, Spaceship Earth, etc are shutdown so nothing for kids to do after the rides, which takes away from the experience for the kids. One positive thing we saw was them running the people mover (TTP) at MK, so if it isn’t open yet it should be soon. One final note on the parks are that no trams are currently operating in the parking lots so be prepared to walk from wherever you park.
Wrapping it up based on the muted experience, not the masks, we will not return until FP, DDP, park experiences/hours, and hotel housekeeping all return to normal. I know this won’t matter to most, but I thought I would share my observations/opinions for anyone else trying to decide. I may have missed some things, but if you have any questions just let me know. Thanks Tom for giving us so many up to date information.
(On a side note for anyone driving down I95 they just opened a Buc-ee’s Travel Stop just south of St Augustine and about to open a second in Daytona. I recommend stopping to check it out, but be prepared for chaos!!)
Thank you so much for this – your description was even worse than my own feared low-ball expectations, and confirms for me my decision to have let my pass lapse, and stay out of the parks for probably another 2 years. I’m not paying top-dollar for bottom-level service & experience.
I am so sorry your stay was not a “magical experience” as they always promise. I am 59 and have been going since the opening of WDW and it was always magical but our last experience left us feeling exactly as you. We have not returned since. We have stayed at most all of the resorts Fort Wilderness was our last experience and might i say we have stayed there multiple times with no problems It was clean the staff was friendly. NOT This last time the cabin was disgusting, couldn’t sit on the furniture except for the kitchen chairs. the beds lumpy and linens although they said were stripped down and clean ones put on I find hard to believe since one of my grandkids socks were still in the same place I placed it just to see if they were telling the truth. Of course they are magical so you never know I could be wrong. The fridge had a huge dent in it and was not cleaned inside basically they are old and i get that but Im old and Im clean LOL. Then having to pay for parking when we are parking literally in front of the cabin Like you said paid a good price its just ridiculous they charge for parking I mean they are making a killing on all of us. The magic of Disney is definitely not the same. The extra hours, the free parking , all the extras you got because you spent so much to stay in the resort and you didnt mind because it was magical. Now its so jammed packed with people and might I add not the nicest people. Cussing yelling and just walking into you I mean I understand the world is changing but so sad after our passes expire its sad to say but we wont be renewing them or returning but were just one family so im sure it wont matter to them. Not getting our money every year wont even miss it. I hope it changes for the future kiddos.
So is the Polynesian booking rooms for after opening? For instance the Moana rooms for fall dates or are they only booking the DVC rooms for
fall dates. I talked to a cast member and got the impression it was the latter. Love reading your blog!
Any word on when O’Hana may open back up?
You know is the standard room at Wilderness Lodge are already refurbished by June 2021?
Any word on when O’Hara may open back up?
Oops, O’Hana. Darn autocorrect
FYI, we own at AKL and we got a notification that the pool at Kidani Village will be getting a refurb Jan-April 2022. Not sure howbmany people are planning that far ahead but it’s good that Disney is giving such advanced notice!
Anything going on at the Boardwalk?
I heard they had some issues with a pipe bursting, etc
Bay Lakes Villas are WELL overdue for renovating. The facility is going down hill very fast, both with room decor deteriorations and public spaces being stained and dull.
Tom, on a facebook group. A lot of people staying at the Contemporary Resort are being moved to GF. They are being told the main tower is going to be closed to refurb April-Sept 2021. Could you verify this information. And if this is the case it will effect BLT at all, or the pools, shops or restraunts at CR? Thanks
I’m glad to hear Poly is getting a hard goods refurbishment. That furniture was getting pretty beat up. Half the plugs in the dresser were dead.
But I’m afraid of them IKEA fying the rooms. Aside from AKL any refurbishment = no theme.
And removal of fans.
Wasn’t GF hard goods done just a few years ago? I think the rooms are pretty good. Fresh & clean still. They used to look like grandma’s room.
Hey Tom, love the blog.
Even if the trajectory/timing is uncertain, anything about refurbs at the Floridian or Contemporary? It feels like the rooms at the GF could use a “plussing” of the period-correct luxury vibe (those bathroom countertops are a decidedly 80s interpretation of the theme), and the pic of the Contemporary rooms have a very… “contemporary for 2009” feel.
Monorail resorts are some of my faves, but it seems the most attention is on the Poly.
Both of those resorts were slated to receive a variety of upgrades pre-closure, but I haven’t heard a thing since the beginning of this year. Now would be a great time to do it, though.
Is the main pool at Polynesian open during current refurbishments? If not, are there other pools available?
Hi,
Your blog is great and very informative. I stayed at the Contemporary 12/7-12/11. It needs major renovations to the hotel and restaurants. We had the best view and the room was great but had no desire to eat there after eating at the Wave when we got there for lunch. Hardly any Christmas decorations, my 6 year old didn’t care for it at all except for her view of the MK. Some kind of construction going on across the street in front of the lagoon next to the bus terminal? I like to different every time we come and even though the view was spectacular I would not want to stay there again.
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And also just did DVC trip last week at Boulder Ridge and although very nice, I did see that the rooms could use updating.
Oops, forgot to put in my question: do you think that the Boulder Ridge rooms will still sleep 5? Will they still have the fold out twin bed? I had two of my adult sons with me last week and the oldest used the fold out twin (I was surprised it worked for him as he is over 6 feet tall) and my youngest was on the fold out sofa bed (he is even taller).
We just purchased our first DVC in July and booked The Polynesian for our first DVC trip in November, but when the renovations were announced with the monorail station closed and fewer dining options, we switched to Bay Lake Towers which worked out great.
Do you know if the slide is open yet at Stormalong Bay?
Any information about refurbishing being done at Boulder Ridge?
Stayed at Jambo DVC and there was no issue with construction, it was at the very end of the building. COVID-19 note though, they are not spacing every other room as I had hoped- they crammed all guests in one wing one floor and therefore guests on both balconies next to us. They did a great job with distancing in parks, but definitely not in room assignments.
They opened Jambo DVC? Thought they were closed. Any added comments would be most appreciated!