Disney World’s Room Recategorization for Moderate Resorts in 2026
Walt Disney World released room recategorization info for the mid-tier hotels, with changes occurring for 2026 bookings. The new options will be offered at Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs Resort, and Port Orleans Resorts – French Quarter and Riverside. Here are full details plus a few key takeaways about this initiative.
According to Walt Disney World, the changes are being made to 2026 bookings to simplify room categories and to improve guests’ check-in experience. To accomplish this, Disney will be adjusting the room categories at Moderate Resorts, which includes Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Disney’s Port Orleans Resort—French Quarter and Disney’s Port Orleans Resort—Riverside.
Please note that this article was originally published last April. There’s been confusion and questions more recently, and new articles about the ‘news.’ As best I can tell, nothing has changed in the year-plus since we first tackled the topic. To the extent that there are complaints about the streamlined process, see the section about room requests still being possible. Otherwise, what follows is a discussion of the changes made last April, effective for 2026 bookings (and now, also 2027)…
The main room categories moving forward are Standard Room, Preferred Room, or King Bed room (Standard Rooms offer 2 queen beds by default). Walt Disney World also revealed that select Moderate Resorts will continue to offer additional categories–for example, the “Royal Guest Room” category at Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside.
Room categories have gotten complicated at the Moderate Resorts, which have been categorizing rooms by location and view. Meaning that the above room categories previously existed, but so too did options like “Pool or Water View.”
Walt Disney World guests will still be able to make special requests during the check-in process or upon arrival. This includes resort buildings, views, floor numbers, or even specific room numbers.
As always, special requests are not guaranteed and are subject to availability. Additionally, the request must fall within the category booked–meaning you can’t book a Standard Room and then request a specific room number that’s actually a Preferred Room.
We highly recommend making room requests, especially at the sprawling Moderate Resorts. See these posts for advice:
We’re hoping to have something similar for Port Orleans Riverside once the ongoing room refurbishment is complete. I think it’s somewhat overkill for French Quarter, as that more compact resort doesn’t really have locations to avoid, per se. Room requests there should be much more intuitive.
This room recategorization is hardly stop-the-presses news, but it caught my eye and there are a few quick takeaways worth sharing:
This change is probably being made in response to guest satisfaction. I’d hazard a guess that many first-timers pay extra, not realizing what the view category actually entails, and then have a “that’s it?” reaction upon arrival.
It’s always been a bit odd to me that hotels with exterior hallways and no balconies have view categories. We have never paid extra for a better view at a Moderate, nor have we even enjoyed one when upgraded for free. It’s just such an odd setup with other guests walking past your room, and it’s not like you can see whatever the ‘upgraded’ view is from a logical location in the room, anyway.
Heck, we don’t even endorse Preferred Rooms for most guests, which made our list of the Worst Wastes of Money at Walt Disney World. But at least the superior location has some value. Paying for a view at a Moderate is just like throwing $1,000 on the ground and leaving three days early. The one room type I do really like at Moderate Resorts is the corner room, as it means an extra window, which is nice for having a bit more natural light.
Most interestingly to me, this indicates the Royal Rooms will continue to exist in 2026!
As we previously reported, Disney’s Port Orleans Resorts Room Refurbishments Are Underway Until 2026 (actually 2027 once all is said and done). It was previously unclear whether these highly-themed rooms are being refreshed in a similar style, or going away in favor of standard rooms.
The Royal Rooms are due for a hard goods refurbishment, mean they’re being gutted. Given that and the fact that Walt Disney World has since ended the “experiment” in the Pirate Rooms at Caribbean Beach, I was worried that the Royal Rooms would go away for good. It’s still possible they will and this listing is in error, but I doubt it.
Fans of the Royal Rooms probably lucked out that this refurbishment has been delayed by several years. In general, the timing of the Royal Rooms has been very fortuitous. They were created just before the blandification of Walt Disney World resort rooms, and are now being redone just as the pendulum has swung back in the direction of more themed design in rooms. Still doesn’t guarantee the end result will be as good as what it’s replacing, but I’m just glad the Royal Rooms will (seemingly) still exist when our daughter ages into them!
Conversely, there is still no booking category for the ‘Under the Sea’ rooms at Caribbean Beach!
In case you’re unfamiliar with these rooms–and there’s a good chance you are not unless you’re a CBR fan or happened to see reviews when the conversion first occurred–Caribbean Beach replaced the aforementioned Pirate Rooms with Little Mermaid-inspired rooms a couple years ago.
These rooms are dramatically different from the Standard Rooms or other 5th Sleeper Rooms at Caribbean Beach. They’re more like Disney Vacation Club-style Studios. They’re not for everyone, but we love them. (See Review, Photos & Video: New Little Mermaid Rooms at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.)
Unfortunately, the average guest would not even know the Under the Sea/Little Mermaid rooms even exist by browsing disneyworld.com. They’re not mentioned or pictured, nor are they a distinct booking category. The only way to get ‘guarantee’ getting one (or avoid getting one) is via a room request.
That made some degree of sense while the reimagining was still in progress, but they’ve been done for a while. It’s almost like someone forgot to add the room category to the website. For such a taste-specific style of accommodations, I think it makes more sense to have these be a booking category than the old ‘Pool or Water View.’ This is more equivalent to the King Room vs. Standard Room distinction.
Frankly, putting in a ‘plug’ for the Little Mermaid rooms was one of my main motivations for covering this topic. We really like these rooms, and think they’re a great option for many families looking for a Moderate Resort with the space-saving design features of DVC studios. This really fly under the radar due to a lack of marketing, but they’re worth checking out!
Finally, it’s interesting to once again see Walt Disney World stick with the Value, Moderate, Deluxe and Villa categories. There were rumors roughly 7 years ago that this would go away in favor of resort regions, and it was expected to happen after the Skyliner opened.
While I can see the value in retaining the tiers (and it certainly makes my life easier–a lot of posts would have to be overhauled if they were abandoned!), I also think they’ve arguably outlived some of their usefulness. Are the Art of Animation Family Suites really a value? Is Gran Destino Tower the same as the Alligator Bayou section of Riverside? Is it more useful to draw attention to Pop Century being on the Skyliner to explain the distinction from the All Stars?
You could easily argue that the current tiers could be inferred from pricing. That more valuable ‘at a glance’ info for first-timers would come via resort districts (e.g. Magic Kingdom Area, EPCOT Area, etc.) or other key features (Skyliner Resort, Monorail Resort, etc.). Perhaps that would further complicate an already confusing process, and there are also resorts that would defy categorization with those methods.
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Your Thoughts
Thoughts on Walt Disney World recategorizing resort rooms for 2026? Optimistic that this means the Royal Rooms will return next year post-refurbishment? Where at Walt Disney World are you staying in 2026? Any resorts you’re intentionally avoiding? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? 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!
Have you seen the refurbished Royal Rooms? It’s pretty bad. They have been stripped of everything that made them unique. Now, they are exactly the same as the Magnolia Bend rooms, except that the bed has a light-up headboard. That’s it. Oh and they cost an extra $100 a night. For a light up headboard.
Tangentially related to this, it seems that preferred rooms at Caribbean Beach now include several buildings in Jamaica and Aruba that are closest to the Skyliner. I used to actively avoid preferred rooms at Caribbean no matter what as I hated the location as much as the added cost but I ended up booking one for an upcoming last minute trip. It was the only room left under the 40% passholder offer and was the cheapest option. I’ll put in a request for Jamaica and cross my fingers.
I’m just sad I can’t book a 5th sleeper room anymore. We only have 4 but my children cannot share a bed. I don’t like the idea of requesting and then arriving and our request not being granted. Without the 3rd sleeping space, we will not keep our reservation and will need to move elsewhere. Deluxe resorts and the value suites are normally not in our price range. This may be the final straw that pushes our family and others like ours to off-property resorts.
I love, love, love the Little Mermaid rooms, and we book a 5th sleeper and request certain buildings to get one. I don’t mind lugging suitcases up the stairs and am fortunate to be (relatively) young and able bodied so we don’t request the first floor. As such, it seems like we are always assigned the second floor. I’ve noticed that the AC doesn’t seem to work very well (even using the well publicized override trick). Despite being set to 65 on our last trip (last week – highs in the mid 80s), it never went below 75 in the room. I recall this happening on a previous stay as well. At this point, I am reluctant to book CB again during April – Oct as a result. Wondering if others have experienced this or if it’s is perhaps a second floor issue?
We just checked out of CBR today and had similar issues with the AC. We were in the Barbados buildings and had a corner room first. Dropped our stuff off at thw room, closed the curtains and turned off the lights and let the AC run for 7 hours. When we got back our room it was hotter than when we left it, and the AC was unbearably loud. They switched to us a different room that had similar issues the same night. We stopped by the front desk and had a very lackluster interaction. I have so many memories at CBR and it’s a great resort overall, but this experience has me not wanting to come back for the foreseeable future. My guess is they need a major overhaul and redesign of the AC in the resort.
We were put in a Little Mermaid room a couple of months ago without asking and while it was very cute, it was annoying to not have a table & chairs! I always need to work a little on my laptop & don’t necessarily feel like having to walk over and find a spot in the lobby. First World problems, I know!
I find this frustrating for families of 4 (or groups of 4) who specifically wanted three beds (regardless if it’s just pull up kids who are sleeping or if it’s friends going together who don’t want to share a bed) and were willing to pay extra for three beds in the room and a cast member told me yesterday a group of 4 can still request a room with the pull down but (as we all know) under no circumstances would they guarantee it.
Our family will probably not like this change because we DO like a better view and I’m sure WDW used the water view prices when setting this up, so if you get a parking lot view you are probably paying extra now for it.
Since we do not suffer from “OMG someone might look into our room” nonsense, we always open the curtains during the day if we are in the room and enjoy the view out the window. It brightens up the room and makes it feel so much better, instead of being enclosed in a room with no natural light. So, I guess in the future I will be making room requests and if that does not work, trying to change our room at check-in if we do not like the location:( We also use Touringplans and before that I would fax in our requests and we have had great luck getting what we requested in the past, and if we did not, we moved rooms.
I will say that only at CBR would I even consider paying extra for a preferred room, I’m old and overweight and if I cannot walk 10 minutes from a room in the back to the lobby, then I should not be going anymore. LOL
John’s post of POFQ is way off base and I can tell that he never stayed at POFQ because the walk from building 7 is not far at all from the lobby, 5 minutes at most.
I made the mistake on our very first Disney Resort stay at Riverside years and years ago by booking a standard room . It was such a a long walk to the lobby to the point that we dreaded it by the end of the second day . From that point forward , we’ve only stayed in preferred rooms and will continue to do so . . . Also , water view definition can be deceiving as you may not get the type of water view you were expecting . I know FQ is a small resort and if you want river view , you can be designated to Bldg 7 and at that point you’re as close to Riverside as you are to FQ lobby .
Shout-out to Josh out of the blue 🙂 Never met him but still miss him anyway. Thanks for the smile today.
Here’s a slightly different take in favor of “water view” rooms. We stayed at CBR a year ago, and I booked a Water View room. Honestly, I don’t know that our curtains were open hardly at all the whole week, so the view didn’t really matter, but what DID matter was the location. We could step outside our door and right onto the path to the Riviera Skyliner station, Centertown Market, Fuentes del Morro, Sebastian’s Bistro, etc. We were also steps away from the Martinique beach. Had we booked a Standard View room, we might have had a wonderful view of the parking lot and had to meander through a maze of sidewalks to get anywhere. If we ever stay at CBR again, I will definitely be requesting a room near the water.
Walt Disney World only announced that this impacts the Magnolia Bend rooms, which are the “Royal Rooms.”
I’m confused by your wording here – there are 2 buildings in Magnolia Bend that aren’t royal rooms. Are they only doing the royal rooms or all the rooms in magnolia bend?
They haven’t publicly stated, but the refurbishment is so long that it must be all of the buildings/rooms.
Good catch, though. I should’ve written “includes” as opposed to “are” in the quoted line.
Disney is constantly refining their profit model which is obvious in expanding the high end request and narrowing the standard room. I have no problem paying for a water view in Port Orleans French Quarter but I am not going to pay a premium to be stuck with a garden view.
I can understand every change being met with skepticism given the last few years, but that’s pretty clearly not the direction Walt Disney World is headed right now. Just look around at all the discounts and special offers–they are most definitely not extracting more profits at the moment (or in 2026).
Tom,
I respect your opinion since there is not only higher level degree of understanding of economics in your education and you also attended law school.
We are a Disney family yet my DBA gives me a lens to view the subtle changes Disney makes to increase profitability. Giving discounts and special offers which have restrictions is their way of selling inventory yet clawing back by removing incentives. Giving discounts is not really losing if you are going to rise ticket prices and hotel rates. To say they do this at their own peril is wishful thinking since every time I have been to Disney it has not been a “ghost town” as some influencers on the payroll would have you believe.
In another note, I am currently on the Treasure and although a nice ship, the staff is not as attentive, the appointments of the ship are cheap, and all this at a premium for an inaugural ship.
Disney gives you the perception that you are getting something yet all the things that attract you to a Disney cruise is being eroded by out of pocket purchases. They are also appealing to first class (concierge) by granting them more space on the ship where they can be isolated from the rabble.
This why Disney consumers need more education on how to stop or recognize marketing strategies that are not in the benefit. By causing a 20% to 30% loss in sales of a particular vertical based on Disney’s executive decision you can at least get their attention.
Manny, I have to agree with your assessment of Disney Cruise Line. Full disclosure, we haven’t sailed on the newest generation of ships like Treasure or Destiny. We did sail twice on the Magic years ago and once on the Fantasy. We felt that service and charm were lacking on the Fantasy compared to the Magic. As a result, if we were ever to sail on Disney Cruise Line in the future, we would likely choose the Magic even though the new ships are, well, newer. On the other hand, you pay a premium to sail on Disney Cruise Line and I think we’re more likely to skip cruising altogether. We would be really disappointed to sail on the Magic and find that the service and charm have gone from there as well. We hoped that it was just the larger size of the new ships that caused the difference in vibe. But, I’m not sure about that.
Is there a way to make room, building, or even area (such as Aruba, Jamaica, etc.) requests on the app currently when checking in there? If so, I’m missing it. I thought you had to phone to get that level of specificity, and TBH, I never cared enough to do that. Is Disney saying they will add options to online check-in to allow for such “special requests”? And isn’t it too late to make those requests in person if you’re checking in at the desk? I thought room assignments were made several days in advance, though if the resort is not filled, those could be changed.
I can’t speak for Disney specifically, but once upon a time I worked in hotels and rooms were more “roughed in” rather than strictly assigned prior to check-in. You absolutely could still make requests at check-in or even after seeing the room and the staff would do their best to accommodate. Sometimes that would mean waiting for the requested room when others are available for immediate check-in, but you would be given the option of which you’d rather do. The only time the front desk staff had no flexibility was if the hotel was completely sold out *and* you were arriving late in the day (when most guests had already checked in).
This is true with Disney, except for the part about “even after seeing the room.”
While they can change your room if there’s an issue after inspection (mold, damage, etc), it’s a lot more difficult to make a room request after opening the door. I would stop short of calling it “impossible,” but I’d highly recommend going to the front desk before entering the room.
We ask to change rooms a lot and when we do it at the front desk instead of over the phone on our way there they always ask us, multiple times, are you SURE you haven’t been to the room yet. We never go to the room before asking to switch but I always just assumed they want to know if they need to send someone to make sure we didn’t mess it up.
I do the same thing when attempting to get new rooms. There are times when I’m not 100% sure that a building/floor has been redone, so it’s essentially me flipping the script on them: Are you SURE that room has been redone?
I don’t want to open that door to an old room and then be told there’s nothing they can do because I’ve already entered the room. (It’s happened–more than once!)
This is really good to know so we won’t make that mistake!
We have had a 100% success rate in getting a room in the building we want by checking in at the front desk with a cast member vs online check in. We combine this with using TouringPlans, which will submit a room request on your behalf ahead of your trip. They also have a room finder feature which can help narrow down the best locations based on your room category. By being patient, sincere, upbeat, and thankful, cast members have always been very accommodating in finding us a great room location. However, we usually are arriving early afternoon and are willing to wait for a room. I wouldn’t expect the same if I was arriving late or during a very busy period as Jared mentioned. By doing this we have gotten: Aruba building 52 or 53 multiple times with standard room category, Savanna-adjacent view at AKL (some rooms that are ‘standard’ actually do have views of the savanna, just not ideal ones), royal rooms at POR, Cabanas buildings at Coronado, water views at GF, boardwalk view (somewhat blocked by tree, but still) at Boardwalk, etc.
If we wanted to try for an Under the Sea/Little Mermaid room at CBR, is there a specific location to request?
Tom discusses how to make the specific request in this post:
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/photos-video-little-mermaid-rooms-caribbean-beach-resort/