Walt Disney World has introduced resort refurbishments and different resort development tasks at Walt Disney World for 2025 & 2026. Two of those contain visitor room renovations at Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter Resorts. This shares dates, particulars, and our commentary in regards to the doubtless scope, scale, and impacts of the work.
As urged above, that is the primary of some tasks that have been simply introduced, with the 12 months-Lengthy Pop Century Room Refurbishment being the opposite large one. These most likely are usually not the one resort renovations on the horizon, both–simply those which have begin dates earlier in 2025. Keep watch over our Walt Disney World Resort Building Tracker for additional updates.
The previous couple of years have thrown a monkey wrench into Walt Disney World resort refresh timelines, with a number of resort refurbishments being delayed because of the closure and the pent-up demand in its aftermath. The excellent news is that this hasn’t been as dangerous on the resort facet as with DVC properties, so Walt Disney World gained’t be spending the following few years enjoying catch-up, however between just a few postponed tasks and the chance of larger-scale reimaginings and new development, there’s doubtless loads on the horizon.
Let’s begin with the official announcement from Walt Disney World in regards to the Port Orleans French Quarter room redo:
From Might 2024 via Spring 2025, some Visitor rooms at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter might be beneath refurbishment. Company might even see or hear development work throughout daytime hours. Most Resort resort facilities will stay obtainable.
That is nothing new, not less than partially. This room undertaking was added to the schedule earlier this yr, and initially had an finish date this month. After studying it was a tough items refurbishment, we shortly concluded that it couldn’t conceivably be achieved by November 2024. And now we all know that it gained’t be, as Walt Disney World has added a second part, which can presumably resume after the WDW Marathon Weekend in mid-January 2025.
The following couple of months are Walt Disney World’s highest occupancy time of the yr, so it’s not unusual for Walt Disney World to do phased refurbishments that skip November and December (typically expanded to October via January). That’s nearly actually what’s occurring with Port Orleans French Quarter. It’s not that the undertaking has been delayed by a number of months previous its authentic November finish date–it’s that this month by no means actually was the total completion date.
Let’s begin with the official announcement from Walt Disney World in regards to the Port Orleans Riverside room redo:
From early April 2025 via the tip of January 2026, visitor rooms within the Magnolia Bend at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside will endure refurbishment. Throughout this time, visitors might even see or hear development work within the space.
We beforehand predicted this is able to occur subsequent in 2025 and 2026, which was hardly a daring wager. Walt Disney World follows a schedule with room refurbishments, and Riverside was slated to be subsequent up after French Quarter.
The attention-grabbing wrinkle right here is that Port Orleans Riverside had been within the midst of a resort-wide tender items refurbishment in 2019 and 2020, with the Royal Rooms subsequent as much as go beneath the knife in March 2020. The entire Alligator Bayou rooms have been completed and, to the very best of my information, so have been the usual Magnolia Bend rooms.
Nonetheless, the Royal Rooms in Magnolia Bend have been largely untouched. Some did find yourself changing the carpet with new laminate flooring and different mild refreshes, however that’s it. The overwhelming majority of the five hundred+ Royal Rooms are materially unchanged since 2012–save for the mattress runners, which have been lengthy gone even pre-closure.
It’s a provided that the Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside will obtain a tough items refurbishment in 2025-2026. They largely missed their final tender items refurbishment and could be due for a gutting, regardless. Main renovations will doubtless occur.
What’s utterly unclear at this level is whether or not the Royal Rooms will live on post-refurbishment or if a brand new idea might be launched. It’s our understanding that the Royal Rooms aren’t practically as fashionable as they as soon as have been, and are routinely given out as a free improve to visitors.
Though we’ve got no inside data to recommend as a lot, we’d additionally hazard a guess that the Royal Rooms are costlier to create and preserve. There’s a variety of consideration to element and customized design all through the Royal Rooms, and that can’t be as cheap or environment friendly as among the fashionable rooms at Walt Disney World.
I hope that the Royal Rooms live on. We stayed in a single earlier this yr and located it to be in shockingly fine condition regardless of the shortage of refurbishment, and in addition thought that the model largely stood the check of time regardless of being over a decade previous. That’s greater than I can say about most of the “fashionable” rooms that took place in 2013-2017, a few of that are already lengthy gone as a result of they aged so poorly.
With that mentioned, I can’t assist however suppose again to the Pirate Rooms at Caribbean Seaside being transformed to the new ‘Below the Sea’ Little Mermaid rooms. It’s fully potential that it is a blueprint for what’s to return at Port Orleans Riverside, albeit (hopefully) not Little Mermaid impressed.
The important thing distinction, in my opinion, was that the Pirate Rooms, whereas thematically sturdy, had all kinds of points. Their location and uncomfortable beds have been the 2 large ones, and so they turned notorious because of this. Even after Walt Disney World opened the Skyliner (thus bettering their location) and made tweaks to the rooms, they couldn’t overcome their popularity as terrible. The Royal Rooms don’t have any such points with their notion–so maybe that’ll be their saving grace?
However, I’m skeptical that the Royal Rooms will live on. I wish to be unsuitable as a result of, as I wrote earlier this yr, these are among the many very best-themed rooms in all of Walt Disney World. Making a brand new model of the Royal Rooms simply doesn’t look like the course Walt Disney World will go given all the pieces we’ve seen during the last a number of years.
And I write that as somebody who is mostly happy with the trajectory of room redesigns. My intestine is that they’ll take the trail of least resistance and ship one thing within the present blueprint that balances space-saving fashionable design options with thematic thrives, attempting to appease each diehard followers and first-timers.
Personally, I believe that’s the unsuitable method. Port Orleans Riverside wants one thing to present it a promoting level among the many Average Resorts. French Quarter has the compact structure; Caribbean Seaside has the Skyliner, nicer facilities, and proximity to Riviera Resort; Coronado Springs has Gran Destino and convention-caliber amenities. Port Orleans Riverside hasn’t had any resort-wide upgrades and looks like time has handed it by.
For years, Port Orleans Riverside was our favourite Average Resort for this very motive–it felt like a bygone period of Walt Disney World, was thematically unblemished, and had lovely grounds. But when I’m being sincere with myself, I really like the thought of Port Orleans Riverside greater than the precise resort.
We nonetheless love to go to and spend time at this thematic exemplar, however when push involves shove and we’re really doing a keep for sensible functions, Riverside is considerably low on our Listing Rating The entire Greatest & Worst Resorts at Walt Disney World.
I don’t suppose Royal Rooms alone are that “one thing” to distinguish Riverside from the opposite resorts, however it will be cool in the event that they supplied a greater variety of themed rooms. Failing that, possibly Riverside would profit from a personality eating expertise, immersively themed bar, or different marquee draw.
Finally, it stays to be seen whether or not Imagineering revisits the Royal Rooms idea with a modernized take or goes in a distinct course utterly. Our hope is for the previous, so our daughter can take pleasure in them once more if/when she enters her princess part. For these of you with ladies who’re at present already on this part, you would possibly wish to take into account a Royal Room keep ASAP in case I’m proper and so they do go extinct.
I’ll take this a step additional and hope that Imagineering doubles-down on this sort of room, including themed classes like this to resorts all throughout Walt Disney World–or simply a greater variety to Port Orleans Riverside (the once-rumored Haunted Mansion rooms and particular person character rooms could be nice). One of these idea has been an enormous hit on the worldwide resorts and it looks as if Walt Disney World visitors would go loopy for one thing related! (At the same time as I write this, I understand how far-fetched it’s.)
One factor that’s not far-fetched is for the Port Orleans Riverside refurbishment lasting longer than presently scheduled. By the point Magnolia Bend is finished in January 2026, it’ll be time for Alligator Bayou to obtain its subsequent spherical of room redos. If the conventional undertaking cadence is adopted, that’ll even be a tough items refurbishment and will final till early 2027.
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Your Ideas
Do you just like the Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside? Would you like this sort of highly-detailed model, or favor one thing extra delicate like the brand new rooms at French Quarter? Hoping Magnolia will get one thing just like the ‘Below the Sea’ rooms at Caribbean Seaside (however themed in another way)? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation of the Royal Rooms at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside? Any questions we can assist you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even once you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
