Six More Resorts Join Disney World's Construction Calendar, and Guests Are Rechecking Their Plans

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Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club, Coronado Springs, Fort Wilderness, Old Key West and Yacht Club have all been added to Walt Disney World's hotel refurbishment calendar, which now runs through late 2027. The additions include a 14 month Coronado Springs convention center project, an eight week lobby closure at Kidani Village, and a Disney Skyliner shutdown in January 2027.

Six More Resorts Join Disney World's Construction Calendar, and Guests Are Rechecking Their Plans

Six Walt Disney World resorts have just been added to the hotel refurbishment calendar that now runs through late 2027, and the new entries are not small ones. Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club, Coronado Springs, Fort Wilderness, Old Key West and Yacht Club all picked up dated projects, and one of them takes a resort lobby offline for most of the fall.

A white hotel with red roofs stands on the shore of a body of water, with trees lining the bank.
A white hotel with red roofs stands on the shore of a body of water, with trees lining the bank. Photo: Eric Marshall via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Key details

The six resorts that just joined the list

Animal Kingdom Lodge is the heaviest of the new additions. Guest rooms at Jambo House are being refurbished from now through January 2027, with all amenities staying open, and the Kidani Village side of the room work has already wrapped. The larger disruption is at Kidani Village, where the lobby and the areas around it go under refurbishment in phases beginning August 17, 2026, with the work expected to finish in early November 2026.

A view from a thatched balcony looking out at a resort complex with lush greenery and a courtyard area with outdoor seating.
A view from a thatched balcony looking out at a resort complex with lush greenery and a courtyard area with outdoor seating. Photo: BestofWDW from USA via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Disney has told guests to expect visible and audible construction in the lobby during daytime hours until the work is done. Checking in at a library instead of a lobby for eight weeks is the kind of detail that changes how a stay feels, even when nothing about the room changes at all.

Coronado Springs picked up the longest single project on the board. From August 10, 2026 through late September 2027, the Convention Center is being refurbished, and the El Centro corridor and surrounding areas are tied into the same work. Disney is running it in phases with most of the labor happening overnight, and individual spaces will be inaccessible at different points. A convention resort keeping its convention business running through 14 months of work is the reason for the night shifts.

Fort Wilderness has soil erosion prevention work along the sidewalk on Big Pine Trail through mid October 2026, with roadway detours sending guests along alternate paths at times. No resort amenities are affected. The campground has bigger changes around it: more than 350 new Disney Vacation Club cabins have replaced the old cabins loop by loop over the past two years, and that conversion is now finished.

Old Key West has three separate items. Refurbishment along the Sassagoula River Cruise boat route runs through early August 2026, which takes boat service to Disney Springs out of service and puts those guests on buses. Hospitality House is under exterior maintenance through mid September 2026. Disney's Lake Buena Vista Golf Course is closed for renovation through October 2026, so rooms overlooking the course have a construction view until it reopens.

Beach Club and Yacht Club round out the new entries, and both are in the same position. Each is under visible exterior maintenance that affects views from around the resort and occasionally reroutes walking paths. The Beach Club project was quietly pushed from late 2026 into 2027, a full year of extension on work guests can already see.

Skyliner goes down for a week in January 2027

Disney Skyliner closes for refurbishment from January 24 through January 30, 2027, with complimentary bus service running in its place. That is a single week, but it lands on every resort that sold guests on gondola access:

Disney's own photograph of Disney Skyliner.
Disney's own photograph of Disney Skyliner.
A large, colorful sign for Disney's Art of Animation Resort stands against a blue sky, flanked by palm trees and images of Ariel and Nemo.
A large, colorful sign for Disney's Art of Animation Resort stands against a blue sky, flanked by palm trees and images of Ariel and Nemo. Photo: HarshLight from San Jose, CA, USA via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The Crescent Lake hotels have walking paths to the EPCOT International Gateway and boats to Disney's Hollywood Studios, so they absorb the loss more easily. Pop Century, Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach and Riviera do not have that fallback. For those four, a Skyliner week means bus queues at park close.

Crescent Lake: Yacht Club, Beach Club and BoardWalk

The FriendShip Boat docks at both Yacht Club and Beach Club close for maintenance from August 17 to 21, 2026. Direct buses to Disney's Hollywood Studios run during the closure, and guests heading to EPCOT can walk to the International Gateway. Yachtsman Steakhouse is closed for refurbishment and is expected to reopen by August 2026. The Tidal leisure pool at Beach Club has already reopened after its own maintenance earlier this year.

At BoardWalk Inn, refurbishment work continues in select areas throughout 2026, with dining, recreation and merchandise staying open. The vacant venues along the promenade finally have replacements coming: the new Hurly-Burly bar arrives later in 2026 with live music and light bites, and a counter service concept is being built to replace Big River. Disney has not said whether the promenade work stretches into 2027, though the pace suggests it could.

The Luna Park Pool, the Luna Park Crazy Play Area and Leaping Horse Libations close from January 11, 2027 into April 2027 for routine maintenance. The Villas Pool and the Inn Pool stay open. Luna Park Pool was last redone in late 2020, which is when the clown at the top of the water slide came out. Whether anything takes its place this time is an open question.

Grand Floridian, Contemporary and the Polynesian

Grand Floridian is deep into a long run of enhancements. Work in select areas, including the porte cochere, now continues through early 2027 after being extended from mid 2026. Grand Floridian Cafe is closed from mid July through October 2026 for a refresh, and brunch has temporarily moved to Citricos. All other restaurants at the resort are open. The lobby overhaul, the largest visible piece of the project, is finished, and it delivered the Perch, the birdcage bar that replaced the lobby aviary.

One holiday tradition is changing shape this year. The resort is getting seasonal decor and new miniature gingerbread displays throughout the building, but the full size gingerbread house will not be built in the lobby, a decision Disney frames as keeping the lobby moving for resort guests.

Contemporary Resort has refurbishment in select areas through late 2027, now covering Bay Lake Tower and the main A frame atrium. The Bay Lake Tower phase is complete, and the project description has dropped the Convention Center and added the atrium. Nothing visible has started inside the A frame yet, but it is expected soon.

The Polynesian has good news and unfinished business. The Island Tower at Disney's Polynesian Villas and Bungalows is open, the front entrance roadway has been reconfigured, and the new bus stops are in service with a traffic pattern that eases the crush at arrival. Work in other areas of the resort runs through late 2026, and view impacts around the Great Ceremonial House are noticeable enough that Disney is now warning guests booking 'Ohana about obstructed Magic Kingdom views. Trader Sam's Tiki Terrace is closed through late October 2026 because of the Great Ceremonial House work.

Value and moderate resorts

All Star Movies has two items running at once. Donald's Double Feature is in a phased refurbishment through late August 2026 and stays open throughout. Guest rooms are being refurbished through January 2027, with construction visible or audible in the area and alternate paths in place at times.

Disney's own photograph of Donald's Double Feature.
Disney's own photograph of Donald's Double Feature.
A pathway at a resort features oversized props of buckets, brooms, and a sorcerer's hat, with a sign for pizza delivery visible on the right.
A pathway at a resort features oversized props of buckets, brooms, and a sorcerer's hat, with a sign for pizza delivery visible on the right. Photo: Juliana Lopes from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The room work reads as a soft goods refresh in the mold of the one recently finished at Pop Century, meaning wall coverings, flooring, linens, decor and some furniture rather than a gut renovation. It also looks like the opening move in a multi year rollout across all three All Star resorts.

A wide, light-colored building with large cut-out numbers is seen across a body of water under a partly cloudy sky.
A wide, light-colored building with large cut-out numbers is seen across a body of water under a partly cloudy sky. Photo: K7HPN via Wikimedia Commons, CC0

At Port Orleans Riverside, the room reimagining runs from now through August 2027. Magnolia Bend is finished and crews have moved to Alligator Bayou. Guests booked there over the next year can avoid most of the noise with a room request for Magnolia Bend.

Wilderness Lodge, Fort Wilderness and the resort rising between them

Disney's Wilderness Lodge and Copper Creek Villas and Cabins are under exterior refurbishment expected to run through late 2026, with view impacts around the resort. The security kiosk is being expanded through mid October. Most amenities stay open, and permits suggest the exterior work could stretch into 2027.

Disney's own photograph of Wilderness Lodge.
Disney's own photograph of Wilderness Lodge.

The bigger factor for both resorts is Disney Lakeshore Lodge, the hotel going up on the former River Country site. It has reached its full height of 10 stories, which puts a working crane roughly 100 yards from the Settlement area of Fort Wilderness. Wilderness Lodge feels it less, though the Boulder Ridge side hears it.

A wooden cabin with a brown roof is nestled among tall trees, with a driveway and patches of grass in the foreground.
A wooden cabin with a brown roof is nestled among tall trees, with a driveway and patches of grass in the foreground. Photo: Benjamin D. Esham ( bdesham ) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Saratoga Springs

Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa has areas under refurbishment through fall 2026, including the porte cochere and the Treehouse Villas. The restaurant work is staged so that only one venue is down at a time. The Turf Club Lounge is closed through late August 2026, with the Turf Club Bar and Grill open on a modified menu served from a pop up bar. Then the restaurant itself closes from late August through late September 2026 while the lounge reopens. Disney Springs is a short trip away for that month.

Treehouse Villas.
Treehouse Villas. Photo: BestofWDW from USA via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Disney's own photograph of Saratoga Springs.
Disney's own photograph of Saratoga Springs.

Why fans are buzzing

The buzz

Six resorts landing on the calendar in one update is unusual, and the timing is what caught people. August 17 is the day Kidani Village loses its lobby and the FriendShip docks close, August 10 starts a 14 month convention center project, and most of this was posted while guests were already holding reservations for those dates. Anyone who booked a fall or winter stay months ago is now rechecking what they actually bought.

There is a second reason this list keeps drawing attention. A refurbishment calendar is the closest thing Walt Disney World publishes to a maintenance ledger, and reading it in one sitting shows how much deferred work is being caught up at once. Exterior maintenance at three Crescent Lake resorts, a convention center, a golf course, a boat route, two lobbies and rooms at four hotels are all in progress in the same window.

A gold and white monorail is shown with a geometric patterned building in the background.
A gold and white monorail is shown with a geometric patterned building in the background. Photo: Anthony Quintano from Westminster, United States via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

What this means for guests

Booking around this is possible, and it mostly comes down to matching dates against the list before paying a deposit. Skyliner resorts are a poor choice for the last week of January 2027. Kidani Village is worth avoiding from mid August through early November if lobby access matters. Anyone with a Grand Floridian Cafe brunch tradition should plan on Citricos through October, and anyone counting on the Old Key West boat to Disney Springs should plan on a bus until early August.

The flip side is that a resort coming off a refurbishment is often the best value on property. Pop Century has finished rooms, Grand Floridian has a finished lobby, and Magnolia Bend at Port Orleans Riverside has finished rooms with the crews now working on the other side of the resort. Disney updates these project dates without much notice, so the list is worth rechecking before final payment rather than only at booking.