The Turf Club Lounge reopens at Disney's Saratoga Springs on Aug. 31, and the Bar and Grill closes next

By entgrove · August 29, 2026 · Updated September 3, 2026

Disney Parks has confirmed that The Turf Club Lounge at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa reopens Aug. 31 after a refurbishment that began in early April, with a charcuterie-stuffed pretzel and a revised Turf Burger among the shareable bites. Disney's own resort notice completes the picture: the lounge stays open while The Turf Club Bar and Grill closes through late September, and the golf course it overlooks is shut through October.

Disney Parks has confirmed that The Turf Club Lounge at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa returns on Aug. 31, closing out a refurbishment that has kept the horse-racing themed bar dark since early April. The announcement, posted to the official Disney Parks account on X, promises patio views, shareable bites and specialty drinks when the doors open again. Disney's own refurbishment notice for the resort fills in what the post left out: the lounge stays open while The Turf Club Bar and Grill around it closes for its own work through late September, and the golf course the lounge looks out over is shut for renovation through October.

What Disney announced

The official Disney Parks post told readers to "consider this your 19th hole," the golfer's name for the bar after a round, and listed patio views, shareable bites and specialty sips as the draw. It carried four photos and a single hard fact: Aug. 31.

Five months dark

This was a refurbishment, not a seasonal closure. The lounge shut in early April and stayed closed through the summer, roughly five months of downtime for a venue that seats a modest crowd and has long traded on being one of the quieter places to drink at Walt Disney World. Disney has not described the work itself. The closure is part of a wider program at the resort: Disney's notice to guests says areas of Saratoga Springs are under refurbishment "now through Fall 2026," including the covered arrival area and the Treehouse Villas, and that construction may be seen or heard during the day.

Inside the Bar and Grill, looking out at the golf course

The lounge is a casual bar inside The Turf Club Bar and Grill, Disney's own dining page says, with a light menu, a pool table and views across Disney's Lake Buena Vista Golf Course toward Disney Springs. That position is where the name comes from. It is built as the place to stop for a drink and something small after a round, which is unusual on a property where most resort bars sit beside a pool or in a lobby. Saratoga Springs itself is an equestrian-themed, Victorian-style resort that Disney describes as bringing "the spirit of Saratoga, New York," the upstate horse-racing and spa town, to a lakeside setting, and the Turf Club is where that theme is most literal.

What is changing on the menu

Disney has not released the full reopening menu, but several items have been described ahead of Aug. 31, and the four photos on the post match them. The Giant Pretzel returns rebuilt as a charcuterie-stuffed pretzel, packed with meats, cheeses and vegetables rather than served plain with dip. The Turf Burger, smoked cheddar with thick-cut bacon, bourbon glaze, crispy onions and tomato jam on brioche, moves to waffle fries. Crispy chicken wings come with a choice of buffalo or garlic-parmesan sauce, blue cheese and celery. Two new cocktails have been signaled without names or recipes attached.

Anything beyond that list is still unannounced, including prices for the revised items and whether the rest of the pre-closure lineup survives intact. Disney's dining page still describes the lounge in the old terms, as a stop for a signature cocktail or a cold beer before dinner in the restaurant of the same name.

What the lounge served before it closed

For a sense of the price band the lounge operated in, the menu as it stood before April ran to a short list of shareable plates and a full bar:

• Turf Club Burger, 25 dollars
• Crispy Chicken Wings, 16 dollars
• Buffalo Chicken Dip, 14 dollars
• Sweet-and-Spicy Brussels Sprouts, 13 dollars
• Giant Pretzel, 12 dollars
• Onion Ring Tower, 12 dollars

Wines ran 12 to 22 dollars by the glass, beer 8.50 to 12.75, and cocktails 14 to 24.50, including the horse-racing themed pours the lounge is known for, such as the mint julep. Non-alcoholic specialty drinks sat around 6.29 to 6.49. Food was served until 10 p.m. with the bar open later, and the lounge accepted Disney Dining Plan credits. Treat all of that as the old sheet: it is the baseline the reopening menu is being revised against, not a confirmed price list for Sept. 1.

The trade-off at Saratoga Springs

The resort does not get both Turf Club venues at once. Disney's refurbishment notice puts The Turf Club Bar and Grill, the resort's table-service restaurant for steaks and seasonal dishes, out of service from late August through late September 2026, and states that the lounge remains open during that time. The same notice closes the tennis courts from late August through November and Disney's Lake Buena Vista Golf Course through October for renovations, so the "19th hole" reopens with no 18 holes in front of it for now. The Golf Shop stays open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., golfers are pointed to Disney's Magnolia and Palm courses, and Disney warns that views from some rooms overlooking the course may be affected until the work is done.

For food on property during September, that leaves the lounge menu, The Artist's Palette, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner along with groceries and to-go snacks, The Paddock Grill by the pool, and Chip 'n Dale's Café, the sandwich stand by the golf course. Guests staying at Saratoga Springs, including the Treehouse Villas that are themselves under refurbishment, should plan around those rather than a full table-service dinner at the resort.

What this means for guests

Saratoga Springs is a Disney Vacation Club home resort and draws a heavy DVC crowd, so the lounge works as a neighborhood bar more than a destination restaurant, and owners who return every year noticed a bar closed for a whole summer. Getting it back on Aug. 31 restores an evening option that had been missing since spring, though the handover to the Bar and Grill's refurbishment means the resort's dining is thinner than the reopening headline suggests. Disney Springs is the nearest alternative: the resort is connected to it by complimentary water taxi, with one launch at the Treehouse Villas and a second a short walk from the Turf Club. The full menu has not been posted yet; the lounge's page at disneyworld.disney.go.com is where the confirmed items and prices will land.