*Many resorts have stopped, delayed or slowed progress on construction. We will update this post as we can, but with many resorts still not open, we have no way of knowing if any progress is being made on them.*
Disney is always working to improve and better the parks, the food, the merchandise, and the resorts at Walt Disney World. With the huge 50th anniversary celebration coming up quickly in 2021, Disney is making sure many of their resorts get a nice update so they look their best for the grand celebration.
Table of contents
Art of Animation
Art of Animation’s main lobby floors were recently redone to help eliminate the noise caused by the small tiles and luggage wheels. It looks much cleaner and sounds quieter. All the rooms at Art of Animation have also been refurbished. You can click below to view our video room tours of each refurbished room on YouTube.
– Refurbished Cars Family Suite Room Tour
– Refurbished Finding Nemo Family Suite Room Tour
– Refurbished Lion King Family Suite Room Tour
– Refurbished Little Mermaid Room Tour
*Art of Animation Resort is currently not open, but is scheduled to reopen on November 1.*
Wilderness Lodge
The Wilderness Lodge rooms with club level access have finished their remodel on the seventh floor. The only rooms with club level access that still need to be remodeled now are the deluxe rooms. The rest of the rooms on the other floors have started their remodel recently and should be done by this fall. One of the bigger changes coming is that the bunk bed rooms are planned to be removed, leaving only 1 king or 2 queens as the bed configurations.
– Wilderness Lodge Refurbished Room Tour Club Level
*Wilderness Lodge is currently not open, and does not have an announced reopening date.*
The Contemporary
Contemporary Resort was scheduled to be refurbished starting in 2020. With the park closures, the start date for this has been delayed, and we don’t yet know when the process will begin. Not much is known about this refurbishment, but with the fact that Contemporary Resort is supposed to be, well, contemporary, it definitely needs an update. You can watch a room tour of the current rooms below.
– Contemporary Resort Tower Theme Park View Room Tour
– Contemporary Resort Tower Lake View Room Tour
– Contemporary Resort Garden Wing Deluxe Room Tour
– Contemporary Resort Garden Wing Garden View Room Tour
– Contemporary Resort Garden Wing Standard View Room Tour (Accessible)
The Polynesian
The Polynesian rooms will be getting complete remodels with many of the issues fixed that guests have raised awareness about over the years.
UPDATE: The refurbishment is scheduled to begin in October 2020 with the rooms being refurbished to include a Moana theme, and the Great Ceremonial House is also getting an update. We look forward to seeing what these rooms will look when they’re finished. You can watch room tours of the current rooms below.
– Polynesian Theme Park View Room Tour
Polynesian Village Resort is currently closed and is scheduled to reopen “Summer 2021” once the refurbishments are complete. The Polynesian Villas and Bungalows are currently OPEN and plan to remain so.
All-Star Sports
All-Star Sports will be the last of the All-Star resorts to begin its remodel. This resort will not begin refurbishment until All-Star Music is complete. They were expecting to begin work on this in 2020, but the timeframe will depend on when All-Star Music is finished. The rooms and family suites at All-Star Music have already begun their remodel and look amazing. Scroll down below for more information on All-Star Movies.
All-Star Sports (as well as the other All-Star resorts) are currently closed and do not have an announced date for reopening.
All-Star Music
All-Star Music is the currently undergoing refurbishment. All-Star Movies has been completely remodeled, and we love how it turned out (watch the All-Star Movies Room Tour). These new rooms look so much better, and the All-Stars are going to a universal look in the rooms with a few minor changes for each resort theme.
The biggest change at All-Star Music are the refurbished Family Suites. These rooms have been changed from 1 queen, 1 pull-out full, and 2 pull-out twin beds (see photo below) to 3 queen beds (Murphy beds in the living room area). This is a HUGE improvement to the Family Suite and you’ve got see it for yourself (video below).
– All-Star Music Refurbished Family Suite Room Tour
All-Star Music (as well as the other All-Star resorts) are currently closed and do not have an announced date for reopening. We do not know the status of the refurbishments due to the closure, but they were roughly halfway done when the resorts closed.
Saratoga Springs
Saratoga Springs began its remodel in 2019. The Preferred sections of the resort (“The Springs” and “Congress Park”) are completed. The project is scheduled to finish sometime in 2021, but that may be delayed due to the closures.
They have begun work in The Paddock but have not completed any buildings in this section as of 10/5/2020.
You can see room tours of each of the room categories below.
– Saratoga Springs Refurbished Deluxe Studio Room Tour
– Saratoga Springs Refurbished 1 Bedroom Villa Room Tour
– Saratoga Springs Refurbished 2 Bedroom Villa Room Tour
– Saratoga Springs Refurbished 3 Bedroom Grand Villa Room Tour
Port Orleans- Riverside
While most of the resort rooms have been completely refurbished at Port Orleans- Riverside, there is one section that still needs remodeling. The Royal Guest Rooms were scheduled to be refurbished in March of 2020. With the closures, this has been delayed and we do not know when they will begin at this point. We are very interested to see the changes that come in these rooms as they are so well themed. But we trust the Imagineers and look forward to seeing what they come up with. You can see a tour of the existing Royal Guest Room below.
– Port Orleans Riverside Royal Guest Room Tour
Port Orleans Riverside is currently not open, and does not have an announced reopening date.
Does anyone know if all the rooms at Saratoga have finished being updated yet? Trying to decided whether to book a standard or preferred room.
All of the preferred rooms have been updated. Currently the standard rooms are a little more than halfway done. Paddock is all finished, Grandstand is about halfway done. Carousel has not been started yet. To ensure you get a refurbished room, it’s best to book a preferred room.
Do you know if the dvc villas and bungalows at the Polynesian are also getting the rooms refurbished?
The Polynesian Villas are not being refurbished at this time; only the regular hotel rooms. However, the Villas are scheduled for a soft goods refurbishment late 2021-2022. It likely won’t be any different visually but they will be refreshing the room paint, flooring, and furniture as needed.
Do you know that if ALL the little mermaid was already refurbished? And about the big blue pool will be open 1 th of November? Thanks!
Yes all of the rooms at the resort have been completed. The pool refurbishment seems to have been postponed, but we’ve not seen any official word one way or the other on that.
Thanks for your answer. If you have to decide Pop or Little Mermaid? What would you be your recommendation. Is to far away little mermaid from the lobby?
Pop Century and Art of Animation are basically mirror images of each other, so if you book a Standard or Standard Pool View room at Pop Century, you have the potential to be just as far from the lobby as the Little Mermaid rooms are at Art of Animation. Between the two, we’d pick a Preferred Room at Pop because it has the Murphy bed, which creates more room when you’re not using that second bed. But we also would walk over to Art of Animation for the food court 🙂
Do you know if the pools at the Polynesian will be operational the whole time the refurbishments are going on? We have an opportunity to be moved to the villas, but we will probably just change resorts if the pools aren’t going to be open.
We’ve not seen any indication from Disney that either of the pools will be closing during the refurbishment. It’s always possible, but we don’t think it’s likely to happen.
I love your tours of rooms. You are so thorough and walk through slowly. I don’t get dizzy watching your videos!! Great job!
Thank you!!!
Hi. Do you think the family suites at All Star Music will be completed by Sept 2021? Guessing as they’ve already started and there’s still 15 months till then it’s a good chance they will be, just not sure if Covid has effected their time scales.
They were halfway done with them when everything shut down. Since All-Stars aren’t on any list yet to reopen, we’re thinking Disney is going to finish remodeling before opening them up again which would definitely make them completed by then. Of course this is just our guess as we can’t ask right now, but it’s a really good chance they will be done by then.
Hello, when will all star sports be completed? Thanks!
All-Star Sports is set to begin work the beginning of 2021 and be completed by October of that year. With all the changes currently happening, that timeline may change, but we won’t be able to verify that until the resorts reopen.
Have the renovations started yet on the Deluxe rooms at wilderness lodge? Going in September and hoping they will be completed by then.
All the rooms at Wilderness Lodge should be completed by end of summer 🙂
So it’s not just club level being refurbed correct?
Correct. All the rooms at Wilderness Lodge are being refurbished.
Do we know if the coronavirus will be affecting this timeline for renovations? We’ll be staying at WL towards the end of September and hoping 5th or 6th floors will be renovated too!
All of the renovation work has been stopped, so yes, it will change the timeline. We don’t know what it will be changed to, but most likely the Wilderness Lodge renovations won’t be completed until late fall (that is a guess based on when we think Disney resorts will reopen, but until they actually do, we won’t be able to ask how much the timeline has changed).
Has there been any news on when Wilderness Lodge will reopen? And if they are continuing with renovating the rooms?
Disney still hasn’t announced dates for the reopening of Wilderness Lodge, but Copper Creek and Boulder Ridge open 6/22. They will definitely continue the refurbishment, and it’s possible that work has already resumed, but without access to the resort we can’t confirm just yet. 🙂
Planning to take our two children and their families (8, 7, 6 year old granddaughters) to Disney in October. We originally booked at Port Orleans-French Quarter which is currently closed. Have you heard of a reopening date and with booking three rooms for a week, what resort would you suggest?
(Besides cost, I’m looking for convenience to get to the parks and a fun pool.). THANKS
Disney has not yet announced any reopening dates for either of the Port Orleans resorts. POFQ is a very unique resort (also one of our favorites), and there’s not really another resort that compares to the intimate setting there. If you’re looking for a Moderate level, we’d recommend Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs. The price should be similar to POFQ, the rooms are very nice, and the pool is great. Also worth noting, if you have a current booking at POFQ it may be in your best interest to NOT cancel that, as Disney will usually offer to move you to a different resort at no charge (as your trip date gets closer).
Trying to decide between Little Mermaid room and Pop Century. No children just my husband and me. Hoping Little Mermaid would be complete by end of November 2020. I like the look of Little Mermaid but have read that Pop Century is better for adults. Got any suggestions?
For just two people, Pop is better since it has the bed you can keep up and not have in the way. Also, Art of Animation’s main pool will be closed for refurbishment this fall, so you won’t have the main pool at that resort. We really like Pop and the food court, so it’s a great option.
We are staying in a Royal room at Riverside at the beginning of May, any chance of them being completed by then?
We were told today they will start remodeling them in March, so there’s a chance a few will be done, but they couldn’t give us a timeframe yet.
My group is staying at The Art of Animation at the beginning of August 2020 in 2 Little Mermaid rooms and a Lion King Family suite.
Any idea how much of the renovations are completed in The Little Mermaid and Lion King areas?
Thanks!
We were told all of the rooms at Art of Animation should be finished by this fall, so the Little Mermaid rooms should be done by then since those will be done before the final Cars building.
We are in All Star Music mid October – we are really hoping all rooms are done by then! The Calypsso pool will be closed when we stay but that doesn’t bother us as we just stay at the park all day.
If two building are done and two are well on the way, here’s hoping all 10 can be done in the next 8 months!
Do you think it’s wise to request a refurbed room now?
Disney is making great progress on these rooms, so there’s a good chance you’ll get a remodeled room, but if you know you really want one, we’d recommend putting in a request now and again requesting when you check in (Disney gets a lot of room requests, so sometimes they get lost in all the bookings, so requesting a couple times never hurts). Good luck!
Any more progress to All Star Music? What is your prediction for beginning of September?
We aren’t sure how the closures will change anything at this point. They’ve moved quickly through the All-Star resorts so far, and the last we heard, they were still on schedule to finish All-Star Music by the end of the year, so most likely more than half of the resort will be finished by September, if not closer to most of it.
Very useful blog post, thank you so much. You both do such great video reviews, I’d also like to ask for a blog entry regarding ‘Recently completed’ (perhaps in the past 18 months) renovations. For ex, reading this, people might not realize that in addition to All Star Movies, Pop Century offers a good alternative to the in-progress All-Star Music renos.
That’s a great idea! Thank you for the feedback. 🙂
Hi! Any updates on the progress to Music?
Buildings 9 and 10 are completed. Buildings 7 and 8 are being worked on now.
I love this list…. Can you add the DVC resorts to it sometime too? (Other than SS) The one I am anxious for is WL Boulder Ridge, but I think that is not until 2021.
Hi Patricia, as far as we are aware, this list does include the DVC resorts. Many of them have been remodeled in the last few years, so they won’t be updated for several more years. If we find out more will be worked on next year, we’ll add them to the list, but as of now, this is all that has been announced for 2020.