Walt Disney World has extended room refurbishments at Port Orleans Riverside Resort by over a full year, with the project going from a 2026 completion to now 2027. However, this is not a delay; but rather, it’s an expansion in the scale and scope of work. This shares dates, details, and our commentary about impacts of work.
Before we get going, one thing to note is that now is the time of year (November and December) when Walt Disney World typically schedules new hotel construction projects and posts bulletins (red ‘warning’ text at the top of pages) on the official websites. Keep an eye on our 2025-2026 Walt Disney World Hotel Construction Tracker for updates on other, smaller-scale projects.
When it comes to more major projects like multi-month room reimaginings, we’ll do separate posts like this one. The goal is to keep you apprised of anything sufficiently significant that you might want to change resorts or make room requests to avoid the construction. The good news is that Walt Disney World has done a pretty good job of ‘catching up’ on deferred room refurbishments, so we may not see as many projects like this for 2026 or 2027. The bad news (or is it?) is that a few high-profile projects are slated to wrap up soon, freeing up resources for other big overhauls.
This Port Orleans Resort refurbishment has been one such project, albeit not one that’s going to wrap up and free resources anytime soon. This began with Port Orleans French Quarter, which wrapped up just before the start of the summer season.
This hard goods refurbishment totally overhauled the rooms and infused Princess and the Frog details, including character portraits and more. The bathrooms have been done, and the whole spaces have functional and stylistic upgrades. See our Photos & Video of New Rooms at Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort for a detailed look inside. We’re fans of those new rooms, and expect something similar at Riverside, albeit with their own thematic twists.
Now that construction crews have finished at POFQ, they’ve moved over to Riverside to finish the other side of the sister resorts…
Here’s the new announcement from Walt Disney World reflecting an extension to the Port Orleans Riverside room redo (made November 19, 2025):
From early May 2025 through August 2027, Guest rooms at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside will undergo refurbishment in phases. During this time, refurbishment will take place across different sections of the resort, and Guests may see or hear work in the area.
Here was the original announcement from Walt Disney World that was made last year around this time:
From early April 2025 through the end of January 2026, guest rooms in the Magnolia Bend at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside will undergo refurbishment. During this time, guests may see or hear construction work in the area.
Regular readers of this blog should not be surprised in the least by this extension. Back when the project was originally announced, we indicated that we fully expected it to be extended and expanded in scope. Admittedly, we expected the full project to wrap up earlier in the year than August 2027, though.
Although Walt Disney World hasn’t announced anything, it’s our strong suspicion that the extension is due to the project now encompassing Alligator Bayou. That’s what we previously predicted would happen.
If you compare the two bulletins, you’ll notice that the earlier one limited to scope of work to only Magnolia Bend. This made sense, as Riverside is a massive resort, and if the year-long project was only going to impact a certain section of the resort booking a specific room type, no sense in unnecessarily worrying everyone else. Not having the bulletin for Alligator Bayou at that point made sense.
The new bulletin drops the reference to Magnolia Bend, making for a more open-ended project. Honestly, I don’t love this approach. In all likelihood, the Magnolia Bend phase of the project is still going to wrap up in Winter 2026. Delineating between the two sections of the resort would still make sense, giving guests peace of mind if they’re planning to stay in Magnolia Bend from around March 2026 through 2027. Those rooms will be brand-new, not under construction!
This Alligator Bend theory makes sense and was easily foreseeable even last year when the announcement was originally made because it follows the normal project cadence for Port Orleans Resort refurbishments.
Although last time, Disney started with POFQ before moving to Alligator Bend and finishing that. Most of Magnolia Bend was not refurbished during the last cycle due to COVID. In any case, it’s once again time for Alligator Bayou to receive its next round of room redos in 2026-2027.
If the normal project cadence is followed, that’ll also be a hard goods refurbishment. We would likewise expect it to be a more rustic, less Mardi Gras version of the completed rooms at Port Orleans French Quarter. (Same underlying changes; different thematics.)
In terms of other updates on the Magnolia Bend project, Building 90 (Oak Manor) and Building 85 (Magnolia Terrace) have now reopened with the new rooms that are similar in substance but divergent in style to the French Quarter rooms. It’s unclear to me whether Building 80 (Acadian House) has reopened; if not, it’s probably close.
Unfortunately (from my perspective), Building 90 has been converted back into standard rooms; only Building 95 (Parterre Place) will be Royal Rooms when all is said and done. While we know what the standard rooms in Magnolia Bend look like since some have reopened, none of the new-look Royal Rooms have debuted.
Building 95 will be the last of Magnolia Bend to be renovated and it’ll probably be done in phases to avoid taking the whole building down at once. This is unlike the other buildings, but is likely a matter of practicality. Walt Disney World didn’t block off Royal Room reservations initially, so they’ll either need to offer free upgrades or retain a portion of the Royal Room inventory for the duration of the project.
I would expect Building 95 (Parterre Place/Royal Rooms) to be fully finished no later than early April 2026. That’s assuming Walt Disney World is pausing work for the peak of Christmas season to maximize room inventory. It could be finished as soon as late February or early March 2026.
Once Parterre Place is finished, crews will move over to Alligator Bend and work on that side of the resort for the next year-plus, through Summer 2027. Although the Alligator Bend rooms are still in pretty good shape, we nevertheless expect this to be a comprehensive hard goods refurbishment.
Port Orleans Riverside had been in the midst of a resort-wide soft goods refurbishment in 2019 and 2020, with the Royal Rooms next up to go under the knife in March 2020. All of the Alligator Bayou rooms were finished and, to the best of my knowledge, so were the standard Magnolia Bend rooms.
However, the Royal Rooms in Magnolia Bend were mostly untouched. Some did end up replacing the carpet with new laminate floors and other light refreshes, but that’s it. The vast majority of the 500+ Royal Rooms are materially unchanged since 2012–save for the bed runners, which were long gone even pre-closure.
The reason for the reduction in Royal Rooms is simply a matter of demand. It’s our understanding that the Royal Rooms aren’t nearly as popular as they once were, and are routinely given out as a free upgrade to guests.
Although we have no inside information to suggest as much, we’d also hazard a guess that the Royal Rooms are more expensive to create and maintain. There’s a lot of attention to detail and custom design throughout the Royal Rooms, and that cannot be as inexpensive or efficient as some of the modern rooms at Walt Disney World.
We stayed in one earlier this year and found it to be in shockingly good shape despite the lack of refurbishment, and also thought that the style largely stood the test of time despite being over a decade old. That’s more than I can say about many of the “modern” rooms that came about in 2013-2017, some of which are already long gone because they aged so poorly.
With that said, I can’t help but think back to the Pirate Rooms at Caribbean Beach being converted to the new ‘Under the Sea’ Little Mermaid rooms. It’s entirely possible that this is a blueprint for what’s to come at Port Orleans Riverside, albeit not Little Mermaid inspired.
In other words, royal flourishes as opposed to going all-in on an expensive and immersive design. We shall see. The Royal Rooms are among the very best-themed rooms in all of Walt Disney World, so I hope they don’t change too much.
My gut is that they’ll take the path of least resistance and deliver something in the current blueprint that balances space-saving modern design features with thematic flourishes, trying to appease both diehard fans and first-timers.
As for the other new rooms in Magnolia Bend, they’re more or less what you expect. Again, very similar to the new rooms at French Quarter. It’s like the project team used the same blueprints for the design and just switched out the design flourishes and thematics.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Alligator Bend ends up with an almost identical design–but with a 5th sleeper. The style of the Magnolia Bend rooms look suspiciously like they could “work” on both the mansion and bayou sides of the resort.
As with other changes, this makes sense–it’s our understanding that some guests view Alligator Bend is “too rustic” and Magnolia Bend as the more sophisticated side of the resort. Disney might want to bridge that gap, even if it’s at odds with the overarching theme and backstory of the hotel.
For years, Port Orleans Riverside was our favorite Moderate Resort because it felt like a bygone era of Walt Disney World, was thematically unblemished, and had beautiful grounds. But if I’m being honest with myself, I love the idea of Port Orleans Riverside more than the actual resort.
We still love to visit and spend time at this thematic exemplar, but when push comes to shove and we’re actually doing a stay for practical purposes, Riverside is somewhat low on our List Ranking All of the Best & Worst Resorts at Walt Disney World.
Unlike the other Moderate Resorts that each have unique selling points (Skyliner, compact layout, formidable dining scene, etc.), there isn’t a marquee draw to Port Orleans Riverside. Its romantic atmosphere and beautiful grounds are a draw for diehard fans, but less so infrequent visitors comparing the Moderates. Maybe Riverside would benefit from a character dining experience, immersively themed bar, or other flagship feature. There’s plenty of time to add something along those lines between now and August 2027!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Thoughts on the Port Orleans Riverside room refurbishment being extended by over a full year? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!