Walt Disney World has finally revealed the reimagined lobby coming soon to the flagship Grand Floridian Resort, with a brand-new birdcage bar and ‘enchanted garden’ style. This shares the latest news from WDW along with concept art, plus our thoughts on the overhaul and impact to guests with stays here for the rest of this year.
If this topic sounds familiar, it’s because we recently covered it in Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort Multi-Month Lobby Overhaul (Finally) Starts Soon. At that point, Walt Disney World had not officially announced anything–the company just quietly added a warning blurb to Disney Vacation Club member booking site. We assumed that info was accurate, but that someone had published it prematurely, as the consumer-facing DisneyWorld.com pages hadn’t been updated nor had travel agents or existing guests been notified.
That notice to DVC members revealed the following: “Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa will be receiving enhancements to select areas in phases, including the lobby and convention center, from April through November 2025. Guests may see and hear construction during daytime hours, and portions of the lobby will be closed at times. All pools and most resort dining and other amenities will remain available. Please allow extra time for travel, as path adjustments may be in place.”
Fast-forward to April 10, 2025 and Walt Disney World has finally officially announced the lobby enhancements. Here’s the official release about the changes and additions coming to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, followed by our commentary.
Just minutes away from the Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa has delighted guests with its Victorian charm and timeless atmosphere since 1988.
A celebration of the golden age of travel and Florida’s lavish seaside hotels, the resort is known for its unique theming and Disney hospitality – two qualities we continue to honor during the renovation of the Grand Floridian lobby.
The lobby’s renovation marks the culmination of the resort’s multi-year refurbishment, which has included enhanced guest rooms, refreshed dining experiences, including the Michelin star-awarded Victoria & Albert’s, Cítricos, Narcoossee’s and 1900 Park Fare, and more.
Coming Soon: Grand Floridian Lobby Bar
There’s something special about walking into the Grand Floridian—the soft piano music, glowing chandeliers, and aromatic floral arrangements create a luxurious, yet relaxing atmosphere. And soon, guests will be able to take in this ambiance with a refreshing beverage in hand, thanks to the new lobby bar!
Inspired by the lobby’s iconic birdcage, the bar will pay tribute to the resort’s Victorian roots with intricate woodwork, stained glass, and brass accents. You may even spot colorful birds in the stained glass and murals throughout the atrium! Opposite the bar, guests will still find the Victorian cage-style elevator that fans know and love.
New Look, Same Grand Feel
The surrounding lobby, staircase and front desk will be refreshed with a mix of botanical accents and inviting colors to create an airy, garden-like atmosphere.
Disney Imagineers are approaching this refurbishment with great care and focus in maintaining the heart and story of the Grand Floridian, while adding fresh new life to the lobby for guests to enjoy.
As shown in the new rendering, the lobby will feature beautiful new carpeting with Victorian-inspired borders and scrollwork featuring hand-drawn florals inspired by turn-of-the-century botanical studies. Updated furnishings will blend rich finishes and brass accents with cozy, welcoming fabrics–plus a few playful touches inspired by Florida’s natural beauty and Victorian decorating trends.
Our Commentary
This is going to be a polarizing project, and we’re prepared with a hot take that’s bound to be an unpopular opinion among diehard Walt Disney World fans: we like the looks of this Grand Floridian lobby overhaul concept art.
There are caveats to that, but in a vacuum, we’re pleased with this art and the underlying concept for the overhaul. Although the carpet does appear to be a bit warmer than the ‘enchanted gardens’ overhaul in the outer buildings, that could just be liberties taken with the concept art and sunlight coming through the atrium.
As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, we’re big fans of the redone rooms at the Grand Floridian and consider them major updates over the old mid-tier Marriott rooms they replaced. Same goes for the common areas of the outer buildings. The lobby is essentially more of that, albeit with (maybe?) a slightly different color palette.
The focal point of the redone lobby will obviously be the birdcage bar. This looks classy and thematically coherent, a great fit for the Grand Floridian and a nod to the old birdcage it’s replacing. Walt Disney World fans may not like to hear this, but even before seeing this art, we figured there was no way the old birdcage survived the reimagining–it just looks dated. And not thematically-appropriate Victorian dated; it looked dated-dated.
At minimum, the reimagining is absolutely not the worst case scenario, and we feared that the Grand Floridian’s lobby would be modernized in such a way that stripped its character, charm, or theme. Hopefully this clears that bar for you, at the very least.
Speaking of bars, that’s the part of this that is bound to be outrage-inducing with some fans. This is a safe prediction because that’s the case whenever Walt Disney World announces a new lounge.
The most common comments we receive in response to such announcements are basically that: 1) The only thing Walt Disney World builds now are bars and Disney Vacation Club; 2) The company has lost sight of its family-friendly values/there’s too much emphasis on alcohol; and 3) Walt would be rolling in his grave over this.
We covered most of this ground very recently with the GEO-82 Adults-Only Lounge Inside Spaceship Earth at EPCOT.
I don’t want to rehash all of that, but my overarching response is two-fold. First, Walt Disney World has added a slew of family-friendly lounges that are more food-forward. These are more fairly categorized as restaurants than bars (or at least “and grills”), and are oozing inviting atmosphere and have robust food menus that arguably surpass some of the regular restaurants at their respective resorts.
Many of our favorite places to eat with our daughter, Megatron, are lounges like this. They’re lower stakes than table service restaurants, and often allow us to make a quick “getaway” if needed. The food is also generally fantastic, and fairly priced. This is true with the new Wailulu Bar & Grill at the Poly’s Island Tower, and will likely be the case with the Pirates Tavern at Magic Kingdom. See our list of the Best Bars & Lounges at Walt Disney World for about a half-dozen great options like this.
Second, there is undeniably demand for more bars at Walt Disney World–especially on the monorail loop. Just a couple weeks ago, I walked from Magic Kingdom to the Polynesian, making my way through the Grand Floridian en route. The Beauty and the Beast bar was packed, with a line to enter. Meanwhile, I was quoted a 2-hour wait for Wailulu Bar & Grill in the Island Tower. I headed over to the Great Ceremonial House to kill time while waiting for my table, which was unsurprisingly packed.
There’s no denying overarching demographic trends, both across the developed world as a whole and Walt Disney World. Adults without children are making up an ever-increasing slice of the pie for Walt Disney World, and they’re freer spending. It’s savvy for Disney to add adult-centric attractions & entertainment, and otherwise chase the convention-goer and childless millennial demographics. An incredibly persuasive argument could be made that Walt Disney World is simply playing catch-up to guest preferences and patterns with these bars–a statement that would probably be true even if they built another dozen of them!
Our view is that Walt Disney World needs to do more to cater to families with small children, as it risks losing its foundational generational fans if it doesn’t reach kids during their formative years. But this mostly revolves around promotions and pricing, not the substance of the experiences. In that regard, Walt Disney World is undeniably a family-friendly place, first and foremost. And to the company’s credit, they did already just make such a ‘promotion and pricing’ announcement with “Cool Kid Summer” and its deep discounts.
Point being, the Birdcage Bar doesn’t bother me in the least. This is almost certainly something we will never use, either, so I’m not saying this from the perspective of selfishness. I think it looks nice, is fitting for the hotel, and will help satisfy lounge demand. (With that said, I do think Walt Disney World would be well-served to space out these bar announcements from an optics perspective, but the timing is what it is.)
Circling back, my main concern with this Grand Floridian birdcage bar and lobby reimagining actually isn’t aesthetics or alcohol: it’s crowds.
My first thought when looking at the concept art is that the lobby is going to be quite busy with the Christmas tree and gingerbread house during the holidays. The main building is already a mad house during the holiday season, and this will just exacerbate it. To that end, I would’ve preferred Grand Floridian turning the Tea Room into a flex space lounge (a la Barcelona Lounge at Gran Destino Tower) and opening up more of the lobby. This is basically the opposite of that.
Not only will this be yet another thing that induces crowds in the lobby, but it will concentrate them. Frankly, I don’t know how the Grand Floridian is going to have this birdcage bar and Christmas tree and gingerbread house. Something’s gotta give–or move. There are more extreme measures that Walt Disney World could take to control crowds at the Grand Floridian and Polynesian, but I’m guessing they don’t want to go that far.
Grand Floridian Lobby Reimagining Timeline
In terms of timing, Walt Disney World has officially announced that phased updates to the lobby, convention center and select areas will begin April 14, 2025. Portions of the lobby will close at times, and Guests may encounter changes to their path of travel. While construction activity will be noticeable during daytime hours, efforts will be made to minimize disruptions, and all pools, dining and other amenities will remain available.
This is earlier than we expected, and I’m still skeptical that work starts in earnest on the Grand Floridian lobby reimagining before April 22, 2025. There’s currently the popular Easter Egg display in the lobby, and that’s another holiday that’s a popular time for the hotel. It’s unlikely major work will begin on the lobby before Easter. It’s possible they’ll wait another full week after that, as some school districts still have recesses the week after Easter.
The April 14 date could be when minor work starts in the lobby, or that could be when construction begins on the convention center. Obviously, those two things are very different, and the average guest probably doesn’t care about the convention center. Note that this new notice for all guests on DisneyWorld.com does not include an end date.
As for when work will wrap up, the target date is probably before Veterans Day. Again, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year–and most expensive–at the Grand Floridian. I cannot imagine Walt Disney World management will want to have the lobby be a sea of construction walls during the most lucrative two months of the year. That’s just a guess on my part, and the removal of an end date certainly is not reassuring.
It’s possible Walt Disney World has removed the end date because there’s not certainty this can be finished by Christmas. But we strongly suspect that Walt Disney World would prefer to pause the project over having work cut into a portion of the holiday season. That would mean leaving too much money on the table. (And remember, this work also encompasses the convention center–there’s nothing to say the lobby work won’t be done on a tighter timeframe and the convention center will be what drags into late 2025.)
To each their own, but if we were planning a stay at the Grand Floridian from late April through late 2025, we’d switch resorts. The lobby is too important of a feature and the resort is too expensive to settle for it being a construction zone. Of course, you shouldn’t substitute our judgment for your own. If you’re staying at the Grand Floridian for its guest rooms, pools, or proximity to the parks–and seldom step foot in the lobby–obviously this advice may not apply to you.
What’s unknown is what happens with Grand Floridian Cafe and Grand Floridian Tea Room, the latter of which has still not reopened. Our expectation is that both receive reimagined interiors at some point in 2025, with the former closing over the summer to accommodate that overdue update and the latter not reopening until the lobby project is done. (So perhaps the Grand Floridian Tea Room will finally return this holiday season? Another Festivus miracle!)
That’s just our speculation, and is not official. October through December is the busiest stretch of the year for Walt Disney World restaurants, so they’d likely want Grand Floridian Cafe to reopen by then. As for Grand Floridian Tea Room, there’s been fan speculation that it has been indirectly “replaced” by the Cake Bake Shop. I don’t buy that. Walt Disney World loves upmarket offerings, and Grand Floridian Tea Room squarely fits the bill. There’s no reason why the resort can’t sustain both.
Ultimately, I’m pleased to see that the lobby reimagining of the Grand Floridian is finally moving forward. I wish the announcement were made much earlier, and hope it’s not too late for impacted guests who don’t want to deal with this to relocate. I also understand that this is going to be controversial with a lot of WDW diehards, especially as it adds yet another bar to the parks & resorts.
I’m probably in the minority, but I’m pleased with the concept art and fine with the bar (even though we will literally never use it). That’s probably going to get me excoriated among Walt Disney World purists. As a realist, I think the ‘Enchanted Gardens’ style of the outlying buildings is pretty much the best-case scenario when accounting for tastes of modern guests and the price point of the Grand Floridian.
While WDW diehards might love the current lobby and overall aesthetic, the Grand Floridian does not comport with the expectations of the first-timers or casual guests who actually stay here. It’s as simple as that. As I’ve said before, the Grand Floridian does not strike me as “pure” Victorian themed design, but rather, the early 1990s interpretation of Victorian. Now, it’ll be the 2025 interpretation of Victorian.
My hope is that Imagineering can deliver on this concept art, marrying the visual style of the new rooms with the opulence and grandiosity of the main lobby. It should not become an Ethan Allen showroom, but with a higher ceiling. Modernized doesn’t need to mean dull and devoid of character. There is a way to have the best of both worlds, a lobby that’s both well-themed and luxurious. It’s a tough balance to strike, but hopefully it can be accomplished. The concept art and what Walt Disney World has conveyed is a good start.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Excited or disappointed by the birdcage bar coming to the Grand Floridian? What do you think of the lobby overhaul finally happening in 2025? Excited for the continued reimagining of Walt Disney World’s flagship resort, or worried it’ll lose its personality and richly-themed spaces in the process? Have you stayed at the Grand Floridian since the new rooms debuted? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? 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!