Walt Disney World has announced new and ongoing resort refurbishments and hotel construction projects at Walt Disney World for now through 2027. Two of these involve exterior renovations at Yacht & Beach Club Resorts. This shares dates, details, and our commentary about impacts of work

This is the first of a few projects to be announced, with a lobby project also added to the schedule for Port Orleans French Quarter. It’s getting close to that time of year when Walt Disney World schedules a flurry of projects for the upcoming fiscal year (or in this case, years), so these probably are not the only hotel renovations on the horizon. Keep an eye on our 2025-2026 Walt Disney World Hotel Construction Tracker for updates on other, smaller-scale projects.

The last few years have thrown a monkey wrench into Walt Disney World hotel refresh timelines, with several resort refurbishments being delayed due to the closure and the pent-up demand in its aftermath. The good news is that this hasn’t been as bad on the hotel side as with DVC properties, so Walt Disney World won’t be spending the next few years playing catch-up, but between a few postponed projects and the likelihood of larger-scale reimaginings and new construction, there’s likely a lot on the horizon.

In any case, here are the bulletins that were just updated/added to the Walt Disney World websites:

Disney’s Yacht Club Resort

Disney’s Yacht Club Resort is undergoing routine exterior maintenance through late 2026. As part of this work, the porte cochere will be closed through October 2025. This work may impact views from various locations throughout the resort, and at times, alternate paths of travel may be in place.

While efforts will be made to minimize disruptions, construction may be noticeable during daytime hours. All services—including valet, luggage assistance, and transportation—will remain available. All pools, resort dining and most other amenities will remain available.

Disney’s Beach Club Resort & Beach Club Villas

Disney’s Beach Club Resort is undergoing routine exterior maintenance through 2027. As part of this work, the porte cochere will be closed through September 2025. This work may impact views from various locations throughout the resort, and at times, alternate paths of travel may be in place.

While efforts will be made to minimize disruptions, construction may be noticeable during daytime hours. All services—including valet, luggage assistance, and transportation—will remain available. All pools, resort dining and most other amenities will remain available.

From January 25, 2026, through January 31, 2026, Disney Skyliner will be closed for refurbishment. Complimentary bus service will be available.

Our Commentary

We normally wouldn’t do a standalone post for an exterior refurbishment, but this caught our attention not only because it’s through 2027, but also that the extensions are over a year each. Previously, these bulletins indicated work would wrap up in September and October 2025, consistent with the retained port-cochere timelines. The timeline alone suggests a significant scale project, and the fact that it’s so much longer than previously announced is likewise curious.

Construction crews have already started working on these exteriors–did they discover something that would necessitate a longer timeline once they started? Are resources being diverted to a different project, which will effectively stretch this out? Or is the timeline not actually uninterrupted, and there will be work on the porte-cocheres through Fall 2025, then a long gap, then work resuming next off-season to wrap up construction?

Unfortunately, we don’t yet have the answers to any of those questions. My guess is that the scope and scale ballooned for whatever reason once crews started on the project. Why is beyond me; there’s a reason I’m a blogger and not a construction manager. What I do know (or rather, have observed over the years) is that Yacht and Beach Club seem to receive an inordinate amount of exterior maintenance.

Just this summer, Stormalong Bay reopened after being closed since January 2025 for routine maintenance and upgrades. During that roughly 6-month project, Stormalong Bay received newly resurfaced pools, rebuilt cabanas, redone concrete decking, updated seating, and other routine maintenance. Thankfully, the three-acre Stormalong Bay aquatic playground is once again available to guests, including the sand-bottom pool, lazy river, whirlpool spas, and more.

There were just lengthy exterior refurbishments to both of these resorts in (roughly) 2020 to 2022, and both also received lobby reimaginings in the last few years. The lighthouse was also refurbished a few years ago, and guest rooms on the Beach Club (Villas and hotel) received rolling refurbishments that lasted a couple of years.

It’s probably exaggerated in my mind based on our stays there being disproportionately impacted, but it seems like there have been nearly perpetual projects at Yacht & Beach Club for the last ~5 years. Fans like me bemoan the boxy style of Walt Disney World’s newer resorts, but I wonder whether the skyrocketing maintenance and labor costs are a big factor in that decision. I cannot fathom how many tens of millions of dollars Disney has spent on the exteriors of just these two resorts in the last several years.

In terms of the impact to guests staying at Yacht & Beach Club, it’ll be hit or miss. Everyone will be able to see scaffolding when walking around Crescent Lake, as that’s already up and presumably will shift around over the next couple of years as different sections of the facade are repaired and replaced.

The extent to which that visual blight is noticeable or disruptive will depend on the guest and location of the work. We’ve been around Yacht & Beach Club countless times in the last 5 years when there was exterior work happening, and I wouldn’t say it really stuck out from the outside on any of those trips. It was visible, sure, but it didn’t negatively impact our experience.

With that said, we did have one stay at Yacht Club in March 2022 when the work was very impactful. When we arrived in our room, construction crews were actually on our balcony, which was out of commission. That was relatively brief, and perhaps was only occurring during what they thought was the housekeeping turnover period. Construction equipment was parked outside and below our window for the duration of the stay and in use during daytime hours.

Below are some of my photos from that stay, none of which show the actual work being done (I’m a weirdo, but not enough of one to awkwardly point my camera at construction workers while I’m essentially face-to-face with them; plus, I didn’t know I’d ever have any use for these photos).

If we were regular guests or planned on using our balcony, we probably would’ve gone down to the front desk and requested a different room. The impacted area of Yacht Club was fairly small and the crews were right there (I was somewhat surprised the rooms weren’t just taken out of inventory), so being relocated probably wouldn’t have been an issue. Even so, the work didn’t end up bothering us too much.

If you’re staying in one of the areas being worked on and you tend to take naps during the day, it’s entirely possible your experience could differ. Regardless, we’d recommend placing a room request to be in a location away from the exterior construction at Yacht & Beach Club.

This is probably a scenario where I’d make the room request prior to arrival, and then stop by the front desk before entering the room to confirm that the room assignment is away from the exterior refurbishment. Making change requests before entering the room is always a better safe than sorry best practice, even if not strictly necessary in a scenario such as this.

To each their own, but I wouldn’t avoid Yacht or Beach Club during the exterior refurbishment. Even with a nap-prone toddler, we have a stay booked at Yacht Club and I have zero pause about it. (We will definitely be making a room request in advance this time, though!)

Finally, we’re also wondering about the mysterious Yacht Club room refurbishment. This was first announced last April with a bulletin that “some” guest rooms at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort will be under refurbishment from this January through May. At some point, that was revised to remove the end date and reference to the guest rooms.

With other refurbishment projects ongoing at Yacht & Beach Club, it’s likely that Walt Disney World felt it unnecessary to have a separate alert for the rooms. And as we pointed out back when the refurbishment was first announced, ~5 months wasn’t long enough to complete a room refurbishment at Yacht Club.

Our assumption was that the project would be extended, just as other room refurbishments have been or will be (Port Orleans Riverside being a prime ongoing example–that project won’t be finished once Magnolia Bend is done).

While there are a lot of unknowns, the one thing we do know is that the Yacht Club room refurbishment was not cancelled. We’ve seen photos of the new rooms (that’s the old room above), and have heard from a couple of readers who have stayed in them. They look like a fairly light soft goods refurbishment that swaps out some of the furnishings and adds (arguably needed based on guest feedback) pops of color.

From what I’ve seen, the refreshed rooms look good–but I was also a fan of the existing Yacht Club rooms, so my mindset is “don’t fix what isn’t broken.” If this project was completely finished, it seems like Walt Disney World would publicize the results, especially since they look good, like they’ve done with French Quarter and Pop Century recently. We’ll report back after our upcoming family stay based on that experience with the new rooms (hopefully!) and impact of the exterior refurbishment.

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Your Thoughts

What do you think of Walt Disney World extending the exterior refurbishment at Yacht & Beach Resorts by over a year? Any theories as to why the timeline for this has ballooned? Have you experienced construction impacts at either of these resorts in the last ~5 years? Lucked into one of the new rooms at Yacht Club? 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!