Walt Disney World has announced a multi-month lobby refurbishment at Pop Century Resort, which starts soon and will last through Fall 2025. This is now the fourth construction project announced for Pop Century this year and next, with work starting last year and running until mid-February 2026. This shares dates & details, plus our commentary about the scope, scale & impacts of the work.
The refreshes and reimaginings at Disney’s Pop Century Resort are one of a few hotel projects in 2025-2026, with several other popular resorts under refurbishment now or in the coming months. Keep an eye on our Walt Disney World Hotel Construction Tracker for further updates.
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 a lot on the horizon.
Let’s start with the Pop Century lobby overhaul, which Walt Disney World announced in July 2025:
From July 28, 2025 through early October 2025, the lobby at Disney’s Pop Century Resort will undergo a refresh. The lobby will remain open during construction and all amenities will be available. Guests may hear or see maintenance in the area until work is complete.
Elsewhere, Walt Disney World has indicated that the lobby reimagining with be “retro-inspired.”
Our expectation is that the lobby will emulate the style of the New Coffee Shop & Everything POP Refurbishments. That debuted shortly before Easter, and is a tastefully done addition that infuses Pop Century with pops of color and mid-century stylization. It’s a nice value-add that helps Pop Century continue to punch above its weight relative to other Value Resorts.
The current lobby now feels out of place, with more muted colors and tile patterns that look dated. Given what was just done in the food court seating area and what’s currently happening with the guest rooms, this should not be a “generification” that makes the lobby bland and boring. There’s every reason to believe the resulting look will be more vibrant and colorful.
In terms of substantive changes, we’d also expect check-in kiosks as opposed to a front desk; that’s the direction Walt Disney World has gone with every single lobby refurbishment in the last few years. Another possibility is a feature mural somewhere near the food court, as the other Value Resorts have received those.
All in all, should be a net positive for Pop Century. Our only hope is that they don’t deem the memorabilia-filled shadow boxes on the walls outdated or obsolete. Those are chock-full of pop art, and are one of the most on-theme aspects of the resort. I could see these being replaced with character art or something that’s otherwise “more Disney,” but I really hope that doesn’t happen. A couple character pieces would be fine, but don’t fix what isn’t broken with these displays, Disney!
As mentioned above, this isn’t the only ongoing or upcoming project at Pop Century. The big one right now is the soft goods room redo, which started back in March and runs for roughly a full year, through mid-February 2026. During that time, guest rooms at Disney’s Pop Century Resort are undergoing a building-by-building refurbishment. While all resort amenities will remain available, you may notice construction during daytime hours.
The first rooms have now emerged from this, and feature more pops of color, a patterned flooring inlay, new furniture, curtains, and other furnishing refreshes. These rooms are an incremental upgrade, and the fan feedback has been mostly positive. I haven’t heard anything negative about the before vs. after, which makes sense given that the changes are minor. The response has been neutral to positive.
You can see these for yourself in First Look Photo Tour of New Rooms at Disney’s Pop Century Resort. For whatever it’s worth, progress on this project seems fairly slow-going. I was just at Pop Century this week, and was surprised by how little progress has been made since my last visit to the resort. Given that these projects often pause (or scale back) from October through December, I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets extended. Perhaps not, but that’s something that’s been happening with room refurbishments in the last few years.
Also on the horizon, all routes of the Disney Skyliner gondolas will be closed for refurbishment from January 25, 2026 through January 31, 2026. Complimentary bus service will be available in its place.
This impacts Pop Century and Art of Animation headed to Caribbean Beach, as well as the hub station to both Disney’s Hollywood Studios and EPCOT’s International Gateway. (And all other Skyliner resorts and stations, for that matter.)
We strongly recommend avoiding Skyliner resorts during this time, which does not include the Crescent Lake hotels. See Disney Skyliner Gondolas Closing for Quick Refurbishment in 2026 for more info and detailed advice.
Another recent change that impacts Pop Century–in a good way–is Walt Disney World rolling out Airport Luggage Transfer at the Value Resorts. Guests staying at these Walt Disney World Resort hotels can drop checked baggage off with Luggage Assistance to be delivered directly to your flight.
A new third-party service, known as BagCheck, will take your luggage directly to the airport for your Southwest Airlines flight. Currently, this pilot service is available at Value Resort hotels for Guests with Southwest Airlines flights departing from Orlando International Airport (MCO).
This started back in the spring, and quickly expanded from Pop Century to the All Stars and Art of Animation. Unfortunately, it hasn’t started at any of the Moderate or Deluxe Resorts, which is a bit of a surprise. We had hoped it’d be everywhere and service all airlines before 2026, but that now seems increasingly unlikely unless the service scales up quickly.
Prior to this, there was the aforementioned Everything POP reimagining, which has been finished since spring. That new seating area is nice in both style and substance. The colors, patterns, and textures all work well. It looks clean and has a mid-century flair thanks to the upholstery, flooring, and light fixtures. There’s also a greater variety to the seating, with booths, tables, and chairs adding a more laid back lounge type of vibe.
Finally, guests staying at Pop Century Resort (as well as Art of Animation Resort, Caribbean Beach Resort and Wilderness Lodge) will be able to enjoy even more Disney-themed activities for “Cool Kid Summer.” These activities will include character visits with set appearance times to help you plan your day and an expanded itinerary of things to do with your family throughout your stay at these four resorts.
Cool Kid Summer is another nice value add, with the programming being better than expected and fairly well-received among families. That is, if you happen to experience it. (The in-park entertainment has been a hit, albeit a minor one.) All in all, a pretty good slate of recent and upcoming plussings at Pop Century Resort.
Ultimately, we’re pleased with Disney’s Pop Century Resort getting so much attention. We were fans of the resort before, and all of these projects and enhancements only makes it better. The soft goods room refurbishment, in particular, has been a success at addressing complaints about the rooms being bland and boring.
From our perspective, everything on the above list qualifies as “only” incremental improvements–but they’re nevertheless noteworthy. The aesthetics are getting better, giving the resort more of a mid-century style with more personality and pops of color. If the new-look lobby is anything like the Everything POP refresh, it should be another win.
Pop Century does not “need” improvements to nearly the same degree as other resorts, but it’s still nice to see it receiving TLC. There’s a reason why Pop Century is so high up our Rankings of All Walt Disney World Resorts from Best to Worst!
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Your Thoughts
Are you a fan of Pop Century’s updates? Were you pleased by the Everything POP refresh and new coffee shop? What about the more colorful rooms? Have you stayed at Pop Century during the soft goods refurbishment? Care to share your experience–good or bad? 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!