Walt Disney World has over 25 resort hotels across its 43-square-mile property, and Disney takes care to maintain and upgrade these hotels over time. Disney is also mindful to schedule work for minimal guest impact. That said, one hotel’s ongoing refurbishment affects guests more than meet the eye.
A popular Disney World resort is currently undergoing a sweeping construction initiative that impacts guests in multiple areas. We toured the hotel’s campus last week to check in on progress and share how this work could affect guests’ enjoyment of this expensive hotel. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including the opening date and menu with pricing for a new EPCOT dining location and our pick for Disney World’s best restaurant view.
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Extensive Refurbishments at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, a hotel that Disney places its in “deluxe” category, the most expensive tier above “moderate” and “value,” is undergoing extensive refurbishment in 2026.
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Some of these projects are already finished, while others are still ongoing, as we detail below.
Disney prioritizes the safety and quality standards of its hotels just as much as its theme park attractions. This is especially true for the older resorts that have been around since Disney World opened in 1971, like the Polynesian Village.
Disney keeps its hotels open and operating during refurbishments, but makes sure guests are aware of any construction activity as far in advance as possible before booking a stay, as executives from Disney’s Facility Asset Management (FAM) recently shared with Mickey Visit during an exclusive media panel.
Despite the measures that Disney takes in that regard, hotel construction projects can still inconvenience guests staying overnight there. The work currently happening at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort is an example of this.
Even though the refurbishment means improvements in the future, guests in the present still have to deal with the impacts of the work. They might become frustrated over the course of their visit, or feel like the inconveniences lessen the value of their money, especially for a hotel as expensive as the Polynesian, where the cheapest rooms start around $700 per night.
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Here’s the rundown for the construction currently happening at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and how it may impact guests.
Scaffolding and Construction Zones Impact the Resort’s Lush Atmosphere
On a strictly cosmetic level, Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort is among the most beautiful campuses of any Disney hotel, especially for those who enjoy tropical settings. While the palm trees and lake views help establish this aesthetic, the architecture does a lot of the heavy lifting in making this impression.
A large portion of the backside of the resort’s main lobby building, known as the Grand Ceremonial House, is currently covered in scaffolding as Disney performs an exterior refurbishment. This is jarring when juxtaposed to the immaculate visuals of the rest of the hotel grounds.
This work also impacts sightlines from inside the Grand Ceremonial House, most notably from ‘Ohana, the table service restaurant on the second floor with views of Cinderella Castle in the distance.
The scaffolding on the Grand Ceremonial house, and visible equipment from other construction projects throughout the Polynesian, might be an eyesore for guests hoping for nothing but picturesque views from their Polynesian stay.
Longer Walks to Guest Rooms
Aside from the new Island Tower, guest rooms at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort reside in two- and three-story buildings sprawled across the hotel’s property.
When recently visiting the resort, we noticed several of these buildings’ stairwells were blocked off for construction. In their place, Disney had installed temporary stairs at different parts of those buildings. The photo above shows one of those temporary stairwells, intended for guest use. This is not a utilitarian stairway for construction workers.
We saw roofwork happening at another one of the guest room buildings on the Polynesian campus. To safely accommodate the equipment necessary for this roof work, Disney had temporarily blocked off a long stretch of a walkway and directed guests to an alternate route to reach their destination.
So it seems some of these construction efforts, like the roof work, may truly only impact guest access for hours at a time, involving mobile equipment that can be packed up and stored away at the end of a day to allow guests to use the walkway again. Other projects, though, like the stairs, require a more extended makeshift solution.
For guests who already have a long walk back to their hotel room after the bus or monorail drops them off at the Grand Ceremonial House at the end of a day spent in the parks, anything that makes that walk longer can be frustrating. This also may serve as an incentive for guests who are usually content with booking rooms farther away from the lobby to reconsider and prioritize booking a room closer to the lobby, to compensate for any impacted walking areas.
Restaurant Operations Limited
Several restaurants at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort are impacted by the ongoing construction projects.
Due to the exterior work on the Grand Ceremonial House, Trader Sam’s Tiki Terrace has been closed since April 2026. This is the outdoor patio counterpart to Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, the indoor bar that remains open and unaffected by construction. Disney says Trader Sam’s Tiki Terrace will reopen in late June.
Nearby at Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, Disney is performing an exterior refurbishment of Wailulu Bar & Grill, one of our favorite restaurants with fireworks views. The restaurant remains open during this work, but its seating areas are closed during lunch hours. From 11 AM to 5 PM, Wailulu currently only offers walk-up , to-go service, with no reservations available and no seating provided.
From 5 PM to closing time, Wailulu operates full-service with all seating areas open and accepting reservations as usual.
Disney says the work at Wailulu will continue through late June.
What’s Already Complete
The front entrance and roadway area leading into Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort was recently worked on, a project that seems to be complete or nearly so.
Disney temporarily paused boat transportation from the Polyensian to Magic Kingdom for most of May 2026 while construction crews refurbished the hotel’s boat dock. Boat transportation resumed on June 6, though some of the dock work will still be ongoing through late June.
Disney also refreshed the bus stop outside of the Polynesian’s Grand Ceremonial House, which appears under the monorail in the photo at the top of this story.
More Hotel Refurbishments Ongoing and On the Way
Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa are both currently in the middle of multi-year refurbishments, which are slated to be completed in 2027.
Looking ahead, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort will be refurbished in 2027 and Disney’s BoardWalk will add new shopping and dining tenants to its vacant venues.
Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge will open as an all-new hotel in summer 2027, located along Bay Lake near Magic Kingdom.
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