Disney's Riviera Resort Construction Update (July 2019)

Posted by Mike

Jul 11, 2019 2:58 PM

While Disney is still celebrating the opening of their latest hotel, the Gran Destino Tower at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, construction is moving right along for Disney’s Riviera Resort. The Disney Vacation Club property is set to open this December, and we made it out to take a look at the construction earlier today.

Just like Gran Destino Tower, Disney demolished a part of an existing resort to create a tower hotel. Unlike Gran Destino Tower, Disney decided to split off the Riviera Resort completely from the existing resort. It’s for this reason that the look of the Riviera Resort is so much different than Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. That’s not to say that Gran Destino Tower is thematically similar to Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, but it’s interesting that Disney decided to split one resort in two, and decided to keep one tower with the resort that it took a part of the footprint from.

Anyway, on to the photo update. We’ll start with a wide overview of the resort, looking across Barefoot Bay. As you can see, scaffolding is down and the resort is making really good progress from what we can see.

Ok, let’s dive into some of the interesting elements that we can see from the outside. First up is the Riviera main pool. The defining element here is the pool slide that “wraps around a stately column tower”.

Here’s the concept art of the pool area for comparison.

A closer look at the slide on the construction site and in the concept art.

The next area of interest is Topolino’s Terrace, located at the very top of the resort. Just like Gran Destino Tower, it will offer sweeping views of nighttime spectaculars at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot.

Here’s a look at the concept art for Topolino’s Terrace.

Here’s a look at the view you’ll be able to expect of the Epcot nighttime spectaculars.

Moving on, we see that Disney has already begun to tile the pool edges as work continues on features that surround the pools.

On the west side of the resort is a huge tunnel that will take guests to the Disney Skyliner station. From the station, guests will have the option to go directly to the International Gateway station at Epcot, or to the Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort station that will connect to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

With most of the exterior completed, we only have a few finishing details to take a look at.

Zooming out a bit to provide a better perspective on the size of the resort…it’s massive. Here’s a view from the walking path near the Martinique section of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort.