Walt Disney World has posted an official refurbishment notice for Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. The notice sets exact dates for the room refresh Disney first announced earlier this year. The refurbishment will take place from mid-June 2027 through October 2028, moving through the resort one themed area at a time. Guests may see or hear maintenance work in the active area during daytime hours. Here’s the latest.
Disney Confirms Art of Animation Resort Refurbishment Dates, Details Phased Approach
IN THIS ARTICLE:
- Official refurbishment dates: mid-June 2027 through October 2028
- Work will proceed in phases, one themed area at a time
- The resort is expected to remain open throughout the project
Disney Confirms Art of Animation Refurb Dates
The refurbishment will take place from mid-June 2027 through October 2028, moving through the resort one themed area at a time. Disney’s notice doesn’t name which themed area goes under the knife first, and it doesn’t break the roughly 16-month window into individual phase dates. Art of Animation is built around four distinct areas. Three are family suite wings themed to Finding Nemo, Cars, and The Lion King. The fourth is a wing of Little Mermaid standard rooms. Working one area at a time lets Disney keep the rest of the resort open and bookable while crews move through each wing in sequence.
That approach lines up with how Disney has staged recent Value Resort projects elsewhere. During the refurbishment, Disney will perform a “hard goods” refresh. That means all-new furniture and fixtures. While Walt Disney World showed a piece of concept art to media earlier this year, Disney hasn’t released concept art publicly yet.
The project marks the resort’s first major hard-goods room overhaul since it opened in 2012. We’ll keep following this story as Disney shares more.
Story So Far
- In May 2026, Disney executives revealed during a media briefing on Walt Disney World’s classic-attraction reinvestment strategy that Art of Animation would begin a room and suite refresh in summer 2027.
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