General Construction / Refurbishment Question

[Djm_in_buffalo]

I used to travel a lot for work. For the most part, I was not particularly brand loyal, e.g., Hilton versus Marriott. Regardless of brand, including independents, it was not uncommon for me to encounter some level of construction / updating on premises, even though it wasn’t advertised on the webpage when I booked online. This ran the gamut, including lobby refurbishments, pools down for replacements, guest wings closed off for updating, parking lots torn up for replacement, etc.

Admittedly, I haven’t done a ton of analysis of on-property Disney hotels, but it seems that any sort of planned refurbishment / repair is scheduled well in advance, and also conspicuously posted online at time of booking. So, good for Disney for what seems to be pretty transparent postings on this.

I understand that emergency repairs happen and that something scheduled for ‘November 2025 - January 2026’ might carry into say, February 2026. Outside of such scenarios, is Disney good about conveying, upfront at time of booking, when work will be performed at its hotels?

It seems so, but again, I haven’t looked into it that deeply. I thought Disney does, but regardless of specific on-property hotel, I have read a lot of disgruntled posts on here and elsewhere about construction. For the most part, do we think that is unannounced, planned construction, or announced, but not realized by the booker construction?

It would bother me immensely to drop say, $600+ a night to be staying in an unadvertised construction zone. Shame on me if I were to book it and it was conspicuously advertised as such.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Yes Disney is far better about it than anyone else I’ve come across. They will post a notice on the webpage for that hotel. Check it when you book, a few months out from your trip and again a month before arrival to really cover your bases.

People get tripped up when they don’t believe it/ignore the warning. They take the gamble it won’t affect them and then are shocked when they are affected.

 

[elvispursley]

I think any grumblings I have is just the large amount of hotels undergoing refurbishment at the same time. But that doesn’t stop me from booking (although I would think twice about booking a resort where the feature pool is under refurbishment). We booked WL KNOWING there is scaffolding and work going on.

 

[JayMass]

A lot of times the resort that’s under construction also offers a discounted rate. I’ve stayed at POFQ, CBR, and Pop at pretty great rates over the years during construction. I remember Disney being incredibly upfront about it.

 

[gottalovepluto]

A lot of times the resort that’s under construction also offers a discounted rate. I’ve stayed at POFQ, CBR, and Pop at pretty great rates over the years during construction. I remember Disney being incredibly upfront about it.

Never seen a construction discount. The discounts that have been on offer are always just the general public or targeted discounts that other resorts are offering.

 

[Dave006]

Never seen a construction discount. The discounts that have been on offer are always just the general public or targeted discounts that other resorts are offering.

I agree. I have never seen or heard about a construction discounted price or we would have seen / heard about it earlier this year when SAB was closed for 5+ months at YC / BC.

Dave

 

[Disneylover99]

Never seen a construction discount. The discounts that have been on offer are always just the general public or targeted discounts that other resorts are offering.

I agree. I have never seen or heard about a construction discounted price or we would have seen / heard about it earlier this year when SAB was closed for 5+ months at YC / BC.

Dave

The only one I remember was back in 2016 at CBR. The resort was undergoing massive renovations and they were offering additional $75 gift cards per room per night for people staying there, even if you had already booked the room at a discount.

 

[focusondisney]

The only one I remember was back in 2016 at CBR. The resort was undergoing massive renovations and they were offering additional $75 gift cards per room per night for people staying there, even if you had already booked the room at a discount.

Yep! That was quite a disaster. I think Disney management learned from it & why they announce things so far out now. We actually ended up with an unheard of triple discount.
1st.. had originally booked CBR with a free dining bounceback.
2nd.. as soon as the renovations were announced, I called & asked to move to another moderate. The CM refused, saying the other moderates free dining rooms were sold or had not originally participated. If I insisted on moving to another resort, I would lose my free dining offer. However, she was able to offer a $100 per night credit if we stayed at CBR. However, these resolutions were inconsistent & everyone seemed to be getting different offers & information. People were not happy.
3rd…By the next day, management offered everyone with a reservation that was booked before the renovations were announced a gift card for $75 per night per room.

I fully expected we would not get the gift card since we got a room discount initially. However, on check in, we were handed the gift card. We were there for a week, with 2 rooms, 2 adults in each room. Our final per room cost was $75/ night, tickets & dining included. I call it “That time Disney paid us to stay there”.

 

[katyjeka]

One advantage to staying during refurbishment is many people avoid the resort and it seems less congested. A trip to Poly many years ago was great because we found ourselves almost alone. No kidding, very few people were around. This was back in the day that the second week of December was slow(no so much anymore) and we had a great stay. We also experienced the same thing at French Quarter and enjoyed 10 days of relaxation with noone around. Based on our experience I wouldn't avoid a place solely on refurb.

 

[ParrotBill]

I had a pool view room at Boardwalk while the end wing was closed for refurb. Scaffolding, painting and restoration was taking place on the outside of it. I heard nothing. If there was noise, it was during the day when I was gone. They are usually good about designing refurbs to be contained to wings and floors to minimize the intrusion. And evenings are always noise free.

And I have always known ahead about construction, with visits over a span 40 years.

 

[JayMass]

Never seen a construction discount. The discounts that have been on offer are always just the general public or targeted discounts that other resorts are offering.

It's not advertised as a construction discount but Pop, for example, was about $40/night below what I've seen it listed for when I stayed there last summer when they were re-doing the quick-serve dining area. It was also true for POFQ about 10 years ago when they were re-doing the POR main pool and area adjacent to POFQ's pool as well as CBR before the skyliner when they were doing some kind of construction there (I don't remember what it was).

Now, I'm not positive but here is a quick comparison at Beach Club where construction is scheduled to end in September.

Aug 23-Aug 25 2025: Rack Rate=$814--During Construction
October 6-October 8th: Rate Rate=$1256--After Construction

I'd argue that both late August and Early October have similar crowd levels, so why the $400 difference?

 

[JayMass]

I agree. I have never seen or heard about a construction discounted price or we would have seen / heard about it earlier this year when SAB was closed for 5+ months at YC / BC.

Dave

Now, I can't prove it, but I would guess the rate for YC/BC during the SAB work was lower than it was before and after construction. My example above shows a pretty big difference during construction and after construction for BC (work on the resort, not SAB).

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Late August and into early September vs October are dramatically different rate seasons at WDW.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Now, I'm not positive but here is a quick comparison at Beach Club where construction is scheduled to end in September.

Aug 23-Aug 25 2025: Rack Rate=$814--During Construction
October 6-October 8th: Rate Rate=$1256--After Construction

I'd argue that both late August and Early October have similar crowd levels, so why the $400 difference?

Your premise is flawed. Aug is a seriously slow time, early Oct is a pretty busy time. (Those specific Aug dates actually encompass the cheapest days all year at BC it is so slow.) So what you're seeing is seasonality, not construction.

Here is link to Mousesavers who labels all the seasons and lays out the rack rates at BC.

 

[JayMass]

Late August and into early September vs October are dramatically different rate seasons at WDW.

I am absolutely no expert. But a quick look at Thrill Data's 2024 average wait times at WDW during during the last Saturday in August was 29 while the first Saturday in October was 31. If wait times indicate crowd levels and business, which Thrill Data suggests it does, than my August dates are only slightly less busy than my October dates. For reference, the average wait time in 2024 was 34 minutes, with a low of 20 minutes and a high of 61 minutes.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I am absolutely no expert. But a quick look at Thrill Data's 2024 average wait times at WDW during during the last Saturday in August was 29 while the first Saturday in October was 31. If wait times indicate crowd levels and business, which Thrill Data suggests it does, than my August dates are only slightly less busy than my October dates. For reference, the average wait time in 2024 was 34 minutes, with a low of 20 minutes and a high of 61 minutes.

Ahh, but you have forgotten the key aspect of staffing levels. Wait times do not necessarily reflect crowd levels very well, especially outside holidays. Post-Covid Disney has emphasised a more dynamic approach to staffing levels where they staff according to expected attendance to save money. They even talked about how much money this was saving on one of the earnings calls when the park reservation system was mandatory for all. Many rides have a spread of sorts for their capacity levels. BTMRR is one of the easiest to understand. More guests, they will run more trains, so need more CMs. Less guests means they can run less trains, and need fewer CMs. Similar wait times are the result despite crowd differences.

Now, when it’s really busy like holidays, that’s different. Disney can’t staff enough to stop the ballooning of wait times as there is only a finite amount of capacity they can add to attractions.

 

[focusondisney]

It's not advertised as a construction discount but Pop, for example, was about $40/night below what I've seen it listed for when I stayed there last summer when they were re-doing the quick-serve dining area. It was also true for POFQ about 10 years ago when they were re-doing the POR main pool and area adjacent to POFQ's pool as well as CBR before the skyliner when they were doing some kind of construction there (I don't remember what it was).

Now, I'm not positive but here is a quick comparison at Beach Club where construction is scheduled to end in September.

Aug 23-Aug 25 2025: Rack Rate=$814--During Construction
October 6-October 8th: Rate Rate=$1256--After Construction

I'd argue that both late August and Early October have similar crowd levels, so why the $400 difference?

Mousesavers lists rates for every room category during every season for every resort. They put this info out there annually when the rates are announced. This is for BC. Your rates for August are in Value 2 season. That’s the lowest rates all year. Oct 6-8 are Fall 2, lower than spring but higher than value seasons. In addition, August has 2 different rates per room Sun - Thursday & Friday- Sat. October has 3 different rates Sun - Wed, Thursday & Fri- Sat. So by WDW own data, those periods are not equal.

https://www.mousesavers.com/2025-beach-club-room-rates-season-dates/

Edit to add…look at any resort in the Mousesavers site & you’ll see the same date based seasons at every resort.

 

[focusondisney]

Also want to add, what’s going on at BC right now is not really major disruptive construction IMO. They’re replacing roofing & refurbing the porte cochere. BC had their room updates over a year ago. YC is getting their room updates this year & had scaffolding up for roof work just like BC did. IDK if they’re done with the rooms or not, we haven’t had many reports since I was there in May. But nothing being done at either resort has closed food or transportation options nor wings of rooms at BC.

 

[JayMass]

Thanks for all of the responses.

@focusondisney --My BC example was used only because I knew that it is currently under some sort of construction during the time period of my example.

The rates from the WDW site and the listed prices on mousesavers were slightly off--both the August rate and the October rate were under--but both by about the same amount which says to me that it surprisingly accurate. I'm aware Disney uses seasons for pricing but I don't think I realized it was as detailed as described by mousesavers. I would have thought that September through the Columbus Day/IPD weekend would be the same rate. I'm aware that the much of October is a pretty busy time, much more so than late August. But I had always assumed, and it's supported by Thrill Data, that early October (and most of September outside of Labor Day) and late August see similar crowds. However, I also understand that wait times don't always equal crowd size and that even if they do, it may be a stretch to extend (see what I did there?) that to how many people are in the resorts.

A couple of takeaways for me:

1. I'm surprised that Disney resort pricing is transparent enough for a site like mousesavers to be able to confidently create a pricing guide that is pretty accurate. I wish the airlines would be as transparent!!

2. My interpretation of previous discounts based on construction may not be the reality (But I still FEEL like it's true, which is like the worst type of argument ever!)

3. No matter how much I THINK I know, there are always people out there with more information than me--especially on the DIS Boards!