Royal Room Refurbishments Delayed, first rooms now 9 March

[The Sassagoula Sentinel]

News leaked out this morning, which has just been confirmed by staff at the resort, saying that the scheduled opening date for the new Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside has been delayed, and is currently set for 9 March. The original target date was 17 February, and Disney is currently in the process of contacting every guest who was booked into the new rooms during the intervening three week period to discuss what options are open to them.

While I'm sure every case will be dealt with individually, please remember that the delay is not the fault of the resort staff and they will be doing their best to try to reduce the disappointment to guests, especially children. A number of guests who have been contacted so far have reported that they have been offered generous complimentary upgrades to Disney Deluxe resorts such as the Polynesian.

No reason for the delay has yet been offered.

Update on 5th January:

The resort Cast Members at Port Orleans Riverside are NOT handling the outgoing calls to guests affected by this delay themselves. There is a small team at the Disney Reservations Center who are going through every reservation and contacting the guests directly. This info came directly from a manager at the resort.

Obviously this process will take time, and I'd assume they are probably starting with the earliest reservations and going forward from there. If you are concerned that you have not been contacted after a few days, please try calling the Disney Reservations Center (not the resort directly) and ask to speak to someone on the team handling this situation.

I do not know whether there are any hard-and-fast rules regarding what alternative accommodations may be offered, nor if there is any automatic "water-view for water-view" matching policy in place. Personally, I would think it's more likely that each case will be dealt with individually to try to keep each guest happy, within overall guidelines laid down by the department.

Update on 12th January:

Most guests should have been contacted by now, with a few near the end of the three week period still saying they are awaiting calls. If you do still need confirmation, please leave a voicemail for the Disney Reservations Center special team on 1-407-248-1727, giving your name, reservation number and check-in date, and they will call you back.

The latest info I've seen on the revised refurbishment dates are that Oak Manor (building 90) will now be in progress from 22-January to 9-March, and Parterre Place (building 95) from 11-March to 13-April. Even if some rooms might be ready slightly before then, I really doubt they would now commit them to guests in advance, just not worth the risk.

Update on 2nd February:

It's looking like the initial 256 rooms that will be opened in Oak Manor on 9th March may not be quite enough capacity for all of the guests that are booked into Royal Rooms around the end of March (and I'm guessing this may apply over the Easter period too) so Disney are calling and offering a few more lucky people complimentary upgrades to Deluxe Resorts. This should only effect a few people, but I strongly suspect that if you really insist they would be able to let you stay in one of the Royal Rooms and simply offer the free upgrade to someone else instead.

The second building (Parterre Place) is scheduled to open mid-April (still the 13th at the moment) so after Easter the pressure should ease up.

[woodall.katy]

I just got a call from the reservation team last night, I had booked the room despite having an off site condo booked at the same time for just 2 nights (Feb 26-28) to give my daughter an extra magical trip. I'm extremely sad but I totally understand. They were very nice and upgraded us to a deluxe resort (we had our choice and picked Polynesian). Though we couldn't get a castle facing room (hey, I tried!) we can at least see the castle from our beach and the fireworks which will hopefully provide a magical trip as well

[mascara01]

I have put in a request for the new renovated royal room Building 90 is there going to be the new bed that replaced the trundle bed in the rooms ? I hope so cause we have kids!

[ColleenMcD]

I think the murphy beds are in alligator bayou only...

[Admin]

Correct, the Royal Rooms will NOT have any extra bed options, nor any King Bed rooms come to that. Just two queens only. Sorry.

Andre

[kelly]

We had a reservation for the last week of March 24-31 in a new Royal Room. Our travel agent notified us today that Disney is cancelling/changing this reservation due to not meeting their renovation deadlines. Looks like the date is now later than March 9. On a good note to their customer service - they are offering us several nice choices in Deluxe resorts for the same week/same price.

[Admin]

I've heard that from a couple of other people too. Looks like the initial 256 rooms that will be opened in Oak Manor on 9th March are not quite enough capacity for all of the guests booked around the end of March (and I'm guessing that may apply over Easter too) so they are offering a few more lucky people free upgrades to deluxes. It should only effect a few people, and I strongly suspect that if you really insisted they would still be able to let you stay in one of the Royal Rooms and they would just offer the upgrade to someone else instead.

The second building (Parterre Place) is scheduled to open mid-April (the 13th at the moment) so after Easter the pressure should ease up.

Andre