Port Orleans Riverside room refurbishments, mansion buildings, now May 2025 - February 2026

[The Sassagoula Sentinel]

Summary: Upcoming Port Orleans Riverside room refurbishments, mansion buildings, May 2025 - February 2026

Riverside’s Magnolia Bend mansion buildings are due to commence guest room refurbishment early May 2025 [was originally announced as early April] and work is currently projected to last until the end of February 2026 [was January]. As with previous refurbishments, work will be carried out one building at a time, during the daytime only, so guests should not be significantly impacted. Exact dates are subject to change as the project progresses, but the first section to undergo work is likely to be building 90.

There has been much discussion about how the Royal Room refurbs will progress (the original “soft goods only” concept from 2020 having long since been abandoned) and it has recently been revealed that when building 90 (Oak Manor) reopens in the summer, all of its rooms will have been reverted to regular mansion building layouts. From then onward, only building 95 (Parterre Place) will provide Royal Guest Rooms - 256 in total.

Update 18 March 2025: Following up on an enquiry from a perplexed future guest, I've just done some spot checking on random dates throughout every month this year, and even on the quietest days when there is good availability for every other room category at Riverside, there is nothing at all showing beyond 2nd April 2025 for any Royal Room categories.

Update 22 March 2025: It looks like they have restored some dates back into inventory on the booking system for Royal Rooms. I see generally good availability up to the night of 7th June, but nothing at all from 8th June onwards for the rest of the year. Whether they are still working on this, and may extend availability further later, I’m not sure - so it’s always worth continuing to check.

Update 17 May 2025: Availability of Royal Room inventory now seems to have been extended until 1st August 2025, after which point it is still blocked out until the beginning of 2026.

I’m pretty sure that at least some of these blocked-out dates are precautionary as they can’t know for sure which buildings will be closed for how long, so they are just erring on the side of caution to avoid accidental overselling of Royal Rooms and thus having to disappoint too many guests. There will be existing bookings that should still be honoured for most dates — although it is likely that there will be a period later in the year when building 95 is closed for refurbishment that no Royal Rooms at all are open.

And if any rooms in an open Royal building do still happen to be free (but were not pre-bookable) when you arrive, the Front Desk might be able to switch you.