Port Orleans News

As previously indicated, from the 1st of January 2026, new simplified booking categories for the Port Orleans resorts have been implemented. The ability to book specific type views has been eliminated, replaced with Categories that specify general areas of the resort but which could overlook gardens/courtyards, the river, a pool... or a parking lot. If you'd prefer a specific view, you need to ask for it in advance as a Request (which is not guaranteed of course).

For Port Orleans French Quarter the three Booking Categories are now:

• Standard Location (buildings 1, 6, or 7)
• Preferred Location (buildings 2, 3, 4 or 5) [NEW]
• King Bed

• Standard Location (Magnolia Bend mansion buildings)
• Standard Location - 5th Sleeper (Alligator Bayou)
• Preferred Location (buildings 14, 15, 18 or 27, plus parts of mansion buildings 85 and 90)
• King Bed
• Royal Guest Room (mansion building 95)

The Walt Disney World website has extended the projected end dates for the current room refurbishment program until August 2027. Once building 95’s Royal Rooms are finished by March/April 2026, there will be a short pause and then they will move on working on the sixteen Alligator bayou lodges after the peak summer period.

The main registration lobby at Port Orleans French Quarter will be undergoing renovation work from 25th August for about a month. There shouldn't be anything that will impact on availability of any facilities for guests, but there will obviously be some sections of the lobby closed off while the work is carried out, and potentially some indoor noise during the daytime.

Port Orleans Riverside building 90 (Oak Manor) reopened on Friday 8th August 2025 after a ten week refurbishment program. The new rooms look very similar in layout to the recent French Quarter updates, featuring a very nice — although strangely woodsy — painting behind the bed heads, and walk-in showers in the second and third floor rooms.

Building 85 (Magnolia Terrace) is still undergoing work, which will be followed by 80 (Acadian House) and finally 95 early in 2026 (Parterre Place, the only one that will still contain Royal Rooms).

As we indicated at the end of January, for stays commencing in 2026 there will be a complete overhaul to the available room categories at both Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarter. In a nutshell, all of the previous booking options which used to provide guests with specific view types will be eliminated, replaced with simplified categories that instead define physical areas within the resort. The thought process appears to be that at Moderate resort hotels - with external walkways and no balconies - guests are less likely to want to pay for the view outside the window, but more for easier access to the facilities and transportation.

So it is important to note that NONE of these new categories will allow guests to choose specific river, pool or garden views, nor will there be any way to categorically avoid a parking lot view. Guests will still be able to add such requests to their bookings in advance - for example by using the Chat feature in the My Disney Experience app - but there will no longer be any pre-paid guarantees.

We can now reveal full details of how the new Booking Categories will work:

• Port Orleans French Quarter will have a new booking category, Preferred Location, which will include all of the rooms in buildings 2, 3, 4 & 5, which are the closest sections to the main building, pool and bus & ferry transportation.
• All of the rooms in the other three French Quarter buildings, 1, 6 and 7, will be categorised as Standard Location.
• As part of the upcoming room refurbishment program at Port Orleans Riverside, 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.
• Port Orleans Riverside's Preferred Location category will be expanded beyond its current four Alligator Bayou lodges (14, 15, 18 and 27) to also include the river-facing halves of buildings 85 (Magnolia Terrace) and 90 (Oak Manor) which are in the Magnolia Bend mansions area. Note: this means that this Category will no longer guarantee a fold-down murphy bed
• Standard Location rooms at Port Orleans Riverside will be located in building 80 (Acadian House) and the rear, mainly parking-lot facing, halves of buildings 85 (Magnolia Terrace) and 90 (Oak Manor).
• Standard Location 5th Sleeper rooms at Port Orleans Riverside will be located in the other twelve Alligator Bayou lodges, and this is the only Category that will guarantee a fold-down murphy bed.
• King Bed rooms at both resorts won't change from their existing locations, and they will remain scattered around any of the previously mentioned buildings with the exception of the one remaining Royal Guest Room building (95) and building 90 which will probably not have any new King Bed rooms added during its refurbishment.