Walt Disney World continues construction on the lobby reimagining at the Grand Floridian Resort, the focal point of which will be a brand-new birdcage bar. This shares new construction photos to show you what to expect if you have an upcoming hotel stay to illustrate the guest impact of the ‘enchanted garden’ overhaul of the resort.
Back in early April, Walt Disney World announced the construction timeline and revealed the new Birdcage Lobby Bar Coming Soon to the Grand Floridian Resort. With this, there have been impacts to the guest experience and offerings at the flagship hotel, starting in mid-April. These are currently expected to extend through November 2025.
Beyond the construction walls for the lobby reimagining and Birdcage Bar, Walt Disney World also announced No Gingerbread House at Grand Floridian for Christmas 2025. Disney usually starts building this life-sized edible creation in mid-October, which will definitely overlap with the overhaul–and there’s the chance that this project will extend even beyond that. It’s also our suspicion that the Gingerbread House will never return to the lobby. As discussed in that post, it’s not a huge hit with everyone.
This project has been several years in the making. It actually started shortly before the closure of the parks with Enchanted Rose Lounge, and would’ve continued that spring with more restaurant reimaginings. Then with the pause of what’s now Disney Lakeshore Lodge, the company determined it “needed” more Disney Vacation Club points to sell, leading to the DVC overhaul of the Big Pine Key building.
All of the outlying buildings in the hotel have since been redone in a similar style. (See Grand New Rooms at Walt Disney World’s Flagship Resort for a look inside.) That happened building-by-building approximately two years ago, and was expected to culminate with the main lobby. That didn’t happen.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and Walt Disney World is finally getting started. Our expectation is that the finished Grand Floridian lobby will resemble those of the outer buildings once all is said and done, as those are also the ‘enchanted garden’ style. But it’s impossible to say, as ~2 years have passed and preferences (or creative leads) could’ve changed.
Anyway, it had been a few months since we last shared a construction update on the Grand Floridian, but we were recently there in late July and noticed a lot of changes that are worth quickly sharing. Since we’ve already covered this project at length in the above-referenced posts, I’m going to mostly let the construction photos speak for themselves:
As you can see, about one-third of the lobby is currently walled-off for building of the Birdcage Bar. It might appear slow-going, as it has taken three months to get from removing the aviary to preparing the foundation for the new bar. At this pace, it might seem like there’s no way this is built by November.
However, there was a lot of infrastructure work that needed to be done. Last time we were at the Grand Floridian, this area was literally dirt as piping was being done and new supports installed for the foundation of the bar. Our expectation at one point was that far less groundwork was going to be done, and it would be more akin to plopping a prefab structure down. Clearly, it’s more involved than that.
I’d also add that projects often take longer in these early stages, then go vertical quickly. At least, that’s a trend we see with new attraction construction, but I’d assume it’s a similar story with Birdcage Bars in the lobby of flagship resorts. Perhaps it’ll be delayed, but there’s still 4 months until Thanksgiving. That’s a lot of time to get this done.
What we’re more curious about at this point is the rest of the lobby project. As you can see in the above photos, construction walls (or in some cases, see-through scrims) have been installed throughout the lobby. These are still sufficiently spaced so that it doesn’t feel like the lobby is an active construction zone outside the Birdcage Bar area. That portion does, especially when looking down from above and seeing the work.
The other areas where work is being done haven’t yielded anything to speak of just yet, aside from a couple areas of new wallpaper. We would expect these walls to be around for pretty much the length of the lobby project, with more walls popping up elsewhere around the lobby for shorter durations to accomplish other aspects of the reimagining. This will be done in phases to minimize the disruption, and avoid taking too much of the lobby out of commission.
It makes sense to time the most significant work around August and September, the two slowest months of the year at Walt Disney World. That will probably be the peak of the project. But crews are going to have to pick up the pace if this is going to be a major update to the lobby, as efforts need to be made to minimize disruptions. The other alternative is the project pausing in November and resuming again in January, after the high-occupancy holiday season. That’s something we’ve seen happen with countless other Walt Disney World resort construction projects, including the Grand Floridian.
If there isn’t a project pause and resumption in Winter 2026, it’s looking increasingly likely that new carpet, wallpaper and furniture will be the bulk of the project outside the Birdcage Bar. Beyond that, the Garden View Tea Room is behind construction walls and it appears that considerable work is occurring there. Walt Disney World previously indicated that would be part of this project, but didn’t share specifics.
Ultimately, we’re cautiously optimistic about the end result of this lobby reimagining. Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort is the most well-rounded Seven Seas Lagoon property, with fewer drawbacks than the Polynesian or Contemporary and less-dated elements even today, pre-reimagining. So long as common spaces and remaining restaurants are modernized in a respectful style consistent with the outlying buildings, the Grand Floridian will emerge from this as a better option than before, and a resort truly deserving of the flagship distinction. But there’s still a lot to get done if sometime in November 2025 really is the completion target!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Looking forward to the Birdcage Bar? Disappointed about the current and upcoming construction impact, or the cancellation of the Gingerbread House? Do you think Walt Disney World’s flagship resort needs a lobby refresh, or are you worried it’ll lose its personality and richly-themed spaces in the process? Have you stayed at the Grand Floridian since the new rooms debuted? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
