Walt Disney World has announced more hotel refurbishments & construction projects for 2026 & 2027. Unsurprisingly, the All Stars are next on deck, with a room renovation that’s likely kicking off a phased overhaul of two or three of these Value Resorts. These projects will almost certainly continue beyond what’s on the official calendar, into 2028 or 2029.
This shares official dates & details about the All Star Movies project that Walt Disney World just announced, along with our speculation about the subsequent unannounced phases of the project at other Value Resorts. (And for once, that speculation should be pretty accurate!) Along with that, added commentary about the scope, scale & impacts of the work–and whether you should avoid the All Stars during the project(s).
The good news is that Walt Disney World has done a pretty good job of ‘catching up’ on deferred room refurbishments, so we may not see as many projects like this for 2026 or 2027. The bad news (or is it?) is that a few high-profile projects are slated to wrap up soon, freeing up resources for other big overhauls. When that happens, it inevitably means that more new hotel renovations will be announced, which is what just happened…
When it comes to more major projects like multi-month room reimaginings, we’ll do separate posts like this one. The goal is to keep you apprised of anything sufficiently significant that you might want to change resorts or make room requests to avoid the construction. Keep an eye on our 2026-2027 Walt Disney World Hotel Construction Tracker for updates on other, smaller-scale projects.
Here’s the official announcement from Walt Disney World about the All Star Movies room redo:
Beginning late May 2026, the rooms at Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort will undergo planned refurbishment through the end of January 2027. During this time, Guests may see or hear construction work in the area, and alternate paths of travel may be in place.
Officially, that’s all Walt Disney World has shared. Thankfully, there’s a lot more that we can strongly infer based on based precedent about what you should expect from this room redo at All Star Movies Resort…
Up above, we indicated that major projects wrapping up soon would free up resources for more major resort overhauls.
It was on this basis that we previously predicted that Port Orleans Riverside would receive a room refurbishment before one was officially announced, and that the project would last longer than Walt Disney World initially indicated.
That was first because Port Orleans French Quarter was ending its overhaul, and timelines dictated that Riverside would be next up. Moreover, what was originally announced for Riverside was only sufficient to refurbish half of the resort (Magnolia Bend), so it stood to reason that the timeline would be extended to overhaul Alligator Bayou as well.
It’s the exact same idea here. Disney’s Pop Century Resort had its own room overhaul from last March through mid-February of this year, and that project is now complete. Previously, Pop debuted redone rooms in 2017. Mere months after that was finished, guess what happened? All Star Movies started its own room redesign in February 2018.
This is history repeating itself again, and it’s pretty predictable. That’s because Walt Disney World undertakes soft goods and hard goods refurbishment on a set schedule (minus the COVID era; as noted above, that threw a monkey wrench into timelines).
Based on that, it’s a near-certainty that the All Star Movies guest room refurbishment will be a smaller scale refresh rather than a top-to-bottom reimagining. You’ve probably seen the term “soft goods” refurbishment–that’s what this will be. This typically means updating furnishings, including but not limited to wall coverings, flooring, linens, decor, and some furniture.
The definition of a soft goods refurbishment is a bit nebulous, and has included ambitious projects for certain resorts. Some have received soft goods refurbishments in the last few years that included installation of the new pull-down beds. Others have swapped out almost all of the furnishings and furniture, giving totally new looks to the rooms.
Others have simply refreshed the decor and infused more personality into the rooms by adding character art, more color, and little details. These rooms would very much be recognizable in a before vs. after comparison, but were still incremental improvements.
Although nothing is official, this is what we’re expecting of the 2026-2027 All Star Movies room refurbishment. For one thing, it’s not time for another hard goods refurbishment yet. For another thing, Pop Century just finished its room refresh and we’ve already seen the results of that project, which was a soft goods refurbishment.
Given that the last refurb in 2017-2018 yielded nearly identical rooms between Pop Century and the All Stars, it’s safe to surmise that something similar will happen once again. It’s possible that Walt Disney World will do a bit more to put thematic daylight between Pop Century and the All Stars, especially since this project is probably more about aesthetic window-dressing.
Nevertheless, if you want a ‘sneak peek’ at the new rooms at All Star Movies, check out First Look Photo Tour of New Rooms at Disney’s Pop Century Resort. That’s probably at least 75% of what this project will yield. (Back in 2017-2018, the overlap was closer to 95%. The photo above is All Star Movies circa 2018; the one below is Pop Century circa 2017. Can you spot the differences?)
It’s also on this basis that we can safely and confidently predict that this is a multi-phased project involving not just All Star Movies, but also (definitely) Music and (possibly) Sports.
Busting out my crystal ball, I’d predict that once this is finished in early 2027, crews will next move on to All Star Music. That project to refurbish All Star Music will then last through Spring 2028. Possibly Summer 2028 due to the Family Suites extending the timeline.
One wildcard here, which could extend the timeline, is construction crews pausing for Christmas. On either or both projects. It has been incredibly common for Walt Disney World room refurbishments to be extended by a few months so that Disney could maintain room inventory during peak holiday dates.
That did not happen with Pop Century or Port Orleans during this cycle, but it’s common. And in fact, it did happen with All Star Music during the previous cycle on the standard rooms from early 2018 through late 2019. Following that, the family suites were redone starting in early 2020. (The outcome-determinative difference might be that the All Stars no longer host Pop Warner at Christmas-time.)
The much bigger wildcard is All Star Sports.
As noted above, the last hard goods refurbishment at All Star Music lasted through late 2019 on the standard rooms and early 2020 for the family suites. At the risk of stating the obvious, COVID happened and threw a monkey wrench into timelines.
All Star Sports didn’t reopen until March 2022, marking the final Walt Disney World resort to return after the COVID closures. It reopened without new rooms, with the project delayed due to supply chain and quality control issues. Walt Disney World then circled back to the room refurbishment, which was carried out from Summer 2022 through 2023.
That approximately 3-4 year gap between the refurbishments to All Star Music and Sports is not insignificant. It raises the question of whether Walt Disney World will undertake this cycle’s soft goods refurbishment on Sports in 2028-2029 to put all of the All Stars back on the same cadence, or maintain the gap.
I can see compelling arguments for both approaches, so I’m not going to speculate either way. Just calling your attention to the possibility that this is actually a project that encompasses 2 resorts and lasts through 2028 or a project involving all three of the All Stars and runs through 2029.
Either way, this project does not end with All Star Movies. Everything Walt Disney World has done during this room refurbishment cycle at the Values and Moderates has been consistent with the previous one in 2016-2019, and there’s every reason to believe that’ll continue with (at minimum) All Star Music.
Regardless, this is good news! The room reimagining that started in 2017 with Pop Century and continued with the All Stars starting in 2018 was one of the very first ‘modern’ generation of resort room designs at Walt Disney World.
These redone Value Resort rooms offered marked improvements to make them fresh and functional, with a bunch of clever space-saving design features added. While the footprint remained the same, the resulting rooms feel much larger. There’s more storage, one of the beds folds up into the wall to reveal a table, and much more.
For the most part, the new layout has been uncontroversial with Walt Disney World fans. There’s a reason that all three All Stars adopted the exact same design as Pop Century; it was incredibly well-received among guests. Multiple managers at the Value Resorts have indicated to us that guest feedback has been almost unanimously positive.
Prior to this, Walt Disney World room redos were heading in the wrong direction with overly generic and homogenized styles and no functional improvements to otherwise justify the bland designs. The one-two punch of the Value Resorts and Yacht Club marked a major course correction and began the turnaround that we’ve seen since.
In all likelihood, the 2026-2028/2029 All Star room refurbishments will follow a similar trajectory, following in the footsteps of Pop Century circa 2025-2026.
As with that, the All Star rooms will likely get an injection of color. If I had a nickel for every fan who described the Value Resort rooms as bland, boring, sterile, hospital-like, antiseptic, bare, or dystopian…I’d have at least $5. Which isn’t a lot of money, but it’s nevertheless a lot of nickels.
The current rooms do have a lot of white. They’re kinda like mid-mid-century modern, which is to say that they’re a half-measure for actual mid-century modern design. They could use more pops of color. And this is precisely what Pop Century got, with painted walls, new curtains, more pop art, and new flooring with a colorful pattern. (It might look like an accent rug, but it’s not.)
All of this will likely make its way to All Star Movies, then Music, and finally Sports. My hope is that each get their own unique details, as the current styles are almost interchangeable. It would make sense to go this route; the hard goods refurbishment was the big picture design, now this can be the stylistic fine-tuning!
From a practical perspective, it’s likely that the 2026-2027 guest room project at All Star Movies will be done building-by-building. This is pretty standard, and has meant that Walt Disney World takes an entire building out of the room inventory, overhauls it all at once, and then reopens that building.
This is done to minimize the construction impact. This way, no one is getting stuck in a room right next to one that’s under active construction. It’s good for guests and also for Disney, as they don’t have to deal with the inevitable complaints and relocating guests. It’s entirely possible that you could stay at All Star Movies in the next year and not even realize there’s construction happening if the building being redone is on the other side of the resort.
With that said, there have been times when they do multiple buildings at a time and take rooms in one of those offline and bring them back online in two phases. We’ve had reports from some readers who were close to rooms being worked on and could see or hear it during the daytime hours. This situation is easily avoidable with a room request, thankfully.
As a general matter, though, construction impact of this project should be minimal. All Star Movies having clusters of outlying buildings makes this type of project less impactful than it’d be at many of the other resorts. At this point, you do NOT need to avoid All Star Movies in 2026 or 2027. A room request to be located away from construction should suffice.
Of course, with the All Stars being almost interchangeable, you might nevertheless opt for one of the others out of an abundance of caution. Until the halfway point (or so) in this project, we’d actually continue to recommend All Star Sports as our clear top pick of the All Stars. That’s because, as noted above, its rooms are circa 2023, whereas Movies and Music are 2018-2019. Instead of risking an old room towards the end of its life, you’ll be guaranteed a relatively new one.
Once the All Star Resort refurbishment project kicks into high gear, we’ll have progress updates as to which buildings are being renovated, so you can make room requests accordingly. We’ll do this both so you know which buildings to avoid to steer clear of construction, and what to request to increase your odds of getting a new room. Sign up for our Free Walt Disney World Newsletter for updates on this and other developments.
We’re looking forward to the room refurbishment at the All Stars. Unless Walt Disney World has a major surprise up its sleeve, this project is pretty much a known quantity, and the outcome at Pop Century was a positive one.
In all likelihood, this is just going to be a simple soft goods refurbishment given the Pop precedent. The bones of these Value Resort room are already good and don’t need to be addressed, so they probably won’t. On the other hand, there’s room for aesthetic improvement, giving the rooms more personality and pops of color. Movies and Music are both starting to show some wear and tear, so a bit of TLC will also be a positive.
To each their own, but all of this is good enough for us. No need to fix what isn’t broken. Even though the All Stars perform poorly on our Rankings of All Walt Disney World Resorts from Best to Worst, that’s in an objective sense and relative to the competition (meaning Pop Century, which has the Skyliner).
Honestly, the more exciting aspect of this project might be beyond the rooms. As part of last year’s refurbishment, Pop Century received a whole host of upgrades, including a new coffee shop. It wouldn’t surprise us if something similar happens at the All Stars.
During the last project cycle, there were rumors that Walt Disney World planned to build a new table service restaurant on the parking lot between two of the All Stars. That struck us as plausible given the collective room count of the resorts and the reality that the food courts are often packed. At the time, the temporary setup at Caribbean Beach that served a buffet seemed like a good blueprint (during the Centertown Market reimagining, before Sebastian’s Bistro opened).
Walt Disney World probably doesn’t need more table service restaurants and it stands to reason that Pop Century and Art of Animation would get this ‘upmarket’ amenity first, but we could nevertheless see it happening. There are thousands of rooms here and many guests staying at the All Stars are often there for events, as opposed to park visits. A simple buffet servicing all three All Stars would be busy, and without cannibalizing business elsewhere on property. Except maybe the nearby McDonald’s.
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Your Thoughts
Are you a fan of the All Star rooms or did you prefer the pre-2018 style? What major changes or incremental improvements would you like to see made during the upcoming soft goods refurbishment? Would a few pops of color and pieces of art be good enough for you, or does Disney need to go back to the drawing board and totally redo these rooms again? 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!
