Port Orleans French Quarter is in the midst of its year-long room reimagining, and we had the chance to stay in one of these redone rooms inspired by The Princess and the Frog during our Christmas trip to Walt Disney World. This resort review shares a photo & video tour of the new rooms, plus our thoughts on the redesign and staying at POFQ.
Let’s start with the timeline for the Port Orleans French Quarter room redo, which began last May. Walt Disney World originally announced it would end before the holiday season started, but as we noted in the 2025-2026 Walt Disney World Hotel Construction & Refurbishment Tracker, that was always an unrealistic timeline since this is a hard goods overhaul. Back when the project was announced, our guess was that it would pause for the peak season and then resume this winter.
Instead, it got extended with an official end date of Spring 2025. As we observed firsthand, the project did not pause for Christmas as is often the case to have full room inventory for the busiest months of the year. It powered full steam ahead, with two buildings closed and an active construction site on the far side of Port Orleans French Quarter, en route to Riverside.
For those with upcoming stays planned at Port Orleans French Quarter, the redone rooms are finished and opened in Buildings 1, 2, 3, and 4. When we were there, construction crews were in the process of overhauling Buildings 6 and 7. Building 6 should be reopening any day now, and that’s assuming it isn’t already. When Building 6 or 7 reopen, expect Building 5 to close to finish the project.
The good news is that anyone with an upcoming stay has very high odds of receiving a reimagined room. Once Building 5 closes, it won’t even be possible to get one of the old rooms. And as noted above, that should be happening any day now. The slightly bad news is that Building 5 is more centralized with a location adjacent to the Doubloon Lagoon pool, meaning the work will be more disruptive to the atmosphere there.
Regardless, we’d now expect the Port Orleans French Quarter room redo to wrap up right around the start of Spring Break 2025.
But wait, there’s more. Walt Disney World has already announced a partial slate of room reimaginings at Port Orleans Riverside beginning in Spring 2025. Once Port Orleans French Quarter is finished with its refurbishment, the typical approach would be for those construction crews to move over to Riverside. That’s what happened last time and the time before that. (I’m not sure about the time before that–that’s back in the AOL dial-up days and internet record-keeping isn’t the best.)
Walt Disney World has officially announced that this Riverside redo will last until early 2026. However, we likewise expect this to be extended since what’s been announced thus far only encompasses Magnolia Bend. By the time that’s done, it’ll be time for Alligator Bayou to receive its next round of room redos. If the normal project cadence is followed, all of these will be hard goods refurbishments and the total timeline will be until late 2026 or early 2027.
In case you’re wondering what construction looks like during the project, here are some photos from around Buildings 6 and 7:
As mentioned above, this room redo at Port Orleans French Quarter is a hard goods refurbishment. For those unfamiliar with this term, a hard goods refurbishment is a major renovation of a hotel room. It’s typically a gut-job during which the furniture, flooring, fixtures, and other elements are replaced. We refer to these as room reimaginings, as they usually result in materially-different rooms.
In between hard goods refurbishments, there are soft goods refurbishments to extend the life of a particular room design, and to give them a fresh look that takes advantage of industry trends and innovations in design. Soft goods refurbishments typically involve updating furnishings, including but not limited to wall coverings, flooring, linens, decor, and some furniture.
Walt Disney World has been utilizing soft goods refurbishments quite effectively in the last decade to introduce space-saving design features. Consequently, the line has been blurred between soft and hards goods refurbishments, to the point that we’ve seen massive changes during soft goods projects (especially on the DVC side) to install new fold-down beds and make other major changes.
Before we take a look at the newly-reimagined rooms, let’s first start with a look at the previous rooms at Port Orleans French Quarter (above) to give you context.
These were last redone as part of a soft goods refurbishment in ~2018 that largely involved replacing the (very worn) carpet with new hard flooring, larger TVs, raised beds, removal of the wallpaper border, repainting, illuminated vanity mirror, addition of USB ports, and other minor details I’m probably forgetting.
Here are the newly-reimagined rooms at Port Orleans French Quarter post-hard goods refurbishment. These feature a fresh coat of cream paint that brightens the room–or makes it overly bland, boring, and beige–depending upon your perspective.
The flooring has changed once again. Previously, there was a straight arrangement of lighter woods framed by a dark square. It looked good, but perhaps slightly dated. Now the floor is a herringbone pattern, similar to other new rooms at Walt Disney World.
In isolation, I don’t have a strong opinion on this flooring change. As someone who does a dozen-plus Walt Disney World hotel stays per year, I appreciated that the old look was something different. This is pretty similar to several other recently-redone rooms at Walt Disney World. And I’m guessing Riverside will end up looking exactly the same.
Another fairly major change is that the table and chairs has been replaced by a sofa and slightly larger table. The curtains have been also been replaced with a detailed-but-muted pattern that matches the sofa. The AC enclosure has also been repainted to match the dresser.
We really like the sofa, which can easily seat 3 adults or maybe a family of 4. From a function perspective, it’s an improvement. While not relevant to us, it would’ve been nice if the table were a little larger, as there’s not enough space for 3-4 people to use this at the same time. There’s barely enough room for 2.
The sofa is also an upgrade in terms of form, as the colorful pattern provides a pop of color. This might help to offset those complaints of the room being too bland and beige.
There are two Mardi Gras prints above the sofa in golden oval frames. The first features Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen dancing in the street with a band performing in the foreground. The other has Louis the Alligator playing his trumpet with a band while partiers throw beads from the balcony above.
These are two of a few Princess and the Frog paintings around the room. On the one hand, having this room redone to feature that Disney animated film was obvious. Even without Disney announcing as much, any fan could’ve guessed this was the route they’d go, especially with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure just having opened. That film is, without a doubt, a great fit for Port Orleans French Quarter. (Heck, I’m still disappointed they didn’t repurpose Bonfamille’s Cafe into Tiana’s Palace Restaurant.)
With that said, I do miss the classic Disney concept artwork–mostly of New Orleans Square at Disneyland. That was sophisticated and adult, a rarity for a Moderate Resort that made the rooms feel (at least to me) more upscale than they actually were. As someone who prefers the parks to animation, I’ll always favor nods to Walt Disney World, Disneyland, etc. in rooms over movie and character tie-ins. To each their own on that, though.
Next to the sofa is the dresser, with the television mounted on the wall above that. The controversial Alexa ‘Hey Disney!’ device (that we’ve really come to enjoy thanks to the Soundscapes) sits below the TV. These devices are now in all rooms at Walt Disney World.
The dresser is painted in blue with gold pulls, and a white marble surface. There are several USB-A and USB-C ports on the dresser, and they actually work (for now).
The beverage cooler is hidden behind the screened door in the dresser of the console. Note that these are the norm in hotel rooms at Walt Disney World. To the best of my knowledge, proper mini-fridges are only in DVC rooms or really old rooms. This isn’t the greatest photo of all that, so let’s take another look…
Functionally, the biggest change about the dresser is that it’s longer and slightly slimmer.
It doesn’t stick out as far as the old dresser, and extends all the way to the wall that abuts with the bathroom. I don’t really have a strong opinion on this change. The new shelves above the coffee maker add storage space–and perhaps more importantly, pops of color with their Mardi Gras designs.
On the other hand, this encloses what was previously the perfect spot for an open suitcase on a stand. Six of one, half-dozen of the other, I suppose.
The headboards above the beds replace the old wood frame, and extend all the way to the ceiling.
These are reminiscent of the headboards at other new rooms, with BoardWalk and Grand Floridian immediately coming to mind for me. There’s nice depth and dimension to these, with a lightly-upholstered area right above the pillows and then a mosaic pattern above that, all framed by a blue-green color similar to that of the previous paint on the wall itself.
There are also new lighting sconces above each bed, as well as fold-out reading lights flanking each side of each headboard. For me, these are improvements over what was there before, giving more personality and pops of color to the rooms to counter the bland/boring/beige complaint, while also classing them up a bit.
If the sheets, mattresses or pillows are different, we couldn’t tell. We were fans of the bedding here before, and that remains true. (It’s the same at all Moderate Resorts, to the best of our knowledge.)
Longtime readers of the blog know that I was a big bed runner proponent, lamenting their loss long after it became clear the industry as a whole was moving away from them. I don’t rant about that nearly as much anymore, probably because even the circa-2018 POFQ rooms didn’t have bed runners.
For me, the new trend of throw pillows is an adequate replacement for bed runners, so I’m going to declare victory over bland bedding. This bright orange pillow with fleur-de-lis patterning adds a pop of color to the otherwise sterile more color to the bed. Between this and the headboards, the bed looks nice. No complaints from me!
Functionally, there’s a small shelf affixed on the wall next to the headboard closest to the bathroom that’s the appropriate size for a phone. In the center bedside table, there’s more storage as well as USB-A and USB-C charging ports. These also currently work, but the room is still brand new–give it time.
Adjacent to that bed, there’s a new barn door to the bathroom–there previously was no separate between the two rooms, so this is a nice feature. The color scheme is the same as the headboards with gold metal details; the pattern is different, and evokes Princess and the Frog.
There’s also Princess and the Frog artwork to the right of the door. This is much smaller than the New Orleans Square art that it replaces, but that’s presumably necessitated by the sliding door. It’s a tradeoff, but we appreciate the addition of the door.
The bathroom has been totally updated, with a modernization consistent with other resorts around Walt Disney World.
Here you have two sinks, illuminated bathroom mirror, and make-up mirror. A lot of shelf space and storage has also been added. Personally, I’d be willing to trade those shelves for more counter space so it’s easier for two people to get ready at once.
Although my photo doesn’t capture it, the bathroom floor has been redone and now features a mosaic pattern in the color scheme of the entire room, tying the whole redesign together. This looks fantastic, and again helps the room counter the bland/boring/beige accusations.
The shower has also been redone, just like other Moderate Resort bathrooms.
As you can see, ours was a traditional walk-in shower. For those who want or need a bathtub, it’s our understanding that those are also still available. If that’s important to you, we’d recommend making a request during online check-in and then confirming with the front desk before entering the room.
We strongly prefer the walk-in shower, so we were pleased to see this change.
As before, the shampoo, conditioner, and soap are provided via wall-mounted dispensers rather than the small individual bottles. This is nothing new from the old design, so may not warrant mentioning.
However, what is new is that these are all-new dispensers. Walt Disney World had been covering up the H2O branding, following the end of that partnership. (As we previously reported, Walt Disney World’s bath brand was ending.)
Thankfully, Disney acquired the rights to the formula for the H2O bath products and revealed it would continue to produce them under their own private-label Disney resorts brand. As a result, there have been stickers covering the old branding and other makeshift dispensers at some resorts.
Here’s a video tour of this newly-reimagined room at Port Orleans French Quarter:
As might be apparent from the forgoing, we generally like the redone rooms. There are enough pops of color and details that add texture, depth and dimension that these rooms work for us. If it weren’t for the constant chorus of complaints about Walt Disney World rooms becoming bland, boring and beige, I never even would’ve thought of that when staying here–much less proactively brought it up in this review.
From our perspective, these do enough to address those concerns. To be sure, this will not satisfy every Walt Disney World diehard, especially those who have been visiting since the 1990s. But for us, this room finds the perfect middle ground between blandness and busy-ness. Maybe it could use a coat of colored paint on another wall or a larger piece of art, but anything beyond that and there would arguably be too much going on. It’s nice to have a hotel room that’s calming and relaxed, and not an assault on the senses.
My bigger critique, if I have one, is that this room doesn’t go far enough with the redesign. As a big fan of the redone rooms at the Value Resorts and Deluxe Villa Resorts, I was hoping for something along those lines.
Most recently, the reimagined ‘Under the Sea’ Little Mermaid rooms at Caribbean Beach Resort are fantastic, and bring DVC-style accommodations to the masses. We love those rooms, and would be more inclined to stay at Caribbean Beach for them (plus the Skyliner and Sebastian’s Bistro).
This is more iterative than any of those. That’ll be fine for many–if not most–guests, but we really love the space-saving styles offered by the fold-down beds. That’s a minor quibble or a matter of personal preference, though.
Ultimately, there are fairly significant improvements over the old Port Orleans French Quarter rooms when graded objectively. These are now the best standard Moderate Rooms at Walt Disney World, with a great mix of fresh form and function.
They bring some of the features and styles from the redone rooms at BoardWalk and Grand Floridian, although obviously without nearly as much detail. Expecting a Moderate Resort that costs less than half the price of those to offer comparable accommodations is obviously expecting too much.
At the same time, I’m pleased that these Port Orleans French Quarter rooms avoided the pitfalls of the Incredibles rooms at the Contemporary, for example. Those rooms are a cautionary tale in pushing character integration too far, and they look cheesy as a result. This room is clearly Mardi Gras and Princess and the Frog-inspired, without going overboard with it.
These Port Orleans French Quarter rooms thread the needle better, highlighting Disney characters and themed design at the same time. Although they aren’t the pinnacle of themed design at Walt Disney World, they’re pretty good for a Moderate Resort. The overhaul might be iterative rather than innovative, but sometimes there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
Honestly, that line of thinking could be extended to Port Orleans French Quarter as a whole. This is one of the last remaining ‘old school’ hotels at Walt Disney World without any novel transportation or flagship features that we’ve seen added elsewhere over the last decade. Despite that, French Quarter is fantastic.
There’s a lot to be said for the single bus stop, the dining is better than some fans give it credit for, and the pool is lovely. Port Orleans French Quarter also brilliantly balances themed design with a compact layout, and the romantic atmosphere plus upgraded rooms make it feel like a quasi-Deluxe Resort in some ways. It’s easy to see why POFQ has such a fan following.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with our take on the reimagined rooms at Port Orleans French Quarter? Think this redesign threads the needle on blandness vs. busy-ness? Wish they would’ve added fold-down beds, or do you prefer this approach? Any other changes you like or dislike about these rooms? Are you a fan of POFQ, or do you prefer the more sprawling Moderates (or Values or Deluxes)? Any features of the redesign that you like or dislike? Are bed runners a hill worth dying on? 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!
