Disney World is undergoing A LOT of changes right now, from new lands and hotels to refurbishing existing attractions and renovating guest rooms. Fans have certainly had their opinions on these changes — good and bad –, and some come even before the completion of these projects. This turns our attention to Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.

Disney has announced that the resort will be renovating its rooms, and the uncertainty of what these rooms are going to look like has me, as well as other fans, holding our breath. Some fans are nervous that this latest hotel refurbishment may fall into the same “trap” as other recent similar projects. Namely, that Disney may take a heavily themed hotel environment and turn it into something generic.

Earlier this year, Disney announced that the popular Art of Animation Resort would be undergoing a room renovation in 2027. At the time of the project’s announcement, Disney said the work would begin in the spring. The resort’s standard rooms and family suites will be transformed and modernized. While retaining the theme, the new Little Mermaid rooms will feature new under-the-sea prints and a Murphy bed — similar to the current layout of the rooms at Pop Century — along with a seashell bed and chairs. Furthermore, the company said that Imagineering and facilities are working together to maintain the feeling of stepping into a movie, which is obviously integral to rooms such as Cars and Toy Story. The resort will remain open throughout this refurbishment.

In the eyes of some Disney fans, many recent projects, including the recent Polynesian Resort’s Island Tower, have seen renovated rooms lose many of their unique elements, becoming too similar to standard hotel rooms as one would find at a Marriott. As one of our readers put it on social media, “Disney hotels are being watered down. If I’m paying the price to stay in the Disney bubble, I want to be drunk on whimsy and forget the outside world exists for a few days.”

To be fair, of course, others prefer the new style rooms, arguing that they seem up to date with modern hotel trends, which Disney will need to do to remain an industry leader.

For a specific example, let’s look at the recently renovated Royal Rooms at the Port Orleans Resort – Riverside. The original iterations of these rooms were themed as a guest room where Princess Tiana welcomed her fellow Princesses to stay. The rooms were filled with references to other Disney Princesses. Cinderella’s carriage was the coat hook, the ottoman from Beast Castle, Aladdin’s Magic Carpet pattern in the carpet, and seashells and starfish elements representing Ariel, to name a few.

The new take on the concept, introduced in 2026, retains a Princess and the Frog connection, but shifts the theme to be guest rooms of Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen, placing guests directly into the bayou. These new rooms are much lighter on the thematic elements, with an overall aesthetic of a functional 2020s hotel room, with lighter colors and replacing thematic pieces with “functional” furniture.

Perhaps the most emblematic element of these changes is the pair of interactive headboards above the beds. The previous version featured a vision of the bayou forest with LED effects that you could turn on to create the magical — and oh-so-Disney — touch of LED fireworks going off.

The new headboards feature images of animals in the bayou and two distinct lighting packages. There’s a daytime version, which illuminates the image from behind, almost giving the image of a daytime morning.

Then there’s the option to flip to a nighttime version. The lighting shifts to purple and blue hues, evoking the vibe of a magical night on the bayou. Once night mode is switched on, a flurry of flickering LED fireflies lights up.

As far as our readers go, the rooms received similar mixed reactions. For example, one reader wrote, “I think they are definitely beautiful with a bit of elegance thrown in. So much brighter! I like them very much.” On the flip side, another wrote, “I think they are very pretty, but not special enough to pay extra for. I agree they need something more over the top for a Royal Room.”

Which brings us back to Art of Animation. A major part of the appeal of the Value Tier Resort — which opened back in the early 2010s — is just how “Disney” it is. Everything from the rooms…

.. to the pools…

… to the food…

… to the overall icons and decor are fully immersed in Disney’s animated filmography.

Due to that, Disney will likely have to walk a tightrope as they modernize the hotel’s rooms, since making them seem “too generic” could lead to even bigger backlash from fans than other projects like the aforementioned Port Orleans rooms. Stay tuned to DFB for further coverage of these changes!

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What do you think of Disney’s modern hotel rooms? Let us know in the comments below.