Disney's 3,128-Key Port Orleans Closing for New Look

ORLANDO-Area hospitality industry consultants tell GlobeSt.com Walt Disney World Co. expects to invest about $50,000 per room or a total $15 million in the planned two-year renovation of the 3,128-room, two-hotel Port Orleans resort. Work on the new look is slated to begin this month. Disney officials couldn’t be reached to confirm the estimated renovation costs.

For the 1,080-room French Quarter hotel, the closing will be the second in two years. The inn closed for six months in November 2001, following the 9-11 terrorists’ attacks on New York and Washington. Disney calls the French Quarter and the 2,048-room Riverside moderately priced hotels with average quoted nightly room rates of $100 to $200.

The Port Orleans resort closing represents about 14% of Disney’s inventory of 22,000 rooms in 18 owned and operated hotels, according to previously published reports. Disney hotel rooms account for about 20% of Central Florida’s total 111,618 rooms.