Disney World's Most Popular Pool Is COMPLETELY Unrecognizable Amid Lengthy Refurbishment

There are many favorite pools around the Disney World Resort, but there’s ONE that really stands out above all the others.

No, it’s not the Big Blue Pool at Disney’s Art of Animation (although we do love that one), it’s Stormalong Bay at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts. This pool truly is like no other — it’s massive, themed fantastically, and even though it’s shared between two hotels, it’s almost always enjoyable. However, this pool is under an extended refurbishment for the time being. We stopped by the other day to see how it’s going and WOW, Disney wasn’t kidding!

Stormalong Bay closed in January 2025 to begin its refurbishment, and will remain closed through June 2025 (no official reopening date announced as of writing this article). It’s not uncommon to see Disney World pools undergo refurbishments every few years to keep them in top shape, but holy moly, what are they DOING to this pool?

From the gate, it doesn’t look like too much is happening — you’ll just see the sign telling you that the pool is closed for refurbishment, but then we walked around a little more, and THAT’S when we saw all that was going on.

It looks like the pool deck is being worked on, but we couldn’t discern if it was being power washed or smoothed out (or something else entirely).

Whatever it is, it looks like a lot of work!

But what REALLY made our jaws drop was what was happening with all the SAND! Just look at this!

This pool is known for having a sand-bottom, a rarity on property, but that also means the sand needs to be refurbished as well! And to think, we’re still just at the beginning of this refurbishment — there’s certain to be LOTS more to come since the pool won’t be reopening for many more months.