New aerial photos show how much the drive into Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort has changed. Bioreconstruct shared a set of shots of the rerouted Floridian Way taken October 18 (his posts first labeled them September 18 before he corrected the date), and they show both new roundabouts near the resort open and carrying cars, with grass already filling their centers. The edges tell a different story: bare dirt and construction equipment still lined parts of the road in mid-October.
3 aerial photos of work at the rerouted Floridian Way and the 2 roundabouts at Grand Floridian Resort.
— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) October 22, 2026
Sept 18
What The Photos Show
In the closest shots, traffic is moving through both roundabouts. One sits beside a large parking lot, with the monorail beam running along the edge of the frame. The other sits farther along the road next to a lot packed with cars and a cluster of white-roofed buildings. Freshly graded dirt runs alongside the new pavement in both shots, and at least one piece of heavy equipment is parked on the shoulder, so the landscaping was not done when the photos were taken.
A wider photo looking straight down on the resort ties it together. The Grand Floridian’s red roofs and pools sit on the shore of Seven Seas Lagoon, and the reworked road curves past the parking areas with both roundabouts visible along it.
A nearly straight-down aerial photo of Grand Floridian Resort.
— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) October 22, 2026
Sept 18.
Why The Road Was Rebuilt
The roundabouts are part of Disney’s World Drive North roadway project. Plans for this phase called for extending the Grand Floridian’s main entrance road about 200 feet to meet the southern roundabout, while the northern one serves the cast member parking area and the resort’s exit. The old Floridian Way is set to become a one-lane, one-way exit, and the wedding pavilion gets a new entrance south of its current one.
Drivers first saw the change in August, when guest traffic shifted onto the new Floridian Way lanes. Roadway signs then pointed to a new resort entrance opening September 10, more than a month before these photos were taken, as Blog Mickey spotted at the time.
What It Means If You Are Driving In
If you have not driven to the Grand Floridian since the summer, expect a different approach than the one you remember, with the roundabouts directing cars to the resort entrance, the cast member parking area and the exit. Follow the resort signs rather than habit. The work is not over, either. This phase of the World Drive North project is not scheduled to wrap up until December 2027, and the shoulders in these photos still needed finishing as of mid-October.
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