Credit: DisneyDisney’s BoardWalk Resort has been one of the more quietly melancholy stretches of Walt Disney World over the past couple of years. The promenade along Crescent Lake has always had a charm that sets it apart from the rest of the resort, an old-fashioned Atlantic City boardwalk energy with restaurants, bars, street performers, and the kind of foot traffic that makes an evening stroll feel genuinely alive. It is a destination that guests specifically seek out rather than simply pass through, and the dining and entertainment options along that stretch have historically been part of why.
But the closures have added up. Big River Grille and Brewing Works, the BoardWalk’s long-running brewpub, went dark at the end of January 2024. Jellyrolls, the beloved dueling piano bar that operated at the resort for nearly three decades, closed in April 2025. The Promenade Fine Art Gallery closed in late October 2025. Three spaces on the same stretch of promenade, gone within roughly two years of each other, and no official word from Disney on what comes next for any of them.
That silence may be ending.
Two new project entries have appeared in the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s public database, both filed at locations on the BoardWalk promenade. They are listed as Project Amazon and Project Bubbles. Disney has not made any announcement about either project, and the permit names themselves are almost certainly chosen for opacity rather than clarity. But their existence in the CFTOD database is the first sign of movement on these vacant spaces in some time.
What the Filings Actually Show
Project Amazon is listed at the former Big River Grille and Brewing Works location. That space has been sitting empty since the brewery closed in early 2024. Disney previously signaled that a new concept was in the works for the location but never followed through with an announcement. The Big River Grille space is notable because it includes a full kitchen infrastructure already in place, which makes a food and beverage replacement the most straightforward interpretation of the filing. Whether that means a full restaurant, a bar, a lounge, or some combination of those formats is not clear from the permit filing alone.
Project Bubbles is filed at the former Promenade Fine Art Gallery, which only closed in late October 2025, making it a more recent vacancy. The name does invite some speculation. A bath and body retail concept would be a natural fit for a space that was previously a shop and would maintain a retail function in the promenade’s tenant mix. A champagne bar or lounge would also fit the name logically. Neither interpretation should be taken as anything more than reasonable speculation given that Disney has not said anything about what is planned.
Project names in CFTOD filings are routinely chosen to obscure rather than reveal, and the connection between a filing name and the eventual concept is often minimal. The value of these filings is not in the names themselves but in the confirmation that something is actively planned for spaces that have been vacant.
The Third Vacant Space
Directly adjacent to the Project Amazon site, Jellyrolls is currently being gutted. The signage came down in April 2025 and the interior work that has followed suggests a more significant renovation than a simple cosmetic refresh. Jellyrolls does not currently appear in the CFTOD database under a named project, which means either no permit has been filed yet or the filing is not yet visible in the public database. The three spaces sit in close proximity on the same stretch of the promenade, and the combination of two active filings and one ongoing gutting suggests something more coordinated than a series of unrelated closures.
Disney has not commented on any of these spaces.
How This Affects a Disney Vacation
For guests who have been visiting the BoardWalk Resort or walking the promenade as part of a stay at the EPCOT area resorts, the pattern of closures over the past two years has been noticeable. Big River Grille was a reliable option for guests who wanted a casual brewpub dinner without a formal reservation. Jellyrolls was the kind of place that guests came back for specifically, a late-night destination with a genuinely distinct identity in the Disney entertainment ecosystem. Its closure after nearly 30 years removed something from the BoardWalk that had no direct equivalent on the promenade.
The permit filings do not restore those experiences. They signal that the spaces are not going to sit vacant indefinitely, which is something. Guests visiting the BoardWalk area in the near term will encounter the same reduced promenade lineup that has been in place since the closures. The west side of the promenade has felt noticeably thin as a result, and that experience is what current guests should expect.
For guests planning future trips, the CFTOD filings suggest the BoardWalk’s promenade could look meaningfully different within the next year or two depending on how quickly these projects move from permit to opening. The BoardWalk is one of the more underappreciated areas of Walt Disney World for guests who do not stay in the immediate EPCOT resort corridor, but it regularly rewards visitors who make the short walk or boat ride from Hollywood Studios or EPCOT. A revitalized promenade with new dining and entertainment concepts could make it a more compelling destination than it has been during this transitional period.
For guests staying at the BoardWalk, Yacht Club, Beach Club, or Swan and Dolphin resorts, the promenade is the primary evening entertainment option within walking distance of their hotel. The current state of the west side of that promenade is a practical consideration when planning evening activities, and the permit filings suggest that picture is going to change, though the timeline remains unknown.
The combination of Project Amazon, Project Bubbles, and the ongoing work at the former Jellyrolls space is the clearest sign yet that Disney has something in motion for the BoardWalk promenade. None of these represent confirmed announcements and no details have been released. What the filings establish is that the spaces are not being left empty indefinitely, and that planning of some kind is underway.
If the BoardWalk Resort area is part of your upcoming Walt Disney World plans, check the current entertainment and dining listings for the promenade before your visit so you know what is available. The EPCOT area resort corridor is one of the more walkable and atmospherically distinctive parts of the resort, and the promenade itself is worth an evening regardless of what is open. When Disney announces what is actually coming to these spaces, we will have full coverage here. The permit filings are the first real movement on the BoardWalk’s vacant locations and we are watching closely.
