I think they are just doing this to get higher nightly rates. From my contact, who is a sales manager for SD not just a reservation agent, they are done in Sept with the swan. I bet they are just keeping this booking code up for renovated rooms until they are actually done with the renovation project real time. Remember, hotels always put people in higher category rooms then what is booked, never the other way around. So if you book a non renovated room code and end up in a renovated room in FEB, which they will all be done anyway, you won't complain. Likewise, if you book a renovated room and end up in renovated room, no complaints either you got what you paid for. They can just always claim that at the actual time you booked, renovations were indeed ongoing and give you a project timelines are always in flux line. At the end of the day, everyone gets at a min the category they booked and paid for so its all the same to them.
Yes, when I was there in OCT 14, they had completed the short wing that is closest to the Epcot side, and they had the entire opposite wing closet to the pool shut down. They will usually block off the elevators to so that if they are doing a few floors at a time, the elevator buttons for those floor will be deactivated. They will also erect a temporary wall to wall off the hall so you can't venture that way as well.
This same sales manager told me that they are working on the last block right now, so I can only assume with that final section blocked off for renovation, the only stock of rooms operational have been renovated.
Again, this is all just word of mouth from someone who works there, but I have no reason to suspect that they would tell me otherwise since their job is keeping stock of rooms for sales and being onsite every day.
Remember, hotel renovations actually cut into their capacity of sales stock by taking rooms offline, so there is an incentive to move quickly on renovations. So don't compare their speed to their landlord.
