What is Margaritaville Resort?

[JJ2017]

Is it a timeshare resort? Do we have to attend anything? I'm confused by it because the only one I have read up on was near Hilton Head and it was 55+. Is this a family resort? Thanks!

 

[disneysteve]

It is not a timeshare. There is a hotel and a bunch of rental homes. Yes, I'd say it's a family resort. They also have a small shopping and dining district and a separate waterpark that sits right at the edge of the property on the corner of 192.

 

[DisneyTexan]

In case anyone is looking for a link:
https://www.margaritavilleresorts.com/margaritaville-resort-orlando

 

[WorldOfPooh]

Is it a timeshare resort? Do we have to attend anything? I'm confused by it because the only one I have read up on was near Hilton Head and it was 55+. Is this a family resort? Thanks!

There's a huge waterslide on the property so I think it's for families and kids

 

[djmeredith]

As someone else said it is a Margaritaville resort hotel, neighborhood of rental homes, a small dining/shopping area and a small water park. The rental homes all have access to the resort pool but the water park is an extra paid ticket. I think the homes can be purchased (not sure if they are timeshares or outright purchases). I looked into staying there for our recent fall break trip but it looked a little bit far away on Google maps (and the homes with pool didn't drop in price as much as I hoped). Then we went offsite to eat at Chick Fil A during our trip and saw the Margaritaville water park right across the street. It is really close to Disney property. It looked like a fun place to stay, especially if your a Jimmy Buffet fan.

 

[SmartyBacon]

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[WorldOfPooh]

I looked into buying there. It's a vacation community and all those cute cottages are for sale like any other home. Not timeshare. The HOA is pretty high but they have two companies that will manage renting it out for you when you're not staying there. I decided to shelve that investment idea when things changed around march or so.

Is it a gated community like Golden Oak?

 

[Disneyfan754321]

The waterpark is cool h20 live if you want to look it up on youtube

 

[ClapYourHands]

Is it a gated community like Golden Oak?

I don't think so. It looks like it's designed as a vacation community with the draw being access to the Margaritaville Resort pools and amenities (extra $150/month for owners in addition to the required maintenance fees). Since the community is built for easy and fluid access between the resort and the cottages, I don't think there's anyone restricting access to the cottages.

Golden Oaks houses are much more upscale, and designed to be full residences (though possibly second, third, or fourth homes) for the wealthy. While you could live in a Margaritaville cottage as your primary residence, there is very little storage, no garage/designated parking, and you can't get mail delivery (obviously you can get a PO box offsite). Margaritaville's model seems to be for middle to upper middle class vacationers who want a stress-free way to rent out their property when they aren't there. Owners can choose from two property management companies that will do turn-key service for renters. Golden Oaks is far more expensive and exclusive, and the HOA expressly forbids short term rentals (and according to reports, it's a very aggressive HOA, so there's no real skirting this).

 

[disneysteve]

Is it a gated community like Golden Oak?

Well it's not really like Golden Oak at all as that is a super-luxury housing development while this is a resort complex.

We definitely went through a security gate to get in but I don't recall at what point you encounter that. I know you pass through it to get to the hotel. I'm not sure if you also pass through it to access the houses but that would make sense so they don't have random people driving around the development.

Lots of rental communities in the area are gated though. We stay in Windsor Palms and that is. We've also stayed in Crestywynd Bay and while that doesn't have a human-staffed gate, it does have a coded entry gate.

 

[SmartyBacon]

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[WorldOfPooh]

Actually, it has a lot in common with Golden Oak. It's a housing community that's part of a resort with access to the resort amenities. The difference is in the luxury level of those amenities. Basically, take Golden Oak and drop one decimal place off the price.

I looked into Golden Oak before moving to FL and as expensive as the homes are they aren't crazy compared to the surrounding area and they very rarely hit the most expensive home sold for the week list around here. Anyways, the real killer at Golden Oak is the HOA fees...It's like $25K/year. I'd rather spend that $2k/month on a condo on the beach somewhere.

Does Universal or Sea World have something similar to Golden Oak?

 

[SmartyBacon]

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