Camp Margaritaville Auburndale — Hotel in Auburndale

This is a long one but a must read if you’ll be in a cabin. Family vacation weekend was ruined! We arrived on a Friday night around 8:30 pm. Checked into our cabin, unpacked the car, ran to grab burgers at the little restaurant on property and then went to visit with our family that was camping for the weekend (3 total campsites plus us). We returned to our cabin to take showers and get settled for the night only to have no hot water. Called the “rangers” only to be told that they would put in a ticket and someone would come in the morning. We had worked all day and then traveled to meet our family, we wanted to take showers! I went and talked to a very nice check-in rep at the gate, who kindly said we will move you to a cabin a few houses down. So at 10:30 at night, my family packed up all of our stuff to move 2 cabins over. We get into the 2nd cabin and unpack, take hot showers (finally) and get everyone set up for bed. Switched on the heat as it was still on AC with it being cold outside. Everyone goes to bed. Around 12:30 AM I got up to check the thermostat because it was FREEZING inside. At this point I see that the heat is on but blowing cold air…great no heat in the 2nd cabin! So I call the rangers again at 1:00 in the morning only to be told I can move cabins again. So I explained that I had already had to move cabins tonight and that I needed to speak with the manager in the morning. It got down to 42 degrees that night! Inside the cabin was 59. I had ZERO sleep and since there aren’t an abundance of extra blankets (none to be exact if you use the one in the closet to make up the sofa as we did), I had to wake up my kid around 3:00 AM to put him in bed with us so that he wasn’t freezing to death on the sofa bed. Literally miserable! I went to the front office in the morning and explained what happened. They apologized profusely however I was over it at this point. I requested to not stay my 2nd night and asked if they could refund my 2nd night. I was told the manager would call us at 11:00 AM. We didn’t hear anything. Around 2:00 pm we went back to the front office and were told corporate would be calling. Didn’t hear anything ever from corporate. Around 6:30 that night a very kind manager (I believe she was a manager anyway) called and said they didn’t have any answers on if it could be refunded since according to them we had hot water in the first cabin and heat in the second (I apparently don’t know how to work any faucets or a thermostat). So our only option was to go to a new cabin or run the risk of them not refunding the $250 a night we paid for a cabin. I reluctantly met with the manager at the now 3rd cabin and walked through with her to check to make sure everything was in working order. I can’t even begin to explain how disappointed we were that we spent over $500 on 2 nights in a cabin, only to get to stay in a cabin for less that 24 hours total! Worst experience ever and I am displeased with how the whole situation was handled. The assistant manager that walked in was telling us that we live in Florida, do you check your heat at home?! Like, what in the world. Yes, I make sure my home is in working order. He actually said “I’m just going to stop talking, you’re not listening to me” and walked away. Very unprofessional! For the price people pay to stay in the cabin, yes we expect you to make sure everything is in working order prior to a guest staying there. Pictures attached are the heat on and running and as you can see the temperature is dropping still in the 2nd (30 mins later). We had to turn off the heat since it was blowing cold air on us, the temp kept dropping. Other one is where my kid brushed his teeth the night before in the bathroom and the sink was still full of water the next morning. I guess maybe I don’t know how to work the sink...

The resort is done in the typical Margaritaville fashion with palm trees and a beautiful pool nestled close to a convenient tiki bar. Outside of that, we really didn't find much else to do here.

About the surrounding area: Note that the resort is located right next to a major trucking distribution center to the south and a major highway to the west with a 10' concrete wall being the only thing standing between your RV site. The noise can be a bit much during the early morning weekday commute. As for safety, I would say the surrounding area, to include the local Wal-Mart is sketchy at best. It's no wonder they want you to where a cheap neon green wristband during your entire stay, it seems they have had issues with transient guests which help them belong and who doesn't.

Speaking of wristbands, these "county fair" style wristbands are a joke. For the price you pay, I honestly can't believe the expectation was to where this thing for our 4 night stay. We removed it the first night as it was difficult to sleep with and didn't where it for our remaining stay. As for the reasoning of the cheap wristbands, we were told that their POS (Point of Sale system) no longer worked with the elastic wristbands you could charge to your room. We only received grief once for not wearing it, and that was only because we were ordering from the tiki bar.

The Resort: The resort itself is well maintained, clean, and felt overall safe. The staff were accommodating and friendly during our entre experience. We can't say much as to any of the staff as we never saw management and only interacted with the tiki bar and ranger at check-in/ coming in and out of the gate. Being we booked in September, the park was almost empty with maybe 30 sites filled. We were lucky if we saw more then 5 people at the pool at any given time.

While they offered different activities' on their mobile app, much of the schedule was not followed by the staff. Our thought is because there were so little reservations at the resort. Disappointing as some of them seemed fun. Outside of the pool, tiki bar, and mini golf, there's not much to do. They do have basketball courts, but no basketballs. It's honestly surprising how much activities' lacked here; no pickleball, ping pong, cornhole or other typical games you normally would find.

Pricing: It's Margaritaville!! Expect to pay a pretty penny for alcohol. 1xCorona$6.50, 1xMargarita $14.00, they offer no specials, even when ordering beer buckets. Expect to pay 25-50% higher for anything at the gifts shop. My wife's souvenir shirt "I am the women to blame" $33.00

What to do in the area: There's really nothing close! Lakeland is about 30 minutes away for shopping, Legoland and Cypress Gardens are 30 minutes as well. There's really nothing notable within the general area of the resort. It really is such an awkward location! We camped at Camp Margaritaville RV Resort Auburndale in a...

I honestly didn't think I'd ever give a resort/campground 5 stars. But here we are. 5 stars. I'd give more if I could.

Day one, my kids, 12 and 14, were sucked in.

We stayed 5 nights. I saw the promotion for the refillable souvenir cups online, so we took advantage of that, best thing ever for kids. Sure soda sucks, but they made friends getting refills and would walk to get them which was great. Highly recommend that if you're staying multiple days and soda/sweet drinks (vitamin water is available too) is a "treat". This was our summer 2023 family vacation so it was all in.

Sites are beautiful. Shells instead of gravel, turf instead of grass, just enough. We did have real grass behind our site and the lane behind us.

I felt very welcomed and accommodated with my dogs. I requested a site near a basketball court (kids request) and a dog park (for my convenience), we had site 197, super close to both. Everyone was happy. Even close to the main amenities.

We arrived on a Thursday, left the following Tuesday. Honestly 2 days in, I thought 5 days was too long, but at day 4, it wasn't enough, maybe just right but I feel like we could stay forever. The amenities are great. The activities and the staff are more than amazing. I honestly don't have a single complaint.

What i recommend, bring a canopy if you don't have a tiki site. You need the shade. This is a resort. The vegetation is low, there are some trees, but you will need more shade at your site for hot days.

Only thing I would suggest to the resort, add some lights at the dog parks and additional shade. The one we used, by site 197, had two trees for shade, which was okay, but definitely need more, and maybe a bench inside, so we can sit and watch the pups. And, more shade throughout the activities area and all, this Florida sun is hot and we love shade. Really wanted to utilize the cornhole boards but they're set up right in the blazing sun.

Also, to add, the convenience of this resort being cashless. No matter where we went... store, tiki bar, chill bar, restaurants, activities, etc... we charged everything to our site and payed at check out. (You can also pay a should go, if you have your wallet)

If you have kids, do the scavenger hunts, we had so much fun doing them, everyone gets a prize too! Shout out to Elissa in the campstore for giving us a hint, she also seemed to enjoy our photos.

*One concern I have, as a dog owner, there are cane toads roaming the campground. When the sun goes down, all sorts of toads emerge and hop about which is exciting for the kids to see but it worries me as a pet owner. There are some huge ones that are bigger than a grown man's fist. So it's safe to assume they are cane toads.

Mosquitoes were also pretty vicious after sunset. Bring bug spray and apply it before the sun goes down if...