review

Disclaimer: We paid for the Margaritaville Lake of the Ozarks  Escape to Paradise Package for our own 3 night stay vacation. This is our review of our fun trip that we hope is helpful for others and provides information we felt would have been helpful knowing (like what all is included in the breakfast buffet, because we LOVE food!) 

Stay details:
Wednesday-Saturday (Aug 7^th-Aug 10^th)
1 Bedroom King Suite with Escape to Paradise Package

We couldn’t start our vacation until about 1pm on Wednesday, as I had a 12-1pm class I was teaching for work. We got on the road, Graham in tow, to drop him off at Mom and Dad’s. We arrived there around 3pm and got him settled to then hit the road again to Osage Beach. We take a few rest breaks as we like to stay hydrated, and arrived around 6:30pm.

We purchased the Margaritaville Lake of the Ozarks Escape to Paradise Package which included:

• 2 beverage vouchers
• 2 breakfast buffet vouchers at JB’s Boathouse, each morning of your stay
• 2 dinner vouchers of $32 for each dinner of your stay ($64 total)
• A souvenir gift
• Lakeside view room

When we booked our trip to Margaritaville Lake of the Ozarks, we wrote that it was to celebrate my birthday in the comments. Upon arrival they had a card for me for my birthday that was signed by the employees. We were provided all of our vouchers and shown where our room would be on a map and where to park.

One area I feel could be improved with this resort is the parking. We went where we were told outside of the Windrose building and there were no spots available and it was very narrow and crowded to try and drive. We ended up parking in place that wasn’t technically a spot, but would allow us to unload our luggage to our room. It was quite a walk still and we dropped a few things, but eventually made it. We later moved our car to a tight squeeze spot in the evening.

We walked into our room and were pleasantly surprised. I didn’t expect a suite, I expected to walk in and see the bathroom and then bed. We walked in and to the right was a room and straight ahead was a room. To the right led into a living room with a 55” flat screen tv, a dining room table and a kitchen area that included a Keurig, microwave, sink and mini fridge. The other room had our king size bed, 55” flat screen tv, end tables and dresser.

*Our room did not look exactly like this, but I didn’t take photos and the ones on the website are not updated with the new renovations for the suites.

With the renovations you can tell they chose to keep some items and replace others. Example: most of the walls were just painted over, so you could see where cracks or other cosmetic damages were underneath, but the “hardwood” floors were nice, the carpet was however bunched in some areas. The best upgrades were the furniture and that really helped make the place look more “Margaritaville,” and newer. We said new floor and furniture can really change a place. The bathroom sinks were new and looked beautiful but then the tubs were chipped and original with the Tan-Tar-A resort that was previous to Margaritaville. Then the obvious smells that you wouldn’t be able to get rid of with older buildings and the smells of lake life any way, still existed. These were all just details we noticed but they didn’t take away from our enjoyable trip.

We took one of our vouchers and went to eat at the Landshark restaurant down by our suite because we were hungry, but not terribly hungry. We ordered the beach chips, shrimp po’ boy sandwich and Landshark burger. We then asked if we could order two chicken tenders to go. We were told they don’t normally do to-go but she would ask if the kitchen was busy or if they could accommodate the request. We thought the food was good and she was able to get us our chicken fingers to-go. We ordered these to eat for our lunches the following days to save money since that was the only meal we didn’t have a voucher for.

We then went and relaxed back at the room and were able to HDMI my laptop to the tv and watch some shows of ours.

We knew we wanted to Jet Ski but the Port of Indecision didn’t open until 9am. We thought this was a bit late considering we are early morning risers and know people like to get on the water early. We went to eat breakfast at JB’s Boathouse to have the buffet.

There was an area to the side of the buffet that offered:

• Omelet station
• Belgian Waffles with toppings

Then on the buffet line was the following:

• Scrambled Eggs
• Breakfast Potato Wedges
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Oatmeal and oatmeal toppings
• Biscuits
• Sausage Gravy
• Vanilla and Strawberry yogurt
• Granola
• Pineapple, cantaloupe, mandarin oranges, honeydew, bananas apples and oranges
• Cereal
• Various bread items including: bagels, banana bread, muffins

After breakfast we waited until we could rent a Jet Ski. After filling out a contact and watching a 15 min safety video, we were climbing onto the Jet Ski for our hour rental. As the weather had a forecast or rain/overcast, the lake was smooth and calm. We were able to explore the lake and look at all of the houses (one of our favorite things to do is look at houses.)

We took a walk around the resort to try and find where we would go bowling. We weren’t successful because the sign seemed to point to JB’s Boathouse but really the bowling alley was that way and to the left. If you continue to walk towards JB’s from inside the beacon building then you would find the arcade. We didn’t find this all until 4pm when we went to bowl.

We had wanted to try a Tropic Island Cruise at 3pm and asked the Guest Services and they provided us a pamphlet with the phone number to call. We called three different times and were unsuccessful reaching anyone.

While waiting, I was able to use my beverage voucher at the coffee shop to get a mocha frappe, as I don’t drink alcohol (this was a great perk that I was able to get a coffee two days of my stay!)

One of the employees took us to where the boat was docked when we asked where to find it, so we decided to sit there and wait to speak with someone.

Around 2:55, Captain came down and we went up asking about the trip and he said only 8 people requested the trip and therefore it was canceled. We asked if there would be another and he stated not until Saturday as he had a private event. 

It wasn’t all bad, I made a friend with this duck.

We went back to our room and booked a Celebrations cruise for the Friday (next day) instead.

After this, we went bowling. It was fairly inexpensive, but a few things to note:

There are only 8 lanes (this wasn’t a problem, we got a lane right away)

You have to keep your own score

I took advantage of the tech world and got a free app to keep our score instead of using their projector.

The other item to note:

I won 2 out of 3 games against Zimmerman!

We then ate dinner at JB’s Boathouse and it was AMAZING!

Zimmerman ordered the Bacon Wrapped Pork Filets and I ordered the Shrimp Scampi. They also had a special peanut butter fudge brownie and we ordered 2 to go.

We went back to the room to watch Big Brother and eat our dessert.

Birthday day! Breakfast was at the buffet and we once again waited for the Port of Indecision to open so we could do another hour of Jet Skiing. This time we learned after listening to another couple, that if you are late, you will be charged TWICE the hourly rate. So of course, naturally while we were out there and had 5 minutes to get back, we had some real choppy water and had to navigate around other boats as it was a lot busier since it was Friday and sunshiny! We made it back on time.

We then ate our leftover chicken tenders and I got my coffee drink and we made our way to Bagnell Dam for our Celebrations cruise.

The cruise we booked stated online 12-1:30, so we arrived around 11:40. It actually didn’t take off until 12:30 and we didn’t get back until 2. I don’t know exactly how many miles we went, but I know we at least went to mile marker 4 and then we turned around. It may have been further but not too much more. We enjoyed seeing the huge houses once again.

We headed to Andy’s Frozen Custard to get ice cream after being in the heat and then hit the outlets. Nike was no longer at the Osage Beach outlet mall which surprised us.

Of course, once again we had to stop at the HomeGoods before heading to mini golf.

I wanted to go to Sugar Creek Mini Golf because I knew it would be shaded.

Zimmerman was the mini golf champion.

After relaxing a little bit longer we headed to dinner and I had decided I wanted to order a bunch of appetizers.

We ordered the Spinach Dip, Beer Cheese Dip, Steak Nachos and Calamari. Zimmerman also had a side salad.

Then we went back to the room to call it a night.

Just like every day, we had our last breakfast at JB’s Boathouse. Since it was Saturday, they had a Bloody Mary Bar in addition to the buffet for breakfast. We don’t drink, but I feel this may be helpful information for those partaking in the buffet.

We packed our car and headed back to my parents house and this concluded our Margaritaville Lake of the Ozarks trip! 

As you can see, we had a lot of fun on our trip and would definitely go back and do the same package. I can’t say enough about how wonderful it was to just walk in, order and leave our voucher. 

The point of the Margaritaville Lake of the Ozarks trip was to relax and also have fun and we accomplished both. We had our relax in the room and watch our tv shows combined with exploring the activities around the area. 

Q: Do you like vacations where the food is included?

These are our favorite kinds of trips and we are always looking for nice places where food is included to travel. Makes for less discussion on “what will we have to eat?”

Q: Have you been to the newly renovated Margaritaville Lake of the Ozarks?