Shopping questions !!

[mulhjnr]

We haven't been for a few years so can anyone give me up-to-date info on the shopping malls - which is the best for price / value / selection / newest ?

Have heard snippets about Millenium Mall (correct name ?) but is there any others ? What about the large mall in Fort Lauderdale ?

From memory, we spent sooooo much money at Florida Mall and Premier outlets but we have never ventured too far off the main tracks - sorry to say that we have never even been to Kissimee old town in our three previous trips !

Any recommendations gratefully received (but don't tell DH !) and sorry for so many questions.
Thanks.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

The best mall overall is the Florida Mall, with a good cross-section of stores and will not necessarily be over expensive.
The Mall At Millenia is probably the nicest (and newest) but possibly not the best for bargains with some very exclusive stores.
However, both of the above have very good Department Stores such as Macy's, Bloomingdales, Dillards and Burdines where you can get good value for money.
Festival Bay is a fairly new development too and gets better each time we go, and is very different from the standard mall with very unique shops.
There are a couple of malls a bit further away such as West Oaks and Fashion Square, but the FM and MAM are the best.

Presume the mall you refer to in Fort Lauderdale is Sawgrass Mills, which is enormous and probably the best bet for bagains in the whole of Florida - whether it is worth the 3 hour plus drive each way I am not sure - best if you are staying in the area really.

As far as bargains go in Orlando, Premium Outlets is the best one, although as with all discount shops can be a bit hit and miss.

Generally there are bargains to be had pretty much anywhere, especially on sportswear - there are a number of Nike outlets in Orlando - naturally the best bet are US labels like Nike, Oakley, Levi's etc - you wouldn't go to Florida to buy Armani for eg.

 

[mej]

Belz outlet (now Prime outlet) looks a bit shabby now. The Pointe has also lost a lot of its shops - which is a shame as we always loved it, even the Disney Worldport there has closed. We still enjoy Florida Mall and Premium Outlet, and had a quick look in the Lake Buena Vista factory outlet this year (SR 535). Mall at Millenia is beautiful - the only chance I will ever get to try on (but not buy Jimmy Choos!)

 

[Miss Mickey Mania]

Disclaimer - these are my opinions only. Take them how you wish .

Mall at Millenia - well worth a visit. Different selection of shops. Not all too expensive, just some are Nice food court too, and has a Cheesecake Factory!

Florida Mall - very good bet for a good shopping day. Wouldn't miss a visit.

Belz and Pointe Orlando - well past their best. I wouldn't waste my time going to either.

Festival Bay - can't comment, haven't been.

Premium Outlets - very good also. Good discounts and selection of stores.

Further away malls - Altamonte Mall (Altmonte Springs, north Orlando), Sanford Town Center Mall, near Sanford airport. Both large and nice, not so any tourists as at the Florida Mall. Fashion Square mall in Colonial Drive is not as good as it used to be. Lots of stores have closed.

Avoid the little mall on 192. I think it's called Osceola Mall or something like that. It's the one with Bells. It's awful and has recently been bought by a new developer. It has no stores!

Ft Lauderdale is a long drive. If you're staying down that way then ok, otherwise it's a bit far away just for a day's shopping imo.

Edit to add - Kissimmee's Old Town. Do you mean that place on Hwy 192 with the ferris wheel? I hate that place with a passion. It's cheap and nasty purely for tourists who want to throw away their money. If anyone reading this likes it, I'm sorry I just couldn't help myself.

 

[tartangirl]

For me it has to be the Florida Mall and Premium Outlets.

With the 11% discount card we got some rock bottom prices at Macys at the Florida Mall.

We went to Belz and bought nothing

I also thought the Lake Buena Vista stores on the 535 had taken a trun for the worse. I did manage to get some incredibly cheap Armani jewellery at Fossil but there wasn't much else that took my interest.

I thought Festival Bay was lacking in shops! That place is always so empty I cant believe it will remain. That said it has the best cinema.

Cant comment on Mall at Millenia as we've never been.

I've had some god deals at Ross before but we never made it that far this year. I that there was one of them at the Osceola Mall but would agree the rest of the mall isn't worth the bother - especially if Ross is no longer there.

We went to the Oakley shop recommended on this forum - behind Premium Outlets - bargain.

 

[daywalker]

Mall at Millenia is top notch, not many bargains around but it's a different experience and well worth a visit. Pick up your 11% visitors discount voucher in both Macy's and Bloomingdales.

Not so keen on Florida mall myself but it's just my opinion.

Premium Outlets is probably the best place for bargains, as already posted though - it's pot luck as to what is in the shops at the time you go. We usually find good stuff in the Adidas and Nike store. I Like Hugo Boss but rarely see anything I like in their store over there.

Belz (Prime), it's well documented that this place is past it's best, we always pop into the Adidas and Nike stores down here though.

Point Orlando = naff

We like Adidas + Nike as we are gym goers/exercise freaks! We go to X3 Adidas stores (Belz, Premium and 1 on I-Drive as you head towards Belz) and X2 Nike (Belz and Premium). We do this as we find some of the stores have limited ranges of stock or, they carry the same stock with different sizes in each store! A bit of a pain but well worth spending a bit of time on the look out.

 

[Scottish_Maleficent]

I love Florida Mall......Yankee Candle, Pottery Barn, to name a few. Great shops......bargains can be got if sales are on.

Festival Bay - not many shops there, but Steve and Barry's is great for tee-shirts.

Belz - not great, but still has bargains. Think the Reebok shop is better here than at Premium Outlets. Premium Outlets is overall much better, but I couldn't believe how busy this place got on our last visit - even during the week!!

 

[Amyrlin]

I went to Belz and didn't buy anything. Does nayone know the best place to buy larger sized clothes?

 

[disneyholic family]

I went to Belz and didn't buy anything. Does nayone know the best place to buy larger sized clothes?

for women? many of the good stores have larger size departments right in them....for example, in Saks Fifth Avenue, you would want to look for their Salon Z - that's where larger size women's clothing are - but only go there when they're having their final sales....the prices are sky high....but they have stunningly beautiful clothes by all the top designers (my personal favorite - Marina Rinaldi - i have a closet full of her clothes- all bought when saks was having their final final 80% off sale....)

Nordstrom's also has a "women's" department (their euphemism for clothes for horizontallyl challenged women).....you just have to ask where the larger clothes are..

i assume that Macy's has something similar (i know that marshall fields does, but they don't have a store in florida i don't think)..

all of the above stores i think are in the Florida Mall....

then there are the regular designers who have special large size stores...i can't remember the name of one of the most famous ones...it just slipped my mind..

for lower quality clothes, Kmart and Target have large size clothes as well....(again in the 'women's department)...probably walmart does as well (i don't shop at walmart on principle)...

for middle of the line large clothing look for Lane Bryant...i don't know if they have stores in florida....you could look it up on the internet...

 

[Queenie]

Last year we went to Belz and Florida Mall. Florida Mall was excellent, a huge variety of shops and a large food court with plenty of choice. I wouldn't say it was good for discount shops, it seemed to be more of a standard mall with US "high street" shops. Sort of like our Trafford Centre type places.

Whilst I'll happily admit Belz was way past it's prime, we did buy more there than at Florida Mall. Scott bought two pairs of heavily discounted Sketchers and the Disney store there was fantastic. I got some Mission: Space memorabilia and gifts for my family at crazy prices, Scott's dad bought some of those special edition pin trading gift packs very cheaply too. There was a discount Universal store there too I think. I got a plastic Twister mug for 25 cents!

Can anyone tell me which other mall(s) have discount Disney/Universal stores?

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Edit to add - Kissimmee's Old Town. Do you mean that place on Hwy 192 with the ferris wheel? I hate that place with a passion. It's cheap and nasty purely for tourists who want to throw away their money. If anyone reading this likes it, I'm sorry I just couldn't help myself.

Ha Ha Ha - sorry hate using LOL etc!

We actually quite like Old Town but not from a shopping point of view, just like to have a quiet drink at a bar whilst watching the people go by etc - have met some great characters over the years - totally different from any other part of Orlando - but guess you either like it or hate it really.