Outlet shopping - CA vs FL vs HI

[losfp]

Ok, this is a question for those who've been to a few US states.

Last trip we did a lot of shopping in Vegas and loved it. Next trip, we'll be spending time in Orlando, Anaheim and Hawaii. I assume that the best bargains WON'T be had in Hawaii, as it would cost heaps to ship the goods over there to begin with. Are there any real differences in price between the outlets in Anaheim vs the ones in Orlando? From what I can tell, California sales tax is not too dissimilar to the Florida sales tax.

It might just come down to which is more convenient. We'll have a car in Florida, but if we buy up there, we'll have to cart it to LA, then Hawaii before heading home to Sydney.

 

[PrincessInOz]

My philosophy is to buy the item you want for the price you're happy with when you see it and if they have your size.
With outlet shopping, there is no guarantee that another outlet will have it in your size or even that the same outlet will have it in your size the next day. And if I see it at another outlet for cheaper....it really doesn't matter. If you keep your receipts and bring it in, they will refund the difference. Or you could buy a second one.

If you end up with a lot of shopping, the most inconvenient thing is lugging the extra luggage from hotel room to car and vice versa. I tend to pack most of the new things in the one bag (usually a new bag). Unless I want to wear it or use it straightaway, the items stay in the bag. Once in the room, the bag stays in the cupboard and I don't have to worry about it again until we check out.

I assume you're travelling on the one international ticket so you won't be up for extra baggage fees if you pack light in the first place.

 

[losfp]

My philosophy is to buy the item you want for the price you're happy with when you see it

Yeah that is pretty much what we go with as well, unless we know we are going back to that exact store with a degree of confidence that the item(s) will still be there. For example, we popped into the Downtown Disney store a couple of times during our last visit, but refrained from buying until the 2nd last day in between dinner and World of Color.

If you end up with a lot of shopping, the most inconvenient thing is lugging the extra luggage from hotel room to car and vice versa. I tend to pack most of the new things in the one bag (usually a new bag). Unless I want to wear it or use it straightaway, the items stay in the bag. Once in the room, the bag stays in the cupboard and I don't have to worry about it again until we check out.

Yep I agree with this too. Last trip, we got a lot of shopping delivered to a hotel on day 7 of a 32 day trip. Lugged those suitcases back and forth between cars and hotels.... On next year's trip, there'll be less hotels, but I think we can get away with buying in Florida if we're smart about it.

We'll be staying in 3 WDW resorts, so visit the outlets while staying in resort #3. Then drag stuff to Universal, then drag stuff onto the Disney Cruise (so obviously we can't do enough shopping to fill 6 suitcases yet by this stage). On debarkation day, I want to try and get on a same-day flight to LAX so I won't risk doing the shopping then. More shopping in Anaheim, then just have to drag bags to Aulani and then home.

I assume you're travelling on the one international ticket so you won't be up for extra baggage fees if you pack light in the first place.

That's certainly the intention. I know which flights I want to take, they'll all be QF or AA codeshare.

Thanks for the thoughts PIO

 

[zaccy]

I have outlet shopped around Anaheim and in Hawaii and Anaheim wins hands down. Having said that though if I was only going to Hawaii I would certainly be making a trip to the outlet centre there, but if I was on my way home from mainland USA I don't know that I would bother.

If at all possible we try to shop towards the end of a trip and have any online shopping delivered to our last stop, saves alot of lugging things about. With any online purchases it is good to have some time up your sleeve to be able to do returns either by post or at real shops for items that might not be quite what you were expecting!

 

[DVCAustralia]

Orlando is the best. The main places are the two Premium Outlets (closer is Vineyard Avenue and further is International Drive), Florida Mall and Mall of Millenia.

By all means you can shop around Anaheim and even Hawaii as well, but you can not go back to Orlando if you do not find what you want later.

Disney Cruise is pretty easy, you drop the bags on the curb (tip well here) and they deliver to the room and then at the end you leave them outside your room and collect from the bag area in the terminal on departure.

 

[losfp]

Orlando is the best. The main places are the two Premium Outlets (closer is Vineyard Avenue and further is International Drive), Florida Mall and Mall of Millenia.

By all means you can shop around Anaheim and even Hawaii as well, but you can not go back to Orlando if you do not find what you want later.

Yeah that is a good point. In addition, it will be easier to get to the outlets in Orlando as I am going to have a rental car there. In Anaheim, I will be camping out at the Grand Californian (DVC Gods willing!) so will have no need for a car. Might still do a short day trip out to the outlets in Anaheim, or down the road to Target, but won't be able to lug as much stuff around as in Orlando.

what I'll probably do is to do outlet shopping in Orlando while staying at our final resort, and get online shopping delivered to the Grand Cali in Anaheim.

 

[mindy32]

We did the outlets in Vegas and then in Orlando. DH and I found a lot more in Vegas but still thought Orlando was good.

 

[mickeyd78]

I've checked out the Outlets in Orlando a few times. Picked up a few things, but never found the selection as good as at the standard malls, such as Florida Mall, South Coast Plaza.

I'll check out the outlets in HI when we are there in Nov, but I would imagine they would be more expensive due to transport costs. But then, most things are a little cheaper in the US anyway, even away from the outlet stores.

 

[cola]

Orlando sounds the easiest option

BUT depending on dates, you might have a sale date at one of your other destinations which makes it cheap - Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving is THE huge discount day (though lots of pretty good sales start the weekend before now), but practically any public holiday weekend seems to have big sales eg Labor Day That may affect your online or outlet shopping.

It's amazing how many of the big department stores are now using Borderfree and will ship to Australia for free, or only $20, plus charge you in AUD. It's worth keeping an eye on Saks, Nordstrom, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, they do things like 70% off kids for the weekend etc. They all have discount websites, but they tend not to ship to Australia, but worth checking for delivery to US addresses.

I'm particularly fond of nordstromrack, and it is located EVERYWHERE (Orlando, Anaheim, Hawaii). Nordstrom is a department store, like Macy's, David Jones, Myer, etc. Nordstrom rack is their leftover stock massive discount discount outlet. In Orlando they are just next to Mall of Millenia. It's just one air conditioned location with clothing for kids, women, men, shoes, make up, accessories, and I think even a bit of furniture.

 

[periwinkle20]

For those of you who buy online and send it to your hotel, how far in advance would you do this?
We are 41 days from flying out and I'm keen to start shopping!

 

[mickeyd78]

For those of you who buy online and send it to your hotel, how far in advance would you do this? We are 41 days from flying out and I'm keen to start shopping!

Usually 2 to 3 weeks prior, depending on the expected shipping time. I've never had an issue having Disney hold on to a parcel for 2 weeks.

 

[mickeyd78]

Should add, occasionally I have been tempted to do it a bit earlier if there is an unbelievable sale on a particular website. I remember reading on here that some people did it 6+ weeks prior, but I look at it as Disney doing us a favour to hold our parcels, so I don't like to 'push the friendship' so to speak.

 

[losfp]

For our 2012 trip, I ordered a few things 2 weeks prior and so did wifey (board games for me, scrapbooking supplies for her). I then made another order about midway through the trip to arrive at our last hotel. That seemed to give them enough time to delivery the packages, and not so long that the hotel misplaces anything

 

[Meemoo]

I've done Hawaii, LA and Las Vegas, and I seemed to be more successful at Las Vegas followed by Hawaii, not so much LA. I will give LA a go again next time, I hear they have Disney Outlet there now, maybe it was my taste last time I was in LA I was a lot younger, perhaps the shops didn't appeal to me then.

 

[Travel Mum]

For me, I've outlet shopped in Orlando, LA and Honolulu and Orlando wins hands down. Second is LA and quite far behind is Honolulu.

 

[quattro4]

I've done LA , Anaheim, Miami and New York.

Anaheim - outlets at orange. Not a great deal there did pick up some bargains at nordstrom rack and some gear for the kids at h&m kids. Wouldn't bother with it unless you really need to shop. It would be roughly a $16 taxi ride from disney if you don't have a car.

South coast plaza - not outlets but big and awesome. Absolutely loved it here could have had another day. If you sign up on their website they have a shuttle that collects you for $5 would go back here in a heartbeat.

LA - we did the camarillo outlets. About an hours drive - you would need a car. Nike store had great pricing got some bargains there. Also north face was great, ag jeans and Levi' also great pricing. There is a big cinema complex there so dh took the kids to the movies while I shopped! big ticks for that!

New York - woodbury common. Lots of bargains here - most notable was kate spade 40%off entire store. Coach 50%off entire store. North face and nike not as cheap here as LA.

Miami - dolphin mall. Mix of outlet and normal. Some old navy bargains for the kids and a $99 trench coat from coach for me.
Not a great deal here and it was a $30 taxi fare each way (split three ways). Wouldn't bother if you had access to others.

Fave out of all would be woodbury common - we shopped with a suitcase and filled it! 18kg of shopping. Not bad for a days work!

Looking forward to the orlando ones next year! It will be our first trip there and to wdw.

 

[lorryx3]

I've done Vegas, Orlando and bits of Honolulu (not the official outlet though).

Orlando was the best. Vegas was good but Orlando had more options. Both cities have the two main Premium outlets, but Orlando the stores were bigger. Woodbury Common is good in NYC but it's massive and mainly high end designer. Orlando has lots of cheaper stuff so that was great. My sister and I bought a cheap suitcase there because we had so much extra stuff!

Honolulu- the outlet only had about 30 stores. and the bus was around $20 or something to get there. So we decided against it.
We just hit up Ross Dress for less (sort of like Trade Secret) and the Nordstrom Rack. they were good. And we were there just before thanksgiving so everything was on sale anyway.

But save your shopping for Orlando if you can!

Or check out the outlet store listings at the Premiumoutlets . com. I can't post a proper link yet.

 

[Tashinwdw]

I think it really depends on what you are after. We found the disney outlet at vegas (I cant remember which one, as one was much better than the other) much better than anywhere else. Price wise we found vegas and orlando pretty much the same, even the choices of stores were very similar.

While at Anaheim it was a simple bus trip to the shops, we did target, walmart, dollar tree and Michaels. It was more just checking out the stores that I had heard about than actual shopping - it was the end of the trip and money was scarce

I also did comparisons of prices out the outlets here before we left to have an idea of what was a bargain and what was not. It was interesting to see that some things at their outlets were not cheaper than here with the exchange rate etc.

My daughter ended up paying probably more there than here for some converse shoes but she got caught up with the excitement of it all. which can easily happen.

Enjoy the shopping no matter where you do it.