The Florida Mall

The Florida Mall is a large upscale enclosed shopping mall in Orlando, Florida. It originally opened its doors in 1986. It is located on the southeast corner of Orange Blossom Trail and Sand Lake Road. The mall has over 250 stores, including its anchors Macy's, Dillard's, Sears, J.C. Penney, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, and The Florida Mall Hotel makes it one of the largest single story malls in the US.

There are around 250 shops in this mall such as the anchor stores above and including, Oakley, Victoria's Secret, Mayors Jewellers, Champ Sports, Foot Locker and if you are a fan of M & M's there is a M & M's World. There is a large food court which can get very busy at weekend lunch times. They have Chick-fil-a, a couple of oriental foods, a Dairy Queen/Orange Julius, Natures Table for those wanting healthier food, Subway, Taco Bell, Sbarro for pizza etc. Starbucks and more. The Food Court is situated near the Main entrance.

A few of the stores do have more that one floor, such as, Macy*s, JC Penny and Sears. These are also handy places for a restroom stop as apart from the food court toilets are pretty sparse.

When you visit Macy's and if you are an international visitor to the US you can go to the gift wrap section on the top floor and pick up an international passport that gives you a further 11% off anything that you buy in the store with the exception of perfume and jewellery. This discount even applies on top of any other discounts on sale items that are in place. Macy's does have some real good bargains sometimes. If you are there when the sales are on, typically Labour day, Thanksgiving, New years etc. you will see some good savings for example, there maybe a shirt you like that has already been reduced by 20%, there may well be another notice telling you to take off an additional 30-70%. Plus, you can use your passport discount too. So keep an eye out for those.

Best place to buy Levi 501's is JC Penney's along with some other bits and pieces. Such as kids clothing etc. Sears is handy for those DIY tools that you can't find anywhere else in the UK.

Saks Fifth Avenue is an up market store with some very expensive designer clothing and accesories. Most people in there tend to be browsing rather than buying.

Dillards used to be one of my favourite stores. They have a great selection of designer clothing from Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger etc but they rarely seem to have any sales these days and you find that you can get the same item from Macy*s cheaper. Still, a nice store to look around.

Car Parking is very busy during sale times and they open the doors really early at 7.00 am sometimes where they offer the early bird extra savings. Parking near the main entrance is quite hard too on a weekend unless you are there early. You can access the Mall from either Sand Lake road by turning right immediately after crossing the lights at Orange Blossom Trail or if you are coming up Orange Blossom Trail by turning Right prior to reaching the Sand Lake Road junction.

More info can be found on the Florida Villas forums or The Perfect Florida Guide