louisatrixie: USA Trip Day 9, 10: Orlando to New York City

I have so many back-dated pictures to blog about like my Boracay trip, random outings, CNY, etc. So I'm gonna quickly finish up the last 4 days of my NYC trip in the next two posts!

DAY 9: The Mall at Millenia & Orlando Premium Outlets

After three consecutive days of theme parks, we were glad to get a full day to shop in Orlando before catching the flight to NYC the next day. I didn't bring my camera out so I had to make do with my iPhone!

First stop of the day was a large mall called The Mall at Millenia. My tour guide chose this mall because there was The Cheesecake Factory which is a very popular restaurant famous for their cheesecakes! My family broke off to do our own shopping and met back at the restaurant for lunch.

Happy with my humble buys (: The first place I wanted to go was Macy's. Wanted to stock up on some make-up and also finally bought the Clarisonic Mia. (Make up haul pictures in the next post!)

The restaurant was pretty packed so we were given a buzzer that would buzz when it was our turn to be seated.

Dad so cool with his A&F buys. Haha.

I chose Shrimp Scampi, which was recommended by the very handsome waiter!

And we ended off the meal with two cheesecakes - Godiva Chocolate cheesecake and Tiramisu cheesecake.

Our buys! It was Christmas eve so there were sales everywhere. But we only had about 3 hours to spend in the mall and practically 1 hour was spent eating. ): I didn't find anything worth buying at Forever21 (lotsa sweaters and party dresses) and thought it was a pity, but I look forward to shopping at Forever21 when I go back in May cos I reckon there will be many pretty summer clothes. (:

Next was the main destination of the day - the Orlando Premium outlets at International Drive!

I didn't go crazy at the outlets, but rather aimed the brands that I would buy. Brands like Aeropostale / Gap / Levis are really cheap in the USA outlets but I don't usually wear these brands so I gave them a miss. The Orlando Premium Outlets at Vineland Ave had Tory Burch, Micheal Kors, Prada, etc. But not quite sure why my tour guide chose the International Drive one instead. ):

Still, I managed to get some good buys, I'm a super huge fan of Juicy Couture jewelry. And with an additional Christmas sale discount of 40% off on top of the outlet price, I got 3 bracelets and 4 charms at a damn good price. Super duper happy (: I think I spent the most that day on Juicy Couture alone.

At Aldo, I bought a pair of sandals for 17 USD and spiked shoes for about 30 USD, after 15% discount! Cheap in my opinion, considering the retail price of Aldo shoes can get pretty steep. Last stop of the day was at Kate Spade, where I spent a long while contemplating on the bags I should get. Pretty contented with a metallic gold cross-body for about 70 USD, after a 40% additional Xmas discount. Was quite relieved that I controlled myself and didn't get any more, because when we went to the NYC outlets, the post-Xmas discount was 60%! Thankfully, the bag I bought was not sold there. (: Probably the only piece of clothing I bought was a LBD from a store called Love Couture at about 26 USD.

Didn't buy much overall cos I didn't want to purchase things on impulse just because of the low price. Think I'm a pretty boring shopper. lol. Was also saving my money for bigger purchases when we go to the NYC outlets!

DAY 10: New York City

Took a flight back to NYC from Orlando the next morning.

At this point our tour group became much smaller. The family of 5 that was with us flew to Canada to visit relatives. So there was only my family of 6 left, along with the young couple and the tour guide. But a medical situation arose during the flight and the guy had to be sent to the hospital immediately upon landing. As a result, it became like a private tour for my family.

The first agenda of the day was a short walking tour of lower Manhattan.

The Charging Bull (Wall Street Bull). The queue to take a picture with the Bull was far too long so we took some pictures at the side and went on our way.

Christmas tree in front of the New York Stock Exchange. It was Christmas Day that day, and being out in the streets of New York with all the Christmas decorations was a pretty cool way to soak in the atmosphere. (:

Our little cosy tour group hehe. Our tour guide kept telling us how it's the first time ever that she has brought around such a small tour group. And you can tell from the way we are bundled up that it was pretty cold that day. Probably about 3 degrees celcius.

Lovely exterior of the Trinity Church being blocked by the scaffolding ):

We went in for awhile but there was a Christmas mass ongoing so I didn't think it'll be appropriate to snap pictures. Only managed to capture the door way!

Next stop, Times Square! We straight away spotted the Naked Cowboy. Don't know how he managed to only wear knickers in a nearly zero degree weather!

I also met up with my dearest bf! He was going to Canada for exchange and I actually left Singapore first and it was a very fortunate thing that his NYC itinerary with his friends coincided nicely with mine :D

Had lunch together with the family at Red Lobster! Was excited to try this also because I heard about it being famous for the seafood. Love seafood! Not raw ones though ):

What I shared with Joel. Lobster Bisque soup, and butter rice with crab meat, shrimps and crab sauce. Don't be fooled by how simple it looks. It was absolutely delicious!!