Hi, just reading another forum (just there for a brief time honest guv!) and notice that they are closing down Belz as it has been bought by Premium Outlets and they are now going to call Festival Bay - Belz Festival Bay? Does anybody know anything about this?
I must admit Belz was looking a bit tired but I did get some great bargains there and the Disney and Universal stores were great.
Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere.
That is (sad) news!
Maybe not surprising though as Belz was clearly feeling the competition with a few vacant units (not as many as Festival Bay though which is must only be about 25% occupied).
I think Belz also suffered through having grown in "bits" over the years - an annex here and an annex there didn't help you move around very easily.
Still felt it was better for bargains than Premium Outlets though, which is a bit more "flash". Our second fave for bargians is Lake Buena Vista outlets
The other big advantage of Belz/LBV was ease of access - every time we've been to Premium the road system didn't seem as geared up to take the levels of traffic that outlets can generate.
All IMHO of course!
Andy
http://www.onlinefloridavillas.com/florida-vacation-rental-1581.aspx
Not surprised as Beltz has run itself down over the last 10 years or so. We never visit now.
CDV
Belz although always worth a visit was getting less and less over the last couple of years and premium outlets certainly had more of our shopping visits.
Jan
Just been googling for the full story, and i can't find anything about this. We've been fans of Belz for a long while, and it's sad to see the shape it's in now. When we last out over Easter i thought that there were less units empty than last year, so maybe they had turned the corner.
anyone post the news story?
The Story originates from Simon Veness, the author of The Brits Guide to Disney and Orlando, on another site. I too Googled it and found nothing, the story really doesnt surprise me though.
It is a shame if it is in deed true, but this happens everywhere new things open and the older ones loose their trade, shame though we liked Beltz when we first visited Orlando.[msnsmile]
Sarah
I did find some mention about belz/premium outlet's for Las Vegas for 2003, but other than that nothing. Maybe the official word hasn't been released yet. If Orlando Sentinel can publish that osceola Mall is sold, i'm sure they'd do the same with Belz.
"The Belz Discount Outlet World and Belz Designer Outlets at the top of I-Drive will be CLOSING this month. They were starting to look very tired and they have been sold by their owner to the Prime Outlets company of Boston, who apparently plan a major refurbishment and re-launch for them, with plans to take on Orlando Premium Outlets for style and quality. Festival Bay (which is owned by the Belz company) will then be renamed Belz Festival Bay to try to cash in one the Belz reputation in this part of the world."
This is the quote from the source I mentioned above, if I am not allowed copy this quote over here please feel free to delete[msnscared]
I thought Festival Bay was a completely different enterprise? We saw it in 2004, with the indoor skate park, Ron Jon's and numerous different shops,including the chocolate shop with choc dipped strawberries, along with a cinema etc[msnsmile]
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