USA and Caribbean 2012 Day 16 – Woodbury Outlet Shopping

The day started early as it was shopping day at Woodbury Common Premier Outlets. Had breakfast at the hotel and left for Gray Line visitor center to collect our bus tickets to the outlet. We thought that we were taking the bus from there but were told to go to the Port Authority Bus Terminal instead, 8 streets away. In order to catch the next available bus at 830, we had to walk quickly to the bus terminal, only to find an incredibly long queue already waiting for the bus! Apparently there were just as many like-minded tourists like us!

Disappointed that we were most likely going to miss the bus due to the amount of people, we made our way to the back of the line. Suddenly, there was a announcement to evacuate the building. We just followed the crowd out the building and crossed the road, heading for the next nearby pickup point to board. Shortly after crossing the road, we saw Gray Line staffs and asked where the nearest pick up location was and they pointed to us immediately outside the building. Furthermore, they also pointed to us one that was arriving and we immediately headed in the reverse direction and boarded the bus, pretty empty at that point. What luck!

An hour journey and soon we reached the location, one with many snow covered roofs of many stores. It was going to be a long day. The place was still quiet as opening hours was still 30mins away. Went straight to the central administration building to retrieve the discount vouchers booklet and used the toilet before going to the stores that were already opened.

Navigated with the attached map and focused on stores of interest. Still it was a whole day event with our favorite brands, we even had to skip lunch.

There was a central food court where we had dinner before going for our finale. We stayed till the last shop closed at 10 and went to the same bus station for the return journey. Again, there was a line and we were amongst the last in the queue. Quite worried that we might end up without a seat and had to take one of the taxis, many of them waiting around, like a vulture waiting for its prey to die. As the bus slowly filled up and we inched closer to the entrance, we saw 2 more buses coming in from the main road and we were relieved.

It’s an hour back and an easy walk back to the hotel. Great day of shopping with very low prices for the American brands. Totally worth it.