Mall of America review (Minnesota)

Mall of America Review

Last month, my family headed to the Minneapolis, Minnesota to checkout what Mall of America had to offer. Mall of America is located in Bloomington, Minnesota has been described as a city within a city and includes an extensive range of retail, restaurants and entertainment options for visitors.

Here’s what we loved about Mall of America:

The rides — DUH. The center of the mall is filled with Nickelodeon Universe, a seven-acre amusement park. We spent every possible moment in the park, enjoying ride after ride after ride.

Mall of America gave us unlimited ride wristbands, so the kids just buzzed around riding to their hearts’ content. We were there during school, so the lines were non-existent. The amusement park sits under a giant windowed ceiling, so everything is crazy bright — it looks like you’re outside but the joint is perfectly climate-controlled. Take that, Disneyland.

Nickelodeon Universe has a number of rides and attractions that cater to preschoolers and toddlers. Matthew (age 4) spent a good portion of his day riding the little bumper cars.

I was banking on Lucy screaming at the sidelines as she watched her siblings enjoy the rides (Puyallup Fair, anyone?), but I was totally wrong. This picture does not represent all the things Lucy was able to do (I have NO idea why I didn’t snap pictures of her cuteness on her rides). The younger four also played the 18-hole miniature golf course and the staff was totally cool with Lucy playing.

She also thoroughly enjoyed  her nap in which she dangled precariously on the top of the diaper bag on the stroller. Hey, fifth kid. She’s still breathing.

Flagship stores — We didn’t spend much time shopping, but we did buzz through the LEGO store and my daughter hit up the American Girl store. It’s super fun to be able to hit a number of kid-favorites in one (really, really large) place, especially if you live far away from large cities.

We also hit up the Minnesota Sea Life Aquarium, which is also inside the mall. The best part is the string of under-water tunnels. It was so cool to see all the sea creatures swimming around and above us. We only spent about 30 minutes in the aquarium because we had to get back to THE RIDES, but we would have really enjoyed to go through at a more leisurely pace if we had another day in Bloomington.

If we go back to Minneapolis (which we would really like to do), we will probably use the The Big Ticket Adventure Pass, which gives you a three-day pass to the area’s top attractions at a discounted price, including:

• Nickelodeon Universe®
• SEA LIFE® Minnesota Aquarium
• Water Park of America
• Minnesota Zoo
• Great Clips® IMAX® Theatre at Minnesota Zoo
• Science Museum of Minnesota®

Mall of America provided my family tickets for all the fun I shared in this post. All opinions are mine.

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