I remember hearing about the Mall of America being built when I was a kid, and thinking how crazy it was that there was a mall big enough to have an amusement park inside! I never thought I would visit it, and if Matthew hadn't ended up here for work, I probably never would have gone out of my way to see it. But since we are here, visiting the Mall of America is a must do!!
We walked in and were immediately awed. You hear this place is big, you know its going to be gigantic, but its still kind of shocking when you walk in and realize just how huge it is! Some fun facts:
Wow! It was impossible to get a good picture that would show how big it really is, because it is just so....big. But here is one that shows the 4 different levels:
And one of the all the people!
And then of course, once you see the indoor theme park, you get a pretty good idea of the size:
We had not planned on going to the theme park, because we had plans to go to a different one instead. So we walked around the mall for a little bit. We found this awesome store called Rain Forest Cafe - I think they have one in Washington state, but I have never seen on in Oregon. It was awesome! There was a restaurant inside, and a bar with these awesome animal themed chairs:
The entrance to the restaurant:
We didn't eat there, so we spent all our time in the gift shop. And what a gift shop it was! Totally themed like a rain forest, with music that alternated between animals and birds, to thunder and rainstorms. It was really cool!
Our next stop was the Lego store! Killian and Rowan both love Lego's and when they heard that this store was two stories tall, they couldn't wait to go and check it out! It didn't end up being two stories of Lego's for sale, but that was okay with them because there were all these amazing Lego creations to admire:
These "paintings" were made entirely of Lego's too!
Inside the Lego store, Rowan and Woody from Toy Story:
We walked around for a little while more, and ended up at the amusement park again. It looked like so much fun, and with the kids bouncing around and practically begging to ride the rides, Matthew and I decided that an indoor amusement park experience in the Mall of America was not something to be missed. So we bought 4 passes and headed in. There was SO much to see and do we didn't even know where to start!
The roller coasters in the middle were so much fun! We all really love coasters, though I am a bit of a weenie about the bigger ones. I really have only been on one coaster in my life and it was when we went to Silverwood with Mike and Kami a couple years ago. It was a big wooden mountain of terror, and definitely freaked me out (but it was a lot of fun at the same time). The roller coasters here were wild, definitely not the "kiddy" type coasters at most amusement parks. But they were really fun, as were the rest of the rides we went on. I don't think there was a single one that we didn't absolutely love. Even the super freaky "Avatar AirBender" ride. Killian and I went on this one together, and I screamed the whole time. It goes 70 feet up in the air, and you feel like you are going to hit the ceiling! Here are a couple of pictures of the ride from the Nickelodeon Universe website:
But there was one that I was not.going.to.ride. The Spongebob Squarepants Rocky Bottom Plunge:
It takes you straight up to the ceiling, and then plunges back down right before you head into a loopdeloop. NO WAY! The absolute scariest part of a roller coaster for me is that first drop...and this one is straight down. Somehow Matthew convinced me that we should do it, and I swear I was shaking like a leaf when we were in line. The kids were alternating between terror and excitement. We strapped in and while we were in the cart, climbing to the top, looking down on all the teeny tiny people below, I started really freaking out. But then....wheeeeeeeee! It was actually so much fun! The drop down was terrifying, and of course I screamed the whole way, but the rest of the coaster was lots of fun and I ended up being really glad we went. Who knew fears could be concurred in the middle of the mall?
We took a quick break for lunch (hooray for Chipotle!) and on our way back walked by this store.
Can you tell what it is? A PEEP store! There were peeps for sale of course, but also practically anything else you could imagine. Peep slippers, pajamas, sunglasses, t-shirts, pencils...it was crazy. There was also a whole wall of Mike and Ike flavors, that you could dispense yourself and mix and match. The store was fun to wander around, even though we didn't buy anything (what a sad time to not eat sugar).
And then we were back to the rides for a second go around. We ended up spending 7 hours in the amusement park! 7 HOURS! And we only saw one complete level of the mall, out of all four levels to be seen. It was totally crazy, but so, so much fun. Another memory that we will never forget. We seem to be racking up quite a few of those here!
We walked in and were immediately awed. You hear this place is big, you know its going to be gigantic, but its still kind of shocking when you walk in and realize just how huge it is! Some fun facts:
- .57 miles is the walking distance around one level of Mall of America
- 4.3 miles of total store front footage
- 7 Yankee Stadiums can fit inside the Mall
- 25 rides and attractions in Nickelodeon Universe®
- 32 Boeing 747s could fit inside the Mall
- 65 semi-trucks were needed to transport trees to the theme park to create the outdoor feel of an indoor park
- 70 degrees inside Mall of America whether its spring, summer, winter or fall
- 86 hours is the length of time it would take to complete your visit to the Mall if you were to spend just 10 minutes in each store
- 258 Statues of Liberty could lie inside the Mall
- 520+ stores are located in Mall of America
- 30,000+ live plants and 400 live trees climbing as high as 35 feet tall in Nickelodeon Universe
- 170,000+ Legos have been lost in the LEGO play area
- 1.2 million-gallon aquarium at SEA LIFE™ Minnesota Aquarium
- 4.2 million square feet of gross building area
- 40 million visitors annually which is more than the combined populations of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa...and Canada
- 130+ million number of rides ridden in the park since opening
- $650+ million cost to build
Wow! It was impossible to get a good picture that would show how big it really is, because it is just so....big. But here is one that shows the 4 different levels:
And one of the all the people!
And then of course, once you see the indoor theme park, you get a pretty good idea of the size:
We had not planned on going to the theme park, because we had plans to go to a different one instead. So we walked around the mall for a little bit. We found this awesome store called Rain Forest Cafe - I think they have one in Washington state, but I have never seen on in Oregon. It was awesome! There was a restaurant inside, and a bar with these awesome animal themed chairs:
The entrance to the restaurant:
We didn't eat there, so we spent all our time in the gift shop. And what a gift shop it was! Totally themed like a rain forest, with music that alternated between animals and birds, to thunder and rainstorms. It was really cool!
Our next stop was the Lego store! Killian and Rowan both love Lego's and when they heard that this store was two stories tall, they couldn't wait to go and check it out! It didn't end up being two stories of Lego's for sale, but that was okay with them because there were all these amazing Lego creations to admire:
These "paintings" were made entirely of Lego's too!
Inside the Lego store, Rowan and Woody from Toy Story:
We walked around for a little while more, and ended up at the amusement park again. It looked like so much fun, and with the kids bouncing around and practically begging to ride the rides, Matthew and I decided that an indoor amusement park experience in the Mall of America was not something to be missed. So we bought 4 passes and headed in. There was SO much to see and do we didn't even know where to start!
The roller coasters in the middle were so much fun! We all really love coasters, though I am a bit of a weenie about the bigger ones. I really have only been on one coaster in my life and it was when we went to Silverwood with Mike and Kami a couple years ago. It was a big wooden mountain of terror, and definitely freaked me out (but it was a lot of fun at the same time). The roller coasters here were wild, definitely not the "kiddy" type coasters at most amusement parks. But they were really fun, as were the rest of the rides we went on. I don't think there was a single one that we didn't absolutely love. Even the super freaky "Avatar AirBender" ride. Killian and I went on this one together, and I screamed the whole time. It goes 70 feet up in the air, and you feel like you are going to hit the ceiling! Here are a couple of pictures of the ride from the Nickelodeon Universe website:
But there was one that I was not.going.to.ride. The Spongebob Squarepants Rocky Bottom Plunge:
It takes you straight up to the ceiling, and then plunges back down right before you head into a loopdeloop. NO WAY! The absolute scariest part of a roller coaster for me is that first drop...and this one is straight down. Somehow Matthew convinced me that we should do it, and I swear I was shaking like a leaf when we were in line. The kids were alternating between terror and excitement. We strapped in and while we were in the cart, climbing to the top, looking down on all the teeny tiny people below, I started really freaking out. But then....wheeeeeeeee! It was actually so much fun! The drop down was terrifying, and of course I screamed the whole way, but the rest of the coaster was lots of fun and I ended up being really glad we went. Who knew fears could be concurred in the middle of the mall?
We took a quick break for lunch (hooray for Chipotle!) and on our way back walked by this store.
Can you tell what it is? A PEEP store! There were peeps for sale of course, but also practically anything else you could imagine. Peep slippers, pajamas, sunglasses, t-shirts, pencils...it was crazy. There was also a whole wall of Mike and Ike flavors, that you could dispense yourself and mix and match. The store was fun to wander around, even though we didn't buy anything (what a sad time to not eat sugar).
And then we were back to the rides for a second go around. We ended up spending 7 hours in the amusement park! 7 HOURS! And we only saw one complete level of the mall, out of all four levels to be seen. It was totally crazy, but so, so much fun. Another memory that we will never forget. We seem to be racking up quite a few of those here!