The Mall of America in Bloomington, MN (Minneapolis/St.Paul) is the largest indoor mall in the U.S. We recently stopped at the Mall of America when a road trip took us through Minneapolis.
The main motivation for visiting the Mall of America was to visit the Lego Store. But, since there are lots of things to do in the MOA, we decided to make it an overnight stop.
There are lots of hotel options around the Mall of America. We chose the Radisson Blu for two reasons: It is attached to the mall near the LEGO store, and I’ve had good experiences at Radisson Blu on past trips.
Our time was limited at the Mall of America. We arrived about 12:30 pm and were able to check in early at the hotel. Then, we made the short walk through the hotel walkway to the mall.
We had lunch at Burger Burger, a quick service restaurant in the mall near the hotel. I had the John Wayne Burger and cheese curds. It was quite good!
Then, we headed to the LEGO store. If you visit, be sure to notice the pictures created with 1 x 1 legos… really neat!
Of course, we had to visit the pick-a-brick wall to fill a cup. This is always one of my favorite things at a LEGO store.
Next, we went to the Nickelodeon Universe amusement area.
There are 2 options for ride tickets. Visitors can either purchase points to use towards rides or buy a wristband that allows guests to ride unlimited rides that day. After doing some quick math, I figured out that unless you are going to only ride a couple of rides, the wristband was the best bet. Another benefit of the wristband is that you get other discounts on activities that aren’t included in the wristband rides.
I’d been to the Mall of America a really long time ago. And, my memory of the rides there didn’t leave me with high expectations for this visit. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were for an indoor park.
Mall of America Nickelodeon Universe has a variety of rides. There were several rides for small children as well as thrill rides including 3 roller coasters. I enjoyed the log ride and the ghost shooter ride.
After riding several rides, we grabbed at quick bite at a nearby food court for dinner.
Then, we played mini-golf. The Mall of America boasts 2 mini golf courses: a black light course and more traditional course. We chose Moose Mountain. It was a fun course.
We ended the day on the zip line and ropes course. Since we had wristbands, it was only $13 for my kiddo to do the twisty slide, ropes course, and zip line.
By then, it was 9:30pm and the park was closed. And, my feet were really glad that our hotel was so close!
Even if you aren’t a mall shopper, there is lots to do at the Mall of America. In fact, there were several things that looked fun that we didn’t get to do because of time. The Mall of America was a great stop over to break up our long road trip.
Check out my Minnesota page for more info on trips to the land of 10,000 lakes!
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