Mall of America Trip Report

This is just a short report for anyone thinking about going to the Mall of America.

It was an all girl long weekend. There were 4 of us and we left Thursday afternoon from Philly and got back late Sunday night. We took a nonstop Northwest Airline and the flight was fine.

We stayed at the Airport Hilton which was a short 3 min free shuttle to the Mall and 5 mins to the airport. The shuttles were nice and clean and did I mention free;) The shuttle to the Mall was once every hour on the 20 min mark and the shuttle to the airport was once every 1/2 hour. The hotel was very very nice and the staff was extremely friendly and helpful.

We shopped: Fri 10:30 am - 8:00 pm
Sat 10:30 am - 7:00 pm
Sun 10:30 am - 1:30 pm

We had every intention of staying together which we did on Friday but by Saturday we realized that we could never get everything we wanted to do done unless we split up which we did Sat & Sun.

The mall has every store imaginable plus more. It has a Lindt chocolate store (the best chocolate in the WHOLE world IMO better than Godiva) which I spent time in.;) I found the prices in the mall the same as at home but there were alot of sales going on. There was even an Urban Outfitters (which I wrongfully thought that Philly had the one and only store).

We shopped alot and bought alot. We were only there for three days but we all brought our biggest piece of luggage so we could fit all of our purchases in.

I have to say the people who worked in the mall were the friendiest I have ever experienced in a mall or department store. I am used to NJ malls and beleive me if you can get anyone to help/pay attention to you while shopping you feel like you hit the lottery. Most of these "kids" are either talking back and forth to each other about their rotten dates the night before or speaking a foreign language to each other so you don't know what they are saying. :confused:

On the first night we ate at Tucci Benucch. It's an Italian restaurant and the food was excellent!! The second night we ate at the Twin City Grill which was just as good as the first night's meal. Both are located in the mall. We were all please with our meals and their prices. My sister and I are both vegetarians but were able to find many choices at these two places.

Our lunches were in the food court which I have to say I was impressed. I had a salad at a mexican CS which was very fresh and a crepe from the Magic Wok on the next day that was very tasty.

I had planned on doing the amusment park but just didn't have the time. I did walk thur it and thought the rides looked great. I did think the whole place would be bigger but maybe it just appeared to be small since it was inside of a very very big building.

I was dissappointed in the lego store. It's billed as a three story lego store. When I got inside I couldn't find the stairs to go up to the second floor.:blush: When I ask how to get upstairs I was told that the "creations" were 3 stories high not the floor space. The store in my estimates was about 1/2 of the "floor space" of the DTD store.:(

One thing to mention the Mall does not open until 10:00 during the week and 11:00 on Sunday.

Our trip was alot of fun and I'm glad we got to do it. My only regret was that we didn't have time to leave the Mall area and see some of the city.

I know they were talking about doubling the size of the Mall Of America, building in the big empty parking area next to Ikea. Don't know any updates about it for a while. They just finished the New Nickelodeon Universe Park (formally Camp Snoopy) recently, haven't been there yet since they finished it.

It is a nice place to do Holiday shopping but can be very very hectic at that time.

From Wikipedia

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Phase II expansion

Mall of America Phase II concept.Phase II is the planned expansion for MOA, developing a large, empty parcel of land north of the mall which was the former home of the Met Center indoor arena and integrating an IKEA store built on a portion of the property in 2004. Phase II, in current form, includes a dinner theatre, ice rink, three hotels, and a waterpark; similar in design to the West Edmonton Mall. The expansion will not make MOA exceed the size of the WEM. The plan has been impeded by a lack of public financing.

MOA currently estimates costs of $1.9 billion for the expansion, doubling the mall's size with a 5.2 million-square-feet extension. The mall's developers have asked for $234 million in state and local subsidies, but the request was vetoed as part of a larger bill by Gov. Tim Pawlenty on its first appearance in the 2006-07 session. Questions have arisen among Bloomington city officials as to the fiscal ability of the Ghermezians to finish Phase II.

In the meantime, MOA has signed contracts to bring in Great Wolf Resorts as the waterpark operator, as well as Bass Pro Shops and a Kimpton Hotel. The expansion section will connect to the mall on all four levels, and the IKEA via a second level bridge. There will be a NHL-sized arena for public & private skating. There will also be an additional parking ramp, adding 8,000 parking spaces.

There will also be fine art exhibits planned in the expansion.

On May 18, 2008, the Minnesota state Legislature passed a bill granting the city of Bloomington the right to raise property and sales taxes to pay for the MOA expansion.

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Ive always wanted to go there with my gf's but Im seriously afraid of how much money Ill spend!! I LOVE to shop - not just for me but for everyone. Im always keeping an eye out year round for that "perfect Christmas gift". And I hate window shopping! The equivalent of putting a steak in front of a dog and saying "NO!" to me. If you dont mind me asking - what was the avg amount of $$$ everyone spent? Im not an impulse buyer but I want what I want.

Im glad you and your friends got to go and had a good time!!

Sounds like you had a great time- thanks for sharing! :mickey:

My DD's Kindergarten class is doing a show next week called Kinderstates. There are 50 kids in the 3 classes so the teachers thought this would be cute. Anyway, each child represents a state(we are in NJ) and my daughters state is Minnesota and her line is" Minnesota has the Mall of America and I love shopping". It is very appropriate for her since she loves shopping. The show is great because they sing a song that has all 50 states in alphabetical order so now she knows all of them. All she talks about now is going to Minnesota. I told her one vacation a year and we can think about Minnesota next year.

[QUOTE=caryrae;1638303]I know they were talking about doubling the size of the Mall Of America, building in the big empty parking area next to Ikea. Don't know any updates about it for a while. They just finished the New Nickelodeon Universe Park (formally Camp Snoopy) recently, haven't been there yet since they finished it.

Wow I can't Imagine it getting bigger. We didn't get to hit every store and we were there for three days!!

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Originally Posted by KineGirl

Ive always wanted to go there with my gf's but Im seriously afraid of how much money Ill spend!! I LOVE to shop - not just for me but for everyone. Im always keeping an eye out year round for that "perfect Christmas gift". And I hate window shopping! The equivalent of putting a steak in front of a dog and saying "NO!" to me. If you dont mind me asking - what was the avg amount of $$$ everyone spent? Im not an impulse buyer but I want what I want.

Im glad you and your friends got to go and had a good time!!

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I think my sister spent around $600 and that included what she bought and meal. It didn't include hotel or airfare. I spent around $700. I still haven't added everything up yet. I know the first day I spent $300 and I estimate about $200 the next day. The last day even tough we were only there a couple of hours I went back for things I knew I wanted but didn't get the day before. I made two purchases at Swarovski and that was the bulk of the money.

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Originally Posted by sardanem

My DD's Kindergarten class is doing a show next week called Kinderstates. There are 50 kids in the 3 classes so the teachers thought this would be cute. Anyway, each child represents a state(we are in NJ) and my daughters state is Minnesota and her line is" Minnesota has the Mall of America and I love shopping". It is very appropriate for her since she loves shopping. The show is great because they sing a song that has all 50 states in alphabetical order so now she knows all of them. All she talks about now is going to Minnesota. I told her one vacation a year and we can think about Minnesota next year.

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That's cute. Tell her to start saving her allowance now because you really do shop til you drop.

Nice report! We went here in 2003 when there was a Camp Snoopy. It would be nice to go back since it has changed. Hmmmmmm. My favorite stores were QVC and Sanrio. ;) DD loved the lego area and they had the cereal section there too. Oh, and she couldn't get enough of the Carousel. I believe we ate at Rainforest, Planet Hollywood and Tony Roma's (the places I can remember). Oh wow, the memories. Your report makes me want to go back again. Thank you for posting. :thumbsup:

Thanks for posting! I hope to be able to go someday...that would be so much fun.

Thanks for the report!:thumbsup:
My girlfriend just came back from Mall of America and she was a bit disapointed with it.
Glad to know that you enjoyed it though.
I am still considering making the trip for myself.

Oh, this makes me miss my mall- yes, I consider MoA my mall. I was there opening week back in the day (1992) and have loved it ever since. I miss it now that I live on the other side of the country and can only visit when we go back to visit family. And I don't care what they call it, it will always be Camp Snoopy.