The Mall of America, the largest shopping mall in the United States, opened in 1992 in Bloomington, a suburb located south of Minneapolis. Its street address is 60 East Broadway. It is accessible by light rail, Uber or taxi, and by car. (For complete details, scroll down to the end of this article.)
Since its opening, the Mall has undergone expansion as well as a few changes. Stores and restaurants come and go on a regular basis – although may others have been at the Mall for over a decade. Originally the amusement park was called Camp Snoopy – since 2008 it has been branded as Nickelodeon Universe. The aquarium opened its doors as Underwater World in 1996, it has been owned by Sea Life since 2011.
There is a hotel connected to the Mall of America by a walkway – the Radisson Blu (2100 Killebrew Drive), and several hotels within walking distance, such as the JW Marriott (2141 Lindau Lane) and the Best Western Plus (1901 Killebrew Drive) to name only a few.
From the third floor food court, guests can sit and watch for planes taking off from the nearby Minneapolis Airport (the plane in the photo above is just to the left of the white concrete-looking building in the right hand corner of the photo)
The Mall of America was built on the location of the original Metropolitan Sports Stadium, home to the Minnesota Twins (baseball) and the Minnesota Vikings (football) until 1981, until it was demolished to make room for the Mall of America. (The Metrodome in down Minneapolis replaced the Metropolitan as the home field for the Vikings and the Twins, until it too was demolished in 2014. If you’re a sports fan: the Twins now play at Target Field – an outdoor stadium frequently snowed out in April!, and the Vikings play at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team plays at Target Center (across the street from Target Field).
The Mall pays homage to the former sports venues on which it was built – there are plaques embedded in the floor of the Nickelodeon Universe (the indoor theme park in the middle of the Mall) showing where the 50 yard line was for the Vikings, and home plate for the Twins. There’s also the Red Chair mounted on a wall – the location where Harmon Killibrew hit the longest home run in Metropolitan Stadium history.
“The Red Chair” honoring Harmon Killibrew’s historic homerun, just to the right of the tracks for the Rock Bottom plunge flume
Fourth Floor Renovation
The fourth floor of the Mall of America consists of a movie theatre and several night clubs. However, the floor is undergoing renovation at the time of this writing. When the theatre reopens we will update this article.
Water Park
An indoor water park is planned to be the next addition to the Mall of America – although where it can be built is a mystery to this author at the moment!
Level 1, Eastt. Door for light rail, Uber, and the Mall of America Information center
Opening Hours
According to the Mall of America website, all the stores open at 10 am. What the site doesn’t tell you – at least not in a way easily found! – is that the doors actually open at 8 am for mall walkers, and Barnes & Noble opens at 9 am. B & N always keep a pitcher of ice cold water available at the Starbucks inside the B & N for the convenience of walkers, or people can buy coffee and snacks there as well.
Many of the small cafes also open at 9 am for the convenience of walkers.
Three floors of shops, shops, shops at the Mall of America
First Visit – First Stop
When you first visit the Mall of America, you’ll have your choice between parking in the West Ramp or the East ramp, which provides covered – but unheated – parking, or parking in the North parking lost (overlooked by the third floor glass windows in the food court, from which one can watch planes take off from the nearby airport).
You can wander around on your own, or head immediately to the first floor by the East parking ramp to visit the Information center. Here you can get a free Visitors Guide, which will have a map in the center of it, featuring all of the shops, restaurants and entertainment locations. Although this Guide can go out of date very quickly – stores and restaurants can close in between publications of the Guide, it will at least give you some idea of where the “sites to see” are.
The Guide also has coupons in the back for up to 15% off some of the stores in the Mall,so it’s well worth paying a visit to the Information Center to pick one up.
Sea Life Aquarium
Sea Life Aquarium
The Sea Life Aquarium will be one of the first things you see if you enter from the Level 1, East doors. You purchase tickets on this ground floor, then descend one level to the gift shop and Pressed Penny machine ($1.01 per penny!) and take another escalator down to see the Sting Ray Experience.
Sting Ray Experience
Nickelodeon Universe Amusement Park
The center of the Mall is given over to the Nickelodeon Universe, featuring a ferris wheel, a roller coaster, a flume, and carousel rides for the youngest children. The characters depicted are all from Nickelodeon – Dora the Explorer and her friend Diego, Jimmy Neutron, and the the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Dora the Explorer and Diego
All sorts of fun for kids young and old in the Nickelodeon Universe
Shops
There are over a hundred shops in the Mall of America. Several are for clothing, others carry jewelry and watches, others luggage and bags, shoes, and toys, games and hobbies.
The Lego Store. Life-size Lego sculptures, Lego kits, and individual Legos to buy
“Coming soon”- Sweet Jesus ice cream
Restaurants
In addition to the third floor food court featuring fast food, there are a few fine dining restaurants scattered throughout the Mall of America, including Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Company and Dick’s Last Resort.
Bubba Gump Shrimp Company – note the shoes and the suitcase for a photo op
Penny machine outside Rainforest Cafe
Dick’s Last Resort
Experiences and Collectibles
If you’re a collector of experiences, then you’ve got a few opportunities at the Mall of America.
First of course is just visiting the largest Mall in the United States.
Second is playing a round of Miniature Golf. There are two miniature golf courses in the Mall:
- Rock of Ages Blacklight Miniature Golf
- Moose Mountain Adventure Golf
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There’s also an Escape Room which is a lot of fun.
Are you a Stretched Penny collector? (Also known as Pressed Pennies, Smashed Pennies or Elongated Pennies?)
https://www.pennycollector.com/
There are several stretched penny machines scattered throughout the Mall. Most of them are scattered around Nickelodeon Universe, but there are also two in Sea Life Aquarium (one in full view on the lower level, and the other two in the Gift Shop), one by the Rainforest Cafe, one inside the Moose Mountain Golf Course, inside Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, and one inside Dick’s Last Resort.
Rock of Ages Black Light Miniature Golf
How to Get There
If you’re used to driving in big city traffic, you’ll have no trouble driving to the Mall of America. Just input “Bloomington” as the city, and “60 East Broadway” as the street address, into your GPS.
Pay attention to the signs along the highway, and especially when you get off the highway and need to be in the left lane rather than the right to turn onto the mall property (at least if you’re going to the West parking ramp, via 77.)
Also, of course, pay attention to where you park. In the immortal words of the Twelfth Doctor – “it’s gonna come up a lot.”
Here are the driving directions from the Mall of America website
https://mallofamerica.com/plan-your-trip/hours-directions
Directions
From North of Bloomington
Take I-35 South to I-35W South to I-494 East, exit on 24th Avenue S.
From South of Bloomington
Take I-35 North to I-35W North to I-494 East, exit on 24th Avenue S.
From West of Bloomington
Take I-94 East to I-494 South to Highway 77 South, exit on Killebrew Dr. or 81st Street/Lindau Lane.
From East of Bloomington
Take I-94 West to I-494 South, exit on 24th Avenue S.
Metro Transit
From the Airport
Hiawatha Line (Route 55) -—The Hiawatha light-rail line offers fast, frequent service from both airport terminals to Mall of America®. Hiawatha light-rail trains leave every 7.5 minutes during rush hours, every 10-15 minutes at other times. Travel time is 12 minutes.
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From Minneapolis
Hiawatha Light Rail (Route 55) — The Hiawatha light-rail line offers fast, frequent service from downtown (5th Street) to Mall of America. Travel time from end to end is 39 minutes.
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From St. Paul
Route 54 — offers limited-stop service from downtown (6th & 7th Streets) to Mall of America and Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.
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