My Favourite Rides at the Mall of America Indoor Amusement Park! | Minnesota USA

Disclosure: This posts may contain affiliate links. I may make a small commission on purchases made after clicking the link. I do my best to try and keep information up-to-date but please check direct with businesses for current opening times and prices. For more information visit the Privacy & Disclosure Policy. Thank you for your support!

I didn’t even shop at the Mall of America! Ironic hey, go to a mall to do no shopping?! But believe me, it’s possible to spend a whole day at the Mall of America in Bloomington Minnesota without even entering one of the 500+ stores. (Actually that’s a lie, the parking lots enter the mall through stores. So maybe you’ll have to go into just one!). There’s even an indoor theme park! Here’s a look at some of my favourite Mall of America rides!

Disclosure: My visit to the Mall of America was hosted by the Roseville Visitors Association. As always opinions are my own.

Mall of America Attractions

🎡Nickelodeon Universe | 🧗🏻‍♀️Dutchman’s Deck Adventure Course | ⛳️Mini Golf | 🐠Other Attractions

Other Information

Parking at MOA | Where To Stay

The Mall of America Amusement Park: Nickelodeon Universe

Nickelodeon Universe is the largest indoor theme park in the USA. Despite the name, it’s not just for small children. There are several rides where you have to be over 48″ (122cm/4ft). 

There are 7 thrill rides and 20 junior/family attractions.

Best Rides at Mall of America

Some of my favourite Mall of America rides include:

🎢Pepsi Orange Streak

If you’ve visited Disneyworld, I would compare the Pepsi Orange Streak to The People Mover. It coverages a large section of Nickelodeon Universe and goes through into other rides. It really lets you appreciate just how big of an area this theme park covers!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qKedzhBFdc&w=560&h=315]

(Mall of America Roller Coaster)

🎢SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge

This is the most ‘extreme’ of the rides. The lift hill almost reaches the roof which then plunges you face first down a vertical drop. There are lots of loops and twists and turns and it is a bit of a brain shaker!

🪵Log Chute

This is the one that surprised me the most! A full blown log flume…INSIDE OF A MALL!!! Water splash and everything! The scenery is pretty cool too, it’s built around and through a mountain (the Pepsi Orange Streak passes through the same mountain). It has 2 drops, the highest being 40ft!

I also discovered that all the plants in the Mall of America are real! I assumed they were just props (well the ones in Nickelodeon Universe), but they actually act as natural air purifiers in the Mall!

🎡Other thrill rides include:

• Avatar Airbender
• Brain Surge
• Fairly Odd Coaster
• Splat-o-Sphere
• Shredder’s Mutant Masher
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shell Shock

Ticket Tips

As adults, the chances are all the rides you’ll want to go on are of a 6 point value (the smaller ones are 3 points). Rides work either with an ‘All Day Unlimited Wristband’ or a ‘Point Pass’.  

If you plan on going on 6 rides or more, it’ll be worth getting an unlimited wristband. I bought an 18 point pass (3 rides). I could have easily gone on more than 3 rides but I wanted to explore as much of the Mall as possible!

🧗🏻‍♀️Dutchman’s Deck Adventure Course

The Dutchman’s Deck Adventure Course is made up of 3 different elements. They can be experienced altogether or bought individually. The Ghostly Gangplank Ropes Course is the tallest Sky Trail ropes course in the world at a height of 56ft.

The Sky Trail is slightly different from some ropes courses in the way that you are NEVER detached from the course. You can walk around everywhere and your static line will automatically follow you.

As an adrenaline junkie it takes a lot for me to get the butterfly feeling but I found it by going RIGHT to the top of the course. It looks like a dead end, but there’s an actual gangplank where you walk out over the top of Nickelodeon Universe…it’s high and there’s nothing to hold on to! It’s fine until you have to turn around and walk back!

Barnacle Blast Zip Line

The Barnacle Blast Zip Line is the longest indoor zip line in North America. It’s 405ft long and you whizz 55ft above Nickelodeon Universe! You start at the Dutchman’s Deck Adventure Course end, climbing the staircase right to the top. 

First you zip one way across the park, landing on a platform before taking a 2nd zip line back to the main course. Me being a geek that worked a season as a high ropes instructor, thought it was cool how the static line and the zip line were all in one!

Just like the Ghostly Gangplank, you are never detached from the course. If you are doing both parts, you do have to change static lines between zip lining and the main course…the main course has more slack.

🛝Anchor Drop Tube Slide

To get down from the Ghostly Gangplank course, you take the Anchor Drop tube slide. There are 2, a longer one and a shorter one. I did read somewhere that at one point it was the longest indoor tube slide in the USA! 

Once you leave the course to go on the slide, you can’t return onto it. You can however have as many turns on the slide as you want. Your harness is removed and you slide down on a mat. The top of the tube is see-through so you can see Nickelodeon Universe as you slide down!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv7GwYrzJCA&w=560&h=315]

⛳️Mini Golf

Mall of America is home to not one but TWO 18 hole mini golf courses. Rock of Ages is a rock music themed back lit course (dark with UV lights/glow in the dark paint). Moose Mountain which is a more logging/Canadian type theme. I played Moose Mountain which overlooks Nickelodeon Universe.

Entrance to the course is on the 4th floor of the Mall. So even though you can buy packages that include mini golf and the rides, the 2 aren’t actually connected!

🕖Ride Hours

Nickelodeon Universe is open between 10am – 9.30pm Monday to Saturday and 11am – 7pm on Sundays.

Other Mall of America Rides and Attractions

As if all of the above wasn’t enough to keep you busy, the list of attractions goes on! We wandered around SMAAASH, which has an indoor go-karting track (!!!) and a whole arcade of virtual reality simulators. VR masks sometimes make me feel like I’m going to puke so I gave it a miss! It takes regular fairground simulators to a whole other level!

Flyover America is more like the traditional simulator. It shows a 10 minute movie where you fly over the top of different landmarks and landscapes across America.

🦈Sea Life Minnesota

Get this, you can even GO SNORKELLING at the Mall of America at the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium! The snorkelling experience only happens 3 times a day and only at the weekends (unless you are a group).

Groups with children can even spend the night at the aquarium and sleep in the  300ft underwater viewing tunnel.

🗝️The Escape Game

There’s also an Escape Room game. I love these things and have done them all around the world.  You get locked in a room and have to solve clues and problems to escape within 60 minutes! 

I will say this though, it seems that Escape Rooms in the USA will stick groups together rather than just let you pay and go in as a smaller group. As someone that’s quite quiet I don’t think I’d like being in with strangers, I’m more confident speaking up in front of people I know!

On the same floor as the Escape Room is a Mirror Maze. I don’t have much to say about it as it’s pretty much exactly what it says on the tin! The same type of thing you may have seen at a fair!

They regularly have events too, including a nightly light and music show at Nickelodeon Universe, book signings, character meet and greets, music and competitions.

Related Reading: 12 Best Amusement Parks In The Midwest USA

Finding Your Way Around the Mall of America

As you may have already guessed, the Mall of America is pretty damn big. If you were to walk around the perimeter of just one level, you would have walked a mile. One lap of Nickelodeon Universe is 0.35 miles alone! They even have schemes where you can track how long you spend walking around the Mall!  

But don’t fear! They have lots of electronic information stations which act like ‘GPS’ maps. You can browse or type in a store/restaurant/attraction and it will literally point you in the right direction. It tells you when you need to turn/go up an escalator, exactly how far of a distance it is away from you and how long it’ll roughly take you to walk there!

Parking at Mall of America

Mall of America has 2 free parking ramps, an east and a west that are connected to the Mall by sky bridges. Each level has a different State name (I parked in Indiana), hopefully making it easy for you to remember where you parked! There is enough space for 12,750 vehicles (lots of hotels in the area offer shuttles too).

Before I visited, we were told not to even try parking on the lower levels, just go straight to the top. But on a Friday lunchtime we found that there was plenty of space on every floor. It was a different story when we left though, there were definitely a lot more cars! Heading to a higher level may be worthwhile in the evenings and at weekends.

Where to Stay

My visit was hosted by the Roseville Visitors Association. I stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott, which is 20 minutes from the Mall of America! Roseville is in a good central location for visiting various attractions within the Twin Cities area.

Their visitors guide is great for giving you inspiration during your stay. It includes a great coupon book to make the pennies last longer!

During my visit, the coupons included: $2 off Moose Mountain, $4 off a Nickelodeon Universe all day wristband, Flyover America $2 coupon, 50% off the Mall of America coupon book and $5 off an adult or child entrance to the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium.

Alternatively, if you want to stay closer, JW Marriott Minneapolis Mall of America is connected to the mall. Otherwise several of the nearby hotels have free shuttle buses.

Mall of America Amusement Park FAQs

Inspired? Pin it for later!