It’s the nation’s largest retail and entertainment complex. It’s the number one tourist attraction in Minnesota. It has the country’s largest indoor amusement park, a dinosaur museum, an underground aquarium, more than 520 retail shops, 20 sit-down restaurants along with over 60 specialty food and fast food stores, 14 movie screens and enough space to fit 7 Yankee Stadiums inside. This is no ordinary mall. Nor is it the mall of generations past, the place in town where teenagers gathered to gawk at the opposite sex. This isn’t A mall. It’s THE mall. All of the attractions, space, and stores to shop in can be intimidating. Hours upon hours can be spent a the Mall of America, affectionately known as MOA, and this expert guide will help you plan your visit wisely.
The Mall of America is located in Bloomington, Minnesota. This suburb is situated just southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and downtown Minneapolis. The mall is the final stop on the light rail service that runs through Minneapolis, providing service to the airport, the mall and dozens of other stops on the way into the heart of downtown Minneapolis. Whether you’re staying in St. Paul, Minneapolis, or one of the many suburbs surrounding the Twin Cities, MOA isn’t very far away and is actually quite convenient to get to. For a traveler with a long lay over at the airport, the mall is just a short 12 minute train ride away. If you’re coming from St. Paul or Minneapolis, you can plan your trip in advance at www.metrotransit.com. The trip planner shows you what combination of bus and train will get you to the mall the fastest. If you plan on driving to the mall but have never been to the Twin Cities, check out the map and directions page at www.mallofamerica.com.
Before you head off for a day of shopping and entertainment you should take a glance at everything MOA has to offer. You won’t have time to see and do everything in one day, so if one day is all you can spend there, you’ll want to know what shops and attractions are your top priority. If a shopper browsed every store at MOA for 10 minutes each, it would take them more than 86 hours to get through every store. And that’s not counting the amusement park, restaurants, aquariums and live entertainment that’s bound to distract you as well! If you have time, browse through the list of shops on MOA and check out the various attractions. Here’s a compiled list of some of the most popular things to do, places to see and stores to shop at MOA.
The four major department stores: Nordstrom’s, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and Sears are always popular especially because of their enormous size and the three floors of shopping they provide. Men’s and Women’s Apparel stores: Abercrombie, American Eagle, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Victoria’s Secret, Express, H&M;, Urban Outfitters, J. Crew, Forever 21, Ann Taylor, and Guess round out the list of major apparel clothing stores. Specialty stores are more than abundant and cover a vast landscape of genres. Everything from bath salts to electronics and peanut butter to makeup can be found inside MOA. While only a small percent are on this list, these are some of my personal favorites: Apple Store, Steve Madden, P.B. Loco, Haagen Dazs, Godiva Chocolatiers, Build-a-Bear, The Character Shop, Nordstrom’s Rack, Teavana, Gloria Jean’s Gourmet Coffee, William’s Sonoma, Lids, The Hockey Lodge, DSW, Discovery Channel, Aveda, Sharper Image, and Sephora. Attractions are a big part of your MOA experience as well. The largest and most popular attractions appeal to people of all ages and are all perfect for kids and adults alike. The Park at MOA, Underwater Adventures Aquarium, LEGO, and Dinosaur Walk Museum will all keep a visitor entertained no matter what their age. Finally to round out your day spent at MOA there’s planning lunch or dinner . . . or quite possibly both. Two food courts house everything from typical mall fare to throwback 50’s diners like Johnny Rockets. Larger restaurants are located all around the mall and include such popular names as The Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory, Ruby Tuesday’s, The Rainforest Cafe, Tucci Bennuch, California Cafe, Wolfgang Puck Express, Tiger Sushi, and Napa Valley Grille. There are so many choices to decide on that unlike most malls the difficulty lies in deciding what you want to eat and not in trying to find something worth eating.
Now that you have an idea of the major players in the mall it’s time to start tackling mall etiquette and how to get around, efficiently, without making too many unnecessary trips around. Whether your trip to the mall will be with a large group, your family including small children, or just you and a friend, there a few tips that can help your visit go smoothly.
First, remember that MOA is not only a tourist attraction. Over 11,000 people work at the mall and thousands of residents of the Twin Cities consider the mall their main shopping location. For us, it’s where we buy our pants on clearance or pick up new pair of shoes. This simply means, be aware of your surroundings. When visiting with a large group or with your family, try to exercise a few common courtesy reminders. Don’t walk more that two across down the hallway. The hallways are wide, but can be crowded. Tourists tend to walk slowly and soak in their surroundings and while this is perfectly acceptable, keep a lane open for those people who are simply getting from one place to the next. If for some reason you party stops, move to the side of the hallway or move around a bench area. Groups that stop in the middle and block major walkways are not only frustrating but can be a hazard especially for patrons in wheelchairs and those pushing children in strollers. Always gather where you’ll be out of the way. This also goes for directory stands. The mall has several of these but nothing is more frustrating than a crowd of ten people blocking the directory. Try to send one or two people only to look at the directory and then report back to the rest of the group.
Always remember that MOA is huge. One trip around one floor is a little over half a mile. 3 1/2 floors encompassing an amusement park mean that you may easily miss a location you’d wished to see unless you know exactly where it is and precisely how to find it. If you’re pressed for time and you want to go back to something, it’s better to just see it next time. Walking through the mall can talk a lot of time, plus with the time needed to either find your car or the light rail station, get out of the parking lot, and get on your way, it’s probably not worth it. What does make the mall easier to navigate is their addressing system. The mall is a basic square structure with stores located around the park like a track around a football field. Each leg of the track is marked with the cardinal direction it faces. Each store is given an address according to it’s position on that leg and which floor of the leg it exists on. For example, E128 is a store on the East hallway, the first floor, and it’s the 28th store down the hallway from E100. The four major department stores are the cornerstones for NW, NE, SW and SE. Each has a large court in front of it on all of the floors. In attempts to make this addressing system as easy to understand as possible, each store front has black lettering near the top of the window saying what the address is. If you know a few stores and locations that you’d like to visit, jot down the address from www.mallofamerica.com or find them on the directory when you get there. You don’t want to visit W256 and then head over to E112 when there was a store on S310 that you’d wanted to see as well. If you have time to leisurely stroll around all four floors, feel free to investigate stores only as you come to them. But if you’re under any sort of time restraint or aren’t sure if you’ll be able to see everything simply by wandering, the address system makes it far easier to find your way.
Mall of America can be crowded. Not just crowded, but horribly crowded, noisy, busy, and claustrophobic. If at all possible, avoid the weekends. Nearby tourists are more common as are residents of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin that prefer shopping at the mall but live too far away to do so during the week. During the holiday season, the weekends at the mall are nothing short of a madhouse. The 20,000 parking spots in two separate ramps and an additional parking lot are barely enough to accommodate the number of cars. Many events take place at the rotunda as well, creating large crowds and stationary people. The rotunda is on the 1st floor, directly in front of the East Parking Ramp entrance. Concerts, fashion shows, exhibits, television and radio shows have all taken place here and often take place on weekends. Check the schedule for the rotunda for any big-name events that you may wish to see, or, avoid the crowds caused by one. The mall is also often home to events that draw in large crowds. These can line the hallways with people and clutter, making an already busy mall nearly unbearable. One horrifying example of this is the annual “Scrapfest” event. Literally thousands of women stand in line around the entire first floor. The lines culminate in a variety of booths where a few different scrap booking techniques are applied to the different cards and papers each woman is carrying. The volume of turnout for this event is astronomical and leaves most employees of the mall scrabbling to request the crowded weekend off. Always, always, check the weekend of your visit so you know what’s happening at the mall that day.
Here are a few more small tips to remember if you’re new to the mall. If you’re there on an uncrowded day, cutting through the Park is a quick way from East hallway to West hallway, or North to South. Make sure you need to go directly across though, because otherwise, it’s futile. If you’re on the third floor, just walk around. You’ll waste more time getting downstairs, walking through, and going back upstairs. Never cut through the Park on a weekend, you’ll get tangled in the masses of children. If you’re hungry and prefer quick food, the food courts are located on the third floor. There are two of them, though the larger and better one is under neath the movie theatre. If you’re going to the Park, an unlimited wristband is more economical than individual tickets, though it depends on how many rides you wish to go on. Automated machines and ticket booths sell tickets in the Park. When walking around, don’t assume you know where you are because you’ve seen a store you had already shopped in once. There are several duplicate stores around. Gap and Old Navy’s stores are on the first and second floors. There are three Caribous and two Starbucks. Victoria’s Secret, American Eagle, Trade Secret, Perfumania, Bath & Bodyworks, T-Mobile and Mobile Solutions all have two locations while Mall of America Gift Shop has three locations. Use the address system to orient yourself instead of familiar stores. There are too many duplicates to rely on familiar sites. When parking in the ramps, make sure you remember where you’ve parked. Each floor is a different color and state. Rows and columns are marked so you can figure out where you placed your vehicle. If you’re not sure you’ll remember, write it down! Even better, take a picture of the nearby pillar with your camera phone, and a picture of the state. The East and West parking ramps are identical except for the names of the floors, which correspond with eastern and western states.
Finally, MOA does have a variety of safety rules and regulations. The Bloomington police also have a station within the mall near one of the entrances and real police are always on duty in the mall. Controversy began a few years ago when Minnesota voted to pass a conceal and carry law and many establishments put up signs, banning guns. Signs are no longer necessary but rest assured, guns are banned from MOA. Children ages 15 and younger are required to be with an adult at the mall on Fridays and Saturdays after 4pm. Guards will check ids at the entrances and also outside of the major department stores. If you’re with your kids, you’ll need to stay with them. I was carded leaving Nordstrom’s when I was 22, so they’re definitely serious about this restriction. Finally, the mall closes at ten most nights, except Sunday’s when it closes at seven. Most stores follow these times, however the actually mall will stay open to let late-night movie goers exist.
Mall of America is a great place to shop and a day spent there can be a lot of fun. Whether you’re brand new to the mall, or simply looking for a way to maximize your enjoyment at the mall, hopefully these tips will help you plan ahead for a great visit. Check out the stores and attractions you really want to see. Schedule your visit at a calmer time. Be aware of others around you and respect their presence. Most importantly, have fun while you’re there.
