Trip Report: Mall of America

[BronxTigger]

Cast:
Me, who lives in NYC
My mom, who lives in Washington State

Plan:
My mother and I, who live on opposite coasts, decided to meet in the middle for some mother/daughter time shopping.

Photos

Day 1 (Thursday, April 5, 2007)
We both flew on Northwest to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. We had timed our flights so that we would get in at about the same time. Both our flights were on time and both of our bags made it to MSP with us. We would have liked to eat at the airport before leaving for the hotel, but food on the bag claim side of security was not to be found. We were staying at the Hilton Bloomington/Mall of America, and they have a free airport shuttle so we just called to let them know we were at the airport, and then waited for them to pick us up for the short (5 minute?) ride to the hotel. When we got there we dropped off our stuff in our room (411), then we caught the free shuttle to the Mall of America. We ate at the amusement park food court (typical fast food), then we wandered around the mall and got a few things. (I found the Disney Store and Basin!) We went back to the hotel and we went up to the Executive Lounge and had some drinks and snacks. The Executive Lounge, on the 12th Floor, is limited access for free breakfast and afternoon drinks and snacks, but we think we had access to it because of Hilton Honors. For dinner, we just got room service pizza. This was because, for the second time in one day, we had a tough time finding food. We just wanted something simple, but the only food on-site was a nice table service restaurant and a bar that was attached to the restaurant. It was either eat there, room service, or shuttle back to the mall, so we decided on the pizza, which was not bad.

Day 2 (Friday, April 6, 2007)
We got up and had breakfast at the Executive Lounge. We went back upstairs and watched TV until the mall opened at 10. We took the 10:20 shuttle (the mall shuttle runs once an hour, at :20 after, and picks up from the mall once an hour, at :30 after) to the mall, and started wandering around again. We intended to look for the light rail station, but got distracted by DSW Shoe Warehouse, and that was the end of that. We spent the day shopping, snacking, and we managed to get 2 rides in at the amusement park. We rode on the Timberland Twister, which is similar but not as jarring as Primeval Whirl, and the Ferris Wheel. For lunch, we ate at a nice Italian place called Tucci Benucch. It is similar to the Olive Garden, but nicer. For dinner we ate at Ruby Tuesdays, also good.

If you go to the Mall of America, you should really consider renting a locker. For a standard size, they are $5 for 9 hours with unlimited re-entry. For a larger size, I think it was $9 for 9 hours. You can also get shorter hour amounts for a little less money. It was so nice to not have to drag our stuff around, including our coats. The mall is quite warm inside, even though they do not heat it and it was only about 17 degrees outside. The people warmth combined with the heat from the lights and skylight mean they do not need to use traditional heaters inside the mall.

We ended up not going back to the hotel until the 8:30 shuttle. When we got back, we just relaxed and looked through our new stuff and watched tv before going to bed. We were tired from all that walking and shopping!

Day 3 (Saturday, April 7, 2007)
We woke up and again had breakfast at the Executive Lounge. We left for the MOA again on the 10:20 shuttle. But this time, we were not going to stay at the mall. We found the light rail station (1st floor of the east parking garage) and took it downtown. This is a great deal. It is only $1.50 per person each way (actually it is for a 2.5 hour window, so you can possibly make a round trip in this time frame). The trip was pleasant and is around 12 miles; I forgot to time it but I think it was around 20 or 30 minutes each way. We got off at the Nicollet Mall stop. There are many stores downtown along a street called Nicollet, and they are referred to as the Nicollet Mall. They are connected to each other by sky bridges, so you don't really have to go outside much once you were in one store. We started at Neiman Marcus and wandered around through the sky bridges. We found a Panera Bread for lunch. We saw the flower show at Macy's, which was a surprise because I thought they only did that at the NYC 34th Street store. The flower display was smaller than at NYC, but they had a live African band which was cool. I ended up getting my hair cut at Great Clips and then we went shopping at Target. We were laughing because we went all the way downtown and the only place we bought stuff from was Target! Oh well, we had a good time anyways. We took the light rail back to the MOA, and then we hung around the mall for a bit because we had just missed the Hilton Shuttle. We had coffee at Caribou Coffee, which is kind of like Starbucks but it is local so we had to try it.

Day 4 (Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007)
We got up this morning had breakfast (surprise!) at the Executive Lounge. We had 2:30 and 3:20 flights out of MSP, so we didn't really have time to do anything this morning besides chill in the room and pack up, so that's what we did. At about 10:45, when I was just starting to pack my stuff up to catch the 11:30 airport shuttle, I get an automated call from NWA informing me that my flight was canceled and I was put on a flight for the next day. Well, as much fun as I had in Minnesota, I did not want to stay another day (especially by myself!). So I called NWA back and found another flight...but it was leaving at 1:20....2 hours earlier than I was planning to leave! Yikes! I had to finish packing and catch the next shuttle. The Hilton sends shuttles to the airport every 30 minutes, at :00 and :30 past the hour. I had just missed the 11:00 shuttle, but they were able to send an extra shuttle at 11:15 when they found out about my flight issue. But, when we got to the airport there was NO line for check in OR for security, so we were at the airport and past security by about 11:45, and my flight was boarding at 12:40. Our original plan was to take the 11:30 airport shuttle so that we could enjoy a sit down meal before my mom's 2:30 flight, but we still had enough time for a sit down meal for my 1:20 flight because there were no lines. So, we ate at TGI Friday's. Then, we had a few minutes to look around before I had to board. We found a Motorola cell phone vending machine. Go figure.

In the end, it was a good trip, and we are now both home, safe and sound. We think we might have to do another mother/daughter trip next year, but we have not decided where to go yet.

[jennbunn]

glad to hear you had a nice trip to m.o.a!! we live a few minutes away from the mall and spend alot of free time there. we love the lightrail to downtown.

[BelleandtheBeast]

We try to make a trip to the Mall of America every spring, I love it there, so much to do.

[NJGIRL]

Thanks for the PM and the trip report. We are planning on eating at Tucci Benucch in Aug so I'm glad you liked it.

How was the Hilton? Did they have a nice pool?

One more question, while you were in town did you do any sight seeing?