I'm wrapping up a work trip in beautiful Minneapolis where I was able to squeeze in a couple theme park stops. I visited the Mall of America on Wednesday afternoon, very briefly, and then spent a half day at Valleyfair on Friday. This was my first time to both parks and I was able to use my Knott's Berry Farm All Park Pass to get free admission to Valleyfair and some discounts on merch and the like.
Mall of America
It can not be overstated how profoundly weird Nickelodeon Universe is. The area is packed to the gills with attractions, including everything from a couple of roller coasters to a massive amount of rock climbing walls. There were a lot of international tourists and I'd venture a guess that's where most of the attraction revenue comes from. I hit a couple of the roller coasters, including SpongeBob's Rock Bottom Plunge, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themed Sky Flat attraction (which is also being installed at Epic Universe!)
Rock Bottom Plunge was quite short and a bit rough. It's the most interesting coaster in the park but nothing to write home about if you've been on a more modern model. Hang Time, while obviously built by a different manufacturer, blows this out of the water. The Sky Flat attraction was awesome. There's a bit of a learning curve involved, but once you get the hang of it you'll be perfectly capable of making yourself nauseous.
Perhaps most interesting (and weird!) was the mixture of IP represented. Fairly Odd Parents still had a massive footprint, while Danny Phantom (!), Avatar and other characters of his era were also represented in one aspect or another. No doubt, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and SpongeBob were the headliners — but I didn't see much else in the way of modern Nickelodeon characters.
Anyway, I'm glad I went just to experience the sheer vastness of a particular type of American consumerism. It was easy to get here from downtown — I walked to the Blue Line light rail and rode it to its terminus at the Mall of America. Easy peasy.
Valleyfair!
This day was a bit more convoluted. I was swapping hotels after visiting the park, so I took an Uber to the park with all my luggage. I went straight from vacation in Lake Tahoe to this work trip, so packing light was challenging. Yes, yes, the chorus of tiny violins are justified here. Anyway, this meant I needed a very large locker to accommodate by duffel and backpack. I reached out to Valleyfair guest relations about a week ago and heard back within a day confirming that yes, there was a locker to accommodate my crap and that I'd be fine to go through security with all of it.
Anyway, I paid $30 for the locker and was relieved to be rid of my stuff. I arrived at the park about 15 minutes before the park opened and was one of maybe 50 people in line. That meant, essentially, I had free run of the park through the first two hours (the park opened at 10 a.m.). I rode all the coasters, save for the powered coaster in Planet Snoopy, starting at the back of the park and moving back toward the middle. Excalibur didn't open until 11 a.m., so some backtracking was required.
The park is quite nice. There aren't any A-Tier attractions (though Renegade is fun and Wild Thing is surprisingly great), but it's wonderfully landscaped and all the employees I encountered were quite friendly. The park started to fill up by noon, but before that it was rather quiet and not terribly hot. The water park is included with your admission, so I suspect much of the crowd gravitated that way thanks to the increasing heat and humidity.
The layout of the park is a bit odd. The center of the park is a typical loop with a few paths cutting through the center. But on either end of the park are a pair of dead ends — the far end include Excalibur, the park's third coaster (1989), and the river rapids (not open during my visit). On the other end is Steel Venom, one of a few Intamin impulse coasters still in the league. Anyway, that means you'll be doing quite a bit of walking despite the park's relatively small footprint.
As far as the coasters go, Renegade and Wild Thing are quite fun. Steel Venom is fine, though nothing to write home about. High Roller, Corkscrew and Excalibur are all quite bumpy — Excalibur in particular seems like an excellent candidate for replacement. That end of the park has little to no draw (which is why the coaster opens at 11, I assume) and there's a lot of space to expand if they knock out both Excalibur and the rapids ride. History suggests Six Flags won't do this, but perhaps the merger is a new dawn for previously neglected parks.
My only other takeaway is how great this park must be during Valleyscare because of its numerous trees and winding pathways. There was plenty of Valleyscare construction visible, including a full house facade on the south side of the park.
Oh, and I got this great hat.