Flying Dutchman Ghostly Gangplank at Mall of America
Mall of America in Minnesota recently added a crazy looking Flying Trails course called the Flying Dutchman Ghostly Gangplank. The gangplank is based on the ghost that haunts the seven Bikini Bottom Seas on SpongeBob SquarePants. It is an unusual thing for a mall. The Ghostly Gangplank has a height requirement of 42 inches. We hope it is much safer than it looks. Take a look:
A Barbie pop-up store opened today at the Mall of America in Minnesota. The store carries many Barbie dolls as well as clothes, totes and playsets. The store will stay open though March, 2010.
Playthings says the store will also carry Baribe themed t-shirts created by fashion designers including Kenneth Cole and Patricia Field. The store will also have special displays, including a special display of all the holiday Barbie dolls ever made on November 27th in an exhibit called "Barbie Loves the Holidays."
Rockettes and Santa Ride Roller Coaster at Mall of America
The Radio City Rockettes kicked off their North American tour this year with an appearance at Mall of America. The Rockettes joined Santa for an a ride on the Pepsi Orange Streak roller coaster at Nickelodeon Universe, a seven-acre amusement park located in the center of Mall of America. The Rockettes are taking their show on the road this year reports the International Herald Tribune. You can find details about the sixty day 18-city Radio City Christmas Spectucular tour here.
The Mall of America recently celebrated its 15th birthday with this 1,500 cupcake tower. They are hip to the ongoing cupcake trend. They also provided this list of the Mall of America's accomplishments over the past fifteen years.
Welcomed more than a half a billion visitors
Provided more than 115 million rides in the amusement park
Helped non-profit organizations raise over $100 million
Prepared more than 26 million pounds of french fries
Served more than 18 million funnel cakes
Recycled over 62,000 tons of trash
Hosted 5,000 weddings
And ... removed 91,380 wads of gum
There really are weddings at the Mall of America at the Chapel of Love. But do they really keep count of all the wads of gum they remove?
Love is in bloom at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. The Park in Bloomflower show has transformd The Park at Mall of America into a lover's lane between Feb. 9-19. The show features more than 3,000 spring flowering plants, 15,000 cut flowers and includes a 15-foot tall topiary entrance to welcome all guests.
Photo courtesy: Bob Cole Photography, Mall of America.
Some malls are becoming more and more like
tourist attractions instead of just a convenient collection
of different stores. They not only provide
numerous restaurants and move theatres but indoor ski
slopes and amusement park-like rides. A recent
MSNBC.com
article discusses these megamalls and offers a description of the Mall of America located in Minnesota:
Late at night, the Mall of America is one exquisitely creepy place.
In the center of its seven-acre atrium hulks a giant Snoopy. Across
from Snoopy, an equally mammoth ax -- part of a dormant amusement ride --
stands bolt upright. The general aesthetic can best be described as
slasher film meets airplane hangar, with hints of Pompidou. Above
Camp Snoopy stretch miles of exposed piping. Below, the roving tweens
and teens who buzzed through the mall during the day are gone, and
an adult crowd, in search of nightlife, breaks an otherwise cavernous
silence. They're heading to the so-called "Upper East Side" on the
fourth and top floor of the shopping mecca in Bloomington, Minnesota,
across from its massive multiplex. The Upper East Side is fully
innocuous, if vaguely sinful. It's filled with arcades, a piano bar,
a sports bar, a comedy club, and a Hooters.
The MSNBC.com article explains how these malls, like the Mall of
America, bill themselves as travel destinations targeting tourists
from other states and countries. Destination megamalls are also
being built in other countries. Malaysia's Berjaya Times Square
Kuala Lumpur is a 7.5 million-square-foot mall. And the
Emirates Mall in Dubai is having a ski slop built inside
of it. You can find more on the Emirates Mall in this post.
