A few years ago I visited the Nickelodeon Universe at the American Dream Mall (NUADM) with Sam and Greg. We were still coming out of Covid, but luckily for us, all of the coasters were operating. While I did enjoy the park, it is one that I am not in any hurry to return to. I found the park to be rather bland looking with rides that were fun, but not ones I feel the urge to ride again immediately. Sadly, the ride I was most looking forward to riding, TMNT Shellraiser, didn’t live up to my high hopes and had one nasty pothole too. Overall, the experience was just kind of meh.
With that in mind, I didn’t go into this Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America (NUMoA) with high expectations. I have seen images and reviews of this park, so I knew it was at least going to look better than the rides in a box look from the Jersey location. But how would the rides fair? Some are very similar, but to be honest, I wasn’t going in excited to ride any single one coaster like I was for Shellraiser.
If it sounds like I was dreading a visit to this park, let me clarify and say that is not at all the case at all. I appreciate visiting every single park I set foot in and try to find the positives at each. Plus, this was the final day of our vacation, stopping for a few hours before having to board our flight. Any chance to land a few more coaster credits at a brand new park will always be welcome. And Jen would be landing her 150th credit here as well.
Less Thrilling Rides Than its Sister Park
When you stack the coaster line ups of the two Nickelodeon Universe parks against each other, NUADM has a major edge in the thrill/extreme coaster categories. Sandy’s Blasting Bronco, TMNT Shellraiser, and Shredder easily beat out NUMoA’s offerings. SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge is this park’s biggest coaster. While it does feature the vertical lift and drop and multiple inversions, the rest of the park’s coaster line up falls behind or at best, is similar to what you’ll find at American Dream.
SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge
This is easily the park’s headline coaster. While Gerstlauer is not one of my favorite coaster manufacturers, I have heard some mixed things about this ride. I wanted to find out for myself if this would be smooth and enjoyable like Hydrus at Casino Pier, or bang my head around as rides like Mystery Mine at Dollywood and TMNT Shellraiser have done in the past.
Thankfully we were seated in the back row for our one and only ride, Jen’s 150th credit. We’ve been told to ride Eurofighter models in the back for a smoother experience by some of our fellow enthusiasts, which worked for Mystery Mine a couple of years ago. Sadly we didn’t know that when visiting NUADM with Shellraiser. Here, however, we did know and got a good ride. I didn’t bang my head at all and would have had no problem riding again if we had more time and the line moved a little bit faster.
Pepsi Orange Streak
When I said that both Nickelodeon Universe parks had some similar rides, this was one of the coasters I was talking about. At American Dream you have Nickelodeon Slime Streak, which traverses the entire park, weaving its way over and around what seems to be every ride in the building. The same exact thing can be said for Pepsi Orange Streak. And seriously, both of these coasters have insanely long trains.
While you won’t catch any extreme pops of airtime or laterals on this coaster, it is still one I had fun riding. It’s perfect for kids too if you’re visiting with family.
Fairly Odd Coaster
The older I get the less and less I like coasters that can spin out of control. I’m not talking Time Traveler-like spinning at Silver Dollar City. I’m talking spinning Wild Mouse-like coasters. They don’t always get me, but sometimes I can feel a little off after a ride on one. That’s what happened to me here.
Jen and I had just got off Avatar Airbender, another spinning coaster, and then walked over to ride Fairly Odd Coaster. I will say I enjoyed the ride’s course, but I was starting to feel a little woozy toward the end of the ride.
Of course I made the amazing call to go ride Shredder’s Mutant Masher after this for our third straight spinning ride. Yeah, I’m dumb sometimes. At least when Jen wanted to ride TMNT Shellshock, I sat that one out. I couldn’t take a fourth spinning ride in a row.
Final Ride Counts
Avatar Airbender (1)
Back at the Barnyard Hayride (1)
Bubble Guppies Guppy Bubbler (1)
Fairly Odd Coaster (1)
Ghost Blasters (1)
Pepsi Orange Streak (1)
Shredder’s Mutant Masher (1)
SpongeBob Square Pants Rock Bottom Plunge (1)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shellshock (1: Jen)
Missed Out on the Ride I Wanted Most
While I am a coaster enthusiast, the one ride I really wanted to ride at this park was the log flume, Log Chute. I’ve always been intrigued by it from the various videos I’ve seen online. Sadly it was not open. I’m not sure why, but there was no water in the flume. That bummed me out. Because of this, if I’m ever back in Minneapolis, I will be stopping by this park again just to ride it. It’s not that far from the airport, so I doubt it will be a problem to squeeze in a stop again. I’ll just be sure to spread out those damn spinning rides!
Nickelodeon Universe (MN) Photo Gallery - July 7, 2025
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CREW MANIFEST
The following flight crew members attended this park, & earned the respective credits below:
Patrick
CAG
New Credit(s): SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge, Pepsi Orange Streak, Back at the Barnyard Hayride, Avatar Airbender, Fairly Odd Coaster
Jen
Captain
New Credit(s): SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge, Pepsi Orange Streak, Back at the Barnyard Hayride, Avatar Airbender, Fairly Odd Coaster