This Saturday will mark the grand opening of the first Nickelodeon themed park in the world — Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America, in Minnesota. Originally Camp Snoopy, the indoor theme park, housed in the center of the MOA complex, featured rides surrounded by trees and rockwork. Supposedly the park officials had trouble coming to an agreement with Charles Schultz’s relatives to continue the Peanuts theme in the park — I can imagine though, that what the park was really after was filling their stores with Dora the Explorer and Sponge Bob merchandise. (The Schultz family need to allow Snoopy a computer animated cartoon series — I think he has a lot of mileage left, but kids just do not know who he is anymore)
A lot of the park has been retooled and repainted, adding some brand new rides. Additions include the $2.5 million dollar Sponge Bob Squarepants Rock Bottom Plunge — a corkscrew rollercoaster that takes riders straight up to the girders, some 6 stories overhead and straight back down on a 97 degree fall.
The picture on the right shows a ramp like structure, which has since been completed as the signage with SpongeBob and Patrick riding in a coaster car going straight down. The coaster does look impressive. A small (compared to outdoor parks) drop tower ride has also been added in the park area that used to have an interactive fountain. A new, massive skateboard ride, where riders sit in two rotating rings of seats on top of the realistic looking board, climbs ramps to the ceiling, bringing a great kinetic motion to the park. Some additions seem less well thought out…the kid’s speedway cars, have been repainted and a Swiper the Fox statue added by the attractions side, renaming it “Swiper’s Sweepers”. Strange name — and isn’t it Tico that is always driving around on Dora’s show? Maybe Tico’s Taxis would have made more sense.
Overall, the park seems to have more space, with a lot of the rockwork removed and more simple walls painted with the Nickelodeon orange splat. Large graphics adorn the central support columns with Dora, Diego and other Nick characters. The park does have more color but it has lost much of the spectacular outdoor feeling that Camp Snoopy used to have (especially at night). Things feel much more plastic and some things feel almost temporary. Maybe that is the problem theming a park to cartoon characters that come and go in popularity. There is also a strange mix right now since some parts of the park have not been changed yet — they probably will be in the future. For example, the log cabin type buildings near the ferris wheel still remain untouched.
Overall, the park will offer some new excitement and it is great to see an influx of money used for painting and general upkeep. I think the park will continue to be successful — the MOA has more visitors yearly than Disneyland.
On Saturday, the grand opening will occur, with Ashlee Simpson giving a concert and many Nick actors on hand.
