Nickelodeon Universe - February 7th, 2015

This weekend, I got a nice break from the offseason when I took a trip to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America, and I had a great time there. For a park that's located in a mall, I think it is quite impressive. A lot of the park is targeted at the younger audience, but they also have plenty of thrilling rides for adults and teens. They have a few fun roller coasters, and also lots of interesting and unique flat rides. The park looks good and is kept clean (being indoors probably helps with that). The operations were sometimes slow, probably since they have mostly low-capacity rides, but they got the job done since I got on most rides within 30 minutes. The crowds actually weren't that bad considering it was a Saturday at one of the largest malls in the world. While none of the coasters here threaten my top 10, and I prefer its outdoor neighbor Valleyfair, I'm still very glad we have this park since it allows us Minnesotans to get an offseason coaster fix without making a trip to a warm-weather state (although a trip to Florida or California this time of year would be nice). Overall, Nickelodeon Universe is a really good park for what it is, and I'd recommend visiting it if you're ever in the area. Now onto the pictures...

Entering the mall.

Arriving at the park.

First ride of the day was Spongebob Squarepants Rock Bottom Plunge.

Unfortunately, my first ride on Spongebob was pretty rough. Did not make my back feel great.

Hi Spongebob, stop trying to kill my back.

Didn't ride Pepsi Orange Streak because I had ridden it during an earlier visit and didn't find it particularly interesting.

Very long train...

Avatar Airbender is a really fun ride. It has spinning, airtime, and good drops.

Now for a ride that I had neglected to ride in the past.

Nothing amazing, but still fun. Good spinning, decent forces, and a pop or two of air.

Entrance to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shell Shock.

It's actually a lot more fun than it looks. You rock your vehicle left and right, and use the the control wings to help with that. I almost went completely inverted, but not quite.

Went to ride Spongebob again, which was running smoother . This is a really awesome first drop.

Up next was the Log Chute, and I can see why a lot of people like this ride.

Dark queue line.

It has some decent drops.

Avatar Airbender control panel.

Avatar about to start.

Wow. Brain Surge is amazing. You get to control how much you flip, and I probably flipped more than everyone else on the ride. I wish there were more of these.

Now for a few night pictures. Brain Surge looks cool when lit up.

Spongebob looping. When it isn't rough it's my favorite coaster in the park.

This zero-G roll has some nice hangtime.

Nerd shot.

Rode Splat-O-Sphere since it had a short line. It's an okay drop tower, but I've ridden better.

Fairly Odd Coaster control panel.

Fairly Odd Coaster car dropping.

Thanks for a fun day Nickelodeon Universe.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Thanks for the photo TR. Any idea what the deal is with the support in the third picture? Also when were Ninja Turtles rebooted?

[Dirk_Ermen]

Nice TR from this fun little park. I never noticed they had an Intamin Half pipe as well. Fun rides, too bad they are so short! Lot's of Gerstlauer actually in there. Those spinners are great, especially if you can find the right balance for an insane spin. For the Sky Fly I can't talk yet, still have to ride one of those nearby. The prototype model: Sky Roller on the other hand is frickin' awesome if you use it as a human propeller.

[Paradox]

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

Also when were Ninja Turtles rebooted?

About 2-3 years ago by Nick. The show is still airing and is still very popular.

Sucks that SpongeBob is rough, but Eurofighters are known for getting rougher over the years. I suspect that this is the case because of the short trains as other rides have more cars to stabilize it. When SpongeBob opened, it was an all out hit and I really hope they try to fix it one day.

Didn't Cedar Fair own this a long time ago?

Paradox wrote:

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

Sucks that SpongeBob is rough, but Eurofighters are known for getting rougher over the years. I suspect that this is the case because of the short trains as other rides have more cars to stabilize it. When SpongeBob opened, it was an all out hit and I really hope they try to fix it one day.

I would be interested in seeing if getting lapbar-only trains like the ones on Dare Devil Dive at Six Flags over Georgia would help make the ride smoother. Spongebob isn't that rough, but it isn't as smooth as it was a few years ago.

Paradox wrote:

Didn't Cedar Fair own this a long time ago?

Yes, it used to be a Cedar Fair when it was called Knott's Camp Snoopy.

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

Any idea what the deal is with the support in the third picture?

So this is a random thing to remember, but I watched a good amount of the construction of Spongebob on the park's webcam back when it got built. That support was normal (just a vertical column) until they got it installed in place and decided it was too close to the track; so they cut out the middle of it and rebuilt it. Unless somebody really screwed up the design, my guess was always that the original support was technically outside the reach envelope but that once it was built it just looked too close so they retrofitted it just to play it safe. Either that or someone really did screw up the design.

I'm curious now so I'm going to take a look on my old hard drive and see if I still have any screenshots from that webcam, I might have a photo of the original support.

Edit: Here's a picture I took during construction:

Great TR, the Nick theme has really worked well for the place. I'm always surprised at how much they've been able to add over the last few years.

[TTD03]

Nice TR!

awesome trip report there needs more malls that open rollercoasters

^ Exactly, compact but fun coasters should be there!

Project idea lol

Gotta love MOA. I'm surprised you felt Spongebob was rough. I ride that coaster dozens of times a year and it's still running just as smoothly as it was the day [before ] it opened. Strange.

Shell Shock is a really fun ride if you can get it to roll upsidedown 5-6 times in a row. It takes a lot of muscle use though lol.

Do they still have the Chance Falling Star? I miss riding them.

Yep it's the Danny Phantom ride now.

[Paradox]

GerstlCrazy wrote:

Shell Shock is a really fun ride if you can get it to roll upsidedown 5-6 times in a row. It takes a lot of muscle use though lol.

I thought it was fairly easy if you could build up enough momentum.

^
I was never able to get myself completely inverted on Shell Shock, but I came close. There were a few times where I hung nearly-inverted for a second or two, sort of felt like my life depended on the restraint.

On a side note, the one thing that worries me about the future of the park is space. Nickeloden Univerise is basically landlocked by the other stores in the mall, so unless they can find a way to take over some other stores' space (not likely), they really have no place to go. They did a good job of fitting in the new zip-line (which I have not ridden yet), but I don't see how they'd be able fit in any other new attractions without taking something else out.

^They surprised the hell out of us when they added the 3 new rides back in 2008. Eventually, yes, they will run out of room. But if they make their moves intelligently they could pull out another few very surprising additions in the future.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Paradox wrote:

GerstlCrazy wrote:

Shell Shock is a really fun ride if you can get it to roll upsidedown 5-6 times in a row. It takes a lot of muscle use though lol.

I thought it was fairly easy if you could build up enough momentum.

Even though I still have to ride these type of rides. On the Sky Roller it was super easy to roll an insane amount of times:

My record for number of flips in one Shell Shock ride is 125... there's a counter behind the seats. My roomate's record is 152.

[Paradox]

Dirk Holiday Park is getting one this year and so is Blackpool!

^^^
Well on those Sky Rollers the seats aren't constantly changing altitude, so a rhythm is easier to find. But yes once you get going on Shell Shock you can rotate dozens and dozens of times haha. It's also a fun ride to just kind of sit back and enjoy too. It reaches almost to the rafters.

[mkingy]

Nice trip report!

Oh awesome, trip to Blackpool definitely on the cards - really want to ride a sky fly!

[TTD03]

Interesting ride you got there

Jonny Richey wrote:

My record for number of flips in one Shell Shock ride is 125... there's a counter behind the seats. My roomate's record is 152.

Wow. 152 flips on Shell Shock? That's amazing, considering I couldn't even do one .

[mkingy]

I really want to ride one of those one day.