Fulfill Your Every Needs In Mall Of America

We all love to shopping but...if shopping is not your main intention at Mall of America, visit the many attractions inside the largest shopping and entertainment complex in the United States. The newly opened Nickelodeon Universe theme park brings Nick characters to life with 24 rides geared for the young and young at heart.

Admission to the park is free. Rides and attractions require varying numbers of points. Points are available for purchase individually or in multi-point packages. Pay-one-price unlimited ride wristbands are also available.

Because it's indoors, the park is open year-round whenever the mall is open, which is pretty much all the time.

Mall of America(Mall of America,60 East Broadway,Bloomington, MN 55425 ) is a super-regional shopping mall located in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The mall is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the interstate from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. In the United States, it is the second largest enclosed mall in terms of retail space but is largest in terms of total enclosed floor area.

Design :

Mall of America has a gross area of 4.2 million sq ft. (390,000 m²), with 2.5 million sq ft. (230,000 m²) available as retail space.The mall is a nearly symmetrical building, with a roughly rectangular floor plan. Over 520 stores are arranged along three levels of pedestrian walkways on the sides of the rectangle, with a fourth level on one side. An addition planned north of the mall will allow for up to 900 stores. Four "anchor" department stores are located at the corners. The Mall is organized into four different zones, each with its own decorative style.

Notable attractions:

• Nickelodeon Universe
• Underwater Adventures Aquarium
• Bodies... The Exhibition

Nickelodeon Universe :

Nickelodeon Universe is an indoor theme park in the center of the mall, formerly known as Knotts Camp Snoopy, Camp Snoopy, and The Park at MOA. The park features roller coasters, among numerous other rides and attractions, and is the largest indoor theme park in the United States. Unlike many indoor amusement parks, Nickelodeon Universe has a great deal of natural foliage in and about the park, and its floor has a wide variance in height - the highest ground level in the park is 15 feet above the lowest. This allows for a far more naturalistic experience than would normally occur in an indoor amusement park.

The park features two new roller coasters; SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge and Avatar AirbenderIt also has a golfing section called Moose Mountain. With 18 holes, designed to create a challenge for players hoping to seek a hole in one.

Underwater Adventures Aquarium :

Guests travel through a 300 foot long curved tunnel through 14 feet of water to view over 4,500 sea creatures including sharks, turtles, stingrays, and many more. Underwater Adventures offers special events such as sleepovers, scuba diving, snorkeling, and birthday parties.Children ages 2 and younger receive free admission, while admission for ages 3-12 are $11.95, and Adult admission for ages 13 & older are $18.95.

FUN FACTS :

• Minnesota's Mall of America is the largest, fully enclosed retail and family entertainment complex in the U.S.
• Seven Yankee Stadiums would fit inside Mall of America.
• Mall of America’s 13,300 short tons of steel is nearly twice the amount in the Eiffel Tower.
• Walking distance around one level of Mall of America is .57 of a mile.
• Spending 10 minutes in every store would take a shopper more than 86 hours to complete there visit to Mall of America.
• More than 5,000 couples have been married at Mall of America since opening in August of 1992.
• The Mall of America is located on the former Metropolitan Sports Stadium which was home to the Minnesota Vikings and Twins. Home plate can be found in Nickelodeon Universe®.
• There are 30,000 live plants and 400 live trees planted in Nickelodeon Universe.

Phase II Expansion :

Phase II is the planned expansion for MOA, developing a large, empty parcel of land north of the mall which was the former home of the Met Center indoor arena and integrating an IKEA store built on a portion of the property in 2004. Phase II, in current form, includes a dinner theatre, ice rink, three hotels, and a waterpark; similar in design to the West Edmonton Mall. The expansion will not make MOA exceed the size of the WEM (itself going under expansion). The plan has been impeded by a lack of public financing.

MOA currently estimates costs of $1.9 billion for the expansion, doubling the mall's size with a 5.2 million-square-feet extension. The mall's developers have asked for $234 million in state and local subsidies, but the request was vetoed as part of a larger bill by Gov. Tim Pawlenty on its first appearance in the 2006-07 session. Questions have arisen among Bloomington city officials as to the fiscal ability of the Ghermezians to finish Phase II.

So decorates your holidays in Mall Of America and have a great experience of unlimited joy and happiness..

Time To Fix - Proper Utilization Of Your Mortgage

WITH interest rates low, 13above.com takes a look at what that means for your mortgage, your savings and the prospect of dipping your toe back in the share market.

Interest Rates Dice : Low rates ... Use extra cash from interest rate cuts to keep paying off your mortgage, say financial planners.


Mortgages :

The Reserve Bank left interest rates unchanged at 3.25 per cent at today's meeting.

The decision surprised economists, who were tipping a cut of between 25 and 50 basis points. With rates on pause, is now the time to lock in a fixed rate mortgage?

Give it a few more months, since rates could fall further, says Prescott Securities chief economist Daryll Gobbett.

"I think we’re looking at a cash rate of 2 per cent or 2.25 per cent. Not tomorrow, but maybe by May,” says Mr Gobbett.

Existing fixed rate deals don’t hold great appeal anyway, says Count Wealth financial planner Desiree Fraser.

She advocates using fixed rate mortgages to shield yourself when you know you can’t afford a bigger monthly repayment – not for second-guessing the future.

"If you know you can’t afford interest rates to go up another 3 per cent, lock it in now. So use it as a protective mechanism,” she says.

"Do it on the basis of what is affordable to you, rather than what you think will happen in the future."

Keep putting extra cash from a rate cut towards your mortgage.

"The best advice to give when interest rates are falling is to maintain your payments at the high interest levels,” says Heraud Harrison private client adviser David Marasea.

"Don’t reduce the payments just because interest rates have gone down. You’d be surprised at the compounding effect."

Paying down a mortgage at 6 or 7 per cent is a better deal than socking it away in cash and earning just 3 per cent interest, says Mr Gobbett.

"Keep chipping away at that mortgage,” he says.

Savings :

People who yanked money out of the haemorrhaging share market last year now face dwindling returns on their cash as interest rates tumble.

Term deposits that paid 7-8 per cent late last year have fallen to around 3 per cent – less than the inflation rate of 3.7 per cent.

Australians have upped their savings from zero to 4 per cent of income as nerves about the economy dampen the urge to spend, but are hardly earning anything on that cash. So should they consider investing that money instead?

"It depends on why they’re saving,” says Mr Gobbett.

"It really comes down to if people are saving for a house or something for the next 12 -18 months, (or) keeping that money (as) savings or term deposits because of the risk."

Those looking to the longer term should consider shares offering good dividends (some give an 8 per cent return), instead of tiny interest returns, says Mr Gobbett.

"If saving for retirement or lifestyle, they should start looking at bank shares where they will get a better level of dividend, even with cuts we’ve seen with ANZ lately,” he says.

Ms Fraser says things are tough for savers.

"They’re getting hit quite hard,” says Ms Fraser of people who parked cash in what used to be high-interest accounts.

Rates will stay low, so look at your spending and consider if you need the income from savings to live on. Ask yourself what your priorities are. If protecting your capital isn’t important, you might be better off spending the money and rebuilding savings later, Ms Fraser says.

Shares :

Low interest rates discourage savings, but with the ASX at five-year lows, is it a good time to invest in shares? What about borrowing to invest now that rates are low?

"Obviously there is still so much concern in the general public about what’s going to happen and when it’s going to occur,” says Ms Fraser.

"There is no end goal. No one can tell them when the market is going to recover."

Few clients are showing up with a pool of cash to get into the market, she says.

Mr Gobbett urged caution with margin loans: they can burn you if you pick the wrong market bottom.

"Just be a bit careful at the moment,” he says.

"The problem is that if the market falls further, you have to tip more money in."

If you do invest, focus on companies paying good dividends or consider buying into new share offerings by big companies, often at a discounted price.

Commbank invited retail investors to buy in with just $1000, and Wesfarmers offered shares at a few dollars discount. Many banks are still paying good dividends, he says.

"Twelve or 18 months ago, it would have been quite risky, but now all shares are down, even ones that are good value. So it may be time to buy into some share offerings that are offered at discounts," he says.

The market is always a good long-term bet, says Ms Fraser.

"I think it’s appropriate as always for people with a long term horizon, say seven years, who don’t require it for income and don’t need the capital,” she says.

"It depends largely on your risk tolerance and your investment time horizons. If you’ve got the next 20 years to invest, then you’ve got to accept the share market represents value, even if it goes lower," says Mr Marasea.

Source

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