(pictured above, my husband and toddler in the SEA LIFE Aquarium.)
We recently had a BIG adventure! We went to the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, NJ!
We met cousins up there for the day and we went in with a plan (which I highly advise!). Here's a schedule of what we did in case you want to recreate our awesome day there with your toddler!
10:50am ARRIVAL- We came to the mall on a beautiful summer Saturday hoping that we would avoid some crowds. The mall opens at 11am so this was a great time for us to arrive. My cousin called ahead to determine which parking deck would be best and discovered that Deck A was closest to what we had tickets for. Because we parked on the right side of the mall, we didn't have to spend a long time walking and looking for our first destination.
11am SEA LIFE AQUARIUM- We purchased tickets online a few days before. After researching what I wanted to do there, I bought a bundle which gave us access to the Legoland Discovery Center and the Sea Life Aquarium (kids 2 and under are FREEEEEEE so we just needed adult tickets for my husband and I). You DO need to purchase the ticket for a specific time. We chose that 11am timeslot. The Aquarium was wonderful! It took us about 1 hour to walk thru. The colors and murals supported the exhibits so beautifully! There were sharks, a touch tank, jelly fish and loads of fish! We loved the tank filled with the "Dories and Nemos." There is an indoor playground here so make sure you have socks! And in brilliant business fashion, keep in mind that they make you exit through a souvenir shop!
12pm LUNCH- We ended up going upstairs from where we were to eat at House of 'Que Restaurant. There were MANY food options and this place had something for everyone. It was delicious and our toddler happily gobbled up their mac and cheese. I'd definitely go back here. It was delicious! We shared a combo for 4 people and it was plenty of food and totally awesome! It is also only steps away from BIG SNOW, the indoor ski and snowboard park so we were able to head over and check it out before doing our next family activity.
1pm LEGOLAND Discovery Center - This was the second part of our partner ticket. This little lego park was even better than I expected! You immediately walk-in to a well-themed environment. I was excited to see that it starts out with a really cute Lego ride (yes! an actual RIDE!) where you can compete for points using magic wand laser pointers. Then there are building stations all over the park where you can practice making your own lego creations. One was even in a huge lego race car, so naturally my car-loving toddler LOOVED it. There is a massive lego cityscape that is very impressive for any age in the center. You'll spend lots of time enjoying the little details and playing a few built-in games right in the set-up (like a lego hockey pinball game!). Other attractions in the center included a lego man doing a meet and greet, a 3D movie theatre and an indoor playground here as well (another need for socks!). Our toddler's favorite area by far was where you can build little lego race cars and set them up to race other people on their race track! We spent the bulk of our time there! You'll want to spend at least 2 hours exploring the Discovery Center. Since you are there for so long, they even have a little cafe selling snacks, coffee and other drinks which was definitely convenient.
3pm NICKELODEON UNIVERSE THEME PARK- I did some research and knew my little guy wouldn't want to do a ton here, so we just planned on passing through and checking it out. There is a great feature where you can "pay per ride" using an app on your phone that was very convenient but takes you a minute to set-up. There is a little BLAZE ride that my son wanted to do, so I was able to just purchase tickets for that ride. There were maybe 2 other rides that we could have done, but we wanted to to check out Toys R Us and knew my toddler was getting tired. So instead of exploring more, we took a cute picture on the Blues Clues chair and got ready to leave. At that time, we noticed there was a Paw Patrol show! We luckily were able to catch the end of the show and our toddler was SO HAPPY to wave to Chase and Marshall IN PERSON! So fun!
3:30pm TOYS R US- Haven't you missed this icon from our childhood??? My husband and I couldn't wait to check it out. There is a little Toys R Us train that travels around the mall and we HAD to hop on. It was $10 a person, but my 2 year old was free (no cash, you had to pay thru your phone). It was fun to ride around but the ride was definitely a little too short to be worth the $10-- but at least my toddler loved it! So all good! Then we had to hop in the store where he picked out a Paw Patrol toy as his souvenir of our fun day.
4:00pm LEAVE- By this time, we were all tired and ready to head out. There were a ton of things that we didn't get to do. You can't do everything in one day here-- even if you were with a party of only adults! Next time we go, I'd love to check out the Angry Birds mini golf course. That looked silly and fun! There also is a big DreamWorks Water Park that is popular. On top of all that-- there are stores everywhere! We spent the whole day and hardly did any shopping!
We really enjoyed this family day trip and I'm sure we will end up back here to experience more that the mall has to offer. The place is VERY cool and we were all excited to see it for the first time. I hope the mall sees a lot of success-- it certainly took a very long time to open!
For more info and to get your tickets, visit AmericanDream.com.