A Rant on American Dream's Nickelodeon Universe 

Oh man I'm sure Six Flags is foaming at the mouth waiting for these rides to be listed for sale 🤣

“Entitled Enthusiast” definitely does not apply here. When you pay for something you expect to be given what you paid for. You got robbed plain and simple.

If more than two rides are down, I think there should be a substantial price reduction along with a partial refund for those who prepaid - It's only fair IMO!

75 dollars is ridiculous. This park should be set up like Funspot and have a ticket booth where you pay for what you want to ride or pay 30 bucks for an all day wristband. 75.00 is crazy.

Dang, this rant was close to his on skyrush

So I just went to the American Dream on Sunday and we didn't do Nickelodeon Universe because of the price. For comparison, I just did two days at Hersheypark for $90 and this was $85. Absolutely ridiculous considering how small this park is.

It’s weird how the management of American Dream’s park operates so incredibly different from Mall of America’s Nickelodeon Universe. I’ve been to MoA’s park a ton of times (including back when the park was still Peanuts’ Camp Snoopy), and I don’t think I’ve ever seen any rides at MoA being closed for the entire day. On non-peak days (Basically most Mon-Thurs during non-summer months) MoA’s Nick Universe runs an alternating ride schedule, so they’ll have half of their thrill/kids rides run for an hour, then the operators close those rides and switch to operating the other half of the rides for an hour, and they’ll switch like that for the entire time the park’s open. This pretty much allows them to avoid staffing shortages. But even on non-peak days, all three of their coasters and a few other flat rides are open the entire day. And $75 for for a day pass at American Dream is ridiculous, MoA’s day pass is currently $45 on peak days.

Today, I had a choice when I was in New York, to either go to The American dream mall and Nickelodeon universe or Coney Island and Luna park,and after I saw the video with all the rides being closed at Nickelodeon universe,i decided not to risk it.

I’ve only been to the Minnesota Nick Universe, but that certainly has less financial issues.

I was here yesterday, I have my thoughts. -Sandy's was closed. No notification of this online, the workers told me it would be open in an hour. After an hour passed they said 30-40 minutes. Half an hour later there were no employees in the station. Just be honest and say it won't open, that behaviour is unacceptable. -Shellraizer was fun, definately the best Gerslaur I've ridden. Big shout out to the operators that let me marathon it without walking around. I have a new found appreciation for what they're capable of, being that I previously saw them as a filler manufacturer. From a raw thrill standpoint, this is the best coaster in NYC. Cyclone is better for charm and character though. In the words of John Fetterman of Knobles, comparing the 2 is comparing artwork to engineering. Still a great ride though. -Half pipe was fun, wish there were more. I prefer these to Impulse coasters with the exception of V2 at Great America at the time I rode it since it still used the holding break, and they take less space. It feels so much more open with those lapbars -Shredder is easily the best spinner from Gerslaur. Long ride with interesting looking elements, you really can't ask for more in a family coaster -Slime Streak is a good family coaster and I don't think the trains are as bad as some say, but it needed the hyper GTX trains rather than the Big Dipper trains like Joust at Dutch Wonderland has -the music in the mall is horrendous. If the people at the food places cannot hear me talk as I order (and I can't hear them) that's unacceptable. I hope the mall gets OSHA violations for that because they deserve it. And it's not just the customer's lives made hard, the workers at those food places hate dealing with the "Karen" attitude in customers asking "what?" so many times because the music is so loud they can't hear you. And that's ignoring the fact that there were screaming kids on motorised animals by the place where I was eating.

The whole mall is a mess... feels badly designed, there's certain spots where there's cracks on the walls, where you can see how rushed the whole project was even tho they had 7+ years to work on it... it's a miracle this place opened, but it wasn't worth it at all

I was here on a Sunday about a month ago. Shredder, the S&S drop tower, and the ropes course were the only things closed. So a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to get all the credits, but still got 2 rides each on Sandy's and Shellraiser, plus rides on most of the open thrill rides. We only spent 2 hours there cause we got there right at opening. Definitely not worth the $85/ticket that I paid and don't see a need to revisit until the pricing/policy changes, but we still enjoyed the experience overall.

From what I’ve heard, the one at MOA has a weaker ride line up, but a much better atmosphere and better theming, I’ve been to the one at MOA, but not American Dream

“Knott’s Berry Farm only closes one, maybe two rides in the off season weekdays” Not me going in July for Hangtime, Accelerator and Silver Bullet to be closed (and the log flume for a short while)

So I went over Memorial Day weekend this year. It was a last minute thing because SFGAdv was closed on the Saturday due to weather. I took the last time slot on the Saturday. Only 3 of 5 roller coasters were open, but at least they were the 3 best. I missed out on Slim Streak and Timmy's. The drop tower had issues and broke down while I was in the park. I never rode it. I rode the airplane ride and got multiple rides on TMNT and Sandy's and one on the spinner. A few other flats were shut down as well. The staff that were working the rides were great, but it is over priced all things considered. I doubt I will go back any time soon even if I plan a trip to the east coast and include the NY/NJ area.

I visited the park on Saturday, July 3 and my admission was $90 including tax. Since I came from across the country, I pre-paid my ticket since I knew it was gonna be busy and luckily, all the coasters were open and I got to ride them, but I only got one ride on Shellraiser because it broke down for the remainder of my time there. This place is like the exact opposite of Bay Beach in terms of admission/ticket value. I even thought the $70 4 hour wristband for Luna Park was far more justifiable than this park was.

That's some godawful luck having to deal with all those ride closures on the one day you visited. I made two visits, once just the weekend after opening and the other time within the past couple of months. I was able to get rides on all but two coasters, Slime Streak (because of my size) and Sandy's Blasting Bronco (wasn't open). I'm happy with my rides on the other coasters, but the price is not good enough. Being a Joisey native and frequently using the bus to get to work, there is the 20% off coupons for Nickelodeon Universe, but that's hardly much of a discount. It's practically paying for a brand in which the park itself is practically filled up its indoor space. The prices for the DreamWorks waterpark is even higher, but there's a lot of slides that are used to good effect. Still too high...

Come on! I just wish they’d lower admission prices for the theme park, the water park, the Sea Life Aquarium, the LEGOLAND Discovery Center, and other attractions! Also, I want Nickelodeon Universe to expand with more rides and attractions!

The true American Dream is of course to pay $85 for Doras Sky Railway & the Rugrats Go Round

American Dream is a disaster. I mean they have a waterpark that charges just shy of $100 for entry, need I say more...

I was there a month ago and it was fantastic. It felt like a lot of stores were missing, but the park was really fun - all the rides were amazing (except for Sandy’s Blasting Bronco, it was too rough). It could be cheaper, but I still had fun.

Next time you go to American Dream, just do the waterpark. I know it's more expensive, but at least that's an actual top tier waterpark where there is always tons to do.

I went less than 2 months ago with my friends, and literally everything except the ropes course, was open! I guess I must've gotten a rlly lucky day, since there was no lines for ANY of the rides!

The American Dream NU seems like a bunch of coasters were thrown into a warehouse and called good. NU in Minneapolis at MOA may have a more lacking coaster lineup, but the atmosphere and operations make up for it. The skylights, trees, and vintage flume area make the MN NU more memorable.

I’ve been to New York twice in the last 6 months and never bothered going to American Dream. No point paying $75 when there’s a 90% chance two or more coasters will be closed.

When I was at NU for my 13th birthday in January of this year, I actually witnessed Skyline Scream get stuck at the top due to a technical fault. :,)

American Dream is way overpriced. I wish I could say that they value quality over quantity but I just can’t bring myself to believe that.

Man, a giant air-conditioned warehouse? Sign me up!

Your points are all valid. I hate it when parks are not ready to go.

Entitled enthusiast definitely doesn't apply here. I'd also argue it rarely applies when I've seen it used, but in any case it DEFINITELY doesn't apply here lol.

When I went about a month ago, everything was open except for the ropes course. It was expensive, and the food options there are horrible, but the coasters and rides were a lot of fun and I honestly had a great time.

The fact that the mall itself is called American Dream is so ironic.

Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America has their maintenance schedule on their website too, it's so bizarre that these two parks owned by the same people have such a difference in the way they're operated.

Very informative, thanks i will be there in dec and now i know to check the closures before i purchase, may even call just to verify.

I went to this park in pre covid 2020, and I had a positive experience. All the rides were open except for sandy’s and the gyrosphere thingy. Sorry you had such a bad experience and I hope they can turn things around financially

My visit was in October of 2020, right after they reopened. Half the rides were listed as “closed for maintenance.” I tried to start in the back at Sandy’s, but it was completely dead. The Half Pipe and Slime Streak opened on time, and Shellraiser, Sandy, and Shredder were open nearly two hours later after a bunch of cycles (and lines formed outside the chained-off entrances quick). It wasn’t busy but they had slow ops on everything, and were spacing people out/spraying down seats in-between cycles. I don’t think they have staff to open the full park at opening time, or just do not make the thrill rides a priority. I did get at least one lap on all five coasters plus Skyline Scream, before heading for Lunch. That said, I think I was lucky and not everyone has 2-3 hours to wait on things to open, not to mention it’s a poor value for money running this way.

I was there on Thursday, July 15th. The only major attraction closed was Skyline Scream. Almost everything for the ~4 hours that I was there was a walk-on. I did pay that $75 ticket price for the day, and my thoughts while I was there were more along the lines of "how does this place stay in business if no one is coming?" I feel bad for you though, that really sucks. For me it was Darien Lake and Discovery Kingdom that had more than half their coasters closed on the days I showed up.

i was here in october of 2020 and was very lucky because everything was open, not long lines, and the staff was not bad at all. Sandy’s is definitely an amazing ride that i think is better then shellraiser, so one day you definitely gotta go back for that. thankfully when i went the prices weren’t as bad so maybe later on it will get cheaper

Not worth it when great adventure is less than an hour away… and much cheaper

Thank you for making this! I'm planning a trip to NYC and was debating adding this park to the finances, but after this I'm gonna leave it up to how it looks when we get there. I am NOT spending that much money if I can't even go on most of the rides

I work there and I can definitely tell you its not a staffing problem. If it was staff then the first rides to close would be the kid rides. The problem really is maintenance. There maintenance crew is full of a bunch of unqualified people that don't even know how to operate the rides outside of maintenance mode. While I was working there one of the coasters faulted and when maintenance went to fix it they made it worse and its been closed ever since. They just can't get half of those rides to work properly.

Ive been there and all the rides were open, it sucks having some rides open.. Great video though!

American dream is such a shame. A tragedy.

We went to Nickelodeon universe shortly after opening and we had a similar experience. Two of the coasters we wanted to go on we’re not open but the park was brand new with the time so it was kind of acceptable

Wow! I can’t say I’m surprised tho cuz the staff issues present on our cross country vacation the first week of August was insane. Like whole retail locations closed - Nike, Adidas, gas stations, food locations like McDonald’s, some of the most popular tours in the country working with literally 4 people per group of 500 guests…it became apparent to us then how dire this staffing shortage across the country really is.

My plan is to visit the DreamWorks Waterpark for most of the day then visit the Sea Life Aquarium, maybe do a little mini-golf and then get the Twilight Pass to ride the most exciting attractions at Nickelodeon Universe.

$75??? Jesus that's highway robbery

I'm so sorry about your experience. Nickelodeon Universe is still not doing well. Whenever I look on their website, it still says that TMNT Shellraiser and Sandy's Blasting Bronco are "temporarily closed" and it gives a date as to when those 2 are opening, but the opening date keeps being postponed every time I check. I've been trying to ride Bronco and Shellraiser for years now but every time I try to go the the best rides are always closed and I have not had the opportunity to ride those coasters. Guests shouldn't have to be lucky and thoroughly strategies with their time and money in order to experience something included in admission. The problems of the coasters might be outside of the park's control, but the fact that they gave you a limited coupon means that they don't care about you coming back or being happy they just are so desperate for money and will do anything to get it from you. Not the way to run a business. Very sad. I don't know how long Nickelodeon Universe will get away with this for any longer.

Thinking about what you said about Coaster Dash saying all the rides were opened when he went. If it was a staffing issue, I almost wanna say it's possible they had a Covid outbreak among employees, but that probably would be even worse if that happened and they tried to keep it under wraps

I visited on Monday, May 24th, 2021. Pre-bought the tickets as well weeks in advance because I live in Florida. The website said Slime Streak would be closed when we visited, no biggie, it leaves the rest of the big rides open. When we arrived Timmy's Halfpipe Havoc & Jimmy Neutron's Atom Smasher were closed all day for maintenance. While that put a litter damper on the day, the other inverting flat, drop tower and the remaining 3 coasters were open. Still enjoyed the day, but I think we only spent 90 minutes in the park before heading to our next destination.

It was a terrible investment for everyone involved and they’re hoping if anyone shows up after seeing it leaving EWR that they’ll be willing to shell out the money to cover their losses. I went last august, everything was open except legends of the hidden temple, invader Zim, and I think the half pipe closed later in the day. I remember when I was buying tickets it said prices could go up on peak capacity days, but I frankly don’t think that will ever happen.

I remember I went to the Nick Universe at the Mall of America the same day I saw The Last Airbender when it premiered, and that nearly ruined the entire experience.

Was just there 2 weeks ago and shellraiser and broncobuster were both closed along with legends of the hidden temple. Shellraiser looks like the best ride. I was not happy.

Staffing is a good potential answer. I have worked at Lagoon over the summer and we are super short staffed. While essentially all of the big rides are open, many of the family rides have been closed since May, and some rides are forced to close in the middle of the day due to the staffing issues.

I went two months before covid hit in 2020. Everything was open except Sandys Blasting Bronco. I had a good experience. Sorry this happened on your trip. That’s really unacceptable.

We drive right by this park several times a year going to visit family. Until it gets its act together we’ll limit our trips to SFNE, Rye Playland and Quassi.

Was just there. All is open. U should revisit. I think in July it’s not the high season for them because people in NYC go to out door water parks. They get a crow when it’s cold outside.

I went literally the DAY after you went and everything’s was open. It’s good when it is open, but when it’s like this I’m sure it’s so :(

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this. Have a nice day now.

You got jipped, no "entitlement" about it. Hopefully your next trip goes a lot smoother!

It's surprising how much my hometown park (Wild Waves) gets mentioned in these videos despite it being farthest in the worst corner for parks. But it's real neat when it gets mentioned as a compliment!

This is my home park. And when I’m with my family, Elitch Gardens is the closest park to there 🥲. I’m not gonna even watch more than 2 seconds because I’m uneasy enough already.

omg yes! there’s always one of the coasters closed when i go - never worth the trip or the money. recently they finally started pay-per-ride passes and u can just walk into the park for free…i accidentally bought a regular ticket and when i saw shellraiser and the freefall rides were closed “for maintenance” they converted the ticket to equal amount of pay-per-ride credits - and they don’t expire - so that was a horribly disappointing trip but a better outcome than your story. at least i got blasting bronco in a few times

And all that on top of what was once a beautiful (and endangered) wetland habitat.

Yeah this is definitely not ok, it boggles my mind they would let this happen. Great video!

I went yesterday and it was super fun! Sure, we had to pay $75 for 2 hours but we got on everything important multiple times!

When we gettin the valley fair review?

I'm an annual pass holder at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure in Orlando Florida. I love those theme parks to death. That being said, i live a 15 minute drive from this mall. I've never gone there, because there's an 80 dollar charge on weekends to get in, and almost everytime i check the website, a good chunk of what i wanna ride is closed. You cant be charging that price for a park that doesnt offer the immense immersion that places like Universal does. My only sacing grace is I'm close enough to where if i find a good day to go, i could. But, 80 dollars is steep.

When I was there this year, every ride was open, so I had a great time. I guess I got lucky

I went twice. November 2019 and February 2020. The February visit was definitely much better, as half pipe was open (it was closed when I first went) along with skyline scream and slime streak being open. I really enjoyed shellraiser and the flats I went on, and going when the mall had had a few months to open more was much better than walking through active construction zones when it first opened

I'm from philly and kinda refuse to go here until they inevitably drop the price. it is not worth the 2 hour drive

Omg i can't believe that Chris 75 Dollars that's really bad thanks for sharing this video out

I was there on a Thursday at the end of April and while some of the bigger rides didn't open right away, they eventually did open and I was able to get on every coaster several times and a few of the flats (they were all open). I had a positive experience but I did go into it expecting some stuff to be closed based on what I had heard about the park.

Even if staffing was the issue that's still no excuse to have so many rides closed. When Taylor from Coaster Studios went to Japan, there was one park that was understaffed, pretty sure it was Nasu Highland. But instead of having a bunch of rides closed and charge full price for admission, they had ride operators who would follow them from ride to ride, so they still got their credits. If the people working here are too lazy and/or stupid to do that, then this park doesn't need to be operating at all.

When I was there in July, 1 coaster was down Shredder, drop tower, ropes course & Air Glider was down 1/4 the day after 1 arm got stuck upside down with people on it. The good part was there was no real lines, walk ons or 1 cycle/train wait. I road all 4 coasters that were open 10 times or more, the bigger flats 5+ times each. Most flats were running with 1 or 2 staff & the coasters with 2.

I agree man in the American Dream Mall Nickelodeon Universe everything is closed I swear

I also just went on a tuesday and almost everything was open lol. It's also better now that they have individual ride ticket options. The park was mostly empty and I was the only rider on most cars, but I noticed there were a couple of birthday parties going on that day. Not sure if that plays into ride availability or not.

Nickelodeon Universe at American Dream is like... Cyberpunk 2077!

Jeez it was no where like this when we went in March. Like every thing had a line and we barely could ride everything that’s ridiculous

Hate it, man. My experience there on Tuesday, July 6 was fantastic. All coasters and flat rides were open, lines were short for coasters because, even though the place was slammed, it was overwhelmingly small kids there that day. Got multiple rides on all coasters, plus many of the great flat rides in under two hours before heading to Coney Island. Had a nightmare the day before at Six Flags, though, with rude guests, terrible staff, and only Nitro, Batman, JD (which kept breaking down), Dark Knight, Skull Mountain, and the mine train open. All the top-level stuff outside of Nitro was closed. Like you, I felt ripped off, but (thankfully) Nickelodeon exceeded expectations.

75 dollars and this Nickelodeon Universe doesn’t even include a log flume ride nor that fly over America type attraction. Hopefully American Dream mall does succeed as it does have potential to do so. Also, I heard that they will be opening 8 new rides soon. But I’m not sure if it is existing rides or expanding. Most likely it’ll probably be rides they have yet to open. But a dark ride would be a great addition to even say people will pay 75 for that.

I've been to nickelodeon universe at the American dream mall before and the only ride that I really wanted to ride but couldn't was shellraiser. This was due to a train being stuck on the launch. Almost all the rides were open that day.

Hidden Temple, Sandy’s, the crazy bumper car ride, and the Air Race were down on my visit a couple of weeks ago. Other rides went up and down throughout the two hours I was there. I was happy with the ride selections in the park but not too impressed with the price I paid and the amount of closed rides. It’s a problem that is becoming their reputation and hurting them.

that is an extortionate price for 1-day entry, even if it is beyond basic maintaining......SFGA is also located in NJ and you can currently buy a season pass for less than $60.00 for the remainder of the season park maintenance happens but it's a kick in the teeth to be offered half-price entry on your return when things may or may not be open. Considering many parks across the globe offer many superior incentives for rainy days etc, American Mall really needs to figure out their business plan. I hope I am wrong but I feel this park /mall is not going to make it as its overpriced, the mall is actually quite ugly , people are still shopping online and covid hasn't helped. but as you rightly said a good start would be a ticket system, 75???? they must be desperate!

Honestly I believe the main reason they had these rides closed was due lack of operators went there this weekend and majority of operators were teenagers or young adults.

I visited on Tuesday. All the thrill rides except Kraang were open, but I was fully prepared to bail if I arrived and more than one coaster was down. Was checking the website throughout the week. As for the $75, on the one hand it's NY metro prices and not really comparable to the rest of the country...but on the other hand the park was pretty much dead so something isn't working. The half-off passes come off like salt on the wound.

Was there on 6/10/2021 the only coaster that was down was Timmy's Half-Pipe Havoc. I bought my ticket at the park, because I wanted to get the TMNT Shellraiser credit and I didn't want to make the same mistake from Nov 2020 by pre-purchasing and the ride being closed.

Oh perfect I was just about to make plans to go here

I went in January of this year and all the coasters were open just Sandy's took 4 hours to open. It just the price is just too high for only 2 good good coasters. Shellraiser and Sandy's are good just not worth that high of a price. Meanwhile Bay Beach makes you only spend a dollar on Zippin Pippin.

This may take the cake beyond Elitch Gardens.

You make a great point with the admission price. How the hell does this park not offer ride tickets? This isn't a traditional theme park - I'm guessing the vast majority of visitors are already going to the mall, so let them walk around the park and pay for what rides they want, rather than making them spend the entire day at the park and not have any time for shopping (if they want to get their money's worth). And to add insult to injury, this park doesn't allow re-entry AND has little to no food options. What a rip-off. I refuse to go to this park until they offer a ride ticket system. It's ludicrous that they thought their current model was a good idea. My theory is that they're trying to make back money wasted on the construction of the mall by forcing people to pay full price and not opening rides on dead days to save on maintenance costs.

Random but I'm in the video you used from Austin of Sandy's 🤪 thank god I have all these credits and never need to go back here 😂

Had a very positive experience in February rode every coaster atleast twice with little to no waits and shellraiser marathon for 5 rides with waiting for almost 2 dispatches. My only time going

Went in late June and while all the rides were open, the park opened an hour later then advertised

I visited the park literally less than a week ago and I did not have this described experience. When I went only one of the major thrill rides was “closed for maintenance” which was the “Kraang’s pandemonium” other than that all of the thrill rides were open when I went. (Mabe I just got EXTREMELY lucky, because there were little to no crowds at all which made my experience dang near perfect)

Thanks for the dinner reminder

i went here like 2 days before july ends and the website said that aangs air gliders and kraangs prime pandamonium were closed which i was upset about but i looked past it because i thought evrything else would be open well wrong sandys blasting bronco was close which was my second most anticapated ride and the ropes course which was upseting and i didnt find this out till i got to the park

I was there in Jan and I believe everything was opened except for legends of the hidden temple. The price is CRAZY though and don't get me wrong... its a nice place but not for that type of money. We did everything within 2 hours. I would go back but probably not for another couple of years.

It sucks that all of these rides are closed but at least cedar point is offering people almost the wage of a mcdonald's worker in denmark so it looks like the labor shortage is working

Discord gang moment