My Visit to the King of Prussia Mall During Christmas Season

I visited the King of Prussia Mall during Christmas season. This mall is generally known as the third largest mall in the United States behind Mall of America and American Dream. Read on for my pros and cons.

The Pros

1. There's a new store! Or shall I say attraction. It's called Netflix House and they sell all kinds of Netflix-show themed merchandise. I found this pretty cool because I recently got Netflix. If you have Netflix, you'll recognize a lot of titles like Bridgerton, Stranger Things, and Love is Blind. This attraction is quite large (several levels) and though it is spacy, there is a lot to it. There are a couple immersion rooms (pay separately), mini golf (which I didn't even see), a restaurant/bar area, and photo op spots. I got the excitement when I walked in, and I noticed other people did too.

Popcorn area, themed for different shows.

Popcorn for Love Is Blind above.

Lots of Bridgerton merchandise.

The bathroom was purple! And there were three faucets at the sink, one for water, another for soap, and the third for automatic drying. First time I've seen that - pretty cool!

2. There are many upscale places; there is actually a row of very upscale stores that include Gucci and Burberry - walking down this row of the mall, felt like being transported a different place, lots of glitter and gold. Additionally, there is a fancy gelato place, and a store called Sur La Table where you can buy kitchen items but also take cooking classes, most of which are priced at $89 pp for a class where you make food with others and then eat it there. I took a class here a few years ago where they were around $50 pp and it was fantastic - food was very tasty!

3. There are many cheaper retail stores as well, Five and Below and Primark are both at this mall. This is the only place I've been that has a Primark and if you haven't been to one, my advice is go! Lots of good deals on clothing items and the offerings are cute too. You will see other large anchor stores like Dick's Sporting Goods, Macy's, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdales as well as smaller stores like Aerie, American Eagle, and Lucky Brand. There's also unique specialty stores like Everything But Water (sells swimsuits, sunglasses, etc.) and Exotic Snack Guys KOP (sells many snacks you won't see at a regular grocery store). With about 450 stores at this mall, there is truly something for everyone!

4. You can easily get your steps in at this mall. By the time I left, I had walked 7 miles according to my watch. Part of this, is I had trouble finding a store but we'll get to this later.

5. The crowd was generally pleasant. When I arrived the parking lots were packed. I mean PACKED so I waited on a family I saw walking to their car to grab the spot. I had no trouble as I was doing this and when in the mall, I found that as many people as there were, it wasn't obnoxiously noisy or hard to get around at all. Store associates were also ready to assist and there wasn't long waits that I could see.

6. There were no empty retail spaces that I could see. At my local mall, there are so many empty retail spaces. Yet, at this mall, all spaces seemed filled which was nice to see!

The Cons

1. This mall had a lot of people there when I went but what I found to be an issue wasn't that; it was finding stores. There are very few signs pointing you in the right direction, just for a few anchor stores. I tried to use a kiosk to find a store but it didn't give me the right directions. Eventually, I got tired trying to find the store so I looked it up on my phone and got there within just a couple minutes. So much easier. I wish I tried it sooner. 

2. It is easy to have trouble getting where you need to go...I parked on one side of the mall but of course, the store I wanted to visit was on the other side. In addition to having difficulty finding it, I had trouble getting back to the side I parked on, once I found the store. I kept going around in a circle with no way to get back to the other side of the mall. I had to ask someone and was directed to take the escalator up to the third floor - if you try to walk on the first or second floor you can't get back to the other side.

3. There really aren't any big attractions at this mall other than great stores. The Mall of America, for example, has the largest indoor theme park, an aquarium, and immersive flight simulation ride in addition to shopping. American Dream Mall has America's largest indoor water park, a Nickelodeon theme park, and indoor/skiing snowboarding. There is an iFly nearby but that is outside the mall.

4. As you'll find with most malls, good stores can come and go. When I was at this mall years ago, there was a Lindt chocolate store (love this chocolate) but with another chocolate shop right across the way from them that seemed to do really well with marketing, the store went out of business.

5. It is easy to get lost in the parking lot with so many cars so be sure to remember landmarks / take pictures. As I was exiting my car to go in, I saw a man who looked visibly lost for a minute trying to find his car and I thought that's not going to be me. I took pictures and made sure I knew where I was at. Yet, coming out of the mall, it took me a couple minutes to get oriented and find my car (and that was with pictures and having memories of the steps I took going in!).

I will admit that arriving at this mall during Christmas season, I felt dread when I saw the parking lot so full. But I was pleasantly surprised when I entered. I would definitely go back to get some shopping (or walking!) in.