massiek

My son and I would like to travel from Oregon to Edmonton to visit the mall among other things. We are planning this trip the first weekend in October.

Does anybody know what the crowds would normally be like at that time of the year at the amusement/water park in the mall? Any comments will be appreciated.

Thanks!

keith

traveller69

There shouldn't be much in the way of crowds that weekend. The Thanksgiving weekend which is the second Monday in October would be busier but you shouldn't have any trouble at all.

bob_brown

That place is so big that it would take an army division to crowd it. The water sports get full up often on weekends when the weather outside is lousy.

Borealis

West Edmonton Mall does get crowded, especially if it is a rainy or cool weekend, when entire families seem to use it a place to get out of the house. In the late evening there are flocks of teenagers hanging around.

I live in Edmonton, and I don't particularly like the mall, although I do see its value as a "tourist attraction", so if I HAVE to shop there, I always choose to go on a Monday or Tuesday evening when it is fairly quiet. Friday evenings and the weekend (especially Saturdays) seem to be the busiest time of the week.

Naturally not all times of the year are equally busy. The closer it gets to Christmas, the more busy it is (same goes for summertime tourists).

Hope this helps.

massiek

Thanks everyone!

NorthwestMale

Don't let yourself believe that you would ever notice ANY effect of true "crowds" if you went to the mall there.

The West Ed Mall is said to be surrounded by "the world's largest parking lot" and as someone implied, it would take a whole lot (that northern Alberta just doesn't have) to crowd it.

Go up there and have a great time. Just be sure to have an immediately-picked-out rendezvous spot for when you separate from your son. Two people can roam the mall for hours and never count on running into one another by chance.

ltt

for a meeting spot, i like to pick the parking entrance closest to the waterpark. the waterpark is always easy to find and there is lots of parking around there.

Borealis

itt - you're joking right?? The parking in the area nearest the waterpark seems always to be full (and quite often with people who don't know how to park in ONE spot!! - & that's my rant for the day!!). The area just south and east of Zellers seems always to have parking, although in summertime there are lots of RVs parked there (I'm assuming that it's the designated parking area for RVs).

About the crowds - WEM is big enough that it has sections that are not as busy as others. Phase I (the east end) is not usually too busy - possibly because the shops there don't attract people the same way as the food courts, restaurants and "amusement park areas".

With a population of over a million people, the city of Edmonton (metropolitan area) could quite easily fill WEM by itself, even if there are no visitors from northern Alberta (which is the most sparsely populated area of the province of Alberta anyway).