Twelve Oaks Mall — Local services in Novi

This was hands-down, the worst Easter bunny experience I have ever had. The carelessness of the staff that is controlling the lines and actually taking photos is comical. First off, they say they accept walk ins, but they don't have anybody there to actually control any sort of line. There was a guy that was extremely rude as soon as we got there, and he never really even acknowledged me or the other lady in the walk-in line in front of me (she ended up leaving because it was so unorganized). He just continued to bring in people that had reservations-- no matter what time their reservations were. Some people were 30 minutes late, some people were 20 minutes early, some people were 10 minutes late, etc... they all got to go straight in. What's the point of a reservation if you're not going to use your reserved time? I finally had to ask another worker what was the process for walk-ins, how long should I expect to wait? She then told me they typically let five reservations go in line and then take one walk-in family. I informed her that at least 10 reservation families had just walked in the line because there had been nobody there organizing it, so she let me go in. At this point, we had been waiting for probably about 40 minutes. We wait another 20-ish minutes in the actual picture line. We get up to the bunny, everything was super cute so no complaints about that, however, the photographer was a joke. I brought my six month old and my almost 2 year old. I knew my older one would probably not want to sit with the bunny and I was excited to get that funny crying Easter bunny pic 😂. However, the lack of effort from the photographer to even attempt to get either one of my boys attention was baffling. She spent so long with the family in front of us trying to make sure everybody's looking, trying to get all the babies' attention, making sure everybody's in the shot, and then literally took three pictures of my boys and sent us on our way. I had assumed they were decent enough pictures. I went to look at them and they were all basically three identical pictures. You cannot purchase only digital images, digital images only come with the purchase of a $40 picture package that is supposed to have two poses, but when all three of your pictures look almost absolutely identical, there was no way I was going to pay that much for one picture. When I expressed disappointment, they rudely told me I could go back in line and wait again. I said absolutely not- the photographer should have gotten semi decent photos. I basically begged to just let me purchase one pic (since all three were the same) and they refused. Then they said will just come back tomorrow (like wrangling 2 babies under 2 in matching Easter bunny outfits wasn't a task enough already). The staff was incredibly rude and totally inconsiderate. I left with no Easter bunny pictures and will never recommend this mall for any festive pictures...

This is one of my favorite malls in the tri-country area.

One for its central location off of the major freeways.

In the mall parking lot surroundings, you have a Red Lobster, McDonald's, and Chick-fil-A ( this location is always crowded so download the app to order and move along faster).

This mall opens its main doors an hour before the stores open. This is great for mall walkers. This is great especially once the colder, wet, and snow begins to roll in.

The reason why I love this mall so much is because it's a great affordable activity for preschool. I love to enter at the “mall main entrance “ near Macy’s Department Store. That entrance has the Puppy store. The staff is great about letting people socialize with the puppies even if you have no intention of purchasing! Bring quarters so you can feed the pups!! Its never any pressure to buy a puppy.

Then further down you have Auntie Annie Pretzels and they usually have free samples! Download that app for great deals and freebies.

Kiddie corner from there is the kid's play area. You can't wear shoes so remember to bring socks. It's a cool fun time for the kids. Across from this free-play structure is a small arcade. You can use cash or a card to buy a reloadable card to play games. A notable game is the claw machines! It's play until you “win”. So at least you get something every time you play!

There is a “convenience store “facing this play structure. This is great if you happen to forget your beverages/snacks or like us stay way too long. Then we need a little something.

On the other side of the kid's play structure are a few coin games that you can ride on. They only take quarters. I mean they are your quarters bc I've never seen them work. The kids have just as much fun crawling around on them.

Across from this area, it's a really cool toy store. It reminds me of a small Toys R Us. It's a wide range of toys for all ages and every price range. We go in and usually grab something small. We also get an idea of what the kids are eyeballing for their birthday.

If you walk to the food court there is a much bigger and nice coin ride on machines. At this location, they actually work. Kids still have a lot of fun if you put money into it or not.

Everything I just described I do and it takes about 4-6 hours with a 2-year-old. So this is great if you want to get out and get them tired and ready for a nap. Literally perfect...

What an absolutely horrible experience for my two children ages six and seven. We were waiting in line to see Santa. It turned out we were in the wrong line. We went and got into the right line no one else was there. We approached the entrance and the guy walks over to us and says I’m sorry you can’t bring pers in here. There were no signs and I did not know that. She is a new puppy who is only 11 weeks old. We thought we could have the kids and the puppies picture taken together with Santa Claus so I said OK I’ll stay here with the puppy and the kids can go see Santa and get their pictures taken. So the guy walks away and he comes back and says I’m sorry they can’t have their picture taken because there has to be an adult with them. I said I’m right here,Santa’s right there. They wouldn’t budge. so I left there consoling two crying children who couldn’t see Santa because they brought their puppy, hoping to get a picture of them all with Santa Claus. I went over to the other side and was looking for signs. One of the guys that was over by Santa Claus said can I help you? I said I’m looking for the sign that says no pets and he said there isn’t one. I replied, perhaps it would be a good idea just to post something somewhere that no pets are allowed. I did not realize this and a sign would have helped. The lady that was standing there became quite rude and said “this is not a pet friendly mall.” I replied, “I’m sorry I didn’t realize that either..” We just wanted to get pictures and my kids wanted to see Santa. She turned her back on me. I can understand pets not being allowed, however, there should b have been some kind of signage that said that. There was absolutely no reason for that lady to be rude. Children should not be told they can’t see Santa Claus when he’s right there not 10 feet away and there’s nobody else in line. The only positive thing is when we were waiting in the wrong line, Santa did walk up and petted the puppy. He also said hi to the kids . Not just my kids, but all of the children standing there. waiting for their pictures...