Ball pit · Compare
Ball pit in Bellevue: where it fits among family activities
Comparing like for like: what this gives you that the alternatives do not, and where the alternatives win.
The crate the machines dig in is a proper ball pit - a deep bed of plastic balls, not a token layer over a hard floor. It is what makes a scoop worth watching.
Weekends bring more of Bellevue out at once. If the schedule allows a weekday, take it; the same visit is quieter and the machines wait for nobody in particular.
What it does differently
For younger visitors the pit alone is the attraction. Some never touch a machine and leave perfectly happy.
A pit this size means the surface is never the same twice. Every scoop leaves a dent and every dent changes where the next one goes.
Where other options win
The colour is half the appeal. A bucket coming up full is a bucket full of red, yellow, blue and green, and it photographs well from the rail.
Decide how long you are staying before you walk in. A visit with an end time attached to it finishes on a good note rather than a tired one.
How to decide
Balls behave like a liquid until they do not. Dig a hole and the sides slump back in, which is exactly the physics children spend twenty minutes exploring without calling it physics.
The crate the machines dig in is a proper ball pit - a deep bed of plastic balls, not a token layer over a hard floor. It is what makes a scoop worth watching.
The short version
For younger visitors the pit alone is the attraction. Some never touch a machine and leave perfectly happy.
The quietest hour of the week is the first one on a weekday morning in term time. The busiest is Saturday around midday.
Questions parents ask
How deep is the pit?
Deep enough for a bucket to disappear into it - the machines dig rather than skim.
Do children go into the pit themselves?
The machines work the crate from the rail. Follow the instructions the staff give on the day.
What are the opening hours?
10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday to Saturday, and 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Sunday.
Where is New Life Entertainment?
Two centres: 433 Opry Mills Drive, Nashville TN 37214, and 8111 Concord Mills Blvd, Concord NC 28027.
Planning your visit in Bellevue
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Bellevue. Nobody is local to a mall attraction; everybody has driven.
Tell a nervous child what is going to happen in the order it will happen. Surprise is the thing they mind, not the activity.
Let the child lead the order of things. Adults optimise; children choose the thing that looks best, and they are right more often than they are wrong.
For a Bellevue family the trip works best folded into something else - the shopping that was happening anyway, a birthday that needed a venue, a Saturday that needed a plan.
The practical details
- XCAV ZONE — 433 Opry Mills Drive, Nashville TN 37214: four child-operated machines over a ball pit.
- ICE PARK — 8111 Concord Mills Blvd, Concord NC 28027: a real rink with bumper cars on the ice.
- Opening hours — 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday to Saturday, 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Sunday.
- Phone — +1 (424) 387-6232 · +1 (615) 968-4925
- E-mail — info@newlife-entertainment.com
The two centres are at 433 Opry Mills Drive in Nashville and 8111 Concord Mills Blvd in Concord, open 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM most days and 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Sunday.