Group visit · Occasion
Group visit in Cornelius: planning a playdate around it
Here is how the day tends to run and what is worth arranging in advance.
Teachers get an activity where children take turns without being told to, because the machines and the cars enforce turns by existing in limited numbers.
Families searching from Cornelius are usually weighing one thing: whether it is worth the trip for an hour of something the children have not done before. The honest answer is that it depends on the child, and the rest of this page is about telling which.
Why it fits the occasion
For a class group the appeal is that the activity explains itself. No briefing, no equipment to hand out, no rules that take ten minutes to teach.
Agree the leaving time before you walk in, out loud, to the child. Announcing it later sounds like a punishment; agreeing it first sounds like a plan.
How the day runs
Group visits are worth arranging in advance so the centre knows how many are coming and when - a call does it.
It works as a reward trip, an end of term outing, or the indoor half of a day that has an outdoor half somewhere else.
What to arrange first
Teachers get an activity where children take turns without being told to, because the machines and the cars enforce turns by existing in limited numbers.
Do not schedule anything immediately afterwards. An hour of concentrated play is tiring in a way that shows up in the car park, not in the room.
Small things that help
For a class group the appeal is that the activity explains itself. No briefing, no equipment to hand out, no rules that take ten minutes to teach.
Group visits are worth arranging in advance so the centre knows how many are coming and when - a call does it.
Questions parents ask
Can school groups visit?
Call ahead and arrange it: +1 (615) 968-4925 or info@newlife-entertainment.com.
Is it educational?
Working an arm on levers is hand eye coordination, cause and effect and patience, whatever you call it on the form.
How do I get in touch?
By phone on +1 (424) 387-6232 or +1 (615) 968-4925, or by e-mail at info@newlife-entertainment.com.
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.
Planning your visit in Cornelius
Weekends bring more of Cornelius out at once. If the schedule allows a weekday, take it; the same visit is quieter and the machines wait for nobody in particular.
Photograph the machine as well as the child. In two years you will have forgotten what the room looked like.
If two children are visiting together, plan for them to split up. Doing different things in the same room is the point of a room with different things in it.
For a Cornelius 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.