Group visit · Tips
Group visit in Goodlettsville: things worth doing differently
The things nobody tells you until you have done it twice.
Group visits are worth arranging in advance so the centre knows how many are coming and when - a call does it.
From Goodlettsville the practical question is timing rather than distance. Arriving in the first hour after opening is worth more than shaving minutes off the drive.
Before you leave the house
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.
Count on the drive home being the conversation. Children tell you what they actually thought about twenty minutes after leaving.
When you arrive
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.
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.
While you are there
Group visits are worth arranging in advance so the centre knows how many are coming and when - a call does it.
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.
On the way home
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.
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.
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.
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 Goodlettsville
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Goodlettsville. Nobody is local to a mall attraction; everybody has driven.
A short visit that ends while they still want more beats a long one that ends in a meltdown, every time.
Bring a spare layer even in summer. Malls are air conditioned, rinks are colder than that, and a cold child is a child who wants to go home.
Families around Goodlettsville who have done it once tend to plan the second visit differently: shorter, earlier in the day, and with the machine the child liked in mind.
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.