Mall visits · Ages
Mall visits with a 6 year old in Nashville
What works brilliantly at one age is a shrug at another. Here is how it lands at this one.
It also means the surroundings are familiar. Children who find new places difficult arrive somewhere they have been before.
A Nashville school holiday runs out of ideas by about day three. This is a day-three answer rather than a day-one one.
How it lands at this age
Opry Mills in Nashville and Concord Mills in Concord are destinations in their own right, so an hour at the attraction fits into a day that was happening anyway.
Mall parking means the walk from the car is short and covered, which matters more with small children than any other single detail.
What to plan for
Both centres sit inside big shopping malls, which changes the shape of the day: park once, stay dry, and the rest of the errands are already there.
A short visit that ends while they still want more beats a long one that ends in a meltdown, every time.
What parents notice
It also means the surroundings are familiar. Children who find new places difficult arrive somewhere they have been before.
Opry Mills in Nashville and Concord Mills in Concord are destinations in their own right, so an hour at the attraction fits into a day that was happening anyway.
Worth knowing
Mall parking means the walk from the car is short and covered, which matters more with small children than any other single detail.
Photograph the machine as well as the child. In two years you will have forgotten what the room looked like.
Questions parents ask
Which mall is it in?
Opry Mills in Nashville and Concord Mills in Concord.
Is there parking?
Both are mall locations with mall parking.
Where is New Life Entertainment?
Two centres: 433 Opry Mills Drive, Nashville TN 37214, and 8111 Concord Mills Blvd, Concord NC 28027.
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 Nashville
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Nashville. Nobody is local to a mall attraction; everybody has driven.
If one child is nervous, let them watch for the first ten minutes without being asked to join in. Almost all of them join in.
A birthday group runs better with a rough plan of who goes where first, even if you abandon it in the first five minutes.
Weekends bring more of Nashville out at once. If the schedule allows a weekday, take it; the same visit is quieter and the machines wait for nobody in particular.
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.