Summer afternoons · Local
Summer afternoons around Charlotte: worth the drive?
If you are searching from Charlotte, this is the practical answer.
School holidays make weekday mornings quieter than weekends - the same visit, half the noise.
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Charlotte. Nobody is local to a mall attraction; everybody has driven.
Getting there
The afternoon heat is exactly when children have the most energy and the least chance of being allowed to spend it outside.
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.
What you will find
By the middle of a southern summer, indoors stops being second best and becomes the plan.
An hour on the ice is the most literal way to cool a child down that exists indoors.
How long to allow
School holidays make weekday mornings quieter than weekends - the same visit, half the noise.
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.
Worth the trip?
The afternoon heat is exactly when children have the most energy and the least chance of being allowed to spend it outside.
By the middle of a southern summer, indoors stops being second best and becomes the plan.
Questions parents ask
Is it air conditioned?
Both venues are inside malls, and the ice park is a rink.
When is it quietest in the holidays?
Weekday mornings, generally.
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 Charlotte
If Charlotte is home, this is the sort of place you end up returning to rather than ticking off. That changes what a first visit is worth planning around.
Take the photographs early. The best ones happen in the first fifteen minutes, before anybody is tired.
Let the child choose what to do first even when it is the thing you would have chosen last. The order matters less than the choosing.
The drive back to Charlotte is where you find out what they actually thought. Children review an outing about twenty minutes after leaving it, never during.
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.