Summer afternoons · Tips
Summer afternoons in Gastonia: things worth doing differently
None of this is complicated. All of it is the difference between a good hour and a difficult one.
An hour on the ice is the most literal way to cool a child down that exists indoors.
Weekends bring more of Gastonia out at once. If the schedule allows a weekday, take it; the same visit is quieter and the machines wait for nobody in particular.
Before you leave the house
By the middle of a southern summer, indoors stops being second best and becomes the plan.
Two shorter visits teach a child more than one long one. The second time they already know what they want to try, and that is when the good part starts.
When you arrive
School holidays make weekday mornings quieter than weekends - the same visit, half the noise.
The afternoon heat is exactly when children have the most energy and the least chance of being allowed to spend it outside.
While you are there
An hour on the ice is the most literal way to cool a child down that exists indoors.
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
By the middle of a southern summer, indoors stops being second best and becomes the plan.
School holidays make weekday mornings quieter than weekends - the same visit, half the noise.
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.
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 Gastonia
For a Gastonia 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.
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.
Bring a snack for afterwards rather than during. Hungry children leave early and full children want to stay.
The drive back to Gastonia 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.