Summer afternoons · Tips
Summer afternoons in Lebanon: 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.
A Lebanon school holiday runs out of ideas by about day three. This is a day-three answer rather than a day-one one.
Before you leave the house
The afternoon heat is exactly when children have the most energy and the least chance of being allowed to spend it outside.
School holidays make weekday mornings quieter than weekends - the same visit, half the noise.
When you arrive
By the middle of a southern summer, indoors stops being second best and becomes the plan.
Take the photographs early. The best ones happen in the first fifteen minutes, before anybody is tired.
While you are there
An hour on the ice is the most literal way to cool a child down that exists indoors.
The afternoon heat is exactly when children have the most energy and the least chance of being allowed to spend it outside.
On the way home
School holidays make weekday mornings quieter than weekends - the same visit, half the noise.
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.
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.
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.
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 Lebanon
The nearest of the two centres to Lebanon is the one to aim at - Opry Mills in Nashville - and the drive is the ordinary sort rather than an expedition.
Bring a snack for afterwards rather than during. Hungry children leave early and full children want to stay.
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.
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Lebanon. Nobody is local to a mall attraction; everybody has driven.
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.