Summer afternoons · Occasion
Summer afternoons in Nashville — a family day out, sorted
Here is how the day tends to run and what is worth arranging in advance.
By the middle of a southern summer, indoors stops being second best and becomes the plan.
For a Nashville 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.
Why it fits the occasion
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.
How the day runs
The afternoon heat is exactly when children have the most energy and the least chance of being allowed to spend it outside.
An hour on the ice is the most literal way to cool a child down that exists indoors.
What to arrange first
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.
Small things that help
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.
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 Nashville
Coming in from Nashville with more than one child, the useful thing to know is that the room does not need to be rationed - there is more than one thing to do at the same time.
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.
Take the phone out of your pocket before they start rather than after. The moment worth filming is usually the first one.
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.
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
Questions about a specific day, a group or a party are best asked directly - info@newlife-entertainment.com, or either of the numbers on the contacts page.