What the centre is for · Local
What the centre is for around Mint Hill: worth the drive?
Written for families in and around Mint Hill, who mostly want to know whether it is worth the drive.
Educational is doing a lot of quiet work in that list. Levers, timing and patience are a curriculum nobody has to announce.
Parents from Mint Hill tend to ask the same first question: how long will this hold their attention. Long enough to be worth the drive, and short enough to leave while they still want more.
Getting there
The last one is the one parents actually buy. Children remember the day they drove an excavator far longer than they remember most afternoons.
Bring a snack for afterwards rather than during. Hungry children leave early and full children want to stay.
What you will find
Those are ordinary words until you watch a child work out a bucket for the first time, and then they are just a description of what happened.
The centre describes its aim in four parts: inspiration and creativity, safety and care, educational games and activities, and creating lasting memories.
How long to allow
Educational is doing a lot of quiet work in that list. Levers, timing and patience are a curriculum nobody has to announce.
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.
Worth the trip?
The last one is the one parents actually buy. Children remember the day they drove an excavator far longer than they remember most afternoons.
Those are ordinary words until you watch a child work out a bucket for the first time, and then they are just a description of what happened.
Questions parents ask
What is the centre aiming for?
Inspiration and creativity, safety and care, educational play, and days children remember.
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 Mint Hill
The nearest of the two centres to Mint Hill is the one to aim at - Concord Mills in Concord - and the drive is the ordinary sort rather than an expedition.
A short visit that ends while they still want more beats a long one that ends in a meltdown, every time.
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.
From Mint Hill the practical question is timing rather than distance. Arriving in the first hour after opening is worth more than shaving minutes off the drive.
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.