What the centre is for · Guide
What the centre is for in Huntersville: a parent guide
This is the practical version - what it is, who it suits, what to bring, and what usually happens in the first ten minutes.
The last one is the one parents actually buy. Children remember the day they drove an excavator far longer than they remember most afternoons.
Nothing about the visit assumes you know the area. The centre is inside Concord Mills, which is signposted from everywhere in Concord and impossible to miss once you are there.
What it actually is
Educational is doing a lot of quiet work in that list. Levers, timing and patience are a curriculum nobody has to announce.
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.
Who it suits
The centre describes its aim in four parts: inspiration and creativity, safety and care, educational games and activities, and creating lasting memories.
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 to expect
The last one is the one parents actually buy. Children remember the day they drove an excavator far longer than they remember most afternoons.
Educational is doing a lot of quiet work in that list. Levers, timing and patience are a curriculum nobody has to announce.
Before you go
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.
Warn a nervous child about the noise before you walk in. Knowing what to expect is most of the difference between anxious and curious.
Questions parents ask
What is the centre aiming for?
Inspiration and creativity, safety and care, educational play, and days children remember.
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 Huntersville
Families around Huntersville who have done it once tend to plan the second visit differently: shorter, earlier in the day, and with the machine the child liked in mind.
Check the day of the week against the closing time before you leave. Sunday finishes earlier than the rest of the week and catches people out.
The quietest hour of the week is the first one on a weekday morning in term time. The busiest is Saturday around midday.
From Huntersville 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.