What the centre is for · Local
What the centre is for near Bellevue
Written for families in and around Bellevue, who mostly want to know whether it is worth the drive.
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.
Families searching from Bellevue are usually weighing one thing: whether it is worth the trip for an hour of something the children have not done before. The honest answer is that it depends on the child, and the rest of this page is about telling which.
Getting there
Educational is doing a lot of quiet work in that list. Levers, timing and patience are a curriculum nobody has to announce.
The last one is the one parents actually buy. Children remember the day they drove an excavator far longer than they remember most afternoons.
What you will find
The centre describes its aim in four parts: inspiration and creativity, safety and care, educational games and activities, and creating lasting memories.
Photograph the machine as well as the child. In two years you will have forgotten what the room looked like.
How long to allow
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.
Educational is doing a lot of quiet work in that list. Levers, timing and patience are a curriculum nobody has to announce.
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.
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.
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.
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 Bellevue
A Bellevue school holiday runs out of ideas by about day three. This is a day-three answer rather than a day-one one.
Go early if the choice is available. The first hour after opening is quieter than any hour that follows it, and quieter is easier for everybody.
Weekday afternoons in term time are the quietest slot in the week. Weekend middays are the busiest.
For a Bellevue 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.
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.