Winter afternoons · Guide
Winter afternoons in Cornelius: a parent guide
Everything below is the sort of thing you would want to know before the drive rather than after it.
Dress for the room you are going to, not the car park you are crossing.
Families searching from Cornelius 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.
What it actually is
On the Nashville side the answer is the opposite - a warm room, a deep crate of balls and machines that do not care what the weather is doing.
Winter shrinks the list of things to do with children to whatever is indoors and warm, or indoors and cold on purpose.
Who it suits
An ice rink in winter is not the contradiction it sounds like: the cold is the attraction rather than the problem, and it lasts an hour rather than a day.
Warn a nervous child about the noise before you walk in. Knowing what to expect is most of the difference between anxious and curious.
What to expect
Dress for the room you are going to, not the car park you are crossing.
On the Nashville side the answer is the opposite - a warm room, a deep crate of balls and machines that do not care what the weather is doing.
Before you go
Winter shrinks the list of things to do with children to whatever is indoors and warm, or indoors and cold on purpose.
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 the rink cold?
It is a real rink, so yes. Layers and gloves make the difference.
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 Cornelius
The nearest of the two centres to Cornelius is the one to aim at - Concord Mills in Concord - and the drive is the ordinary sort rather than an expedition.
Photograph the machine as well as the child. In two years you will have forgotten what the room looked like.
Bring less than you think. Coats and bags are the part of the visit nobody enjoys managing.
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Cornelius. 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
Anything time critical is worth a phone call first: hours are 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday to Saturday and 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Sunday.