Winter afternoons · Occasion
Winter afternoons in Landis: planning a school holiday around it
Here is how the day tends to run and what is worth arranging in advance.
Winter shrinks the list of things to do with children to whatever is indoors and warm, or indoors and cold on purpose.
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.
Why it fits the occasion
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.
If two children are visiting together, plan for them to split up. Doing different things in the same room is the point of a room with different things in it.
How the day runs
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.
What to arrange first
Winter shrinks the list of things to do with children to whatever is indoors and warm, or indoors and cold on purpose.
Take the photographs early. The best ones happen in the first fifteen minutes, before anybody is tired.
Small things that help
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.
Dress for the room you are going to, not the car park you are crossing.
Questions parents ask
Is the rink cold?
It is a real rink, so yes. Layers and gloves make the difference.
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 Landis
Families around Landis 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.
Let the child choose what to do first even when it is the thing you would have chosen last. The order matters less than the choosing.
Weekday afternoons in term time are the quietest slot in the week. Weekend middays are the busiest.
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Landis. 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
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.