Winter afternoons · Guide
Winter afternoons in Monroe: everything worth knowing
This is the practical version - what it is, who it suits, what to bring, and what usually happens in the first ten minutes.
Dress for the room you are going to, not the car park you are crossing.
Coming in from Monroe with more than one child, the useful thing to know is that the room does not need to be rationed - there is more than one thing to do at the same time.
What it actually is
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.
Tell a nervous child what is going to happen in the order it will happen. Surprise is the thing they mind, not the activity.
Who it suits
Winter shrinks the list of things to do with children to whatever is indoors and warm, or indoors and cold on purpose.
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 expect
Dress for the room you are going to, not the car park you are crossing.
Photograph the machine as well as the child. In two years you will have forgotten what the room looked like.
Before you go
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.
Winter shrinks the list of things to do with children to whatever is indoors and warm, or indoors and cold on purpose.
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 Monroe
Plenty of the families in the room on a weekday morning have come from somewhere like Monroe. Nobody is local to a mall attraction; everybody has driven.
The quietest hour of the week is the first one on a weekday morning in term time. The busiest is Saturday around midday.
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.
Families searching from Monroe 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.
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
If a visit needs planning around a date, a group or a long drive, the centre is easiest to reach by phone: +1 (424) 387-6232 or +1 (615) 968-4925.