Winter afternoons · Story
Winter afternoons in Salisbury: an hour, start to finish
Not a review - a description. Here is roughly how an hour goes.
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.
A Salisbury school holiday runs out of ideas by about day three. This is a day-three answer rather than a day-one one.
Walking in
Winter shrinks the list of things to do with children to whatever is indoors and warm, or indoors and cold on purpose.
Dress for the room you are going to, not the car park you are crossing.
The middle of the visit
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 it is the first time, do not also make it a birthday. Learning a place and celebrating in it are two different visits.
The last ten minutes
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.
What sticks
Dress for the room you are going to, not the car park you are crossing.
A birthday group runs better with a rough plan of who goes where first, even if you abandon it in the first five minutes.
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 Salisbury
Weekends bring more of Salisbury out at once. If the schedule allows a weekday, take it; the same visit is quieter and the machines wait for nobody in particular.
Take the photographs early. The best ones happen in the first fifteen minutes, before anybody is tired.
If two adults are coming, split up rather than shadowing the same child. One at the rail, one free, and everybody has a better hour.
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.
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.