Rotterdam - Rotterdam Amusement Park will open on Sunday, March 23, 2025. On that day, owner Hennie van der Most turns 75 and he wants to finally, finally, open the doors of his amusement park on Doklaan to the public. "From that day on, things took off."
Many Rotterdam residents wonder whether an amusement park at the Maashaven will ever happen. De Havenloods organized a tour for those people through a competition in the app. They could take a look around themselves and ask Van der Most questions.
To everyone's surprise, we were told the opening date during the introduction to the office. “I will be 75 on March 23 next year, which falls on a Sunday. Then it goes off. Then we are open. For all of Rotterdam!”
Scoop
It is not the first time that the amusement park boss has mentioned a date. He has done that often in recent years, to journalists. The visitors therefore react somewhat giggly. They all realize that Van der Most is telling a scoop here, but they also know that he has done this before since he was given a leasehold of the site from the municipality in 2012. A month ago he said that he had unlearned that. That he is also impatient, but that everything must first be completely good in Rotterdam Amusement Park.
Before the tour starts, we are shown all kinds of photos and videos. For 45 minutes. Of countless attractions, and the occasional family snapshot that accidentally ended up in the presentation. Van der Most talks in detail about buying up things and then reusing them in Rotterdam, and about the problems this causes with permits. With endless procedures and long lines of inspectors and officials. “I have spent a million euros on paperwork alone in recent years.”
City marketing
His perseverance and reuse of materials command admiration. “I think this man deserves more support,” says Lisanne Dorlas. “An amusement park made of recycled material, shouldn't that be a wonderful thing for the municipality to enjoy? Great city marketing! Although I do wonder whether March 23 is realistic.”
Peter Hage from Hoogvliet likes to be surprised. “But I hold my breath. I've been cycling past here for years and I really wondered if something was still happening behind that closed gate. Nice to be able to look around here now. And I must say that the man's passion is heart-warming.”
Haunted house
The tour takes us about two hours: Van der Most talks so much that everything runs late. Up the stairs, through the corridors, past all kinds of attractions that are already ready. The haunted house has even been specially turned on for visitors. While Van der Most quietly continues talking somewhere at the front of the procession, he disappears into a corridor full of fog. Skeletons are popping up left and right that want to eat us. The photographer looks increasingly anxious.
Camping
The sun is shining outside. There Van der Most shows, among other things, the rocking ship, the future theater and the cathedral: the enormous building of the former AVR. “I wanted to turn them into gigantic slides. People from the municipality came again to say that it was not safe enough, so get rid of those slides. I now have a new idea: a campsite. I create all kinds of floors and put up chic tents everywhere, with beautiful bathrooms. For everyone who wants to camp here!”
