Maritime Museum — Attraction in Rotterdam

The new Plons kid area is such a disappointment. My kid used to love the Prof Plons zone and could play for hours there, especially the outdoor harbour simulation which is truly a learning by playing experience. The renovation however has downgraded it to an insufficient mimic of TeamLab. First when you walk in, you are supposed to take a wristband so you can scan it at other parts, but for what ? Very unclear. The room is now furnished by dull color wood planks. I guess it is about using natural material to promote sustainability ? Yet I failed to see how these plywood wave-looking planks are related to 'maritiem' nature. Besides, are they decoration, separators or danger that can get a kid jammed in-between or their head bumped? Since there is a lot of video interaction, the room is very dim. The video interaction on the wall is not sensitive enough. Children try to trigger action on the wall but nothing happens. Later, we come to a table where the kids can color fish. Then what ? It took me quite a while to figure out there is a scanner at the end of the room to project your drawing. There was minimum instruction on how to do this. And have I mentioned the lighting is very dim in the room? I could barely read the instructions. There is one part which I presume is to teach about how offshore oiling works sustainably ? Yet, minimum instruction, colorless wooden blocks with only shallow carvings to show its functions and you need to scan the wristband , but for what ?! I did not see one kid/parent managed to figure out how it should work. Another item is a projecter interaction to stop plastic to reach the whale at the ends. What are the barrels around the table for , no explanation? If one kid links all the foam blocks, the plastic is fully stopped. What can other kids do meanwhile? By the way, there is one baby slide. It could only be fun for little babies. It's so small and short. I cannot comment on the outdoor area as it was unfinished. So far, I really can't see this renovation as an improvement. It seems the zone is designed by people without kids. Do they expect the parents to read and explain everything for the kid in a play zone while there are many more kids running in the dim light? If the parent could manage to do that effortlessly or the kid can focus that well, they'd be better off just go around the regular exhibition. How can you attract kids when everything is colorless with almost none illustration. Or maybe the goal is to not to keep kids in this zone for long by making it uninteresting, since you must reserve a 1.5 hour...

The Maritime Museum Rotterdam is a maritime museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Dedicated to naval history, it was founded in 1874 by Prince Henry of the Netherlands.

Next to the Maritime Museum lies the open-air Maritime Museum Harbour, which merged with the Maritime Museum in 2014. The Maritime Museum Harbour contains an exceptional collection of historic vessels and cranes which are maintained in working condition.

In the Maritime Museum you can visit a diverse range of permanent and changing exhibitions for three generations: children between 4 and 12, their parents and grandparents. The exhibitions show the maritime influence on our everyday life. Today the museum is working on an offshore exhibition which will be open at the end of 2016.

'Masterpieces’ by the Maritime Museum is showcasing twenty-five unique objects from its centuries-old collection. Each object has earned its place in the exhibition in its own way – because of its revolutionary role in shipping, because it is a silent witness to a key moment in maritime history, or because it is such a high-quality piece. The most important piece is the Mataró model, which means much the same to the Maritime Museum as Rembrandt’s Nightwatch does to the Rijksmuseum. It is the oldest model ship in Europe, dating back more than six centuries. And it has been made extremely accurately.

The other masterpieces in the exhibition are all of nearly the same calibre. The Itinerario by Jan Huygen van Linschoten is one of the most important travel journals in the world, revealing all the secrets of the Portuguese - the WikiLeaks of the sixteenth century. Furthermore, it includes the pen-and-ink drawings of Willem van de Velde and sea charts of the Corpus Christi collection by the master cartographer Joan Blaeu. This is a collection of East India Company charts that lay hidden in England for three hundred years and came to the Maritime Museum in 2006 after being purchased...

A FENOMENAL Museum! €11,50 for student, I was there for 2:40 but it was rushed, would have loved to spend another 2hours, but had an appointment to catch. Suggested visiting time ~5h.

The first part I did was the Oil Rig simulation which was very fun. You put on a helmet and a yellow jacket (boots if you want). Your ticket has a code that you scan in every game (9 in total), to get points depending on your score. I don't know how it happened, I set the ticket correctly, but in every game station, once I inserted my ticket the rules were in Dutch and not English, so I couldn't understand them unless I had someone before me showing me the way. Aside from the different games (keeping a ship in place in a storm, digging an oil pipe, directing a helicopter to your ship, a quiz, finding the best place to put ocean wind turbines ...), You had many different displays showing you different oil rigs, their function, a testimony and videos. You can easily spend there 2:30h without realising the time. Very very interesting and well done. Finished the Oil Rig, you have a section of different ideas to make oil rigs / sea more sustainable, and after you listen to them, you choose which you preferred (and then the winner will receive funding to procede).

Then you have on the wall different Port Panoramas which are quite impressive and then a Big multi path presentation on the water and importance the Rotterdam Port represents. The paintings and object display is also very impressive.

Once you finish inside, then you have an enormous outdoor Marina with many different vessels you can see, read about and a few even get on board :-)

On in all I LOVED this Museum! And both Children and Adults will...