Via Port Rotterdam — Attraction in Town of Rotterdam

I remembered when this mall opened in 1988, which was 28 years ago. Before when the stores opened, the mall was like a museum that showed old photographs. I remembered the carousel that was in the food court that played circus-style music. Today it is now gone (they probably moved it to Lake George. When I went there, the carousel I saw there looked exactly like the one that was at the Rotterdam Square Mall, with glass surrounding it). Now, this mall is turning into a indoor ghost town, similar to what happened with Mohawk Mall, Northway Mall years ago, and Latham Circle Mall, which is to me is shocking, and even very devastating, (today, those malls are now torn down), when the stores are leaving the mall one by one.This mall today is now dying a long slow death. With the mall with a new name, hopefully, it should reverse that, and it would not have to share that same fate. With this mall with a new name, and with a aquarium and fun zone, this mall will not be torn down. This one women's clothing store at the mall called Rainbow (old Deb women's clothing store), I saw large yellow banners inside hanging on the ceiling that said "Clearance, which is to me that store may also end up going out of business, or even close down, which to me that puts that mall even in a worse difficult situation (shocking to me). Today, its new name is now Viaport Rotterdam, which hopefully should attract more stores and more people in the mall. I heard this mall will have a aquarium (almost like the one I went to in Boston), and a fun zone, with a bowling alley, restaurant and an arcade, which should hopefully attract more people. If this mall didn't have a new name (Viaport USA with a fun zone and aquarium) in the future there would have been an end of an era for Rotterdam Mall, like what happened with Mohawk, Northway, and Latham...

Update 10/08/2023: Added a picture of a random Pringles can because I find the location to be funny for some reason. Let's see how long it stays there... (Note: I did not place this here, but happened to see it on the way out.)

Step into this relic of a mall and it will feel like you are stepping back in time. I know Via Port is trying to bring this place back to life but it is climbing an uphill battle in a time when online sales are far reaching.

There were more shops in this place than I had anticipated but even then they were sparse. And those that were looked run down.

The food court, if you can even call it that, sports a wonderful selection of four locations as of time of writing: a Chinese food location, what looked to be an ice cream or dessert place, a taco place and a gyro place - whatever a gyro is. I can tell you from my own experience the taco shop was delightful! You can find my review of Super Tacos here on Google Maps as well. As for the other locations, I will let those reviews speak for themselves.

Via Port Aquarium and Via Port Entertainment are the two anchors here. As with Super Taco, you can find my review of the aquarium here on Google Maps; I cannot speak of the entertainment place.

If you are looking for a step into the past, look no further! If you are actually looking for something to do or shopping of any kind, do yourself a favor and go elsewhere.

I do, however, look forward to seeing what comes of this place, be it a new lease on life purely as office space, a remodel and new shops, or the...

Me and my kiddos plenty for the Dino expo and the aquarium which tickets were not cheap. The Dino expo was much smaller then I had anticipated but figured it was fine because the aquarium. Which we have been to many times over the years, would not disappoint. I was wrong. We got to the aquarium and went through the first half of it no problem. Got to the big area with the koi fish, pet the sting rays (which the kids loved), and the exploration tank where they can touch different sea critters. Then we got the notice that the whole other side of the aquarium was shut down and we would need to exit out the side door. My issue with this is that there was no refunds offered for this shut down. I am.a firm believer that if a business is not able to offer you the full experience you paid for, there should be some kind of refund for it. Now, I can tell you the staff was phenomenal. They were knowledgeable about the animals that they were tending to and took the time to explain to my kiddos different things about them. The tanks and areas were very clean and I was very impressed as a mom with a newborn that going into the bathroom their were breast feeding support signs about not needing to breast feed my baby in a bathroom stall and to ask about the room you could breast feed in. All in all it got us out of the house and the kids were disappointed with some of it but enjoyed what they did get to do. I probably won't go back there...