Spanish Mosaic Art: Creative Inspiration at Coronado Springs
Mosaic crafts have recently exploded in popularity around Disney resorts, and opportunities to create your own Disney mosaic can be found in several different resorts now - but did you know that this activity originally began at Coronado Springs? This has become a hard-to-get reservation, but I managed to snag an appointment to try it out! Currently, this activity happens on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 1:00-3:00 PM inside Dahlia Lounge. Reservations are highly recommended and can be made on My Disney Experience, although spots for walk-ups may sometimes open up as well. Dahlia Lounge is a beautiful setting for this activity, and you’ll get to enjoy incredible panoramic views of Hollywood Studios while you create your mosaic. Designing your own mosaic is recommended for guests ages 12 and up, although younger children are also allowed to participate as long as they’re partnered up with a parent and working as a team.
It’s a great idea to arrive at least 15 minutes before the activity begins since seating is a bit limited. Guests don’t have access to the entire lounge during this experience, and Cast Members will have just the front section of the lounge tables available. When you arrive on the 16th Floor of Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Cast Members will greet you as you walk off the elevator.
This activity costs $25 per mosaic (more than one person can share a mosaic and work on it together). They’ll take your payment, and then let you choose your mosaic shape and color. There’s Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and some seasonal options (I did this around Halloween, so we also had a Mickey bat, a Mickey pumpkin, and a black cat available). These are very light, laminate pieces that will serve as the mosaic’s base, and most pieces were offered in black or white. The grout provided to you later will match your piece, so choosing black or white now determines the overall color of your finished mosaic. Since they’re made of such thin pieces of laminate and not concrete, these will definitely not work as something like stepping stones in your yard - they might appear to be strong enough for something like that, but they’re purely meant to be indoor art pieces and aren’t weatherproof or functional in any way.
Once you pay and select your piece, you’ll head into the lounge and choose a seat. A Cast Member will get your workspace set up by providing you with a pen and a paper placemat to start with. They’ll ask you to carefully trace your piece (in my case, I chose the classic Mickey). This activity involves some pre-planning and strategy, which is one reason that it might be tough for kids younger than 12.
When I finished tracing, I was given a bowl and invited to go collect some glass tiles for my mosaic. These were displayed on the bar, nicely organized by color, and there were so many different colors to choose from! Each color came in several different shapes and in various styles like transparent glitter, opaque glitter, and clear glass. You can choose as many colors as you’d like! I stuck with 3 main colors and dug around to fill my bowl with a bunch of tiles that matched the design I had in mind. They had sorting bowls on the bar for guests to easily sort and return any tiles they don’t need, plus jars of additional tiles, so you should be able to find any colors or shapes you’re looking for. The tiles stayed out on the bar during the entire 2 hours, so you can always go get more tiles if needed.
Once you have your tiles selected and are back at your table, the next step is to lay out your tiles in a pattern that fits inside your traced shape. This is to help you map out a plan before you start gluing down tiles and to make sure you have every tile you need. Deciding where each tile should go takes up a big chunk of your activity time since you need to create a gap of equal width around every tile (to leave room for your grout). This is the strategic part and feels a bit like playing Tetris. You can spend time here swapping out colors and building intricate color patterns, and Cast Members are right there to help if you get stuck. There were actually several adults near me who got really frustrated with this step and needed assistance to finish fitting in all their tiles, so patience is a virtue here!
Once you have all your tiles laid out, the next step is glue. A Cast Member will bring you a bowl of glue and a sponge brush. You need to work quickly and cover only one small section at a time, as you need to get your tiles placed and adjusted to the perfect spot before the glue starts to dry. Start with a little glue on your laminate base, then move over your tiles one at a time, trying to put them in exactly the same place you had them on your paper template. This is a little tricky and it can be a challenge to make everything fit! Again, Cast Members are there to help if needed, and it doesn’t take too long if you work at a steady pace and can make little adjustments to your design as you work.
After every tile is glued down, you need to wait for the glue to dry - the tiles need to be attached strongly enough to not move around when you start to apply to grout. It takes about 15 minutes to dry, and in the meantime, a Cast Member will provide you with gloves, a spoon, Purell wipes, napkins, and a clamshell container to take your finished product home in, as well as mix up some grout for you (white grout if you’re working on a white base, and black grout if you’re working on a black base). They’ll show you how to apply it, then you can get started on the final step! The grout is applied with a spoon, and you can use the back of the spoon or your fingers as a grout spreader, making sure to pack the grout into every gap between the tiles. You don’t need to worry about making the grout smooth on top right now since you’ll wipe the surface clean once it’s dry. This is a very messy part of the activity!
Once you finish applying the grout, you’re all done for now, and you can carefully pack your mosaic in your to-go container. They will instruct you to let this dry for at least 3-4 hours before cleaning it off. I took mine back to my room at Animal Kingdom Lodge and let it sit out on the balcony to dry for a few hours, then returned later that night to remove the excess grout. The provided Purell wipes are meant to be used to wipe away any grout on the surface, but what they gave me definitely wasn’t enough to finish this project. I used those two wipes, plus about ten Wet Wipes that I had luckily brought with me, so be sure to bring extra wipes if you plan to do this activity! You should also put down a towel while you work, as that gritty grout gets scattered all over the place while you do this step.
The finished mosaic is beautiful, and I loved how it turned out! And it has a little hook on the back so you can display it on your wall when you get home. It was very light and easy to pack - it measures about 8 inches across and it’s thin, so it won’t take up much space in your luggage. This was such a fun, creative activity! I’m so glad they’ve started offering mosaic crafts at other resorts because I loved it and I can’t wait to make more!
Spanish Mosaic Art | Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays from 1:00-3:00 PM | Coronado Springs
*Activity dates and times listed here were accurate at the time this review was published. Resort activities and activity schedules may change month to month, so be sure to check the current My Disney Experience for updated times/dates when making plans to participate.
