We were staying at Gran Destino Tower this trip and I planned to do this activity on arrival day. I took this class last week and I have not seen too much information about this mosaic class online so I decided to write up this review.
Right now the class is at the Dahlia lounge on the 16th floor of the Gran Destino Tower, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1-3pm. You could reserve this activity 60 days in advance. The rest of my family wanted to go in the pool so I was doing this class by myself. I was a little nervous beforehand because I did not know how the seating arrangements were or how you choose your color tiles, etc.
So when you check in, you have a choice of plaque shapes: Mickey head, Minnie head, or since it was holiday time, there was also a tree to choose from. There was also a choice of the plaque to be white or black and the grout color to be white or black. I choose the white mickey head with white grout.
I checked in around 12:45pm and about half the class was already there .
For seating, there were at least 3 individual spaced out seats. There were groups of two seats together. I did not focus too much on larger group seating but one group of two was off to the side and then the rest of the groups of two were a little bit closer to the other groups of two. So if you wanted to do a group of 4 it was not too far away, but separate groups of two would not feel too crowded together either.
I was wondering if I could have brought my infant in stroller or 2 year old in, since the class was for 12 and up. There was definitely enough space if I wanted to have the stroller next to me while I worked. My two year old could have sat beside me also.
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So first step was to trace your plaque on a placemat. And then we waited until the class officially began
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For getting your glass pieces, they had them set up by the counter in different colors. Another thing I was worried about is if I was going to be stuck with colored pieces I did not want to use if the other guests were faster than me and took all the colors I wanted first. This was not an issue at all as there was more than enough of all the colors to go around.
I actually only wanted to use blue tones and I was able to do that. Many others went for more rainbow colors. While we were working, it was possible to go back up and get more tiles.
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So after we had out tiles, we were going to map out how we wanted our pieces to look on the provided placemats. After we were happy with the placement of the tiles, we had a sponge with glue. We worked one area at a time and applied the glue and then the tiles. The cast member really stressed to put a very thin layer of glue down, other wise it will take a very long time to dry. Well I put an extremely thin layer, but it was too thin and the tiles did not stick. So I had to remove the tiles and then reapply the glue. The cast members are walking around and you are encouraged to ask questions throughout the activity. So im glad I asked her to check my gluing before I went ahead and did the whole plaque.
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So then next step is to wait for the glue to dry. During this time you could have walked around or went out to the balcony, etc;
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The last step was to add the grout once the glue dried. So for the grout they said to just apply it all over the plaque and you wanted to smooth it out with either you fingers or the provided spoon. Up until this point the project was very neat. When we started with the grout, it was a little bit messy. One pair of large or extra large gloves was provided. I did not ask for another pair but I don’t think that would have been a problem. You wanted to be able to see the outline of your stones.
At this point you are done and free to leave. I finished at 2pm and left but I could have worked for another hour.
You get a take out box. And two wetnaps. We were instructed to wipe the stones clean either that night or the next day. I decided to do it that night and I’m not sure if I waited to long to do so. I have never done mosaic tiles before so this part I just wasn’t sure. So the grout was completely dry on the tiles by the night, so I wiped each piece with the two wetnaps provided. I wished I had another pair of gloves at this point and actually more wetnaps.
The cast member pointed out that I would have a lot of white grout showing and to be sure that I wanted it that way.
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I’m very happy with the final result. The class was a lot of fun! My mom wishes she did the class also with me. I would like to do it again if we are able to fit it into our schedule next time. Cost was $25 plus ta
