Day 3 Part 2
Our Port Adventure was CZ87 - Chocolate and Pinata Seaside Workshop Here is the description from the
DCL website.
Chocolate, Piñatas and Fun!
Your piñata will brighten the day of underprivileged kids at a local school.
On this adventure you will…
- Meet your guide and take the 15-minute transfer by taxi.
- Arrive at the beautiful air-conditioned seaside terrace of world-famous Stingray Beach to hear all about chocolate’s origins in Mexico. Get ready to learn the ancient Aztec and Mayan processing techniques. With a spectacular view of the Caribbean to inspire you, take a pass at making your own cocoa bar from scratch.
- Receive instruction on making a traditional Mexican piñata and participate in the tradition of breaking them. Take home authentic Mexican candies.
- The final piñata you decorate will be donated to underprivileged children at a local school. Enjoy the feeling that your creation will give them an afternoon of joy. You will be also be treated to a scrumptious piece of chocolate cake.
We chose this excursion for a few reasons. First, at 4 years old, there are some limits to what DD could do. Second, she had studied making pinatas in school and was very interested. Third, chocolate. Fourth, the price seemed very reasonable. Fifth, it was relatively short, and we didn't know for sure how much DD would like this kind of thing.
When we arrived, I took a peek at Stingray Beach. There was a nice beach area and the snorkeling water looked good. They also pulled out some huge raft things once in a while for people to ride.
We went in a small room that was set up for our Chocolate Making. We had three people helping us and we learned the history along with the process.
We started by grinding the beans.
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This was actually a bit of a workout and DD got frustrated that she couldn't turn the crank all on her own.
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Looking at the ingredients in their natural form.
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Scraping off the excess chocolate grounds. Now, the teacher was very clear that the ground chocolate was not going to taste like regular chocolate, but DD went ahead and tried it. She was definitely NOT impressed.
After adding vanilla and some milk, we molded the chocolate to be chilled and wrapped to take back to the ship.
Now it was on to pinatas!
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The kids worked on a large pinata that would be donated to a local elementary school.
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Then we started covering our individual sized pinatas. We started by covering the main section in confetti. Then we added streamers to the "arms."
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Here are our finished projects.
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Pretty cute!
After all of our hard work, the kids got to break a large pinata themselves. It was very fun.
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We then returned to the classroom for some chocolate treats.
Photo Limit Reached. Continued in next post.
