Choosing what shore excursion would work best for your family can feel overwhelming. After much research, here is why I chose the Disney Cruise Line Dia de Los Muertos Shore Excursion.

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One of the options Disney offers when in Ensenada, Mexico is the excursion: A Mexican Halloween – Day of the Dead Celebration. This shore excursion is part of Disney’s Signature Collection of shore excursions.

The excursion lasted about four and a half hours and was a ton of fun for my kids. Keeping reading for more details about this port adventure option!

For this family vacation, we decided to set sail to Mexico on the beautiful Disney Wonder. For our port day in Ensenada, Mexico, we decided to book this fun Dia de los Muertos adventure.

The night before the excursion, we received the paperwork for our shore excursion in our stateroom. This told us where to meet in the morning.

Upon debarkation of the cruise ship, we gathered with the others that booked the same excursion and loaded unto a tour bus for the short drive to the first stop.

Cultural Center of Ensenada

The motor coach ride took just a few minutes to get us to the Cultural Center of Ensenada.

Originally built as a hotel and casino in the 1930’s, this building now serves as a location for the arts including classes in dance, painting, sculpture, literature and more.

After a brief walk around the gardens, we were brought to the Day of the Dead activities that were set-up within a garden courtyard.

La Ofrenda

As we first entered the courtyard, we gathered around the altar “la ofrenda” to be given a quick teaching on the purpose and meaning of the altar, according to Mexican culture.

Being a Disney excursion, Stan Lee was the perfect honoree of this ofrenda.

After this, everyone was able to choose which activity they would like to do first and everyone rotated around all of the activities.

Activities

Loteria

Good luck keeping up with this game! Much like bingo, this game uses plastic chips to mark the pictures being called out.

The person calling out each pictures gets faster and faster.

The first person to cover their loteria card in chips is the winner!

Piñata

All the kids lined up to get their chance to hit the piñata which was filled with individual treat bags of common Mexican candies and goodies.

Each child was given their own bag of treats to take home with them.

Painting a Catrina

Tents provided shade for the kids to paint their own Catrina.

These made for cute souvenirs for the kids to bring home for their scrapbooks!

Face Paint & Tattoos

This was my daughters favorite part! They had the option to choose either a full face painting or half of their face and they also could choose the accent colors they liked!

Sugar Skull Cookies

Everyone was given the chance to decorate their own sugar skull cookies.

Keep in mind, because these aren’t commercially packaged, they need to be eaten before boarding the ship again.

Mexican Treats

Haven’t tried Mexican candy before? No worries, everyone was given the chance to try out some of the most popular treats.

Options included Bandera de Coco (coconut candy in Mexican flag colors), mazapan (peanut candy), and obleas con cajeta (wafers with caramel).

After the activities had ended, we were brought into Ensenada for just over an hour of shopping time.

This was a great opportunity to find souvenirs or grab some lunch to eat!

After this free time, we met up with our bus and were brought back to the cruise ship with plenty of time to spare before setting sail.

Booking

Though we booked directly through Disney Cruise Line, the tour was operated by Explora Caribe.

Freddy was our tour guide and he was great.

Click here for more information on this shore excursion.

Cost

Adults – $90 per person

Children (ages 3 -9) – $80 per person

Children under the age of 3 are free.

I hope this post helps you decide which shore excursion works best for you. We absolutely loved the Disney Cruise Line Dia de Los Muertos Shore Excursion!