Unfortunately New Jersey’s been hit with a lot of rain and really crappy weather of late. It has made it harder and harder to get out and press new penny machines especially when most are located outdoors, but I was determined to try.
This past weekend we decided to test out luck and headed down towards Atlantic City to a place called Storybook Land located in Egg Harbor Township. This is a place that a lot of people have been too during their childhood, and just seems to have been around forever. From our house it took about an hour and a half to get there, and it rained the entire drive. However I guess my karma has been in good standing order and mother nature decided to clear things up for a few hours to let check this place out.
The main building that greets you when you arrive is designed to look like a castle. This does include the ticket purchasing area, as well as the gift shop when you leave. Not sure if you can tell by the above picture but there were only about 5 cars in the parking lot when we showed up. This turned out to work in our favor as all the rides were operational, but with only a handful of people in the park there were no lines for anything.
We headed in through the main entrance and just started wondering. Oh did I mention there was a penny machine here? I’ll review that in more detail shortly. This cute little park is designed after all the classic mother goose nursery rhymes, and other childhood favorites like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, and a whole lot more. There were plenty of rides for the kids to go on, and a lot of great detail all over the place. They also had animals like sheep and goats that could be petted and fed.
Hanna is still a little young to know some of the stories but the nursery rhymes she was all about. The park also has some character cutouts that make for some cute pictures. There was also an area that magically transports you to the north pole.
After wandering around for a while we needed to fuel up. Towards the entrance of the park is The Dining Depot. This has your classic theme park food, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, pizza, chicken fingers and fries, etc. We ordered lunch and while waiting for it I took the opportunity to look for the penny machine that was located here, but came up empty. I asked the employee’s if they knew whether the machine was located anywhere else in the park or if it was gone completely and they didn’t know. Once we had finished eating our lunch we wandered around the park again checking out every little attraction and bathroom location we came across trying to find the machine. With everyone starting to get tired we headed back towards the main entrance and headed through the gift shop that lead to the parking lot. This way my last hope but it wasn’t located here either. I asked another employee if they knew about the machine but was only told it has been taken away for repairs and didn’t know if it would be coming back.
Even though I was unable to acquire the pennies here it was still a nice outing for the family. Truth be told I had actually stopped in to this park in 2013 on my way to Atlantic City. At that time the lady running the ticket counter let me run in without a ticket to use the machine without having to buy a ticket.
As I mentioned back when I had visited originally the machine was located in the Dining Depot right by the queue you wait in to order food.
The 4 designs include: Humpty Dumpty, Mother Goose, a Carousel Horse, and the Storybook Land Train.
As with machines that get removed from a location, I always hope it’s just to have the designs updated and not removed permanently. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but for now if you visit Storybook Land it will have to be just for the nursery rhymes!
David's Coin Travels 