Month: January 2017

Seaworld Gift Shop in Orlando Airport – Orlando, FL

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Another weekend has flown by and I had a quick trip down to Orlando for just a couple of days.  My trip was packed with appointments so I was unable to visit any of the theme parks located in the area which left my penny collecting obsession feel a little incomplete.  I mean Orlando is like the mecca for pressed pennies how could I leave without getting at least one.  Thankfully the very last place I was in Orlando happened to have a machine available.

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Orlando Airport of all places.  Luckily I had a little time to waste before my plane took off so I wondered around and found more than one machine available.  The first machine I had already collected on a previous visit was located at the Disney Earport Store and you can read about it here.  Since those coins hadn’t changed I bypassed them and kept looking.  There is a Universal Studios gift shop with lots of Harry Potter merchandise but no pennies.  My next stop I hit pay dirt.

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The SeaWorld gift had just what I was looking for (plush sea creatures) but more importantly a penny machine.  I could feel my collecting anxiety start to melt away.

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The machine was a 4 design hand crank model.  There were some stray coins in the bottom of the machine which always gives me a little concern, but the machine worked nice and smoothly without any issues.

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The four designs were basically advertising the multiple SeaWorld theme parks.  The coins included SeaWorld, Aquatica, Discovery Code and Busch Gardens.  This was a nice set to collect and when I finally got home I realized I had collected this set years ago.  This made a nice update to the collection even though the designs hadn’t changed.  My collecting itch had been scratched for a short while and my flight back home was pretty uneventful which for me is a success.  I’m scheduled to go back to Orlando in January and will do everything I can to schedule in time to visit some of the other parks and get as many new pressed coins as I can.

Waterside Stage – Disney Springs, FL

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With all the brand new 2017 pressed pennies and quarters that were just put on stage throughout the Walt Disney World property you think a little down time may have been needed.  But thankfully for us diehard collectors another new machine was just put out at the Waterside Stage in Disney Springs.

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If you are like me you have probably past this place a hundred times and not really noticed it.  It’s located right across from the World of Disney gift shop.  The machine is at the back behind the seating towards the right side.

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All four of the pennies have the Disney Springs logo across the top, and have images of Mickey & Pluto, Donald with Mickey ears, Lilo & Stitch, and Winnie the Pooh with his friends.

This is a nice new set and is in a location I haven’t seen a coin machine at in the past.  There are more stores and restaurants due to open later this year at Disney Springs so maybe they will continue releasing new pressed penny machines at the same time.  Be sure to keep an eye out and your pocket filled with change just in case.

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin – Magic Kingdom, FL

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My back and neck were still a little stiff from my Speedway drive with Hanna, but that wouldn’t stop us from continuing on through Tomorrowland.  I’m not a Space Mountain fan but some of my family are so we made a stop for them to get their fix.  Once that was done we headed over to an attraction more my speed and enjoyable for the kids.

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.  Now I was concerned when I first rode this years ago because the famous Tea Cups are my worst nightmare.  I hate being dizzy and with Spin in the title of this attraction had me worried.  But it’s nothing like the Tea Cups.  This is really more like laser tag but you are sitting in a ride vehicle taking you through the alien attack and you need to zap as many evildoers as you can.

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You accumulate points for each alien you zap and at the end it’s always fun to see your final score ranked against the rest of your family.  Once the ride is over you exit into a photo preview room where you can see your picture mid-ride along with your final scores.  Then just beside the exit doors is another new 8-design touch screen machine.

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This is the same price as the others, 1 design for $1 or all 8 for $5.  This machine also supplies the blank tokens that the designs are pressed on.

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This set included a lot of Buzz Lightyear with a few other characters.  They include images of Little Green Toy Alien, Buzz Flying to the Right, Buzz with his Arms Raised, Buzz Pointing to the Sky, Buzz Flying straight Ahead, Buzz Space Ranger Spin Logo, Buzz with his Arms crossed, and Evil Zurg.  Wow that’s a lot of Buzz!

It was getting dark and the kids (and adults) were starting to get cranky so it was our queue to head back to our resort to rest.  But I promise there were many more penny machines to find and I’ll walk you by all of them.

Tomorrowland Speedway – Magic Kingdom, FL

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I remember as a kid visiting the Magic Kingdom and wanting to ride in the race cars that go around the track.  It was my first taste of freedom on the open road, except of course for the bar in the middle of my tires preventing me from crashing off the road. I eventually found it funny to purposely jerk the steering wheel to the left or right so the car jolted against the rail and watching my father try to prevent whiplash.

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The Tomorrowland Speedway is just plain fun or least I remember it being that way.  On our recent trip I decided to take my daughter Hanna on this ride and I think she tried to pull the same stunt I did with my father.  After we got out of the ride my neck was stiff and my back needed realigning.  Darn the bar in the middle of the road.

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With a chiropractic visit needed I slowly wandered away from the Speedway as if we were heading towards Space Mountain.  Just past the Speedway there are some souvenir carts around and this is where we found one of the newly placed penny machines.

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As you can see this is a 4-design hand crank model which at Disney are pretty rare, and after my drive with Hanna using this machine was going to be a bit of work.

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The pressed pennies dropped out and had some nice updated designs on them.  This set had Pluto with a Trophy, Minnie in a Speedway Car, Race Car Driver Mickey, and Mickey with a Checkered Flag.

With my new pennies stored away we headed further into Tomorrowland to see what we could do next, and I’m sure you can guess there were more pennies to be found.

Splash Mountain – Magic Kingdom, FL

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My family got back from a Wedding in October that was held at the Grand Floridian hotel on Walt Disney World properly in Florida.  We took the opportunity to extend this trip into a week-long vacation.  As you can probably imagine I took every opportunity I could to visit the parks and collect some pressed coins.  Mostly I was updating my picture collection of the machines, also updating some coins that I had collected years ago and were in need of a fresh pressing.  I’ll go over all of my adventures in some upcoming posts, but for now I wanted to review some of the new machines that were recently made available.  First up let’s check out the Magic Kingdom.

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We visited the Magic Kingdom twice on this visit, and one of those times was to attend the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.  Above is the Castle all lit up for the party.

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Back on our non-party visit we started bright and early with Splash Mountain.  I’m sure most of you know about this ride whether you love it or hate it the adventures of Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Bear and Br’er Fox is definitely a classic.

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This is not usually a ride I enjoy as the stomach in my throat feeling is not my favorite sensation.  But this year my daughter Hanna was old enough and wanted to try it out so I obliged.  I’ll spare her the embarrassment of posting our ride photo here but needless to say she wasn’t a fan this time around.  Once your ride is over you walk by the Splashdown Photo Preview area where you can get a glimpse of your ride photo.  While we waited for our photo to show up I took the opportunity to use the penny machine located right next to the preview screens.

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On a side note for those of you that don’t want to ride Splash Mountain you can still access this machine.  You just have to walk back through the gift shop and will find it near the large crowd looking at their ride pictures.

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Earlier this year this machine had one of the 2016 yearly design pennies available, but recently this coin has been removed.  The above designs are what you will find there for now: Mickey/Pluto/Donald/Goofy riding Splash Mountain, Minnie splashing water on Mickey, and Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear riding Splash Mountain.

Now you remember me just talking about a gift shop?  That’s right what Disney ride would be complete without forcing you to exit through a gift shop full of wonderful souvenirs you just can’t live without.  In my case this wasn’t a t-shirt or snow globe but instead a new 8-Design penny machine.

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I was amazed at how many of these new touch screen machines there were throughout all the parks.  The price has gone up a bit, and you can’t supply your own pennies but I still think the tokens these machines use are pretty nice and make for a nice finished product.

splashdown-pennies

The pressed coins here were of Big Thunder Mountain, Frontierland Mickey/Donald/Goofy, Splash Mountain Donald/Goofy/Pluto/Mickey, Br’er Bear, Br’er Rabbit, Mickey & Goofy riding Splash Mountain, Br’er Fox, and Mr. Bluebird.  When you exit the gift shop with your pocket jingling with new pressed coins there is a large set of restrooms nearby and just a short walk back towards the entrance to Splash Mountain takes you underneath the Frontierland Railroad Station.

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On this trip was the first time I was actually able to use this machine as it always seems to be broken for some reason.  I always loved this machine’s cabinet design.

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The designs are sticking with our friends in the briar patch: Br’er Vulture, Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Bear.  With our clothes soaking wet we met up with the rest of our family to see where we were off to next.  Check back often as there are many more pressed penny machines to visit.