2016 WDW Trip Day 4 – Hollywood Studios

March 30, 2017 / davidscointravels / Leave a comment

With two young daughters we don’t get to sleep in too much, especially not on vacation. We were up early as usual and had planned to visit Hollywood Studios. With all the changes going on at that park we weren’t planning on being there for more than half a day. First we decided to get some breakfast at our resort and there was a place nearby that would allow us a few character interactions at the same time.

The Cape May Cafe is located right near the main lobby of the Beach Club Resort. Our reservation was for the first available time so the restaurant wasn’t even open yet when we arrived. There was a short wait while they got things setup, but it was nice to have the place almost completely to ourselves. This was also a nice perk for when the characters started coming by and we got to spend a nice extended amount of time each of them.

Minnie Mouse was of course the favorite for our girls. Since we were at the Beach Club each character was dressed appropriately in beach attire. We also got to visit with Goofy and Donald.

Unfortunately Mickey isn’t here for a visit, but the three we did get to visit with were really great with the kids, posed for lots of pictures and of course we couldn’t let them go without signing our autograph book. The food here is a buffet style and had most of the standard Disney breakfast items, but there were a few more unique items available. After breakfast we headed out to the water front and hopped on one of the boats that transport guests between Epcot, Yacht & Beach Club resorts, the Boardwalk resort, Swan and Dolphin and finally Hollywood Studios.

There is no “express” option to take you directly to the Studios, so it can take a little while to visit the other resorts first but it’s actually a very nice method of getting to the park. Once we arrived we got off the boat and headed inside, and right down the main boulevard. We had no fastpasses booked and nothing particularly planned for this day so we wanted to just wander around and see what we could find to do. Just outside the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular were the first couple penny machines.

The first machine is near the exit to the Stunt show, but can be accessed without having to sit through the show (but who could pass up a chance to see Indy). The four designs here include the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular Logo, Silvermist Fairy, Indiana Chip, and Indiana Mickey with a Whip. The second machine is located nearby at the Indiana Jones Outpost. The pennies here have images of Mickey with an Old Time Camera, Merida from Brave, Agent P, and Buzz Lightyear.

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We were heading towards Star Tours but I needed to make a quick stop at a relatively new gift shop called Frozen Fractal Gifts. I had written about these coins before and you can read out it here. But this was the first time I was able to use check out the machine in person.

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This is another one of those 8-design touch screen models becoming more popular throughout the parks. This is not a numbered set, but as you can assume it’s a Frozen themed set. The designs include Anna & Olaf, Olaf & Elsa, Kristoff & Anna, Sven, Kristoff Olaf Sven Anna Elsa, Olaf, Anna, and Elsa. Now it was time to get our Star Wars on. This was Hanna’s first ride on Star Tours and it was a little too jerky for her. She didn’t complain much but we may need to wait another year or so before trying to get her back on it. Since we are on the topic of Star Wars, we couldn’t see anything behind the construction walls about the new Star Wars land, but they did have some concept art up on the wall.

This wall is up along the walkway you take towards the Muppet’s courtyard. The kids didn’t seem interested in the Muppet Vision movie attraction, but instead we checked out the Stage 1 Company Muppet Shop.

There are three machines available here, but two of them hadn’t changed so I only visited one of them. The designs here included the 2016 Sorcerer’s Hat logo, Minnie in a Costume, and Belle with the Hollywood Studios Logo all pressed on quarters. Due to the construction areas the Muppet’s Courtyard has turned into a dead-end, and you need to head back towards Star Tours to be rerouted towards the rest of the park.

Over in the Animation area we checked out the Toy Story Midway Mania attraction but wait times were already beyond 90 minutes and our kids wouldn’t last that long. We were able to distract Hanna with the opportunity to get her face painted which she jumped at the change and forgot all out the Midway Mania ride. While she got her face painted I used the nearby Toy Story penny machine. The pennies have images of Hamm, Wheezy, Rex and the Toy Alien.

We were getting close to the Star Wars Launch Bay which was new from the last time we had visited. But in the Animation Courtyard there was a store called the In Character Shop with a 12-Design touch screen machine.

I’ve written about this machine a few times and won’t go into details at this time, but I did post recently about a change to the coins this machine was pre-loaded with. Check out my post here that gives a comparison of the coins I pressed in 2015 vs 2016. Right next door is another shop called The Studio Store. While the kids checked out the wall of plush characters I used the machine hidden inside.

The pennies in this machine had designs of Chick Hicks from Pixar’s Cars, Donald Goofy & Mickey with Mickey Hats, and Luigi from Pixar’s Cars.

Now it was time for more Star Wars. Unfortunately the wait time for the Launch Bay and visited with some of the characters was just way too long. Instead we headed in to the Launch Bay gift shop which is still pretty cool. They are some nice movie memorabilia inside to check out, and some Star Wars toys and souvenirs I just haven’t seen anywhere else. As you exit the store there is a new penny machine right outside.

The theming of this machine is really cool and fits in perfectly with the Launch Bay. It’s another touch screen model and has 8 designs available. Technically you can get just one but why would you do that. The designs here are of Kylo Ren Fighting, BB-8, Kylo Ren holding his Lightsaber, Finn, Star Wars The Force Awakens Logo, Rey holding a staff, Stormtrooper, and Rey with a Lightsaber. We now headed towards the Sunset Boulevard area of the park and came across two machines in a location known as Hollywood Junction.

The first machine on the left had pennies with designs of Phineas Flynn, Carl from the movie Up, Doug & Russell also from the movie Up, and Ferb. The second machine on the right had images of Mike Wazowski, Sully Sullivan, Boo, and Randall Boggs all from Monsters Inc. Sunset Boulevard is always a busy place with crowds heading down towards the two big attractions which we will get to shortly. Partway down the street we came across the Sunset Ranch.

The four pennies you can press at this machine include Guido holding a set of tires, Movie Producer Mickey, Singing Daisy, and Mater & Lightning McQueen. Next we headed towards the Rock n Roller Coaster courtyard for the next set of machines.

Both machines have four penny designs. The first one on the left has images of Mater, Lightning McQueen, Radiator Springs, and Mater & Lightning McQueen together. The second machine includes pennies of Mickey playing a Guitar, Rock n Roller Coaster Limo, Singing Goofy, and the Rock n Roller Coaster flaming guitar logo. We are not fans of the Aerosmith ride, but the shop at the end of the ride has a penny machine so I just headed inside to check it out.

The store is known as the Rock Around the Shop and it a pretty unique place. Even the penny machine shown above has the cabinet designed like a piece of concert equipment. The pennies here have pictures of Rock n Roller Coaster Logo, Mickey riding the Coaster, and The Walt Disney Studios Logo. Back through the courtyard and across Sunset Boulevard is the other big attraction here the Tower of Terror. Again this is something that makes my stomach drop just thinking about it. But my brother in-law and niece Ava were all about going on this. I followed them to take some pictures but let them go one without me once they got to the queue. While I waited I headed into the gift shop.

Inside the Tower of Terror shop is a machine pressing quarters. The designs on these coins include Goofy with a Microphone, The Hollywood Tower Hotel, and Stitch dressed as a Bellhop. Back outside just near the beginning of the queue for the ride is a newer machine that was placed here earlier in 2016.

This machine has more Tower of Terror themed designs including Bellhop Mickey, Bellhop Minnie, Bellhop Goofy, and Bellhops Chip & Dale. I headed back to meet up with the rest of my family while we waiting for our brave Tower riders to finish up with the ride. When they were done Ava seemed to enjoy the ride but was in no rush to go back on. We had pretty much seen everything there was to do at the Studios due to all the construction and current closures. As we headed back towards the front of the park I made one last stop in the Legends of Hollywood store.

For those Star Wars fans out there this is another nice set of coins. The images are of Kylo Ren from The Force Awakens, R2-D2, and Yoda. After that we finished heading out of the park, back to the dock, onto the ferry and back to our Resort. We took a nice break in the room, and then spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. It had been a quick day at the park but very enjoyable none the less. After seeing some of the areas blocked off that will be transformed into the new Star Wars and Toy Story lands we can’t wait to see how they turn out. Hopefully we don’t need to wait too long, and I’m crossing my fingers for a lot of new (highly themed) penny press machines.

2016 WDW Trip Day 3 – Resort Crawl

March 23, 2017 / davidscointravels / Leave a comment

Day 3 had come to and end for my family, but my daughter Hanna and I were still hopped up on Goofy Carmel Corn and Mickey Rice Crispy treats. With all this energy to work off we decided to jump in the rental car and visit some resorts. As you can assume the primary visit to each of these reports was to get pressed coins, but it’s always fun to just wander around the different resorts and see what they have to offer. They are all so different from each other and a lot of fun to spend some time at each one. My plan was to start with the resorts furthest away from our resort and work my way back. First up was the All-Star Sports resort.

Located across from the food court is the Game Point Arcade and just before you enter the Arcade is a nice wall of four pressed coin machines. The first machine pressed on quarters and had designs of 2016 Minnie Mouse, Mickey Golfing and Pooh looking in his Honey Pot. The second machine has pennies with Baseball Mickey, Tennis Goofy, and Minnie with Roller Skates on.

The third machine has images of Dory, Pluto on a Soccer ball, and Tigger with Pooh in a Row boat. The last machine here also presses pennies and has designs of Captain Hook, Hades, and Cruella De Vil all from the Villains set. Technically we could have walked to the next resort, but I really didn’t want to be out all night so we drove over to the All-Star Music Resort.

Similar to the previous resort the All-Star Music has an arcade called Note’Able Games, and right before you walk inside is a mother nice collection of three machines. The first has images of Mickey in a Tux, Jasmine, and Aladdin.

The middle machine has some nice Alice in Wonderland themed pennies. They include the Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar, and Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum.

The last machine here had another of the 2016 coins with Daisy Duck, Stitch, and Mike & Sully from Monsters, Inc. One perk I forgot to mention previously was that there has definitely been more change machines available throughout the parks and resorts. I’ve mentioned in the past I always go through exhaustive preparations before these trips, but it’s nice to know these change machines are close by for those times a new machine pops up you may not have been expecting. Another short drive and we were at the last All-Star resort Movies.

This resort changing things up a bit and has this wall of four machines inside the World Premier Food Court. Even through it was getting a little late these machines were jumping with people of all ages trying to use them. I always take the opportunity to help if anyone needs it or just talk about pressed coins in general. Machine #1 pressed the designs on quarters and included Lilo & Stitch, Mickey with a Camcorder, and Bambi Thunder & Flower. The second machine uses pennies with designs of Quasimodo, Three Dalmatian puppies, and Beast & Belle.

I always think the set available at the third machine is a cute one to have if you’re a Winnie the Pooh fan. The designs are of Tigger & Piglet in a Flower patch, Tigger with Mickey ears, and Tigger carrying Honey Pots. The last machine available at the All-Star Movies resort has some nice images of Mickey in a Tu, Rex from Toy Story, and Buzz Lightyear. Hanna wanted to some ice cream to go so we grabbed a mickey bar and headed out to the car, and towards the Coronado Springs Resort.

I stayed here once years ago and remember really liking this resort at night when it was all lit up. Because this is a convention resort it can get busy, but it’s quite large so the layout helps to spread out all the guests. There were two machines located here that a work friend of mine had picked up for me, but I was in need of new pictures of the machines. You can read about it by clicking here. Our final stop this night was going to be over at the Pop Century Resort.

This resort is similar to the All-Star resorts but the layout of the main building is a little different. You walk in the main entrance and can then walk into the gift shot which has a path right through the middle of it leading to the food court. This area is known as the Everything Pop Shopping & Dinning. There are four press machines here located in-between the gift shop and food court area. This can be a heavy traffic area but there are some nice sets available here.

I always like when the designs include the name or logo of the resorts. Unfortunately over the years these are not as common as they used. The first machines has one of these designs Mickey with a Yo-Yo and the Pop Century Logo, Lady & the Tramp, and Snow White Cinderella Belle Sleeping Beauty & Jasmine all together. The second machine was right nearby and has images of Mickey & Minnie Dancing with the Pop Century Logo, Kaa, and Bagheera from The Lion King.

The third machine is located right near one of the check out desks for the gift shop and was located in pretty awkward area to use when people are paying for their souvenirs right beside you. The pennies included Sully Sullivan, Mowgli, and Mowgli & The Girl from The Lion King. The last machine has one design available and presses on a quarter. The image is of a Nostalgic 80’s Mickey Mouse.

I’m not sure how we did it but we managed to visit all the resorts on my list for that night. Hanna was losing her sugar rush and I was ready for some much needed sleep. We headed back to our resort, quietly entered our room and got ready for bed. Tomorrow was another big day and we had lots to do.

2016 WDW Trip Day 3 – Magic Kingdom

March 16, 2017 / davidscointravels / Leave a comment

After long night out at Epcot the following morning we got up early and headed over to the Magic Kingdom. This was also our daughter Hanna’s 4th birthday and we had a special lunch scheduled for her but I’ll get into that a little later. We hopped on one of the Transportation buses and it dropped us off just outside the main gates. We made it through the new security lines but unfortunately were just a little too late to see the classic opening ceremony for the park. But that’s okay just means we get to head right inside. One thing I love is that as soon as I scanned my magic band I headed over to the Newsstand that is located to the left side of the main entrance to use the first machine of the day.

This machine has designs of Cinderella, Tinker Bell, and Peter Pan. As I finished using this machine the rest of my family had already headed towards main street.

What walk down main street would be complete without a picture of the castle. I have hundreds of these pictures but just can’t stop taking more each visit. My family is definitely creatures of habit and every time we visit this park we always go clockwise through the different lands. I’ve mentioned starting with Tomorrowland but to us it just seems weird and we always head to Adventureland first. Jungle cruise is always a must, and our kids insist on riding Aladdin’s magic carpet ride. After hitting up these two attractions I needed to make two quick stops. First was the Verandah Breezeway (Also knows as the restroom area by the Island Supply shop) which has two machines available. These used to be separate machines but have recently been combined into one large cabinet.

The machine on the left presses quarters and has designs of Nala, Simba, and Timon & Pumbaa all from The Lion King. The machine on the right presses pennies and has images of The Adventureland Logo, Olaf from Frozen, and the Jungle Cruise attraction. An interesting update on this machine, the Adventureland Logo design was removed shortly after I had visited the park. Disney was slowly removing all pressed coin designs that had image of guns in them. As you can see below this design included Mickey above the logo with a rifle.

This coin was replaced with one of the 2016 designs which had been relocated from the Splash Mountain Splashdown Photo Preview area.

This makes for a perfect transition into the next few machines which include one underneath the Frontierland Railroad, and the two machines at the exit of Splash Mountain. I wrote about these in a previous separate post which you can check out here. Taking Hanna on Splash Mountain may have emotionally scarred her, but our niece Ava loved it and by the end of our trip probably rode it a half-dozen times. As we left the Frontierland area it was just about time to turn in our Pirates of the Caribbean fastpasses.

This is another favorite of ours, and all the kids seemed to enjoy it. As we exited the ride you always end up in a gift shop somewhere in Disney and as everyone picked out some pirate swag I used the next machine shown above. The pennies here were of Pirate Mickey with a Treasure Chest, Pirate Micky with a Parrot, and a Pirate Ship. Next on our list was to take a chance to cool down and rest by watching the Country Bear Jamboree show. We headed back towards the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride to use the little bypass that sneaks you over to Frontierland. This was done on purpose because I felt it was about time for a snack.

Aloha Isle Refreshments is where you can find the magical Dole Whip. I have come to really love the Dole Whip floats that have pineapple juice added. My entire family has joined into this obsession so I had a large order to place and did a fantastic balancing act to ensure I didn’t drop or spill any of them.

Here’s my Dole Whip float which didn’t last too much longer after this picture. With our internal temperatures now a few degrees lower thanks to this refreshing treat we headed over to the Country Bears.

In the waiting lobby of this attraction is a penny machine. Technically you can just go in use the machine and exit without watching the show, but we always thought this was a cute show and a nice way to take a little break. The pennies here were of Little Ole Tennessee Bear, Big Al Bear, and the Frontierland logo. Check out this last penny design below.

Another gun included in the design. As with the penny I mentioned above at the Island Supply store this was also removed shortly after our trip was over. It was replaced with a penny showing the Big Thunder Mountain Train. I could have sworn I had this design in my collection, but the only one I have doesn’t match what is listed online at the CTM Group’s (The Penny Men) website. Below is a picture of the design they show was added to this machine. Guess I’ll just have to make a trip over to the park and get myself a copy.

Now that we were over near Liberty Square it was time for our next favorite ride the Haunted Mansion. After our escape from the mansion it was time for a pit stop and I knew just where to go.

You may recognize this as Rapunzel’s Tower from the Disney movie Tangled. Now before anyone complains this is also technically considered Mother Gothel’s tower where she kept Rapunzel locked up. Whatever you want to call it this is a pretty cool little area of the park. This is about as close to the tower as you can get, but be on the look out for hidden Pascal (Rapunzel’s chameleon friend).

I’m showing it for assistance, but will not explain exactly where to find him (what fun would that be). Hint: there is also more than one to find. Good luck! Now that we were over in the Fantasyland area there were a lot of attractions we visited all in a row. It’s a Small World, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and Hanna’s favorite the carousel.

Our special lunch for Hanna’s birthday was quickly approaching so we needed to head towards the castle. I had one stop to make before checking in for our reservation.

The above machine was located in the Sir Mickey’s shop. This is where you end up after visiting with the Princess meet and greets in the castle. The pennies here have designs of 2016 Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey, Snow White, and Elsa from Frozen. Now it was time for lunch. Our reservation was at Cinderella’s Royal Table which we have never experience before.

When you first enter you are greeted by the famous princess herself Cinderella.

There is then an elevator you can take upstairs, but to be honest it’s worth it to walk up the winding staircase as the architecture and design is incredible as you head upstairs. We were sat at a large table that looked out through large stain glass windows overlooking Fantasyland. Throughout our meal various princesses came by to say happy birthday and of course take lots of pictures. Here’s one of our favorites Princess Jasmine.

The other princesses that came by included Snow White, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), and Ariel. Once our lunch was over I had requested before our visit that a special dessert be sent for Hanna.

There was a dark chocolate Cinderella slipper filled with chocolate mousse, fresh berries, and a nice birthday with written in chocolate sauce. Everyone was really surprised and impressed with this really wonderful place to have a special occasion. The food was good, the princesses were fantastic, but knowing we were experiencing all of this inside the castle was just the cherry on top. It was sad to say goodbye but we still had places to visit. We headed over to Tomorrowland so the kids could try the Tomorrowland Speedway and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger spin. Both of these places had penny machines that I wrote about earlier and I included links to both by clicking on the attraction names above. By this time everyone was starting to get tired, and our pace through the park had started to slow. We decided it was time to head back towards Main Street and get some final souvenirs for the day.

About half way down (or up) Main Street is the Hall of Champions clothing store. They have two machines her but is kind of out of the way if you aren’t looking for them you may go right past them. The machine on the left had pennies with Goofy wearing Mickey ears, Mickey Minnie Donald & Goofy, and Scrooge McDuck. The second machine on the right is more sports oriented and has pennies with designs of Baseball Mickey, Tennis Goofy, and Soccer Mickey. A nice feature of this store is that it’s interconnected with the other shops along the one side of Main Street. Just a few steps (in Air conditioning yay!) and you find yourself in the huge emporium. This place has three machines but there was only one I needed to visit.

This machine is located by the set of doors closest to the front of Magic Kingdom. This machine had the 2016 Castle design, Let the memories begin, and Anna & Else from Frozen. We had quite the selection of souvenirs collected as we wandered through the stores. After checking out we headed towards the exit but I had one last stop to make at the Main Street Train Station.

This machine had quarters with a similar 2016 castle design, Pinocchio & Jimmy Cricket, and Mickey in the Train Engine. I met back up with my group as we exited the park and headed over to the bus area so we can get back to our resort for a much needed rest. After a nice late afternoon break we headed over to Epcot for dinner at the China Pavilion’s Nine Dragons restaurant which was really nice. The crowds were getting a little crazy at night due to the Food and Wine festival so we didn’t stay long, but were able to catch a beautiful sunset before heading back to our room.

2017 Walt Disney World Pressed Coins – Follow Up

March 9, 2017March 14, 2017 / davidscointravels / 4 Comments

** See below for contest to win a free set of 2017 WDW coins **

For those of you that read my original post with the concept design pictures of the new 2017 pressed coin designs this is a quick follow-up. Shortly after that post I was contacted by a representative at CTM Group (The Pennymen), and we traded a few messages back and forth. They were nice enough to offer a copy of the entire set of coins fresh from the machines throughout the resort so I could post pictures of the actual coins.

Above is a picture of all the coins together. There are the same number as last year but I think the designs this year have definitely gone up in detail.

Here I have a picture of all the penny designs together.

Next are all the quarter designs.

The picture above shows a close up of a cool little sub-set within the 2017 dates set. Each theme park had one design with Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey in the middle, and an icon from each park above his head. For Epcot there is Spaceship Earth, Animal Kingdom has the Tree of Life, Hollywood Studios has The Tower of Terror, and the Magic Kingdom of course has Cinderella’s Castle. These four designs are a numbered set which is listed directly on each coin.

All of these designs are really nice this year, but I must say the one listed above is my personal favorite. When I first saw it I just thought it was fantastic. This design is located in the Magic Kingdom at the Main Street Railroad Station. It’s cool that all four of the park iconic symbols are all on one coin along with the 2017 year. This is really a great way to start off the new year.

Obviously these will be around for the entire year, but do not hesitate to get yourself a set. These are a great addition to any collection and will be gone before you know it.

**Thank you to the CTM Group team for all their work on these new designs, and for taking the time to reach out. It was very much appreciated!

CONTEST:
This is a chance for you to get a complete set of the 2017 Coins listed above. This will include all 15 coins (8 Pennies and 7 Quarters).

All you need to do is post a comment below with any ideas you have for the 2018 annual set that you would like to see for next year. This can be a set of movies, characters, ride or attractions, food (Mmm…Dole Whip Penny), let your imagination run wild.

Post as many times as you like. Then at the end of the month (3/31/2017) I’ll randomly select a winner and will contact you for your mailing information.

Good luck!!

2016 WDW Trip Day 2 – ‘Ohana and Monorail Resorts

March 2, 2017 / davidscointravels / Leave a comment

I wanted to take the chance to review our night-time side trip on Day 2 of our vacation. We had spent the day checking out every corner of Epcot, and with our stomachs crying out for some food we had reservations at one of our favorite places. We had to take the monorail from Epcot over to the Ticketing and Transportation Center, then transfer to the resort line for one quick stop. The Polynesian Village Resort is where my sister and her family were staying. This is a resort I have always wanted to stay at but haven’t not yet had the chance.

I can’t remember a visit to WDW without us going over to ‘Ohana for dinner. In years past we were even able to just walk up without a reservation, but those days are long gone. The foods it always really filling, and the Lapu Lapu drinks always reminds me that we are on vacation.

This tropical drink is made up of Myer’s original dark rum, Bacardi 151 Rum, and tropical fruit juices all served up in a hollowed out Pineapple. While I enjoyed 2 or 5 of theses we always enjoy the endless skillet of Pork stickers, and awesome sticky chicken wings with mounds of Polynesian noodles. Then to top it off there are skewers of beef, chicken and shrimp constantly being dropped off on our plate. Every so often the entire restaurant prepares for the young guests to partake in the famous coconut races.

I needed to try to work off some of my dinner so I jumped at the chance to try to keep Hanna and her two cousins from knocking someone out with their coconuts. Music is played while the kids try to use the broom to push the coconuts around the restaurant. It’s not really a race just a fun way for the kids to entertain the crowd of onlookers. After another few rounds of food we finally had to wave the white flags. This was another great experience for us but it was time to let the next group of gluttons in to enjoy their dinner. We headed back out to the main lobby area of the resort. My wife, youngest daughter melody and my parents all decided they were ready to head back to our resort. Hanna and I had other ideas and decided to hop on the Monorail and visit a few resorts.

For those of you that are familiar with the Monorail loop you can visit the Contemporary Resort, Polynesian Village Resort and the Grand Floridian Resort with the TTC (Ticketing and Transportation Center) and Magic Kingdom squeezed in among the resorts. This is actually a fun free attraction to do when visiting, and if you haven’t ever taken time to just wander around some of the resorts you are definitely missing out. We started at the Poly so our first stop would be the Grand Floridian Resort.

Once you step off the Monorail you enter the Grand Floridian on the second floor. Just inside the sliding doors of the resort is the first of the penny machines located here. This machine is home to the 2016 Goofy penny, Classic Mickey’s Face and Pearl from Finding Nemo. This resort is really gorgeous and I would spend hours just looking at all the details of this place. We were headed down to the first flood but instead of just taking the boring old elevator we take the grand staircase. At certain times they actually have Cinderella make a grand entrance down these stairs with an entourage of young guests with her.

Across the lobby over towards the exit area of 1900 Park Fare restaurant is where we were headed. We ate here later in our trip and I’ll go over it in more detail than. On this stop we were just here for the two machines. The one on the left used quarters and had designs of Mickey Donald & Goofy, Mulan & Mushu, and Timon & Pumbaa. The second machine pressed pennies with Cinderella’s Mice friends Jac & Gus, Alice, and Cinderella’s Prince Charming. The last machine is in kind of a strange spot, you actually have to go outside, and down a pathway to the resorts Bus Stop.

It’s located right near where guests get on and off the buses for the different parks. If you end up trying to use it while a bus is emptying out you may get run over as this is right in the middle of the exit area. The pennies here are of Mickey in a Tuxedo, Winnie the Pooh & Tigger, and the Siamese Cats from Lady & and the Tramp. After visiting all he machines here at the Grand Floridian it was time to head back up to the Monorail. We jumped on the next one that arrived and just a couple stops away we got off at the Contemporary Resort. This in my option is one of the coolest resorts, not necessarily the most up to date or fanciest, but where else do you have a Monorail driving straight through the middle of your resort. We got off the Monorail and headed down the escalator one floor to the main 4th Floor concourse. If you are a pressed coin collector this is one of the must do stops to make.

Look at this wall of awesomeness. There is even a change machine nearby which is great because otherwise your shorts would probably be falling down with all the quarters and pennies it would take to press all of these in one trip. As you can see from the picture there are six machines in total, three penny and three quarter machines each with three designs. That’s 18 designs in total at all one place and you don’t have to wonder around the entire resort. Let me take you on a tour of these machines.

Starting from the far left side of this wall there are the first two quarter machines. The first machine has designs of Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder from The Little Mermaid and all have the Contemporary Resort Logo. The second machine has designs of Aladdin & Jasmin, Peter Pan, and Tinker Bell also with the Contemporary Resort Logo.

The third quarter machine has images of Walt Disney World 2016 Where Magic Lives, Snow White, and Dumbo. The fourth machine changes to pennies and has designs of Winnie the Pooh & Eeyore, Buzz Lightyear, and the Contemporary Resort.

Almost there. The fifth machine has designs of Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary Resort, Mickey in a Tux, and Marlin & Dory from Finding Nemo. The last machine had another 2016 Music Magic Memories design, Mickey Minnie Donald Goofy & Pluto all one penny, and Stitch from Lilo & Stitch. Phew!

By this time it was getting late and we still had a way to go to get back to Epcot and then over to our resort. This was definitely a fun little side trip to take and Hanna always looks forward to riding the Monorail whenever possible. This is a quick way to acquire a lot of pressed coins in a relatively short period of time. It probably took us about an hour or so to do these resorts but that also included a little wandering around and souvenir shopping. By the time we got back to Epcot things were getting ready for Illuminations and the crowds were getting a little heavy around. We made a quick stop back over at the France Pavilion for some snacks and decided on the Macaroons and Chocolate Croissants.

I could barely wait to dig into these, but forced myself to wait unit we got back to our room. Once there my family tore into these pretty quickly. The macaroons were good, but the chocolate croissants were fantastic. My wife took advantage of our close proximity to Epcot and had me go over to France a couple more times during our trip for more croissants. I was always more than happy to oblige.

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	Satchel's Pizza… on Satchel’s Pizza –…

David's Coin Travels

Follow my journey across the country collecting elongated coins

Month: March 2017