Month: July 2018

NEW Bing Bong’s Sweet Stuff Pressed Pennies – Disney California Adventure

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It didn’t take too long for the second rumors pressed penny set to make its appearance at the new Pixar Pier in Disney California Adventure park.  I recently posted about the first set available at Knick’s Knacks, and was able to just get a set of the new pennies.

This new machine can be found in the newly opened Bing Bong’s Sweet Stuff candy store.

In side there is a quite the selection of Pixar merchandise like t-shirts, plush toys and all the other standard items.  But the main draw for this new store was all the candy and snack items themed around your favorite Pixar characters.

After you have indulged in your sugar fix with the cute Bing Bong candy apples, or Wall-E and Eve cake pops make sure to head over and press a set of these new pennies.  The set is themed around the Inside Out movie and has images of Joy, Bing Bong and Anger.

The back of each coin also has the same backstamp with the Pixar Lamp and Ball.  This is the same design that is on the back of the other Pixar Pier pennies at Knick’s Knacks.

Inside Out was a movie that I enjoyed when I first saw it, and seems to get better each time I watch it.  I’m glad to see these new fun designs around this movie.  There are still quite a few other Pixar movies that haven’t been given the pressed penny treatment so hopefully this is a new area of the park that can help solve that problem.

Part 2 Hotel Plaza Boulevard – Disney Springs Area, FL

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If you read my post a few weeks ago about the Good Neighbor hotels near Disney Springs in Florida this is a follow-up.  In the post I had mentioned that five of the seven hotels had received new penny press machines.  Well just a short while ago those remaining two hotels finally got their machines.  I had been told by a few cast members that they were coming, and it seems they were absolutely correct.

I had been working that day and received the message on my phone that these new penny machines were available.  So this was going to be a night trip over to Disney Springs.  Just as I did the last time I parked in one of the garages and then just walked over to the good neighbor hotel area.  It is a bit of a hike so if you aren’t up to it (or have spent all your energy at the parks) see if someone can drop you off, or you could probably use the short-term check-in parking spots if they are available at each hotel.

First was the Wyndham hotel at Lake Buena Vista.

Make sure you are careful walking around these hotels as it seemed like there was even more traffic at night with people coming back to their hotels.

Once inside the main lobby area just to the right side is the Disney gift shop.

As soon as you are inside the store the penny machine is right near the main door.

The designs available at this machine are of Goofy with a tire around his neck, Pluto, and Tinker Bell.

The next hotel was a little further of a walk than I had remember the first time around.  For some reason I thought it was right next to the Wyndham but there are a few other buildings in between.

Eventually I did make it to the Best Western.  I also just heard recently that they are adding a second tower so they must be doing pretty good business at this hotel.

As you walk into the Best Western there are two stores one on the left and a another on the right.  The store on the right is where you can get drinks, and snacks.  The Disney gift shop is the one on the left side.

The store has two doors but is not very big.  If you are inside looking at the register check-out counter the machine is on the left side.

I thought this set of pennies was pretty cute.  It includes Mickey and Pluto driving in a car, Goofy in his PJs and another Tinker Bell.

With all the pennies pressed I had the long walk back to my car.  It is nice to see these good neighbor hotels getting in on the pressed penny craze.  They are not the easiest places to get to unless you don’t mind walking.

NEW Pixar Pier Pressed Pennies – Disney California Adventure

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You know what we haven’t talked about in a while?  New pressed coins at Disneyland.  They don’t usually have as many new coins as the parks in Florida, but so far there have only been the two 2018 dates sets that were released months ago.  I’m not sure the reasoning behind so few new designs coming out, but thankfully that came to an end late last week.

On June 23rd, 2018 was the grand opening of the new Pixar Pier over at Disney California Adventure.  This area was previously knows as Paradise Pier, but has been given a facelift.

As you walk into Pixar Pier you will find a gift shop called Knick’s Knacks.

It contains all things Pixar, and has a lot of new unique items.  Most of the Pixar characters are represented here and the theming is really cute inside.

Also found inside is the new pressed penny machine.  The designs on these new pennies include Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Violet with Dash.  Almost as if they timed it with the release of the new Incredibles 2 movie….hmmm coincidence?

If you have been following the new Disneyland pressed coins over the last few years you know they have really pushed the backstamp designs on all new coins.  These make sure a nice added image on each of the coins, and helps theme the new coins together in mini sets.  These new coins have the Pixar Lamp (Luxo Jr) and the Pixar ball.

It has definitely been longer than we would like for new pennies to be made available, but these were a nice surprise.  Hopefully more new coins are on the way.  There is a rumor of another new machine that is supposed to be in another gift shop that has yet to open in Pixar Pier.  Let’s hope it doesn’t take too much longer.

Grand Floridian Resort – Another NEW Pressed Pennies

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I kind of lucked out with this new set of pressed pennies.  Last weekend my two daughters wanted to visit the Magic Kingdom so we could ride their new favorite attraction Peter Pan’s Flight.  Thankfully I was able to book us fastpasses so we could avoid the usual 60 plus minute standby wait.  After flying with Peter to Never land and saving Wendy from Captain Hook we enjoyed a fun afternoon in the park.

If you have read some of my previous posts about the Magic Kingdom I’m always on the look out for new snacks or food items.  One of my all time favorite is the famous Dole Whip floats available over in Adventureland.  On this trip I had heard about a new version available at Storybook Treats in Fantasyland.  This new snack is called the Peter Pan Float, and consists of Key Lime Soft serve with Sprite soda.  There was also a chocolate feather included.  This was definitely unique and very refreshing on a hot summer afternoon.

Then we wandered over to the Sleepy Hollow quick service for my kids favorite fresh fruit waffle.  As we waited in line I saw something else that I just had to try.  A churro ice cream sandwich.  This was really amazing.  The churros were hot and covered with cinnamon and sugar, then the ice cream was nice a cold making for that classic combination.  I don’t know how long this will be around but it is worth a try if you are visiting soon.

Now that we had our fill of snacks, we enjoyed a few other attractions before heading out for the day.  It always seems to take quite a while to get out of the park, across the lake and then back to our car in the parking lot.  My two girls were quickly falling asleep in the back seat while I drove towards home, but just as we got on Western Way near the Coronado Springs resort my phone buzzed with a message.  Thankfully my car has Apple CarPlay so Siri read the message out loud.  “New Penny Machine reported at the Grand Floridian Hotel & Spa”.  At that exact moment I was roughly half way home so I had a moral dilemma.  Continue heading home or make a u-turn and get some new pennies.

I asked my girls what they wanted to do, and they responded with some inaudible mumble since they were partially asleep by this time.  But I took their response as acknowledgement we should go get some new pennies.  I cautiously made the next available u-turn and headed back towards the park and eventually pulled into the Grand Floridian parking lot.

This is a really beautiful hotel and I always love being able to visit.  Maybe some day I can actually save up enough to stay here, but for now as I usually do I can continue to pretend I’m an actual guest.

Once inside the main first floor lobby, the check-in area is to your right, but if you turn towards the left you will see a hallway not too far away.  Down this short hallway are some restrooms, and also the exit doors for the 1800 Park Fare restaurant.

This is where two previously penny machines used to be located.  One was a 3 design electric penny machine, and the second was also a 3 design electric machine but pressed on quarters.  These two machines are no longer at this resort (see bottom of post for more info).

In their place now is a new 8-design touch screen penny press machine that is really taking over.  This resort already had a machine similar to this with different designs installed back in May that you can read about here.  So far the Grand Floridian is the only resort to have the 8-design machine model, and now they have two of them.

The machine pressed penny sized token blanks which are nice and shiny, but we are still waiting to see how they hold up over time.  The designs available in this machine include Alice, the Mad Hatter, Jaq & Gus, Cinderella, the White Rabbit, Ariel, Tigger & Pooh, and Princess Jasmine.

Even though this resort now only has 3 machines there are a total of 19 designs available for pressing.  This new machine located in the first floor lobby, the second 8-design machine is still on the second floor lobby near the doors to the monorail station, and the third machine is out near the bus stop with 3 designs.  Not a bad haul if you have some free time to stop by this resort.

Remember above I mentioned the two machines that used to be in this location.  Well I was over at the Yacht & Beach Club Resorts just last night for dinner and afterwards we usually like to walk around the resort to work off our meal.

As we headed around the resort pool we passed by the Lafferty Arcade which is near the Beaches and Cream Ice Cream shop/restaurant.  I knew they had two machines here previously but suddenly a third machine caught my eye.

The machine pictures above to the far left is the penny machine that used to be near the exit to 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian.

The designs are still the same and have not changed.  They still include Jaq & Gus from Cinderella, Alice from Alice in Wonderland, and Prince Charming from Cinderella.

There was no sign of the quarter machine from the Grand Floridian but with the above relocation I’m hoping that the quarter machine will show up somewhere else soon.

Toy Story Land – Hollywood Studios, FL

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The below is based on my visit that took place Tuesday July 3rd, 2018.  Things may change and I’ll try to keep everyone updated.
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As we all knows penny machines can and often do change or move all over Walt Disney World property.  Just a couple of days ago (on July 3rd) I was able to head over and check out the brand new Toy Story Land over at Hollywood Studios.

Online since the new land opened on June 30th, there have been all sorts of unconfirmed rumors of new penny machines, or didn’t see any machines but wasn’t really looking scenarios.  So on this, my first trip to the new land I was making sure to check every nook and cranny hunting out new or maybe just relocated machines.

For those of you that are interested in where this new land is located.  After you enter into the park you head straight back down Hollywood Boulevard towards the Chinese Theatre.

Then you enter into Animation Courtyard and head left past the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show.  This is basically the same area where the Toy Story Midway Mania ride was located.  But just before that building you will see the crown turning right.  Plus there is a lot of cast members guiding the way.

As you walk up a big friendly face is waiting to great you into Andy’s backyard.

The idea is that we are all shrunken down to the size of toys and are a part of Andy’s imagination that he has set up in his backyard.

This includes the main attraction which is the Slinky Dog Dash family roller coaster.

The pathways are illuminated by Christmas lights, and tinker toys.

As you can see from the above picture the crowds are busy but not totally crazy.  When I visited it was the fourth day this new land was open, and I got there around 9am.  The pathways were pretty wide open, but the standby lines for the rides were pretty long.  Slinky Dog was about a 90 minute wait, and there is not much shade or cover in any of these areas.

The second new attraction is the Alien Swirling Saucers.  This had about a 60 minute standby wait, but thankfully I had been able to find a fastness online and didn’t wait more than 5 minutes.

This ride has you as the passenger of a space ship piloted by the little green men from the Toy Story movies.  The ride kind of moves in figure eights, and the ship kind of whips you around the corners as they turn.  I don’t do the tea cups in Magic Kingdom, but was able to ride this without any issue.  It’s pretty tame, but still very cute and entertaining.

After the ride I headed over to Woody’s lunch box for a late breakfast.  This is the quick service food option available.

I opted to try something a little different that grabbed my eye.  It was a S’Mores French Toast.  Marshmallow and Chocolate ganache on Brioche french toast encrusted with graham cracker crumbs.  It was very sweet, but still interesting and enjoyable.  I’ll have to come back some day for lunch or dinner and try some of the other items as this place is definitely intriguing.

With breakfast done I was back on my hunt and passed by the new entrance to Toy Story Mania.  I had gone down each pathway I could find, near all the attractions, and Woody’s lunch box but couldn’t find any pressed penny machines.

Just to be sure I made a second walk through and still nothing.  There isn’t a standard gift shop in this new land which would have been the most probably location for a new machine.  But currently there are only merchandise carts located near each of the attractions.  Unfortunately I have to say as of this day no machines (new or old) were to be found inside Toy Story Land.

Feeling a little disappointed at not being able to discover a new set of pressed pennies I decided to make sure the existing machine was still available.  I headed out of Toy Story Land and down into Pixar Place.  There is still some things going on here like a meet and greet with Buzz Lightyear or Cruz Ramirez from Cars 3.  But this area pretty much just dead-ends and forces you to u-turn back the way you came.

I did take a quick look at the old entrance to Toy Story Midway Mania and it is all boarded up.

Directly across from this is the Story Department store which is where the previous machine was located.  But as you can see from the above picture it’s no longer here.  Now I needed to figure out where it had gone.

Thankfully I found it pretty easily and didn’t even ask a cast member.  Back in the Animation Courtyard near Star Wars Launch Bay is a gift shop called In Character.  This place used to be all princesses all the time (trust me I know, this was my daughters favorite place).  But now it’s a make ship Toy Story Land gift shop.  I don’t know if this will be permanent or not, but for now it’s all about Toy Story.

   

This machine is exactly the same as it’s been for a while.  The designs include Hamm, Wheezy, Rex and one of the Little Green Men.  Now those of you that recognize where this machine is located may be saying, but what happened to the 12-Design Heroines penny machine.  Well I thought the same thing so I asked a cast member where that machine went.  I was told it was removed completely (gasp!).  Is this forever, I don’t know and honestly don’t think so.  That was a pretty popular machine and was always busy whenever I visited it.  Just to make sure it wasn’t moved somewhere else without the cast member knowing I wondered the rest of the park and sure enough didn’t see it anywhere.

One of the last places I checked was the Indiana Jones Adventure Outpost shop.  As I mentioned above it wasn’t here, but they did have a design that I thought fit into today’s events so I pressed a copy just for the heck of it.

   

Good old Buzz Lightyear, but so far away from the new Toy Story Land I wonder why.  Maybe Woody had something to do with this.  Anyways, this does seem kind of strange to be so far away, but maybe he will get moved in the weeks to come.

Well that was my Toy Story day in Hollywood Studios.  I am definitely disappointed that there were no new machines, but am hopeful they are still on the way.  If the existing machine had just been moved into the land then I would be more apt to assume no new machines are coming.  However since this machine was moved to another spot outside the land I think this is a good sign at least one new machine is on the way.  As always only time will tell and I’ll be sure to check back.  I do have some days scheduled to go back with my family a few times in the next couple weeks.  I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open and will share any new info I find.

Toy Story Land is definitely a fun place and the new rides are entertaining for all ages.  Nothing too extreme, but still enjoyable.  I don’t think it’s as immersive as Pandora over in the Animal Kingdom which is truly amazing.  Toy Story land is fun, just not a place I see people spending their entire days inside.