Month: April 2019

Mary Poppins Pressed Pennies – Disneyland, CA

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You know what we haven’t talked about it a while?  Disneyland pressed pennies.  I know they have few parks, few resorts and overall fewer penny press machines than the Florida parks.  But in the past it was still pretty common for them to release quite a few new penny designs throughout the year.  Recently this seems to have changed, and there just aren’t as many new designs coming out.  However I have good news!  Just released a week ago was a new set of pennies over at the Main Street Penny Arcade.

I may have mentioned this in the past but my last visit to Disneyland was in 2008 and I remember walking into the Penny Arcade and was amazed with the number of penny machines.  There must have been 10 or 12 at least all in this one place.  It was a pressed penny collectors dream.  Another unfortunately change recently at the parks is most of those machines have been moved out and required.  Now there are usually two machines here all the time, and then a third machine with the annual holiday designs shows up for a few weeks around Christmas and New Years before it’s removed again.

These designs are in one of those two machines so not a brand new machine, but the designs are really nice.  As you can see from the picture above they are all of everyone’s favorite Nanny Mary Poppins.  One with her famous Umbrella, another where she is floating, and the third has her penguin friends.

The back design on each of these coins is the Mary Poppins logo and her famous shoes. This is something I wish the Florida parks would do as I think it really adds a nice addition to the pennies to have these special back images / logos.

With the theatrical release of Mary Poppins Returns taking place December 19th, 2019 and I’m sure it’s just recently been available on Blu-ray and Digital services so it makes sense these designs were released.  There are so many new Disney movies coming out this year like the Avengers Endgame, Toy Story 4, live action versions of Aladdin and the Lion King, plus Star Wars episode IX the possibilities for new penny designs could be very interesting.

Lego Movie World – Legoland, FL

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Any time I hear about a new “land” opening up at a theme park somewhere nearby I always get excited that there may be new penny machines.  To be honest unfortunately most of the time this is not the case, like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal … no penny machines.  Pandora in Disney’s Animal Kingdom … not at first but there is one there now.  Toy Story land in Disney’s Hollywood Studios … Nope!  But I heard about the new Lego Movie World opening at Legoland in Winter Haven Florida about 45 minutes from Orlando so I figured why not go see if we get lucky.

After we got inside the park and figured out where the new land was we headed over and I was really surprised with what we found.  First off the crowds were not too bad considering this land just opened about a month ago.  But in fact we were really surprised by how themed this area was.  Going to Disney and Universal theming is a big key word for fanatics about how immersive an area of the park is.  To be honest with Legoland since they acquired the park from another company, most of the attractions were just retrofitted with faux Lego pieces and called a Lego ride.  Not too many brand new attractions built from the ground up.

This really did make you feel like you were in a Lego city.  The buildings were all designs like they were made out of Lego.  There were some great easter eggs from the Lego Movie every where you looked.  I actually came home from the park and watched the movie immediately to see if I recognized anything as I felt like I must have missed some things the first time I watched it.

Some of the theming may have gone a bit too far like the above, but my two girls thought this was hilarious.

I did like the crazy cat lady and her cat.  If you click on the picture above to get the larger version you can even see cat hair on her sweater.  Thankfully this is the kind of pet hair that won’t bother your allergies.

There was also plenty of places for photos with the different characters and objects from the movies.

One of the new attractions was this Masters of Flight ride.  I will admit we did not get to experience this as there was a 90 minute wait pretty much the entire day we were visiting but I’m going to make sure I get back there to try it out.  For anyone familiar with Soarin’ at Epcot it’s a similar idea but I’m sure Legoland doesn’t want me to referencing it like that.  Basically you get into a row of seats that spin around to face a giant movie screen and your seat moves around slightly as you watch the movie giving the feeling of movement when you really aren’t going anywhere.

Above is the outside of the main part of the Flight attraction.  Pretty cute!

My daughters favorite by far was Unikitty’s Disco Drop.  This was your standard drop ride.  You sit in a seat, it goes up to the top and then drops you down, takes you back up and drops you again all to some “disco” music.  The kids loved it, and I will admit it was pretty fun.  Not too intense, but if you don’t like that stomach drop feeling I would skip this one.

Inside the Everything is Awesome store was as you would guess plenty of Lego sets, and other toys.  But they definitely were focused on the Lego Movie for most of the items.

They even had some plush dolls of Emmet…

and Wyldstyle which actually looks pretty good.  They were a little stiff but I think that was by design to try and help keep their Lego-like shape.  We spent a good portion of our day in this one area of the park and pretty explored every little corner but unfortunately I had to admit defeat that there was no new penny machine here.

However there was a bit of good news.  My daughter actually found the above new Collectible Coin (penny) album.  At first I almost dismissed it but noticed this was a 3rd edition and did look like a new design.  I checked my online collection and saw that I only had the 2nd edition from a couple of years ago.  Bingo!! A new pressed penny booklet with a pressed penny on the front.  I’ll take it.

Overall this was a fun trip back to Legoland.  My two girls are getting to the age where this is almost too young for this type of park, but we all really enjoyed the new Lego Movie world.  I wish they would have had a new pressed penny machine but I’m okay to come away with the new booklet for now.  We did check out the rest of the park and I noticed that most of the other penny machines were not available.  This seems to be something Legoland does often at this time of year, and I believe is only temporary while they do some maintenance on the machines.  They used a unique machine type that I don’t see too often and seems like may be prone to some mechanical issues.  You can check out my other post about all those machines here.

We have Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge opening up soon in Disneyland (West coast) and Hollywood Studios (East coast) so I’m crossing my fingers that those will have plenty of new penny machines on the way.  Happy collecting!

Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa – Orlando, Fl

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This was a penny machine I had heard about a few months ago but wasn’t sure I would be able to visit.  The Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa is located in Orlando on Turkey Lake Road not too far from the Universal Studios parks.

Westgate resorts are part of a timeshare company.  I’ve been through a timeshare presentation it was not really something I wanted to go through again.  At first I thought maybe I would just pay full price for a room for a staycation with my wife.  But before shelling out that kind of money I thought I would just head over and see if I could visit without actually staying there.

There is a security area that you check in with.  They were very nice and I said I was just looking to check out the resort.  That was no issue and they gave me some detailed instructions on where to park.

The parking garage had no fee to park during the day.  Not sure if this is different if you are staying at the resort, or if you visit at night.  However the garage was pretty full and we ended up parking almost at the very top.  From up there got a nice overview of the resort and it did look really nice.

Down on ground level there was an arcade, a gift shop / souvenir shop / deli that had pretty much anything you could want on your stay.  There was also a sports bar that wasn’t opened yet when we got there but looked like a lot of fun.

I’m not sure how many pools they have in total, but this one seemed to be the largest we could find.  It was behind a locked gate so you do need to be staying at the resort to access the pool.

After we had walked around most of the property we headed into the main reception building.  There was a larger front area to the building that had valet parking available, but we entered in through the back near the above pool.

Inside was a nice large lobby area with lots of things going on.  People were checking-in, or getting help with park tickets.

Along one side of the lobby was a little gift shop, and a cafe with some grab and go food items.  Just outside this cafe was where we found the penny machine.

The machine only had one design available.  It was the standard $0.50 plus your penny.  As soon as you push your change into the machine it automatically comes to live and pressed your coin.

The image on the penny is the Westgate Resorts logo, and the machine pressed it really nicely.

So after this experience I will say a few things.  Timeshare companies have a bad reputation for those high pressure sales meetings.  I did not sit through one at this resort so I don’t know how it would compare to others, but I was worried that I may get dragged into one while here but that wasn’t the case.  Whenever I visit places looking for pressed pennies with all my cameras and other equipment I’m always very up front with what I’m doing.  This resort was very welcoming, many of the guests and staff were friendly and I didn’t have any security escorting me off property for taking my pictures.  Sometimes when there is someone wandering around taking pictures it raises some concern.  In any event this resort was very accommodating with my quick little visit so don’t be afraid to try and stop by yourself sometime.

I was hoping the penny design would be location specific and actually say Orlando on it which would make for a nice collection when visiting other Westgate Resorts. The coin was still a nice addition to the collection and I may actually try staying at the resort in the future.

TEC Recruiter Coins 2018

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Just recently I receive a nice surprise in the mail from The Elongated Collectors (TEC) club.  It was a very nice note with certificate and some great special pressed coins for recruiting some new members to the club.

The coins are different each year and can make a fun way to try and help find new members to join.

I was very happy to receive these and know that I was able to help some fellow collectors join TEC.  The members are great and always willing to share their knowledge and stories about their adventures pressing coins.  The newsletter is filled with great articles and you get plenty of unique coins throughout the year.

I’ve said this in the past but if you aren’t a member already be sure to join.  The membership fee is very reasonable but worth every penny.  Then you can start sharing your stories with the rest of the members by writing articles, and try recruiting some new members on your adventures.

There are a lot of pressed penny fans out there and I don’t think many of them know about TEC.  Thank you for everyone that comes back week after week to read about my collection, and be sure to leave a comment or any questions you may have as I always enjoy responding to everyone.  Happy collecting!!

Disney’s Boardwalk NEW Pressed Penny Machine

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I’ve mentioned in the past that I used to live in New Jersey and we had our fair share of Boardwalks at all the different beaches by the Atlantic shores.  During visits to Walt Disney World one of the last places we would have thought to visit was the Disney Boardwalk Inn (Resort) since it’s themed around Atlantic City New Jersey.

But now that we have moved out of New Jersey I find myself visiting the Boardwalk more often as I kind of miss it, and the Disney version is much cleaner and safer.

There are a few ways to visit the Boardwalk if you aren’t staying at the actual resort.  Probably the easiest would be if you are over at Epcot you can use the International gateway between France and the UK pavilions, and is about a 10 minute walk.  Or you can take the Friendship boats from Epcot or Hollywood Studios.  When I heard that a new penny machine was available at the Boardwalk I was over at the Swan and Dolphin resort for lunch and just walked over.

The boardwalk during the day is pretty quite, and most of the restaurants aren’t open yet.  But later in the day this place really picks up.  They have carnival type games along the water, a dueling piano bar called Jellyrolls, and buskers performing all along the boardwalk.

On this visit to the boardwalk it was still a little early in the day before the real fun begins, but I had another mission any ways.  Down near where the Friendship boat dock is located you can find the Screen Door General Store.

This is actually a couple of stores all connected inside.  We started in the Screen door General Store that was just that  and is where you can find bottles of soda, snacks and other miscellaneous food items.  The next store has some t-shirts and your more common Disney souvenirs.

This is was the area that the penny machine was found just inside the middle set of doors.

This store is called the Character Carnival gift shop.

The machine has 8 designs and cost $1 for 1 design, or $5 for all 8.  Pretty standard right now for these new style machines.

The designs on these pennies are off Classic Mickey and his friends including Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale.  I was hoping they would have the Boardwalk logo on then, but that was not the case and just have the Disney logo.

After collecting this new set I was headed back to the Swan and Dolphin for a bit but was definitely happy I had the chance to visit the boardwalk for a bit.  If you haven’t visited here be sure to check it out.  There are some nice places to eat and plenty of entertainment for a relaxing day on vacation.