One of the latest attractions to open at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Now for those of you that have been visiting the parks for awhile may remember the previous ride known as the Great Movie Ride. Many guests were hoping that original attraction would just get a bit of TLC and a bit of updating. Instead Disney decided to just close it down completely and replace it with Mickey Mouse’s first ever attraction.

Back in March 2020 I was there on opening day when this brand new attraction had it’s grand opening. I had to get to the park very early in the morning along with thousands of other fans all with similar ideas. The wait time for the ride immediately skyrockets to multiple hours once the park opened, but everyone was in high spirits and how could you not be when there was a new ride to experience. It was a long day, but we had lots of fun, the ride was amazing, the merchandise was great but something was missing. There were no new pressed pennies!

Well here we are about two years later and that is all about to change. Disney has finally released a new set of pressed pennies themed for this new attraction and we are here at Hollywood Studios to “track” them down.

But first I thought maybe we needed to set the stage and get into the proper frame of mind. What better way then to hop aboard this crazy train for a refresher then we will work on those pennies afterwards. Please note there will be some spoilers below about the attraction but I’ll try to keep them brief. Once you enter the park, basically you just need to head straight down Hollywood Boulevard towards the large theater looming in the background. If you are lucky enough to be here at night, just follow the mesmerizing neon lights that just seem to drawn you inside.

After you wait in line which usually starts outside, then winds inside past various movie posters along the walls showcasing different Mickey cartoon shorts you will find yourself in one of two movie theaters to watch the latest cartoon Perfect Picnic. Be warned that the music is very catchy and even as I’m sitting in my office writing this I have the song playing in my head. The cartoon is cute and had Mickey and Minnie packing their car for a picnic at the park. After some unforeseen events Goofy crashes his train into the barn which tears a hole into the movie screen. We are prompted to head on into the cartoon for a very special tour.

We load into train cars led by Engineer Goofy as he attempts to take us on a guided tour of a nature park. We come across Mickey and Minnie on their way to their picnic when we hit the track switch and Goofy goes one way while the rest of us head out of control through various scenes including the Wild West, a Carnival, Daisy’s dance studio and eventually in a large factory where we narrowly space the smasher thanks to Mickey and Minnie saving the day.

Miraculously we are reconnect with Goofy who is none the wiser that anything was amiss, and we get to see Mickey, Minnie and Pluto finally able to enjoy their picnic. Now it may be hard to tell from the above pictures but Disney toted this attraction as having 3 1/2-D basically it is a 3D effect but with no need for those crazy glasses. It’s a mixture of projected effects and a really great paint design that really makes you feel like you are moving through a Mickey cartoon. I think they did a fantastic job.

Once you exit the train, and head outside you will come across a small little souvenir booth. There are some attraction themed shirts, sweaters, ornaments and plush toys. When I was here on opening day there was a lot more items available but now it seems pretty scarce. More importantly however note that the pressed penny machine is nowhere to be found. You would think that it should be right here or at least near the theater but that is not the case.

Instead we need to head down Sunset Boulevard which is the pathway you would take heading towards the Tower of Terror. You only need to go about halfway down when you will see a little side street that dead ends.

At the back of this side street you will find a set of Restrooms and as we know Disney loves putting pressed penny machines near Restrooms which honestly drives me a bit crazy.

This machine has been in this location for quite a while, but used to have different designs that were pretty outdated at this point. Thankfully they have now been updated with this fun new set of designs. The machine does supply each penny to be pressed, and will cost $1 each.

The designs on each penny include Mickey & Minnie, Engineer Goofy, Angry looking Donald and Grumpy Pete. All are designed to look just like the attraction and the newer style of Mickey Cartoons found on Disney+. When I first started watching these new cartoons I wasn’t a big fan of this new style, but it has grown on me and now I really like it.

I’ll forever wonder why Disney takes so long to come out with new pressed penny designs for their movies and even new attractions. I guess two years isn’t bad from when the ride opened until we got these new pennies. It could have been like one of my favorite Disney movies Robin Hood which came out in 1973 and we only just got penny designs for that one last year. I’m still crossing my fingers that we will see Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge pennies some time soon, or how about Encanto? I mean common Disney what’s the hold up. With all that said I guess it’s better late than never and these are great new pressed pennies for a really fantastic family attraction and I’m very happy to have these in my collection.

---