If you are interested in seeing even more of our fist day on vacation in Daytona Beach, head on over and check out the full adventure on our YouTube video here.

I’ll be honest this vacation actually took place months ago and I’m only just now getting around to sharing it all with you. We just got so busy with all the new Disney pennies and other adventures that I got behind. My family did have an amazing time on this vacation and I’m happy to finally be able to share everything with you. We got up early and headed out towards Daytona Beach for a couple reasons. First I wanted to try and avoid as much traffic as possible, and probably more importantly I wanted to stop at Buc-ee’s for breakfast. My family hadn’t been to one yet, and after my previous visits I was anxious to get back for some amazing snacks. Since I already posted about the Buc-ee’s in Daytona Beach I’ll leave the link here if you want to read all about it. We did completely load up on breakfast items, snacks, slushees and even a few souvenirs before jumping back on the highway for our next stop.

We couldn’t check into our hotel until later in the afternoon so with a full morning ahead of us I thought we would take the opportunity to check out a museum. I’ve mentioned in the past that I am a sucker for a good museum, be it a history museum, science,e nature, art or whatever I’m all in. Just outside of Daytona Beach they have a Museum of Arts and Science so this was like a two for one. During the week when we visited there were not many other visitors which was nice, we almost had the place to ourselves.

As you enter the main entrance to the museum there are various wings that lead you to different areas. In my mind I’m always at a theme park and try to maneuver myself in a circular path to ensure I visit every available area. One of the first sections we can to was an incredible collection all about the classic soda Coca-Cola. There was a huge collection of coke bottles, delivery vehicles, factory machinery, a replica of a pharmacy that would have sold coke and so much more. It was really a unique exhibit.

When I was young I remember a science museum we had in Ottawa Canada that had a huge steam engine train on display and you can actually jump aboard and sit in the engineer’s seat. The sheer size of the vehicle was incredible especially as a child. In this museum they had something that immediately reminded me of that childhood memory. Unfortuatnely we couldn’t actually climb board any of these train cars, but you could look in the windows along the platform and see all the incredible furnishings inside. It’s always been on my bucket list to take a cross country train trip, maybe someday that will happen.

Around every corner of this museum we encounter more and more unique exhibits. As another example the above is a picture of a huge what I assumed was a doll house. It was probably around 15 feet tall, had three floors and various rooms inside that were filled not with dolls but with teddy bears. Some of the bears were cooking, some were caught in the shower, others were playing in their bedrooms. My kids and I found ourselves just calling out to each other as we found a bear doing something silly, and it was really a highlight of this visit.

We did come across this one little hallway that opened up into one large room with these two animal skeletons on display. The one of the right is a Giant Ground Sloth and is the largest complete skeleton of this creature in the world and was discovered just three miles south from the museum. The one on the left is a glyptodont which is another large mammal that was covered head to toe in armor made up of over 1000 bony plates. They were both impressive in person and I bring them up now just as a hint of something to come that I’ll reference back to shortly.

Now we came to my kids favorite part of the museum which was the Children’s section. We have visited in the past quite a few different Children’s museums which are always very hands on and a lot of fun. This was similar but instead of an entire museum it was just a smaller exhibit but it still had lots of interesting things we could try together.

There were some microscopes where we could look at different insects, rocks and gems, and my favorite some coins. Then we found a pitching cage were we could see how fast we could throw a baseball. We also found a race track with some radio controlled cars that we enjoyed, but I think one of our favorites was this Roller Coaster challenge. They were different lengths and styles of tubes that we could stick to the wall and try to get a ball from the top to the bottom. In so many museums the exhibits are hands off, but here it was all about experiencing the exhibits and experiments together.

I was aware that there was a pressed penny machine in the museum somewhere and usually they found in the gift shop or at the main entrance. This one however was hidden back in the Children’s museum section which I think goes great with this area. The cabinet had plenty of clear plexiglass so you could see all the gears and inner workings of the machine as your press you coins.

The designs on the pennies included one of the train cars we saw at the beginning of our visit, a few of the classic cards we found near the Coca-Cola exhibits, and that Giant Ground Sloth skeleton (see I told you I’d bring it up again). After pressing my pennies we headed into the last few sections of the museum which had various types of artwork on display. The museum had requested no photography so I complied, but we always really enjoy the talent of the artists and what they create be it a painting, a sculpture or something I may not be able to put into words.

We had spent a good portion of the morning taking in the entire museum and really enjoyed it. I think the low crowds helped us not feel rushed and were able to spend a good amount of time in each section. But we had places to be and other things to do on this trip. This was just day one and we hadn’t even got to our hotel yet, and as I’m sure you can guess plenty of new pressed pennies to track down and collection. Stay tuned for more posts about the rest of our vacation to Daytona Beach.

On this special day of remembrance for all the truly amazing people and their families that have served or are currently serving in our Country’s military, I wanted to showcase a set of wonderful new elongated coins.

Fellow collector and design Bob Frazier worked on this amazing design and made it available through The Elongated Collector’s Facebook group which I have linked here. You have the option of the design on a Copper US Cent, or in a couple different denomination sets. I went all out for this one and paid for the Elite Denomination set that includes the design pressed on the following coins a Lincoln Copper Penny, a Jefferson Nickel, a Roosevelt Dime, a Washington Quarter, a Kennedy Half Dollar, a Susan B Anthony Dollar, a Sacagawea Dollar and a Presidential Dollar. This set is truly breathtaking and I am so honored to have this as part of my collection.

With this set Bob included a really nice certificate with an image of the concept design, and some background information on Veterans Day. At the bottom is notated that I received the Elite set which is limited to only 20 sets and received set #3 which is really cool.

If you are a veteran please take my sincerest thank you for your service. Everyone please stay safe and have a wonderful rest of your week.

This past weekend I had some friends in town and of course you know I’m always looking for an excuse to get back into a Disney theme park. We ironed out our plans where we would spend the entire day together at EPCOT. In my excitement about getting there I neglected to remember that I was not staying at an on-site Disney resort so when I arrived at EPCOT I couldn’t get into the park right away. There was early entry available for anyone staying at a Disney resort, but since I was not I got stuck in the huge crowd out front.

It had been quite a long time since I rope dropped a theme park. For those of you that may not be familiar with that term, basically if you arrive at a Disney park too early the cast members hold up an actual rope to keep you from entering the park too early. Then once the opening time arrives they remove the rope and the crowd surges into the park usually towards their most anticipated attraction or ride.

If you don’t like large crowds this may not be the ideal situation for you, and in that case I would recommend just arriving a bit later on. One perk however is that the crowd quickly disperses especially at EPCOT just because of how big the park is. Plus as I mentioned above most people are headed to one of the popular rides or attractions to try and beat the longer lines that can form quickly. My friends were stuck in line for the Frozen Ever After ride at the Norway Pavilion so I had a bit of time on my hands to explore, but I knew exactly where I needed to go.

While I was on my way to the park I got some intel that a new pressed penny machine was released in the United Kingdom Pavilion. This pavilion is not very big, but has quite a few different shops. The info I had received didn’t specify where the new machine was so I just took some time going through each and everyone one.

Thankfully I didn’t have too far to go before I found it in The Queen’s Table store. It’s near the Twinings Tea store at the front of the Pavilion.

Inside they had quite a bit of Cherry Tree Lane and Mary Poppins merchandise. The new pressed penny machine was just inside the shop door.

As you can see from the above picture they released a new 8-design machine. The cabinet has a nice kind of classic wood finish that matches really well with the interior of this store.

The penny designs that were released in this new machine include a few we have seen before. Mickey in front of Big Ben, Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin & Pooh, Tigger, Alice, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts.

There used to be a 3 design penny machine in a near store called The Toy Soldier that has been removed and we assumed this new machine is the replacement. The Toy Soldier store has still not reopened so I’m not sure if this machine will be moved over there once it does reopen or if The Queen’s Table will be the permanent home. The designs do include a few we have seen before which I guess is nice to not have lost them, but I’m always anticipating completely new designs and am kind of surprised we didn’t see any Mary Poppins themed coins this time around. By this time my friends were checking in to see where I was so it was time to meet up and have a fantastic day. Thanks for taking a trip to the United Kingdom Pavilion with me today, it’s always fun to find new pressed penny machines. Stay safe and as always Keep on Pressing!

Before I go to far into this post I wanted to give a big Thank You to everyone out there that not only visits us each week to read about all our new Pressed Penny adventures. But also for all the comments, tips and news about newly released machines. It definitely keeps me busy, but at the same time helps make my job much easier in finding all those new coins.

Just the other day I received an anonymous message about some new pennies available at Universal Studios Florida. With all the info printed out I left for the park as soon as I could on the hunt for this new machine.

Once inside Universal Studios I took a right and headed straight down Hollywood Boulevard. This is where you can find the Brown Derby store, The Bourne Stunt Spectacular and our destination the Five & Dime store.

This store is primarily the gift shop that you exit into after experiencing the Bourne Stunt show. However this store is not limited to just Bourne themed merchandise, you can also find plenty of just standard Universal swag.

In my opinion though the best stuff is all about the classic Universal Monsters. Some like Dracula, the Mummy and Frankenstein’s monster are all looming nearby as your shop around.

As you wonder through the store if you head towards the back corner near the check-out registers is where we found the brand new machine we had heard so much about.

The cabinet was not overly themed, but had a nice blue and green paint scheme. I kind of wish this was designed like Dracula’s coffin, or have all those crazy electrical components on top like in Frankenstein’s lab. But I guess maybe that would take up too much room, plus those types of overly themed machines don’t seem to be as popular anymore. I supposed this makes it easier to swap out designs in the future without having to completely redesign the cabinet as well.

As I’m sure you noticed from machine’s marquee, this set is all about Universal Monsters. I was so happy to see that we got not just the usual suspects like Dracula, and Frankenstein’s Monster but also the Bride, the Mummy, The Werewolf, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Invisible Man.

This is such a great set and I’m kind of surprised this has just shown up now, but there definitely seems to be a lot more popularity around these characters here at Universal recently thanks to some fantastic Halloween Horror Nights mazes themed for Universal Monsters in 2019 and the Bride Lives in both 2020 and 2021. There are also rumors swirling about an entire Universal Monsters land for the new Epic Universal Theme Park that is currently in very early stages of construction. Oh wow it just hit me that we will have an entirely new huge theme park opening in 3-5 years. Think of all the new pressed penny machines!

Let me know in the comments if you are a fan of the classic Universal Monsters and which one is your favorite. Thanks for visiting this week and as always Keep on Pressing!

Disney has been releasing so many new pressed coins and even collectible medallions it’s getting a bit hard to keep up. But I promise I’m not complaining. Having too many new machines to write about is definitely a nice problem to have. As I’m sure you have seen recently I’ve been running around collecting the new 50th anniversary pressed pennies and medallions. On one of my stops I visited one of my favorite places the Polynesian Village Resort

There are quite a few buildings that make up this resort and it’s easy to get a little turned around when trying to find a specific guest room. The main lobby area is in the Grand Ceremonial house which is located near the center of the property. Inside is also where you will find the different restaurants, including the Pineapple Lanai should you be interested in cooling off with a delicious dole whip. Up on the second floor of this building is also where you can find ‘Ohana my personal favorite restaurant, and also a store called the Moana Mercantile.

Just outside of this shop used to be two machines, one was a pressed penny machine, and the second was a pressed quarter machine. Both of those machines have been removed and now replaced with a new 8-design touch screen model.

As I posted about previously this set does include four 50th anniversary designs including a really nice one of a retro looking Polynesian Village resort, the Orange Bird, Hei Hei from Moana, and Stitch. Finishing out this set of eight designs are a four more all themed around the Polynesian Village Resort including Mickey and Minnie, Trader Sams, Donald playing a drum and Goofy with a surfboard.

I am still sad to see the pressed quarter machines disappearing, but in there place we have seen a few collectible medallion machines instead. This is one of those locations and if you want to reach about the medallion machine you can check out this post. The medallions are quite a bit more expensive so I feel there is a limit as to how many of those they can release. Hopefully we continue to see more pressed penny machines instead and I think this is a really cool new set.

I don’t know about you but I’m ready for a dole whip. Thanks for visiting the Polynesian Village resort with me today, I hope you have a safe week and as always Keep on Pressing.

I mentioned in a previous post that it has been a long time since Disneyland had released any new pressed penny designs and now they are starting to crank a few of them out. These I think you are really going to enjoy.

This new machine has been a long time guest and collector favorite due to it’s very unique cabinet design. I’ve always wished they would create something like this here in our Florida parks, but I will admit that California gets much more creative with their machines. When visiting Disneyland if you head over to the area near the Port Royal Curios Curiosities Shop and The Pieces of Eight Gift Shop known as the Court des Anges you can find this machine.

Look at this beautiful creation. Such a cool design and I’m happy to see that even though it’s been converted from the previous 3-design Quarter press (read about that version here), they still decided to keep this fun design. How many times have you pressed a penny housed in a coffin?

The designs available in this machine include the Haunted Mansion plaque, each of the three Hitchhiking Ghosts, Jack Skellington, Sally and Zero. Plus a special dated design with 2021 on it commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion Holiday celebration.

Special thank you to our friends at ParkPennies.com for the details on this machines whereabouts. I wish I could get out to the West Coast more often but that’s not in the plans for now. Their website is my main resource to help with my Disneyland press coin collection. If you haven’t checked them out before be sure to head on over there and see the treasure trove of information they have available.

This is a wonderful new set and I’m happy to see Disneyland starting to release some new machine. The Haunted Mansion is my favorite attraction and I always enjoy collecting new designs themed around that ride. You know any time there is a dated design you better pick it up quick before it’s gone and the end of the year will be here before you know it. As we have seen with these 8-design machines, there are actually 2 separate dies inside each with 4-designs on them. So depending on which die has the 20th anniversary design and additional three of these designs may also get the axe come the new year. Stay tuned and we will always keep you updated.

Keep on Pressing, and beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts!

Over the last few weeks I’ve been busy running all around Walt Disney World Property looking to see if they released any new 50th Anniversary pressed coin designs and spoiler alert they have. If you haven’t seen the post you can check it out here. One of the stops along my travels was to the World Famous Contemporary Resort or as many people just know it as “the one where the monorail goes through the hotel”. I have been fortunate enough to stay here on a couple different family trips and it really is a unique hotel. Some of the rooms are a bit dated, and Chef Mickey’s buffet does not have greatest selection of food, but the California Grill is one of the best places I’ve ever eaten. Did I mention the monorail drives right through the middle of the hotel? Yeah that’s still pretty cool no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

Once inside the resort I headed up to the 4th floor concourse which is where Chef Mickeys, Contempo Cafe, the Outer Rim Bar, the gift shops and arcade are all located.

If you head over near where the monorail security check point is you will find the resort arcade and along the outside wall used to be the most amazing vision that could almost seem like a mirage to pressed coin collectors.

This has one of the biggest selections off pressed coin machines I’ve ever found all in one place. It consisted of 3 separate 3-design pressed penny machines, and then 3 separate 3-design pressed quarter machines which you can see pictured above.

Now however that wall of amazingness has been removed and retired. In it’s place are two new 8-design machines and a collectible medallion machine which you can read about in a separate post here.

The first machine actually includes some special 50th Anniversary penny designs which I had been searching for but also a few other nice new images. The set includes a 50th Contemporary with Mickey & Minnie, 50th Donald Duck, 50th Gus mouse from Cinderella, and 50th Bambi. The non-50th designs include a Classic Mickey, Ariel and Prince Eric, the Contemporary Resort with Monorail and the Chef Mickey logo.

Side stepping about 12 inches to the right you come to the second brand new machine. There are no 50th designs in this one, but instead some updated designs including Chef Mickey with a large Fork and Spoon, Carl and Russel from Up, Mickey and Minnie, Timothy Mouse from Dumbo, a Broom from Fantastia, Stitch, Mulan and Aladdin.

It is a very sad day to see that wall of pressed coin machines finally kick the bucket, but at least we got something in its place. You can’t get quite as many coins all in one location anymore, but it’s pretty close. As we have assumed it looks like the pressed quarter machines are certainly disappearing and there are only few left on property. Thanks for tagging along as I visited one of my favorite resorts the Contemporary. Now it’s time for me to hop back on the monorail and keep looking for more new machines. Have a fantastic weekend and Keep on Pressing!