Bubba Gump Shrimp Co – Miami, FL

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After our first and only night at Disney’s Vero Beach we had decided I would take our two daughters down to the beach while my wife had some spa time.  This was a huge hit with our kids and after a good couple hours down there in the sand and surf as is always the case we had to drag them away.  But there were promises of more beach days as our vacation continued that week.  We got cleaned up and checked out of Vero Beach so we could get on road for the second half of our journey.

The highway took us straight down south and eventually over to South Beach Miami to our hotel for the next few days.

The hotel was nice, room was very modern and appeared to be recently renovated.  The only issue we encountered was no bath tub.  Now for my wife and I that’s not a big deal but our two daughters who were 5 and 2 years old made for an interesting bath time each evening.

We had a nice view from our balcony of the harbor and if you looked closely between some of the towering skyline you could see the beach only a block away.  Once we were settled into our room and unpacked it was about time to start thinking about dinner.  I found online a place called the Bayside Marketplace that wasn’t too far away and seemed like it would have a nice selection of places to eat.  We hopped in the car and headed over.

It was starting to get a bit late and we were all pretty hungry so we picked one of the first places we found which was Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

As luck would have it there was a pressed penny machine right near the entrance.  Well full disclosure here, I knew about this machine and had planned to visit here just to use the machine later in our trip, but since we were hungry I figured we may as well drop in and eat as well.  I’m pretty sure my wife knew what I was up to.

The machine was a four design hand crank model.  It was mounted to a platform with wheels so it could be moved around easily.  I would guess it’s just to store it inside when the restaurant is not open, but just be aware its location may change.

The designs were of a Bucket of Shrimp, Forrest playing Ping Pong, Run Forest Run, and Forest on the Bus bench.  All of the designs say Miami, Florida which makes for fun memento of each location you visit.  I do have a few other sets from different locations around the country and they are designed very similarly.

The restaurant is filled with nods to the movie Forest Gump, and lots of memorabilia up on the walls.

Screen worn clothing and props are in all the corners of the restaurant and gift shop.  We spent quite a bit of time after our meal just wandering around looking at the items.

Even the table had some motivational quotes from the movie while you waited for your food.  This restaurant can get loud as the night-time crowd arrives, but the food was good with as you can guess plenty of Shrimp dishes to choose from.  After dinner we did walk around a bit, but I could tell everyone was getting tired.  We headed back towards our hotel but took a quick pit stop over to the beach.

The sun set was beautiful and always seems more special with the crashing waves rolling up onto the beach sand.  After we had enjoyed some fresh ocean air it was time to head back into our hotel for some sleep as we had a big day ahead of us, and plenty more pressed penny machines to find.

Disney’s Vero Beach Resort – Vero Beach, FL

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It was finally time for a vacation.  In years past our default vacation destination was Florida, but now that we lived near Orlando where should we go?  We had discussed visiting Georgia or Louisiana that would have been within a reasonable drive.  Then after some further discussions we actually decided that Florida still had plenty of places we could visit and eventually chose Miami as our destination.

However with our two young daughters we wanted to try and minimize how much time we spent in the car, so we decided to make a stop about half way.  When I was checking out where we could stop I recognized Vero Beach and remembered that Disney had a Resort there.  I booked a room and we were all set for our week-long trip to Southern Florida.

The drive from Orlando to Vero Beach was pretty straight forward and thankfully our daughters both napped most of the way.  Once we arrive security welcomed us home in standard Disney fashion.

At check-in we received our First time visitor pins, and were shown to our room.

After dropping out luggage in the room we decided it was time to wonder around the resort a bit and get our bearings.  There is a Spa on site which my wife took advantage of.  I took our girls outside for some fresh ocean air.

There is a large Mickey shaped pool with a pretty big water slide.  As we walked by they were actually having water slide races which seemed to be popular with the kids.

There are some tall bushes in between the resort property and beach.  At first I thought it was a little strange but as you find out more about the Sea Turtles that uses these beaches for nesting the bushes service an important purpose.  More on that later.  There was an access path through the bushes that takes you out to the beach.  The Atlantic ocean was beautiful and something we hadn’t seen in a while since leaving Jersey.  This is where we spent most of our time on the beach and in the ocean, our girls just loved it.

Eventually we headed back into the resort and found the quick service dining area and grabbed some dinner.  As you can see from the sign above I was also pleasantly surprised to find they offered Dole Whip which we enjoyed a few times during our short stay.

Remember I mentioned the Sea Turtles and the tall bushes by the beach?  Once we were back in our room we noticed the above card on one of the tables.  It explained more about the nesting sea turtles and requests that guests keep their window curtains closed after certain hours at night.  The baby sea turtles use light reflecting off the water to navigate back to the ocean once hatched.  Any artificial light can cause confusion.  So that is why the request for the curtains, and also for the tall bushes which are part of the nesting groups and also help keep out any noise or stray light.

On our way back to our room we cut through the main lobby and found the two pressed coin machines I had heard were in the resort.

The first machine only had one design that pressed on a quarter.

The image on this coin is of the two famous Pixar Sea Turtles Crush and Squirt from Finding Nemo.

The second machine is the standard three design electric machine that pressed pennies.

The images on these coins were of the Disney Vero Beach Resort Logo, Classic Mickey, and Surfing Mickey.  It had been a long a day, with some fun on the beach and exploring this fantastic resort.  We made our way back to our room and all crashed (after making sure our curtains were closed).

Unfortunately during our trip we didn’t see any turtles, but this place was really a lot of fun.  The resort and staff did feel just like the Disney resorts we are used to but without having to worry about racing to a theme park it was really relaxing.

Day one of our vacation was in the books and we were looking forward to making out way to Miami.  Plus I promise there will be plenty more pressed pennies to find.

(Update) Flashback – 100 Years of Magic 2002 WDW

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There are a lot of unique pressed coin sets released by Disney over the years.  Some are easier to located by just checking on eBay or a yard sale, but some others are much harder to find.  One of these sets I’ve been working on for quite a few years.  I wrote about it previously here if you want to get some additional back story.

The 100 Years of Magic pressed quarter set is something I work on periodically.  Some times at night I go through eBay, or other coin selling communities just to see what’s out there.  But I don’t spend too much time on it as these coins don’t show up too often.  This all changed when I received an email one day, and almost seemed too good to be true.  This friendly stranger let me know he had come across a set of the 100 Years of Magic pressed quarters he had acquired when he was younger.  He didn’t have much need for them now but came across my initial post and thought I may be interested in them.  We traded numerous emails and he sent some pictures and he was right this was something I just couldn’t pass up.

Now it’s time to take a look as this wonderful additions to my collection with some really great designs.

I tried to separate these out in to smaller related groups.  The above includes designs from the Magic Kingdom: Cinderella’s Castle, Mickey on Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland.

Next is over at Epcot.  These designs include Test Track, Body Wars, Living Seas, Innoventions, Imagination Institute, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience.

This set was found over at MGM Studios (before Hollywood Studios).  The images in this group were of the Sorcerer’s Hat, Director Mickey, Tower of Terror, Fantasmic, Rockin’ Roller Coaster, and Beauty & the Beast.

Last but not least was Animal Kingdom.  These had designs of It’s Tough to be a Bug, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Dinoland, Camp Minnie & Mickey, Festival of the Lion King, and Asia.

The icing on the cake was these coins had all been stored in this special release booklet created just for this Disney celebration.  Unfortunately the set is still incomplete, but the addition of these 25 quarters helped fill in quite a few missing pieces.  This was really a lucky find.  Keep your on the lookout as you just never know when you may come across your needle in a haystack.

Best Friends Forever (BFF) Pennies – Disneyland, CA

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West Coast Disney is certainly on a roll of late with releasing new pressed pennies designs and this past week added two new machines.  The first machine is in Disneyland in the Main Street Penny Arcade.

The unfortunate consequence of this new machine is that it replaced the Electric Light Parade penny set which was a really cool collection of designs.  But I will admit that these new pennies are not too shabby.

This first set has image of Miguel & Dante from Coco, Linguine & Remy, and Buzz & Woody from Toy Story.  Another interesting thing to notice about these coins is that they all have 2018 listed on them.  So you know this means that they have a limited shelf life.

The second machine released at roughly the same time is found over at the Bonanza Outfitters on the sidewalk.

The pennies at this new machine include Edna & Jack-Jack from The Incredibles 2, Russel & Doug from Up!, and Dory & Nemo from Finding Nemo / Dory.  The images also include BBF, Best Friends and Swim Buddies making for a fun set.  Just like the first set above these pennies also list 2018.

All six of these pennies have the same backstamp that says Pixar Fest which is going on throughout the West coast parks this summer.  These pennies are a cute set of designs and from what I’ve heard they are becoming very popular.  Make sure to get a set before they disappear.

12-Design Princesses / Heroines Penny Machine Available again

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This is going to be just a quick update post.  I’ve received a lot of message from reading (Thank you all by the way) about the whereabouts of the famed 12-Design Princesses / Heroines penny machine.  Here’s the history as I’ve written quite a bit about this machine.

You can read about my initial use of this machine back in 2015.  Then a few years later the machine was changed from using actual pennies to the penny sized tokens and I wrote a comparison about it here.  However the most recent post was just a few weeks ago when I discussed my first visit to the new Toy Story Land.  In that post I mentioned that the store where the 12-design machine “was” located was transformed into a Toy Story gift shop and this machine was removed so the Toy Story themed machine could be placed there instead.  At that time I didn’t know where the machine was moved to, and I did inquire with several Disney Cast Members about it and they didn’t know what was going to happen to it.  Then this all changed just a couple of days ago.

Word on the street was this machine had received a fresh coat of paint and was relocated over to Disney Springs which recently has become quite the place for pressed coins.

Over in one of the newer areas of Disney Springs called the Town Center (which is really just an outlet mall) is a newer store called The Disney Corner.

The store has multiple floors.  The first floor is primarily everything you can image Princess related.  This does continue up on the second floor but there are some other Disney characters available in certain areas.

There is an elevator is the stairs are too much (there are quite a few) but otherwise if you do attempt the stairs once you get to the second floor the missing penny machine is right in front of you.

As mentioned the machine does have a bit of a different paint job, but the 12 designs are all the same.

I pressed another set just to see if they were still dispensing the penny sized tokens instead of real pennies and that was still the case.  I’ve said it before and I hold to it this is a really nice set to be able to collect all in one place.  Usually in the past to get something like this you would have to visit various machines throughout the parks and resorts.  At $10 for this set it is a little pricy, but hopefully everyone that was inquiring about it can rest assured the machine is back and ready for some pressing.

2018 MLB All-Star Game – Washington, DC

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I’ve mentioned in many previous posts that I’m a casual baseball fan.  It’s a sport that I played as a youth, and jump at any chance to see a game live in person.  Unfortunately being a Toronto Blue Jays fan (I used to live in Canada when I was young) and now living in Florida I don’t get to see them play very often.  There is plenty of baseball in Florida but to be honest with the summer heat it’s hard to get up the energy to spent an afternoon in the blazing sun and humidity.

There is however one game that I never miss every year on TV which is the All-Star Game.  This year the game was to be played in Washington, DC at Nationals Parks.  Now I do have a bit of history with this team, as I mentioned above I used to live in Canada and saw quite a few Montreal Expos games.  In 2004 the Expos transitioned out of Montreal down to Washington, DC and were renamed the Nationals.

The All-Star game was played on July 17, 2018 and the American League eventually won the game 8-6 in 10 innings.  In years past it was quite a tradition for a special penny machine to be available at the All-Star weekend stadium with unique designs only available for a short time.  The last couple years no pennies were available, but they were back for this year.

I wish I could say that I was able to visit Washington for the game and get these coins in person.  But that was not the case.  The designs were made available through the pennycollector.com online store and may still be available if you act fast.  These are always a great mini-set that I used to look forward to each year and I’m glad they returned.

The All-Star Logo had the game date on the penny design.

A special design was also included for the host city and team also with the year listed.

One of my favorite events from the All-Star Weekend is the Home Run Derby and of course there is a penny for that as well.  In 2018 the Home Run Derby was won by Bryce Howard who plays for the Washington Nationals which brought the home town crowd a little something extra to celebrate.

Another item that seemed to have disappeared for a couple of years was the Baseball pressed coin booklet.  With my order for these All-Star coins I saw the 2018 booklet was available and picked one up as well.  I don’t actually use these booklets to store my coins, but I just can’t help myself and got one any ways to add to my penny booklet collection.

It seems like the relationship between Major League Baseball and pressed pennies has not been what it was just a few years ago.  I remember visited numerous stadiums around the Northeast and all of them had at least one penny machine.  Then recently these machines seemed to have been slowly removed with no replacements.  About a month ago I headed into Tampa Florida for a baseball game and visited every nook and cranny of the stadium with no penny machine to be found.  Hopefully with these new All-Star coins that is about to change and some new designs will be released to your favorite MLB team stadium.  Play Ball!!

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.