Our Penny Pressing Plans - the Photo Finish About This Page:

[Disneylover18]

What a great TR im sad to see it comeing to an end...
the table at 1900 PF is also where we sat on our last trip ! haha made me laugh when I read you had also its a cool table it was fun my DF had never been to a character meal before SURPRIZE haha his face was priceless when the door flew open.....

WOW I cant belive how quick they fixed the machines....but well thatas disney for you i guess thats soo great that you got so many there such neat souvoners!

[CinderAbby]

I can't wait to learn how many pennies you ended up with. We've been crushing pennies for years and still doen't have all of them. We just don't seem to get back to the out of order machines. Abby looks like she had fun at all the character meals

Yes, Abby totally enjoys the character meals - it's the only place she's willing to be near the "fur" characters. Outside the restaurants, she doesn't enjoy them so much. And for the pennies, technically we don't have all of them either. And as for getting back to the out of order ones, since I made notes of where they were, it really didn't take long (especially in the parks) to run and check them out again when we were in the area.

OK you just made up my mind NOT to do MS...I've put it off for years, but I'm so sensitive to that kind of motion sickness.... As I read this update, I was so thinking the final tally would be at the end...that's fine, a little suspense is always great! And I for one am hoping you get back there sooner than you expect you may! (IF only for my own selfish pleasure in reading your tr's!! lol) So happy IASW worked out on the last day for Abby, and that cake switcheroo was a stroke of genius!!!! TOO FUNNY!!!

If you're that sensitive Chantel, then DONT do it, I'm not sensitive to motion sickness and look how it turned out for me - it was the one ending to the ride that was totally unexpected. You'll have to wait a little longer for my total - the report's almost done. Don't forget we still have the journey home. And you're not the only one who wants me to go back so I can write another TR. You all have me seriously thinking of one sooner than later, but I don't know if it will happen. Abby loves IASW so I was happy she could ride it again before we left and I'm glad everyone sees the humor I intended with the cake. At least I know I'm not a total fruit loop for wanting to do it (although I almost didn't).

Please tell me about the all about the princess cake!!! WE are going in April for my DD's 8 the birthday. She wants to have her birthday dinner at Chef Mickey’s and I wanted to get her cake but nothing to big that we would have to send what was left back to the AKV and nothing that was so big that we would bypass the yummy desserts at CM.

The cake cost $15 plus tax. It came in a treasure chest with a Princess flag and a small foam mirror. The cake was yellow with traditional frosting, which I don't care for, but since there was more cake than frosting, the two balanced out and made the cake good. The size of the cake is roughly the size of an index card (3 1/2 x 5 - I did measure the box it comes in) and I'd say the cake was about 2 inches tall. So it's definitley not that big that you'd have leftovers and if you get one and split it, you should have room for the other desserts at CM. We had the 2 (a princess and a pirate) and we were getting full and almost couldn't even finish them - the CM gave us a hard time about it and basically dared us to finish (which of course made us try). On the whole, despite having a kinda high price tag, I would get one again (but only one not two).

What a great birthday for Lenny! Great pictures thruout the day as well! I cant' believe you got all the pennies you set out to get!

Thanks - and I can't believe the pennies we got either.

Darlene, I've spent this afternoon catching up on you Penny Pinching TR. You all are the penny pinching pros. I can't believe how lucky you've been, especially with out of order machines being fixed before you left. Congrats! I'm glad you mentioned still feeling sick after riding the green side of ME as I've wondered if I might could do that. But I think this will still be one ride I just won't do. Feeling sick just isn't fun. Glad you felt better fairly quickly. All your dinners with the characters were wonderful and I agree that it had to have been the same Lady Tremaine. Can't wait for your closing.

Well, Lenny would agree that I'm really good at penny pinching...and apparently we're good at penny pressing too. I couldn't believe our luck either with the machines so I guess it was in the cards for us to get a lot.

As for MS, I'm glad that my experience is helping you. Feeling sick wasn't fun but luckily I recovered fairly quickly - I know not everyone who's had that happen has been so lucky. I won't go on it again though.

Our meals were wonderful and even though we don't have a new trip in the works, I'm already wondering what meals we should do for next time.

I've only done MS once and that was enough for me! Sorry you got sick. I love the story about the two cakes. Glad Lenny got a good laugh out of it.

Once was more than enough for me too. And I'm glad Lenny got a laugh too. Up until we got to the meal, I was debating whether I should go through with it or not as I wasn't sure how Lenny would react.

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

What a great day! I like the pictures with the pirate and princess cakes -- looks like he got a kick out of it! I can't believe the trip is coming to an end already.

[CinderAbby]

can't believe the trip is coming to an end. I am impressed with the 3 parks on your last day! Not even DH & I tried that when it was just us on our honeymoon

Thanks - I can't believe we did the 3 parks too, but that's how Lenny wanted to spend the day. We get park hoppers and we put them to good use that day.

I can't wait to hear how many pennies you were able to get. When you talked about looking them over, I thought that has got to be fun as you remember where you have been to get them all. I loved the pictures where Lenny is wearing the astro hat or when he is posing for silly photo ops. I love it when I see the Men doing that . I watched a Grampa one time dancing in a water spra area with a toddler one time and just stopped to watch the two of them together. The pictures where you stck your head through were so good. It looks like you all had such a great time together. And please post a picture of how you display your pennies, it sounds really neat.... you know the "pressed penny thing"

Thanks. It is lots of fun to look at the pennies and remember - and displaying them in our bedroom, we can look at them all the time and smile. I like it too when Lenny will do the silly photos - he won't do stuff like that here at home. As a matter of fact, if I take a stupid picture of him here, he gets upset. And thanks for the story of the Grandpa in the water, that brought a smile to my face. We did have a great time and I will post pictures of my "pressed penny thing" (that Lenny is now thinking of modifying to hold all our books).

Great TR, Darlene! I can't believe all the pressed pennies you were able to get. I believe last year we were at 1900 Park Faire on the same day and that does look like the same Lady T and you are so right about last years Prince, he was a real dud.

Thanks Lisa. I still can't believe how many pennies we got. And I think you're right. We had a 4:30 dinner and yours was something like 7:30ish (if I remember correctly) because I remember thinking that by the time we were done eating, it would still be too early for you to be checking in for us to run into you again - I would like to have met your whole family. We always saw you, but nobody else.
And thanks for confirming too what I thought about Lady Tremaine and last years Prince (thank goodness ones like him don't happen often).

Very nice TR. Lenny seems to be very devoted to his two ladies. I really liked the two birthday cakes and the daily penny search. Can't wait to read your wrap up and find how many pennies you were able to collect

Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it. And Lenny is the typical male, he has his moments. On vacation, he's very good and wants it to stay "family" - I can't even suggest splitting up, he hates the idea and nixes it just about every time. I'll be wrapping up my report in a few more days, so it won't be long now.

Wow - I gave up my nap to read the whole TR. It might not sound like much, but naps are important to me! I loved reading it. Can't wait to hear the grand total. I loved all the pictures, too. Definitely got me more excited for my upcoming trip!

Thanks. I certainly hope you don't regret giving up your nap (they're very important to my mom, so I know all about it). And I'm glad it's making you excited for your trip. I take it as a compliment.

Sounds like you may have achieved your goal with the pressed pennies. I can't wait to see the final total. I'm glad Lenny was such a good sport about the Princess cake. LOL

Thanks. Lenny can be a good sport, but it does come out more when food is involved (now who is surprised by that?). My goal for the pennies was to get what we could without going crazy. I think the outcome is we went a little crazy, but hey we had lots of fun going there

[omd]

I just love the picture of Abby with Mickey. I think it is my favorite so far. I'm waiting patiently for the final penny count which I am sure is going to be amazing.
How many of your snacks did Lenny manage to eat???? I think you need to find a better place to store them.
It will be sad when your TR ends. It has been such fun following along on your adventure.

[CinderAbby]

What a great TR!!! You are such and awesome family and I've loved reading it!!!

Thank you. I'm glady you enjoyed it.

Great Report! You must have just about all the pennies there are at WDW by now! Very impressive.

Thanks. You're right, we do have just about all of them (for now, until new ones are added). And truthfully, I don't know if it's impressive or if it's crazy . It was fun, so I guess that's all that matters in the end.

What a wonderful last day. I am so happy that they fixed the penny machines that were broken, how magical that on your last evening the last two machines were working at ASMo. What a great birthday meal at CM - loved the two cake idea it was too funny. Can't wait to hear the final totals

Thanks - and that's what we thought all week with the fixed machines - it was Disney magic. Even though I was debating the two cakes, I'm glad I stuck with them - Lenny was surprised and it did really end the meal and the vacation well.

Congrats on getting all your pressed pennies

Thanks

Congrats on getting all those pennies. Do you have them all and just curious, how many books do they fill up? So sad to see your TR coming to an end. I have so enjoyed reading about your adventures

Thanks. The only penny question I will answer now is no, we don't have them all. The other answers you'll get in my summary type post. And I'm glad you've enjoyed reading my TR.

What a great TR im sad to see it comeing to an end...
the table at 1900 PF is also where we sat on our last trip ! haha made me laugh when I read you had also its a cool table it was fun my DF had never been to a character meal before SURPRIZE haha his face was priceless when the door flew open.....

WOW I cant belive how quick they fixed the machines....but well thatas disney for you i guess thats soo great that you got so many there such neat souvoners!

Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it. The table at 1900 PF was really fun - the way we were sitting, Abby's back was to the door, so she never saw them coming but I could as the servers were opening the doors - I would see the character trying to stand to the side. I knew to get the camera ready - and it was fun seeing the surprise on Abby's face. I would definitley sit at that table again (but then again, I don't have a problem with sitting near the ktichen either).

And the pennies - it was magical the machines were fixed and the pennies themselves really are a neat souvenir - and cheap too (unless you do it big like we did).

What a great day! I like the pictures with the pirate and princess cakes -- looks like he got a kick out of it! I can't believe the trip is coming to an end already

Thanks. Lenny did get a kick out of it. He really thought at first that the server brought out the wrong cake for him. And you know the saying..."all good things must come to an end"

[CinderAbby]

I just love the picture of Abby with Mickey. I think it is my favorite so far. I'm waiting patiently for the final penny count which I am sure is going to be amazing.
How many of your snacks did Lenny manage to eat???? I think you need to find a better place to store them.
It will be sad when your TR ends. It has been such fun following along on your adventure.

Thanks Olive - for the compliments on the pictures (I don't have a favorite - I had too many to choose from) and for patiently waiting for the pennies. Not too much longer now. Another couple of days and I'll tell all.

Snacks Lenny ate on me - at least 2 of I know off hand. No, make that 3 I can name (frozen strawberry lemonade, rice krispie treat and brownie). Actually I take that back, Abby ate the frozen lemonade on me (and I won't ever deny her either). Like I said to someone else, there's only so many places I can put things on the scooter and Lenny knows every one of them . And unfortunatley, once we get to the room, everything goes in the fridge so short of stashing stuff in the truck (not a good idea in the heat of summer), there's no place I can hide stuff that he won't find. Of course, if I really wanted these things, I could just go and buy another one to eat - I do bring extra money for snacks, so it's really my own fault if he eats something and I don't replace it for myself.

Thanks for going with my on my adventure, it's always sad for me too. Not only when the vacation ends but when I'm done with the TR too.. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[CinderAbby]

The alarm went off and despite sleeping in until 6:45, I was tired. I woke up Lenny and he went to the food court. He got himself coffee, but brought back a soda for me too. While I started getting things together in the room, he headed to the truck to clean that up. He also needed to fix the windshield washer hose because something happened to that too sometime during our trip. As I got our bags ready, I put them outside the room by our window so I knew what was done and so I could make sure nothing walked away. There wasn’t anything Abby could really help with so I let her sleep in.

Once the truck was all ready for the bags, Lenny took a break and went back to the food court. He got some milk so Abby could have a bowl of Cheerios and he used the last of our snack credits on some muffins and chocolate croissants. Abby finally woke up and with breakfast out of the way, it was time to move everything to the truck. Lenny accuses me of treating him and his scooter like a pack horse. I suppose at times it’s true. I know it was that day. Since some of our bags have wheels, it took less effort for Lenny to take them to the truck than it would have taken me. And with a couple of our little bags between his legs on the scooter, it took no time for most of our bags to be out at the truck.

Once almost everything was there, I left Lenny in charge of putting his scooter in then the bags. I went back to the room to double check everything and grabbed the last of our bags (souvenirs and stuff). Just as I was about to leave, the mousekeeper for our second room came to me looking for the chair that belonged in Abby’s room.

She had arrived while I was cleaning up breakfast and because everything was out of Abby’s room, I shut the connecting doors and let her do her job. The rooms only have two chairs so whenever we ate in the room, we all ate in one so we put a third chair in our room and just left it there all week. I had forgotten all about the chair in our room and didn’t think to put it back before I shut the doors. So the mousekeeper came looking for it, I grabbed it for her, then she took it and left. I grabbed my stuff again and double checked the room one last time. Everything looked good and with the last of our bags in my hands, I walked out of the room and went to the van.

Once the van was all packed, Lenny drove me up to check in. I never received a bill on my door for the fridge and Lenny’s birthday cakes that I charged to the room so I figured I actually had to check out this year. I didn’t have to wait in line long and when it was my turn , the CM told me I was already checked out. I was surprised because I hadn’t done it nor had Lenny and I didn’t have any kind or receipt, but the CM printed one out for me and said I was all set. Before I left, I checked my receipt and Disney magic had been at work yet again. We were never charged for the fridge. It was listed on the receipt for everyday we had it, but no fees were incurred. I thanked the CM and with receipt in hand, I waked out of AS Sports for the last time this trip.

Now that's what I call a suitcase

Now instead of heading for the Sanford Train station, there was one last stop we decided to make - POFQ. It was only 10:30ish and we didn’t have to be at the station until 2 PM so we had some time to waste and one last coin we wanted. In our collecting, I noticed we got four Ratatouille quarters. There are only five in the series and the last one was at POFQ. I didn’t want to leave the series incomplete (unless I had to) so we went there to see if we could get it. We arrived at the hotel and got to the check in building without a problem. I had no idea where the machine was so I asked the CM who held the door open for me where it was. He told me and in less than 5 minutes, I had the absolute last coin of the trip (and of the Ratatouille series) in my hand and I was back at the van.

We left POFQ and headed to Osceola parkway. The Disney portion of the vacation was officially over and it was time to head for the train. Other than the multiple tolls we had to stop for, 417 was clear and moving right along. We made it to Sanford in about an hour. It was only about 12, so we decided to go to Subway for lunch. Instead of taking the subs to go like we did in Lorton, we stayed there to eat them. I’ve been in quite a few Subway’s but this is the busiest one I’ve ever seen. I’m used to seeing only 2 or 3 people working behind the counter. This store had 5 people. And they got the customers in and out. I think the longest I saw the line was 4 or 5 people (and that’s only because 3 of them were Firefighters that walked in together). And there was never a lull in people - as soon as one person left, another one went in. So even with stopping for lunch, we were still at the station by 12:30.

Once the truck was checked in and I got our dining assignment, I pulled out an activity book I had made for Abby. I had originally intended for it to keep her busy while we waited for Fantasmic but we never went to the show. I didn’t miss it either. Between that and her Tinkerbell coloring book she got at Disney, she kept occupied until 2:30 when we could board the train. I kept busy by writing more of my TR.

Once on the train, we had the same sleeping arrangements as going down: 2 roomettes across from each other (in the same exact car as going down too). We also had the 5 PM dinner again. Lenny and Abby played the DVD games while I kept going with my TR. I did stop long enough though to take down the statistics for our return trip home. They didn’t seem quite right compared to our trip going down, but this is what we were told. This trip, we had 351 passengers in 16 passenger cars (143 people in sleepers and 208 in coach). There were 167 vehicles (125 cars, 40 vans and SUV’s and 2 motorcycles ) in 26 vehicle carriers. There was a total of 26 dining and car attendants and 2 conductors and 2 engineers on the train as well.

There was also a very annoying family in the car with us. They had the family bedroom, which was at the end of the train, and our sleepers were right in front of it. Every time they left the room, the slammed the door, which made me jump. The kids (two young ones) were constantly back and fourth in the hall, then they stopped in the hall between our sleepers to watch Lenny and Abby playing the games (I didn’t necessarily mind them watching). The dad was in the sleeper and I’m not sure where the mom was - she was either in the bathroom or in the hall where I just couldn’t see her. I know at one point in time she went to the free wine tasting because she came back with several cups of wine. Then when the kids were in the room, we constantly heard bangs (I think they were jumping up and down or slamming their closet door). This continued until the train actually left. Then the dad started yelling at the kids (yes, we could hear this loud and clear through the door) that the kids had been running wild since they got on the train and he wasn’t going to take it anymore. Hello!!! You were allowing it - not once did I ever hear the mother or father tell them to stop. Needless to say, the yelling ended with the kids screaming and crying. I wasn’t looking forward to the trip home .

We finally got underway, the noises from the family room eventually stopped and then it was dinner time. Dinner was the same choices that we had going down. Lenny tried the sea bass this time, I got the chicken again and I was able to get the chicken for Abby as well instead of the kids choice. The chicken was a little dry so Lenny moistened it with some water but Abby enjoyed it and ate really well. Her veggies and rice she didn’t care for so Lenny ate it (who would have guessed that?) with his fish which he said was good. My chicken was a little dry too but I still enjoyed it.

After dinner, we returned to the rooms and Abby wanted to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I half watched the movie and half wrote. I was making good progress and wanted to continue. We were all tired by the time Charlie was over so we called it a night .

[smoore424]

Are you purposely keeping us in suspense about the number of pennies you collected? I was hoping today would be the day I found out!

I can't believe all the problems you had with your car this trip That would have driven me crazy.

Too bad about the inattentive parents on the train. You think people would try extra hard to keep their kids entertained in close quarters such as that.

Hope to hear that final penny count soon! Is there anyway we can bribe you to tell us sooner than you had planned??

[omd]

Sorry about the loud family. It is so amazing to me that some parents are so oblivious to how obnoxious their kids are being and that they have no consideration for people aroud them.
Glad about the Disney magic and that you were not charged for the fridge. Did you end up having to pay for the cakes?
I am looking forward the final chapter of your adventure to find out the final penny count, but also sad that it has ended for you.

[Cam22]

Glad you were able to get that last pressed coin at POFQ before heading back home!

[MMMD]

Thank goodness you were able to recover from MS. When my DH gets motion sick it lasts for hours. That would have ruined the day.

I can't wait for the final penny count either. I think it's cute how much Abby and Lenny have in common, the pennies, video games, movies.

[heziggy]

can't wait for the pennt total. did you give the picture total and i missed it or are we being held in suspense there too!!!

[mpwife153]

You had some great luck with the pennies & quarters on this trip! Hope we don't have to wait too long for the final total!

[coffeechef]

good that you were able to complete the Ratatouille series. Sad that your trip is over. I hope the Banger Family was not too loud or annoying. Did it settle down even after dinner? When you go to bed , does the train kind of lull you sleep with it movement? Also How is the view ?