Pressed Pennies, Pin Trading, Passports, Oh my!

[nat8199]

I am a little overwhelmed with all of these bonus activities around Disney like the pressed pennies, pin trading, passports, wilderness badges (is that what is at AK?), Agent P and so on. The last time we were there my twins were too young to appreciate any of these things, though they did enjoy the passports a bit, so we just stuck to autographs.

The next time we go my boys will be 4.5 and DD just turned 6, so it seems to me they will like these things more.

But there is so much to choose from!

Do your kids do all of them? Do you just pick one thing, like pin trading, and ignore others like pressed pennies?



As a side note, my kids have no idea who Phineas and Ferb are (and neither do I!), but it seems the Agent P thing would still be fun? or would they be too young?

 

[evilqueenmindy]

It's generally easier to do just one thing, especially with kids that age, but find out what they are interested in, and follow it. Last May, my nephew spotted a penny pressing machine in MouseGear and asked what it was. I scrounged up some change and showed him. He LOVED it, and looked around, "you know, I've seen ALOT of these around". It was the best trip ever! Kid was only interested in souvenirs that cost $0.51. (I didn't use the pressed quarter machines. I'm all for defacing currency, but I have to draw the line somewhere) it did become a challenge to get clean pennies after a day or two.

 

[ashleighbass06]

(I didn't use the pressed quarter machines. I'm all for defacing currency, but I have to draw the line somewhere)

You just made me laugh out loud. Thanks for that.

 

[luisov]

My advice is go for the pennies. They are much cheaper than pins, and the process is fun. Unless you or your children really like pins, I think pressed pennies are great souvenirs, fun to collect, and super cheap. The passport is a good idea as well, since WS doesn't appeal to many kids.

About Agent P, I do think your children are very young for that... It's similar to Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom. But hey, I've never done Agent P. so perhaps it'd work for you and your family.

 

[nat8199]

Thank you!

This is what too much reading too far in advanced does to me. I think that collecting pennies sounds awesome. Some how I had never even realized that this was a thing until today.

Good to know that they are too young for the Agent P thing. What about the Wilderness Badges (or whatever they are?)?

 

[luisov]

Thank you!

This is what too much reading too far in advanced does to me. I think that collecting pennies sounds awesome. Some how I had never even realized that this was a thing until today.

Good to know that they are too young for the Agent P thing. What about the Wilderness Badges (or whatever they are?)?

Never done the Wilderness Explorers thing, but it sounds fun. Someone told me that it's particularly enjoyable if your children are not too shy, as they are asked to interact and take part of different activities to earn badges. And it's a group-friendly activity, so I'm guessing you can also take part of the activities.

Same goes for Agent P. With some adult/older sibling assistance it may be quite fun for your children, regardless of their age. Maybe this review will help you decide whether to include it or not for your next trip:

http://land.allears.net/blogs/kristin-ford/2012/06/phineas_ferb_attraction_opens_1.html

 

[chocovrdmicears]

We have kiddos (now 11 & 12) who have been doing Disney since they were 2 & 3. We have done them all (with the exception to the new Wilderness Explorer thing in AK).

Pin Trading - It can be expensive. With kids that little, I would probably skip it. Our kids did it for a few years - but fortunately they have grown out of it - they now find "better" things to spend their money on.
Pressed pennies - Our kids loved it - it is a fun and relatively inexpensive activity. If you buy a tube of mini- M&M's before your trip, you can stack 2 quarters and a penny into the tubes - makes it easy when you get to the difference machines. They also sell pressed penny books in the World so you can keep them organized.
Passports in Epcot are fun - you can buy them just about in any store in Epcot. In addition to the mask activity, the CM's from all the countries will write something in them. I think they were under $15 and they come with stamps from each country and a cute Epcot pin - If you want to keep costs down, you can always just do the masks -
Agent P - is a fun and interactive treasure hunt mission thingy. You won't have to know the characters to appreciate it - no expense, other than time.
Not sure about the Wilderness thing - my kids want to check it out next week.

 

[doclegler]

You forgot to mention Vinylmation collecting/trading......just one more fun thing to do!

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Good to know that they are too young for the Agent P thing. What about the Wilderness Badges (or whatever they are?)?

My kids were 3 (almost 4) and just turned 7 on our last trip. They LOVED the Wilderness Explorers game. It's in Animal Kingdom, you get a little booklet toward the front of the park (on the bridge to Discovery Island) and then they collect "badges" (really, stickers) as they complete tasks throughout the park. It's a great way to see parts of Animal Kingdom you might not otherwise spend time in, and the kids can learn a ton about animals and the wilderness.

NOW, that being said...the books have A LOT of badges in them...unless you dedicated a full day, from RD to park close and did nothing else...you probably wouldn't be able to collect all the badges in one day. This really seemed to nag at my seven year old, and still does, apparently. Last night at dinner, she said suddenly, "You know, we need to get back to Animal Kingdom so I can finish Wilderness Explorers." Um, our trip was in OCTOBER!

We also started doing pressed pennies last year and the kids really enjoyed that, though of course they haven't really looked at them since we got home. They did the Kidcot stations in Epcot (coloring/collecting country stamps) but we didn't do Agent P. It does seem geared for slightly older kids, and they already had the Kidcot thing to keep them busy there. We do Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom and they both enjoyed that...well, the seven year old enjoyed playing, and the younger one enjoyed watching!

 

[dac086]

If you need to keep track of pressed pennies, look in app store for the PennyCollect app. Working on version for Android.

 

[OhStuffandFluff]

My kids also loved doing the Sorcerers of the magic kingdom activity at MK as well. My DS9 loves collecting things like Pokemon cards so this is right up his alley. He loved collecting the cards and playing the game! In fact we made a point each day of our last trip to stop at MK to at least pick up his free pack of cards! Lol. He ended up with A lot of cards that trip! June 2014-POR; January 2013-POFQ; September 2011- POFQ; and May 2010-ASM

 

[Mikie]

Definitely focus on one or two! One trip, I had the autograph books and crowns for my DDs when meeting princesses, pin lanyards that they wouldn't wear all day (put on and off sometimes) and they liked the pins but were too shy to trade more than once (HOWEVER, the ones DD9 traded for vs buying are still her favorite and she still remembers that experience), I had pennies and quarters in a ziplock and a book to store completed ones in, masks in a Epcot. . . I felt like a human Swiss Army knife every time we paused - whipping out some accessory or trinket!

They enjoyed each, but it's not necessary to do ALL. you don't have to know Phineas & Ferb to enjoy that - can be a good way to keep kids interested in the somewhat less interesting world showcase - depends if you have an "old" 6yo who likes games and has an average+ attention span.

I'd say pennies were the biggest hit - we still collect them in our home town and other destinations and where else can you get a $.51 souvenir!

 

[Iowajes]

One of the nice things about collecting pressed pennies is the "hobby" can transfer to a lot of other vacations too. So many places have penny machines, not just Disney World.

 

[CinderElsa]

You forgot to mention Vinylmation collecting/trading......just one more fun thing to do!

I picked up one of those little Vinylmation figures to make free shipping on my most recent Disney Store order and it's completely adorable. I love it! My desk at work is going to have a new set of decorations.

 

[ericstac]

our kids do the trading pins.. we bought some in bulk from a lady on facebook and they trade those to the CM's throughout the trip looking for the special theming they chose for their collection.. like Stitch or whatever.. its pretty cool to see them interact with the CM's..

this July trip though we will not be taking the pins as it is just our 5 yr old and not the two older boys and the pins are out of site out of mind for him lol.. we are going to do the pennies though and collect enough to create some wall art that we saw on a FB disney trip group.. was pretty dang cool so we (wife and I) are excited about this

 

[germ539]

A great souvenier and like pp's have said Disney isn't the only place that has them. We took 4 mini m&m tubes with pennies and quarters stacked in them and I took one tube and a snack zip bag (for the pressed pennies) and once that tube ran out of money, on to the next one.

This way you can save in advance the pennies and quarters so you don't have to fish through your pocketbook to find them. Also I read somewhere that the pennies before 1982 are the best to use because of the type of metal in them. So we made sure we had pre 1982 last year when we were there.

We've collected pressed pennies from all over.

 

[Dsny4fun]

My son is now 21...but growing up his favorites in WDW were penny pressing and the passport....and we still have all of them.
We were recently back for a week and he made a pressed penny for "old time sakes "

 

[AussieCaribou]

Here's a question that hopefully some one can answer.

MK has Sorcerers
DAK has Wilderness Explorers
EPCOT has Agent P, kidscot, passports (all in world showcase)

What about the Studios and Future Epcot... Do they have any interactive or collecting type things?

And can you still build the plastic robots in inoventions? Haven't been to WDW since 2005!

Aussie Caribou