by Beth Keating
News/Lifestyle
DisneyBizJournal.com
October 29, 2021
Over the years, there have been a variety of souvenir popcorn buckets at Disney World (indeed, around the Disney world itself, at parks domestic and international), and they make great take-homes. But, as adorable as they may be, the functionality of some of the buckets is better than others.
Last weekend, I arrived at the Magic Kingdom on the hunt for a particular popcorn bucket…. The same one thousands of other guests were looking for as well, I presume. My niece wanted the Mickey 50th Anniversary Popcorn Bucket for Christmas, and so began my search.
A few weeks earlier, I’d been on the lookout for the Mummy Mickey Popcorn bucket, and had hit up both Disney Springs and Hollywood Studios in the search. I was close at Disney Springs. A decades-long (well, maybe not quite that long) line wrapped around the stores at Disney Springs, and since it was later in the day by the time I got there, the bucket was sold out before many guests got to the front of the line. Alas, the Mummy Mickey did not go home with me that day. A search the following day at Hollywood Studios turned up nothing but the standard round popcorn pails.
Because I’d come up empty-handed on Mummy Mickey, the effort to find Mickey in his Anniversary costume became more important. That, plus the knowledge that many items of 50th Anniversary merch were selling out the same day they were released spurred me to “shake a leg,” if you will. Hopefully, with an 18-month long anniversary celebration, 50th Anniversary Mickey in his popcorn bucket will be around for a while, and easily restocked, but with Christmas coming, and both shipping delays and supply chain issues gumming up the works for many families’ gift-giving plans, I wanted to make sure our niece’s Christmas wish list was taken care of.
I entered the Magic Kingdom shortly after park opening, and saw a line of a dozen or so Mickey buckets lined up behind the popcorn cart near Town Hall. And no line of customers. Perfect. It appeared Mickey was in stock. I paused momentarily to decide if I wanted to tote Mickey around all day on the attractions, or wait until a little later in the day to snap him up. I opted to head further into the park, assuming that if Mickey disappeared from the other popcorn carts, I would make a beeline back to Town Hall.
The cart at Cinderella Castle still had Mickey peering over the ledge as I made the turn into Tomorrowland. So, I kept going to take a spin on Buzz Lightyear. An hour or so later, heading through Liberty Square after enjoying a few more rides, I discovered that the popcorn cart there was sold out of Mickey. I started to panic a little, and headed quickly back to the Castle, straight for the popcorn cart there. I was relieved to find a few Mickeys still on their shelf, and spent the rest of the day toting Mickey along with me throughout the park. By the next afternoon, the good people at UPS were transporting Mickey to his new home out-of-state.
As I was hauling Mickey around the park that afternoon, I thought back on some of the adorable and highly sought after popcorn buckets throughout the years, and realized something. Many of those pieces, while amazing in their design, would have been a pain in the neck, literally, to carry around. Despite their handy little carrying strap, they were often beastly awkward for riding rides and watching fireworks. I’m pretty sure that most families didn’t drag those suckers back into the parks for a second day of inexpensive popcorn refills.
50th Anniversary Mickey wasn’t too bad to cart with me. He was fairly light weight, and hung straight up and down in front of me on his lanyard. He even had a convenient little shelf in the back of his head for the popcorn to tip out. But remember the Star Wars Millennium Falcon bucket? It was a foot wide, and nearly a foot and a half long, and it stuck out into the crowd no matter how you carried it. Plus, you had to worry about breaking pieces off. Still, being huge Star Wars fans, we picked it up and brought it home, but surely didn’t take it back to the parks a second time for refills!
Even more awkward was the Cinderella’s Carriage popcorn bucket ($22) at Disneyland. It was gorgeous! It was highly detailed, and every little Princess-wanna-be’s must-have-that-now souvenir in the parks. We did not manage to get our hands on that one. There have been plenty of Toy Story Alien buckets around, in both regular and Christmas attire, but they didn’t excite us all that much, so we left the park without those.
The 50th Anniversary EARidescent balloon style popcorn bucket, in pink, green, blue, or gold (actually more of a yellow), sold out very quickly on opening day (October 1st) of the World’s Most Magical Celebration year. They did restock later in the week, but color availability differed by location as the restocks arrived. They were a little smaller to carry, and $18. In more than a few cases, we saw a poor parent carrying 3 or 4, hanging off various appendages or strapped around stroller handles.
If you don’t find a “fancy” popcorn bucket that catches your imagination, not to worry. The styles of the popcorn buckets change regularly, even seasonally, so you have to be on your toes to catch the ones you really want. It is not an inexpensive souvenir (Anniversary Mickey was $20), but the refills themselves are often pretty inexpensive by Disney snack standards, as little as $2.00. You can keep refilling them for $2.00 each time for the entire length of your stay. As a bonus, if you happen to be in EPCOT, swing by the popcorn stand in Canada, and treat yourself to the maple flavored popcorn. Most of the carts elsewhere carry the just-as-delicious Pop-Secret brand that Disney partners with.
The toughest part of buying a “fancy” souvenir popcorn bucket once you’ve acquired your target? The difficulty of getting it on the plane to go home!
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Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.
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