by Beth Keating
Theme Park Life
DisneyBizJournal.com
June 11, 2024
Last week, Ray wrote an article entitled “Why Does Tokyo Disney Get All the Cool Stuff?” And for a long time in our house, we’ve bemoaned the fact that Tokyo Disney always got the best stuff – best rides, best animatronics, even the best popcorn buckets. Hello, Peter Pan light up!
Occasionally, Disneyland in California also joined the Tokyo club. For example, at Pixar Fest this year in Disneyland, there were THREE great popcorn bucket designs, and we jokingly toyed with the idea of jumping on the new $89 Breeze Airways flights to go acquire said buckets. There was the Pizza Planet Delivery Truck, Dug from Up, and even a guitar shaped bucket from Coco. Yes, we know we have a popcorn bucket problem - and Disney knows we’re not the only ones. (Who’d have thought we’d all get so excited over a piece of molded plastic?)
You’ll be happy to know that one of the coveted buckets from Pixar Fest has finally made its way to Disney World, and yes, we were there on its debut day (June 10) to purchase one for our house. The adorable Alien Pizza Planet Truck ($26.00) has made its way to Florida!
Whether Disney has finally cracked the code to debuting new popcorn buckets without 6 hour waits, or they ordered a sufficient quantity to supply the number of guests wanting one, the sale process on day one was very smooth.
During recent popcorn bucket releases, Disney has been using a virtual queue, where you could lock in your purchase ahead of time on the My Disney Experience (MDE) app, and then leisurely make your way to a pickup point. This time, the buckets were being sold at various popcorn carts around Hollywood Studios, and we were skeptical as to how well the management would go. We got to the park relatively early to assure ourselves they wouldn’t be sold out before we had a chance to get ahold of one, and headed straight back toward Toy Story Land, assuming that’s where the buckets would be. We didn’t need to go that far. Both popcorn stands in front of Hollywood Brown Derby were selling the bucket, and lines had already started to form. Uh, oh!
The cast members, however, kept the lines moving, and we spent a mere 15 minutes in line acquiring our truck. The cast member at our cart had even quickly caught on to the fact that this wasn’t just a popcorn bucket – collectors don’t want the greasy popcorn to ever touch their pristine popcorn bucket because it's impossible to remove the oil from the plastic. It’ll also smell like pretend melted butter for the rest of eternity! The cast member laughingly was asking guests “popcorn or no popcorn?” when guests were ordering a Pizza Planet truck popcorn bucket. She knew!
While we speedily obtained our popcorn vessel, we did check back at a few of the carts around the park before we left around late afternoon, and the trucks were still available. Throughout the day, we did notice cast members bringing boxes of restocks to each of the carts, and it wasn’t long before the lines of guests at the carts resembled a normal day in the parks.
The Alien Pizza Planet Truck is a tiny replica of your favorite reoccurring Pixar vehicle (look for it hiding in the background of other Pixar movies as well.) It’s a definite nostalgia piece for those of us who remember the truck being parked in Hollywood Studios, in front of Pizza Planet before it became PizzeRizzo. (We have pictures of our very young children leaning on the truck with a slice of questionable pizza in their hands.)
The truck is the perfect movie yellow, and is splashed with fake mud. Its paint is peeling and dented in a few places, reminiscent of the movie icon. In the front seat, a little green Toy Story alien wears a Pizza Planet delivery hat and holds a pizza box. The alien is removable as well. More aliens peek out of the window at the back of the truck. On top of the truck is a Pizza Planet rocket ship that lights up, and the carry strap features graphics from the movie version of Pizza Planet, including the crossed spears galaxy guardians, tiny burgers and pizza slices, and delivery shuttle logos. The roof of the truck opens to allow for popcorn access. The only thing that’s missing is an empty soda cup rolling around the rear of the “cargo bay”!
The popcorn bucket wasn’t the only thing to make its way from Pixar Fest. While we didn’t personally purchase one (we don’t usually collect sippers), there’s also a Slinky Dog Sipper that arrived in Florida the same day as the Pizza Planet truck. “Slink” is perched on his hindquarters, with his paws outstretched. The straw for the sipper is Slinky’s coil, which wraps around the inside of the clear beverage container so you can see his springs. The floppy-eared Slinky Dog sipper is currently available at various outdoor vending locations around Hollywood Studios.
And if you still need those other buckets? Pixar Fest runs until August 4, 2024, in California.
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at
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