Is the Family Complete Now?

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

May 23, 2023

 

It’s been several years in the making, but the trio is finally together.  Does that mean the grouping is complete, or is Disney going to try to sneak another critter into the mix on me? I’m referring, of course, to the loyal and musical pals from The Lion King, of which I have unabashedly acquired all three. (I know, it’s a popcorn bucket addiction. I’m sorry.)

Over at Animal Kingdom, Disney has been slowly dropping popcorn buckets and sippers in the likenesses of the trio of furry friends from the animated Lion King movie.  First came the Simba popcorn bucket, introduced in 2020 with a return post-COVID, and while he looked cute working on his roar, he was a bit on the wobbly side and hard to position once you got him home. Whatever, he was adorable, and a perfect souvenir from the Animal Kingdom. I ended up hanging him on a wall from his shoulder strap because he just couldn’t stand up on his own. And he’s just hung around there for the past few years, not knowing that his Pride Rock companions would be joining him later.

 

Along came Earth Day 2023, and Disney began offering the accompanying merch. Short-legged Pumbaa showed up in time to help kick-off Animal Kingdom’s 25th anniversary festivities. Cute and goofy looking, he joined Simba in the room, sitting nearby on a shelf, because his thick-skinned warthog self was well-balanced for sitting and waiting. And he didn’t have to wait long, because a mere few weeks later, a certain meerkat (see what I did there?) arrived, and the duo was now a trio.

  
Did Disney plan it that way, spreading out the arrival of my Timon sipper so that he was just a few weeks removed from the Earth Day arrival of Pumbaa, or was it meer-ly a coincidence of delays in supply-chain shipping that caused the gap? Was he supposed to be an Earth Day celebration drop as well? I’d like to think the Parks, Experiences and Products cast members were kindly spreading out my popcorn bucket addiction costs, rather than just trying to make me crazy by instigating my quick return to the parks to snatch up Timon. Timon’s carry strap even matched Pumbaa’s, with a special “Hakuna Matata” wonderful phrase and Animal Kingdom’s 25th  anniversary logo printed on it.  

 

Incidentally, Timon was $18.00 if you chose him with a bottled water, or $19.25 if you chose him with a bottled soda or Powerade.  He was available at a number of the snack carts throughout the Animal Kingdom, and as of my purchase of Timon, Pumbaa was still available at several popcorn carts. (Pumbaa was $22.) There were a few kiddos walking through the park with both buddies hanging around their necks.

 

Am I free to assume that our Lion King-themed food bucket series is complete now?  Or will Disney add a new personality to the group?  Perhaps Nala will show up… or maybe Mufasa! Now that would be a great addition. Be prepared!

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

Cinderella Coach 100th Anniversary Popcorn Buckets on Sale at Disney World

 by Beth Keating

Lifestyle

DisneyBizJournal.com

May 15, 2023

 

I have a popcorn bucket problem… and my family knows it.  

 

For the past few years, I’ve been collecting Disney popcorn buckets, ever since the original Millennium Falcon version came out. And please, don’t ever actually put the popcorn in the vessel, because as anyone knows, that popcorn grease (and the popcorn smell!) will never come out of the plastic. You’ll never catch me taking advantage of the $2.25 popcorn bucket refill prices, either, because the bucket must remain pristine.  (The little round plastic refillable buckets are a different story, though. Have at it and refill to your heart’s content. They aren’t quite as “special” as the limited time premium souvenir buckets… and not nearly as pricey!)

I have been enamored of the Cinderella Coach popcorn bucket since it arrived (in a different color) a number of years ago at Disneyland (maybe in 2015 or so?).  But, being an East Coast family, and Cinderella’s carriage being a West Coast promotion, I sadly didn’t end up with the bucket in my collection.

 

Fast forward to this year’s 100th anniversary celebration, and the splendid carriage reappeared – at Disneyland again! -  as a 100th anniversary platinum-colored edition with a special 100th anniversary shoulder strap.  And once again I was envious.   

 

Lo, and behold, weeks later, with very little advertising or fanfare, it was announced that Cindy’s wheels would be arriving in Florida’s Magic Kingdom as well. My son, knowing how much I wanted that carriage, went over to the Kingdom and sacrificially stood in a verrry long line to get a Cinderella coach for me just in time for Mother’s Day.  (And while the line was indeed long, it didn’t approach the six hour “Figment Bucket” line craziness.)

 

The Cinderella popcorn bucket runs $28.00 at Disney World, and is available at various popcorn carts throughout the park.  We got ours (or rather, he got ours) at the popcorn cart in front of Cinderella Castle.  And while these beauties are selling quickly (there were only nine left at the cart when my son got to the front of the line), the cast members did say they would be restocking for the next day.  Unlike the Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride Popcorn Bucket mobile order process (which was very efficiently run, by the way), this popcorn bucket is not available through mobile order.

 

Now the only decision you’ll have to make is whether to grab this bucket earlier in the day to ensure you have it in case of a run on sales, or to wait until later in the day so you don’t have to carefully tote your treasure around on rides for eight or ten hours.  Because, be forewarned, the wheels on the bucket go ‘round and ‘round… and are pretty easily broken.  So, the dilemma is whether to acquire the target early and baby it all day so it doesn’t get broken, or risk grabbing it later in the day and maybe missing out.  Cast members did say they expected this bucket to be around for a little while because of the 100th anniversary celebration, but they didn’t have a firm expectation of the timeline.  While the buckets were selling quickly, they also seemed to be restocking frequently. They are billed, however, as “while supplies last.”

 

As for me, it was a happy Mother’s Day…. I finally got my fancy carriage, many years in the waiting!

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

50th Anniversary Mickey Popcorn Buckets Now Available in Parks

 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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