Episode 60: Disney Parks Popcorn Past – Podsnack Series

In this episode, we dive into the history of Popcorn in Disney Parks. Paige has all the hot information on the 6,700+ year history of our favorite salty snack and Stephen is, for whatever reason, a Mickey Bar. Listen, and you’ll get it.

Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration – 60 Years of Popcorn

The History of Popcorn: How One Grain Became a Staple Snack

A Brief History Of Disney Popcorn Buckets

The Ultimate Disney World Popcorn Guide

Transcript

Hello everyone. This is the Parks Academy where we discuss and accelerate all things theme parks related. We focus mainly on Disney parks and resorts in both Anaheim and Orlando. My name is Paige.

My name is Steven,

and today we will be continuing our mini-series about the history of popular Disney snacks.

We are, we are. We are, we are. It’s gonna be fun. I’m

excited about this one.

I’m excited

too. The people really cared about this one too.

I

think so, yeah. We’re gonna do popcorn. This go around popcorn

slash popcorn bucket. Yeah. I have a million questions about popcorn buckets, so I’m hoping that you have a million answers for

me. Hopefully I do.

Yeah.

But first, what are you excited about this week?

week?

I am excited about you hit me. That’s usually the what I, I usually ask you that

you hit me first.

I’m

usually

prepared. Oh, and you’re not prepared.

No, I am

prepared. Okay, I

see. I just wanted to try to I

see. Switch it up and

catch me off my rhythm.

Which

you did. I

you’re

not excited about this week.

Yeah.

I’m

I’m gonna, Yeah, I’m gonna wait. What is it?

You are not excited about? The fact that the Disney outlet we talked about

Oh yeah.

Was closed

like Yeah,

permanently closed.

Two things. So two quick things. I said on social media that we were gonna talk about the star cruiser, but we have a lot to talk about with snacks today.

So that might just be like

like

Patreon episode. So plug for that. If you want to hear about what we think uncensored, um, not like swearing uncensored, but like unfiltered thoughts. Maybe we’ll do that. Um, yeah. The other thing, like you said is the, um, we were in Hershey Park, uh, yesterday, on, on Saturday. And, uh, we got in, uh, af after we left around

around

two 30 in the afternoon, three, we drove over to the outlets there and the Disney store was abandoned, gone.

No sign.

Boarded

up. Nothing. Was there weird? It was crazy. It had closed like a few days before.

Yeah. It closed last weekend. right? looked it up after we drove by

it.

So, um, the nearest one was 40 minutes away in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And we drove there to go check it out and uh, fortunately we got our fix in of a Disney outlet, but I just could not believe it was gone.

I

I

know

what on earth,

man. we had just discovered it like a month and a half ago.

And poof. Favorite one. Poof. Um,

but the news is the Lancaster one is still,

it’s still not

far within driving distance, so,

right. Um, however, what I am excited about is today, as soon as we’re done recording this, which is Sunday,

the

the 21st of May, um, we are gonna be going to see

to

Guardians of the Galaxy.

Three. Volume three, finally, woo. Um, we watched Antman and the Wasp Quantum Mania the other night.

I watched about 75%

of Antman, and then I watched

eyelid, C minus two and a half out of five stars. I think it was not my favorite film.

Not,

and I am, as you all know, very heavily suffering Marvel fatigue. So I’m hoping I’ve heard such good things about Guardians Three that I’m really hoping that this, uh, movie is, uh, really good.

I don’t have any, um, I haven’t been, you know, spoiled for it.

it.

I haven’t received

spoilers for

been

it, spoilers. Um, so yeah, I, I, I, I’m looking forward to, that’s what I’m excited about is seeing a Marvel movie that hopefully puts my faith in Marvel again.

Yeah. Yes, for sure.

What

I am excited about this week is the American Idol finale, because one, I think this season of American Idol has some of the best talent we’ve ever seen on American Idol. Don’t they say that every year?

I for this specific year. but I’m gonna say though is every single person that made it to whatever it was, the top 26, cuz they couldn’t even narrow it down to 25.

Yeah. Every single one of those 26 people deserve to make it all the way, Sure.

whereas usually,

Every season you have like five standouts and everybody else, couple, couple of stinkers. Well,

somebody’s gotta bring it to the lens,

shows.

Right.

But

this year I feel like every single person was so, so good. And my favorite from the auditions, Ian Tok

Mm-hmm.

I

I really, really hope he wins. I desperately hope he wins. I think that he will. I think that America just loves him, but I really, really hope he wins. I think he’s so deserving I

and

think so too. Yeah. so sweet. He’s a good dude story. Oh my goodness.

Yeah. I hope he wins as well. That’d be

great. So that’s what I’m excited about this week.

Okay. Um, is there any other front matter that we should talk about? Any other news, anything that’s come up? Or

is that, There’s so much Disney news that has come up. I just feel

like

like

know you

would need like a separate little, like short episode about all the things and all the,

our

yeah, let’s see how this goes.

Maybe we record a second one afterward, just depending. Yeah.

Let’s see. Let’s

see.

Right.

All right.

Um, just really quick before I get started into the snacks, I just didn’t wanna say, um, thanks to our sponsor Deep Cut. Sometimes I mention them, uh, at the end of the show, but I just wanted to give ’em a quick shout out, 10% off, um, your first order with the code tpa.

10. Um, and also thanks to all you guys who are listening and, uh, without further ado, let’s

let’s

into some popcorn.

All right, so today we are talking about popcorn and popcorn buckets. I was just telling Steven there is so much history about popcorn that I did all my research, I took all my notes, and then I had to go back and cut out

nearly

half of it. I kid you not. Like, I was sitting doing all this research and I was like, there’s way too many things to talk about with popcorn.

Why is there so much stink in history about popcorn? I don’t get it. So first we’ll start with, um, popcorn. Everybody knows what popcorn is, of course, but itself started as a wild grass in southwestern Mexico. So

probably

not surprising that it comes from, um, central. And South America primarily.

Around 9,000 years ago, it was believed to have been cultivated as a domestic crop, so it’s very, very old in terms of its origins. And then in 2012, archeologists in Peru actually discovered 6,700 year old corn cobs where the corn, where the kernels had been puffed.

Whoa.

And so, They feel like this is the earliest evidence we have of popcorn, Interesting. which 6,700 years ago Yeah. There physical evidence of popcorn.

Fascinating.

This is gotta be the oldest snack ever.

Yeah. Right. Except for like people munching on grass.

Well, yeah, Or, but I mean, it’s not that much different. You just you you mean like up the grass. Yeah.

You mean like snacks, not just like food that we would get outta trees and

stuff. yes, Yeah, for sure.

Um,

so all across North and South America, corn was a standard crop and you had all of these indigenous tribes.

If they didn’t, If that particular tribe didn’t grow corn, they most likely traded it with another tribe. Early popcorn was probably much like parched corn, which if you’re not sure what parched corn is, it’s made by cooking the dried kernels, usually in just a frying pan. And parched corn, as it

it

sounds like, usually has a lower water content, so it was most likely this method.

That’s a predecessor to corn nuts. Um, Less so than popcorn because it’s unable to pop since there’s no moisture in it. So the popcorn that we know today is because of thousands of years of these indigenous tribes perfecting the recipe.

Um,

a few particular strains of corn are used. It’s grown, then it’s cured on the stock.

It’s picked, and

it’s

it’s dried until it contains precisely 14% moisture.

Do I

Interesting. Do I know how they make sure that it’s 14% moisture?

No, I do

I was gonna say if you knew that,

that’d be, But that’s bonkers in particular.

Yeah. Okay.

Um, the reason for that moisture, however, is that when it’s heated, the moisture expands and that’s how we get the popcorn to be fluffier,

which

is what sets it apart from like the parched corn.

So that’s sort of the early, early origins of. How we got the idea for popcorn, what kind of changed all of this and revolutionized it started in the mid 18 hundreds because then we had the steel plow, which really changed Midwestern agriculture. It could cut through tough crops, and so corn and therefore popcorn

also became known

known as prairie Gold.

Hmm. Since it was tough. That’s funny. Ash crop Yeah. places like Nebraska, Iowa, and Sure. all of those states that

really

produce the majority of the corn, and then popcorn had previously been popped in a pot over a fire, Mm-hmm.

which

is what you would think of,

Pretty much, yeah. What you

would do now. pretty standard. Until 1875 when Frederick j Myers from Kentucky patented a corn popping device that had a handle that wouldn’t get hot.

Yeah. Because as you know,

know,

if you have a pot that you’re using in the kitchen, um,

either

you have to. mm-hmm.

Have

a handle that is not going to burn yourself or you have to use like oven MITs or something. Yep. Mm-hmm. And so was sort of revolutionary

That

was the first time anyone did something like that, huh?

I believe so. Interesting. Because it was specifically made, um, so that you wouldn’t have that hot handle to burn yourself. You wouldn’t have to wait for it to cool down.

That’s fascinating. Okay.

remove it. Yep.

And

then in 1885, an electric machine was then created that would popcorn in oil. Mm-hmm.

And so that’s more which is like what you would do today

is put it in oil. Yeah. Yep. And then eight years after that, they added a contraption to that machine Mm-hmm. that would also butter and salt the popcorn too. Cool. So if you think about the machines that you see in movie theaters and things like that, it all started

in 1885.

to. The cinema right now. Cause I want popcorn and I’m, we have a couple of hours till our movie starts, so I’m,

What a perfect episode I know to be having.

I’m gonna be munching so hard on pot. It’s gonna be one of those situations for me at cards where like it’s already gone by the time the trailers start

Yeah.

it will be. You’ll have to

to get the large one.

Oh yeah, for sure. Big time.

Okay. So that is sort of what got us into the more modern era of. Popcorn. Now, when we think about popcorn, we think about movie theaters, we think about street vendors. Mm-hmm.

think

think about fairs and sporting events, Yep. but also we have to think about when it became commercialized Mm-hmm. when it started getting into people’s homes.

So, Early commercial popcorn brands started in the 1880s. All of that. this stuff is super old.

old.

Interesting. I never would’ve thought, yeah, I mean, it makes sense hearing about all of the technology, quote unquote, that’s used for it. It’s not, it’s pretty antiquated.

but like back in the old days, I don’t, I don’t know if you’re gonna bring this up, but like J

cherry

Pop is not really technology as much as it is just

Right, You know, That’s the whole thing. is

like

what they were doing was very simplistic. It, Mm-hmm.

it

seemed so revolutionary. Just heating up metal with oil and

corn. Right, exactly. Which is why it can be 9,000 years old Yeah, sure. Cause it

really

not that crazy.

I feel like, I don’t, I’m sure there’s no record of this, but I feel like the first popcorn was accidental probably, where it’s like something got spilled on the corn and then it was a really scorching day

and they were like,

and it just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

And then

like, Hmm,

Hmm,

I wonder what it tastes like. Exactly. Right. that’s,

would

I would imagine but that’s probably what happened.

Yeah.

Yeah. Because they would’ve had to, you know,

Boil their

water to make sure that it was safe, Mm-hmm. and so they, you know, heat up whatever they find and cook mm-hmm. and chill and eat.

Yep. Like if they drop the corn kernels in there too.

Could you imagine like thinking about people in 6,700 or 7,000 years ago, like just hearing them all crunching on popcorn in their little homes

or just sitting in nature around the,

fire.

you know, that was

really great So big old just grabbing handfuls of popcorn, like monsters.

I know.

it’s, which will be me in a couple of hours, right?

It’s so weird. But it’s so much different because we’re sitting in an air conditioned I know.

So

how,

look how far we’ve come. Look how far we’ve come. Um, there were several other patents that also kind of revolutionized things. Um, in the late 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds, like somebody had made a syrup that was added to the kernel so that they wouldn’t stick together.

They started, um, experimenting with flavors for popcorn, which is like Steven’s least favorite thing in the world. He hates when it gets cute.

I only like, um, we, we, we can talk about it, but there’s only one that I like. That’s cute.

Well, we are gonna talk about it, don’t you worry? Okay.

Okay.

Um, and then handheld poppers as well.

The little ones that like, come in the little pack, um,

um,

where you just hold the handle. Like

a Yeah, like a chiffey pop, correct? Mm-hmm.

like a Jiffy Pop.

Um,

in 1896 is when we got Crackerjacks. So they started getting experimental with adding popcorn and peanuts, and those were coated in molasses. And then between 1920 and 1930 is when movie theaters started to become a big thing.

They started popping up everywhere

and so street

They, what did they do?

they

They were popping up everywhere. Thank you.

you like that

Thank you. Yeah. Was that on purpose or was that okay?

of course. I love a good podcast. You should have put a little more zzz on it then if it was intentional. Well,

I use puns so often. and I don’t have to accentuate them.

Gotcha.

just

naturally. Okay.

Sorry

about that. Um, so as you can imagine, all of these street vendors started taking advantage of the fact that movie theaters were everywhere, so they would camp out in front of the movie theaters. Now, here’s the interesting thing that you probably didn’t know is.

Early movie theaters wanted to be

be

known as like fancy upper class kinds of places for people. They wanted champagne, they wanted people dressed to the nines.

So as

you can pretty much gather, mm-hmm. they did not want greasy street food,

Right.

Therefore they banned snacks in theaters.

Okay. I’ve never had alcohol in a theater before. I’ve had the opportunity, but I’ve never done it. Really? Yeah.

Because, um,

I have several times a coke

and, and a popcorn. And a popcorn sound better to me

than like

like a beer.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, That makes sense. Um, so after the ban of snacks in theaters, we then enter kind of the Great Depression era, right?

So we’re into the 1930s and it then into the 1940s. And popcorn was such an affordable snack for people that movie theaters kind of caved and we’re like, okay, we. We want people to come into our theaters. We don’t want to exclude anybody. Everybody’s down on their luck. Everybody’s having a hard time, Sure. and popcorn was a nice, easy snack.

It was 10 cents a bag. Mm-hmm. It was a really easy thing for people to, um, be able to enjoy even when you didn’t have much money. Okay. Then in the 1940s with the rise of television in America, microwaves started entering the scene as we talked about last week mm-hmm. into the mid-century Yep. and really grew in popularity as we got to the seventies and eighties.

So

it was a great healthy snack for people. Cuz you know, when you think of the eighties, you also think of like the fitness boom Yeah. and everybody doing

that Sure.

workouts and aerobics mm-hmm. in malls and in their homes. Yep. And popcorn is. And can be such a healthy snack.

It can be for.

And so for sure it was really, they tried to capitalize on that Mm-hmm. by marketing that to people as well, Okay. it was just a light healthy snack for you.

Gotcha. Um, and in 1984, it then became a standard pantry item because before that popcorn that was sold to people in their homes actually had to be refrigerated. Even microwaveable

popcorn

Mm-hmm. had to be refrigerated. And then Pillsbury released a version in the eighties as well that needed to be frozen. Okay. So it wasn’t until 84 that they.

Came out with the standard pantry item that you just, got it. everybody has now. Okay. That we all have access to. Um, and then

Orville

Redenbacher came on the scene and he’s sort of the big name that

we think of with

with Standard Right. Right.

And

the last thing I have about the history of popcorn itself is now when we think about popcorn, mm-hmm. I think it’s just as common, if not more common for people to buy pre-pop bags.

Yeah. Of things like

like

yeah. A lot of people do that.

or

um, regular popcorn. Mm-hmm. Um, there’s all kinds of different flavors. I know like when we buy it, sometimes they have the. hamling and

sea

salt or whatever, Yeah. they try to make these healthier Yeah.

options

for people, but I see them everywhere at the grocery store. I yeah. it’s a pretty common thing to also have the pre-pop bags.

So we’ve come a long way

from, yeah,

kernels in oil So

over a

flame.

let’s talk about Disney then.

So let’s talk about Disney. Let’s

get into it.

So

when

do you think popcorn started in Disney then? I actually know, I didn’t look it up. I actually know the answer. I

know the

answer.

answer. It’s an

day

snack.

no, it’s not.

Yes it is. It was like July something. It was. It was 1955. I know that for sure.

Can I add it on opening day.

Yeah. I’m pretty sure.

Are you sure?

Yeah. What, what did you, what do you have to say

in the sixties?

Um,

Um,

we’ll have to fact check

We are gonna have to

fact check this. two sources I sa I saw said that it started in the sixties in Disneyland. Are you finding that it was an opening day snack?

Yeah, it was. It was July 17th, 1955. Um, popcorn has been a beloved, uh, snacking staple of Disneyland Park since the opening.

Okay,

interesting.

Yeah. Where did you get, I mean, I, it’s not a big deal, but

it’s, I sent you all my sources.

I didn’t look at them cause I didn’t wanna spoil

it for myself.

But

sent them to you to put in

yeah. But I just, I’m almost positive that I knew that this is fun. This is a little behind the scenes, you know, we’re not perfect. Um,

and I, I, there’s only so many ways that I can crosscheck, because if you recall

multiple

No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. And if you recall, like there was those little,

little, remember

recently they had those, um, this is jumping all over the place, but they had like those little blue popcorn containers in Disneyland for the throwback.

That was an homage to like the opening day. Like,

not,

not, maybe not opening day, but very, very early. Um, boxes. I know the popcorn was very early on in the parks, so

here’s what I know. Okay. What do you know and just kind of line up with what you just said, is that it started in Disneyland in the sixties and Walt was famously eating popcorn in the Disneyland after dark special in 1960s.

Mm-hmm.

and

it started really taking off after that.

Okay. That, I mean, that makes sense, but I do feel I, that, that makes total

sense. And it back, I mean, whether it was opening day or not, it was sold in those cardboard boxes. Mm-hmm. Um, we didn’t have buckets or character buckets or any of that stuff. And the cardboard boxes primarily were just for advertising new rides or shows that were available

in.

Okay. I think I see. Are you seeing that? I think I see what you’re talking about. Yeah. So you’re saying that it was the 1963 special Walt, uh, made popcorn staple at his parks. Correct. Um, that’s, yes, that’s all

all

and that’s good. But yeah, it, it started in, um, it started in 1955. So it wasn’t opening day, opening day thing, but it may have not really taken off until people saw him eating it.

Correct. Um,

Yeah. Because they may have said like, this isn’t, this isn’t

unique

to Disney. Do you know what I mean? Right, exactly. It was nothing that made it special or different than any other event or sporting game or movie or anything else that they, so when they were in Disney, they were trying to get things

to

might be more unique or special.

Um,

okay. Interesting. Great. What are you finding? Um,

Yeah, I was just thinking, I was just trying to think back to, and I could be wrong about this, but I, I was just trying to think back to whether or not when Walt was watching his daughters and he was on the Park park bench, um, um, in Missouri, kind of like watching his daughters play, or maybe he was in Los Angeles at the time, thinking like, we need to have something like this for, um, you know, for families.

And like, when, when, when, um, Disneyland was conceived, was he eating popcorn? I feel like he might, I feel like for some reason when he was in Griffith Park, that for, for some reason,

bench eating popcorn.

yeah, I don’t know. I, I could be completely wrong about that, but for some reason that’s sparking with

me to figure that out.

We’ll have to figure it

out. Okay. So regardless of whether it was 55 or the sixties,

um,

we just had those cardboard boxes, right? Mm-hmm. And then when we did start to introduce popcorn buckets,

just

Of standard popcorn buckets, not the character buckets that we know today. They were non refillable, and so it was just the scoop.

That you got and it was then when they started making them refillable, it was for pass holders, only annual pass holders, and now, Anytime you buy a popcorn bucket, it

it

is refillable for your whole stay, but it just costs you $2 to refill it. So once you buy Got it. popcorn bucket, now anybody can buy it. Mm-hmm. You don’t have to be an annual passholder, thank goodness.

You can refill it for $2 Yeah. and as many times as you want, Mm-hmm.

um,

Um, pretty much any.

Popcorn

thing. So in the nineties we had just plastic containers and Tokyo Disney made collapsible buckets and fabric carriers for the buckets. Mm-hmm. They got really cute Yeah. Tokyo does a lot of like, really cool sort of innovative stuff

like that. They do. They’re really on top of it with the innovation. Um, and then in 2010, the very first character popcorn bucket debuted and

do

you know what that was?

I actually am pretty sure I do know this and I did not look it up.

Okay.

What

do you think?

Wasn’t it a snowman?

It was a snowman.

Good job. Yeah, So it was a snowman, Mickey Uhhuh. So Mickey Mouse snowman bucket with an unfolding top hat so that way you could

mm-hmm.

Share popcorn.

Mm-hmm. I think I knew that because there’s just been so much about, like, I did a lot of research on like the figment popcorn bucket

and when they had all these new ones coming out,

out, you

you know, for like the 50th and stuff like that.

So I think I just came across it at some point or

another. so what I did not realize is

character

popcorn buckets didn’t start until 2010.

Yeah. Yeah.

Which is why it makes sense that we are so confused as to how they grew so quickly. Because I know when we were kids, they didn’t even exist.

right. When I was a kid, they didn’t have, I knew that they had like the little plastic,

like the

you know, circular ones that had like images and characters on them, which we’ll get to it.

But I, I,

I,

I’ve had an experience with a popcorn

popcorn bucket

and I did not prefer it, a character bucket, and I did not like it Uhhuh. So,

yes. And then we get to 2013 and Star Wars Popcorn Buckets completely took over.

You have the really famous. R two D two Mm-hmm. Darth Vader.

They had a Millennium Falcon

one. They had several. So they were huge in 2015. Mm-hmm. In 2015 is when we got those famous balloon themed popcorn boxes. Yes, those are fun ones. balloons, and they had them in green, blue, red, purple, and yellow. And that was to celebrate Disneyland’s 60th anniversary.

So that was when it became super trendy. Yes. Um, social media was really starting to pick up at this point, and so I think that really changed the way that people saw Disney snacks and merchandise, Mm-hmm. as we’ve talked about in several other capacities. But when we’re talking about popcorn buckets and character buckets, I think that has only, um, exacerbated

how many

many people you want get

these character

buckets, Yeah. they don’t care about the popcorn, Mm-hmm. they just wanna be a part of this and collecting the Yeah.

Yeah.

Collection. Yeah. Disney’s really figured out how to.

to

Cornered the market on collective balls.

Yes,

they have.

It’s crazy.

Yes. And then the last popcorn bucket I’m gonna talk about specifically is the great figment popcorn bucket fiasco of, yeah, about 2021?

It was recent. Yeah.

2022 maybe.

Um,

Um, where people waited in line for like seven plus hours.

Mm-hmm. In Toledo.

Yeah. That was a fascinating. Moment in human evolution.

Yes. What about thing.

Um, it really says a lot about, like, there’s very little that I would wait in line for that long. We were at Hershey yesterday and, um, by the way, you can still buy a, a figment popcorn bucket on eBay for like 50 bucks, which is.

is.

Crazy. This thing

is not terrible. No, I

know, but it’s, people still aren’t listing them for like 500.

Well, it’s cause you can get them way more readily now. But anyway, yesterday I was in line for the great bear ride in Hershey Park and it said it was gonna be 30 minutes and about an hour in,

in, I’m.

I dunno what, 80% through the line.

Right. And I just, I just bailed. Yeah. I was like, I’m not gonna do this any longer. I didn’t want you, I wanted to hang out with you and our daughter and we only had so much time. So waiting in line for seven hours for a popcorn bucket, like, forget it. Right.

No, thank you. No thank you.

you.

All right, so let’s talk a little bit about where you can find popcorn and some of the,

um,

flavors and things that now come along with the popcorn.

Cause obviously

if

you were a Disney fan, you know that we’ve come a pretty long way from just popcorn,

standard

butter popcorn in a cardboard box. That’s right. Um, you can get popcorn. at any of the parks. Um, the standard butter popcorn in the popcorn carts, but is actually vegan even though it is buttered popcorn.

Um, it is not, I guess it’s not real butter.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I remember we, we, we, we realized that when we

went together cuz you were excited.

butter. Come

Come on.

That

That was a good one. Come on. That was all right. it was pretty good.

actually

vegan. Um, so for all of you who are vegan or dairy free, you are free to eat the popcorn. Then the standard refillable buckets, um, just the plastic ones are usually $12 and the specialty character buckets are usually between 18 and 25.

Depends on if it’s a special event or what character it is and the demand for that.

Um,

Hollywood Studios sells seasonal pre-packaged popcorn, like they have the cheddar and caramel mix, Ugh.

is a,

Yeah. Steven hates that a lot cheddar, but it’s a very

cheddar and caramel’s kind of a Chicago thing, isn’t it?

I can’t

remember. I know the cheddar is very Chicago, but I don’t know if the mix

of them is mix is, cause when I think about it, I think about that

that

tin. Yeah.

Yeah.

That has the three sections Mm-hmm. where it’s regular caramel and

Oh, that makes me want to jump out of a window.

Yeah.

That scares me so bad to think about. Stephen

hates

snacks.

Uhhuh so much. I like, we’ve talked about it, but I like it plain. Like I, I’ll, I’ll do, I’ll eat a plain popcorn. I won’t complain, but I don’t want, if there’s cheddar on it. No, the, I don’t like cheddar popcorn. The,

um, cheddar specifically is

delicious. Yeah. Um, no, the, um, exception is kettle corn is good in, in, in moderation.

And I do actually like caramel

caramel

corn or caramel

corn, Which we are gonna talk about caramel corn. Mm-hmm.

in

just a second. Okay.

So there’s also

seasonal

you a quick question? Sure. Are we gonna talk about roasty toasties at all?

I was not going to specifically bring them. Mm-hmm. but I figured that would come up when we talk about where we

like.

Okay. Maybe we could just like do a quick little glance

over them at some point. It’s not in my notes, Okay. but it’s on the part, you know, where we talk about where we like to buy it Yes. flavor.

something.

good.

That’s where I figured

it was

I just wanted to, I just wanted to, you know, trust the verify.

good

roasty toasty Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s the Disneyland special. We’ll talk about that in just a few minutes. Um, so there’s also seasonal popcorns, like springtime popcorn. They had like a birthday cake flavor.

There’s

holiday popcorns, like peppermint flavor. Um, Pandora in Disney’s Animal Kingdom sells a blueberry almond popcorn, Mm-hmm.

which

which actually sounds delicious to me.

Okay.

Main Street, um, in Magic Kingdom. I don’t know if Main Street and Disneyland does, but I would assume they do as well.

They

have a ton of pre-packaged Main Street flavors like kettle corn,

churro,

Parmesan, garlic and maple bacon.

So some sweet, some savory,

and

and then, Also, you always have the fresh popcorn as well. Um, Galaxy’s edge has an outpost mix.

Yes. I’ve never, I’ve seen it. It’s purple and red. I’ve never

had it before. it’s fruit and chili flavored. Yeah. And then they also just have a regular popcorn, which is called Galaxy Green.

It’s just normal popcorn, but it just

just

yeah. But green.

Have you

you heard about the new banana popcorn they have that was released a handful of months ago? Yeah. Yeah. It’s a, um, it’s a banana. It’s,

um, in gala. Yeah, it’s, it’s crazy. It’s called, uh, I don’t know what it’s called exactly, but yeah, it has like banana flavoring in it. Okay.

That’s

That two wilds, banana popped grains.

This is where I’m with Steven. Don’t compete with the popcorn.

I mean, people say it tastes good, but yeah, it’s a,

um, I like banana flavored things. I like banana. No, Just not banana

flavored. Oh, it has a chocolate popcorn to go with it. So it’s like chocolate and banana Popcorn pass. Jinx, double jinx.

Jinx

again.

Our,

are

you gonna say,

singing Frozen?

I was going to, and then I forgot the words to it? I think the next one would be like our mental synchronization or something, but I don’t

if, you said the word synchronization, right? That would’ve been

right.

All.

Synchronization. Our mental synchronization. There you go. Yeah.

Okay.

Let’s talk about caramel. corn. Okay. So we also have

the

delicious, wonderful

caramel,

of course, in the Germany pavilion, which has the word’s logo on the front.

Mm-hmm.

And then in Canada at the popcorn cart, they have wonderful maple popcorn because you know, Canadians and maple syrup and whatnot.

Okay.

And

then future world has a gourmet popcorn cart Mm-hmm. where they have flavors like sour cream and chave, oh my

gosh. cheddar and buffalo blue cheese. Those all sound like Stephen’s worst I know that sounds so bad. So

we have the history of popcorn, how it has changed and evolved over years. Mm-hmm.

We

have where to get it in Disney, how it started in Disney, Mm-hmm. which we. Cross-checked ourselves and yes, we think it was an opening

Disney. I, I, I’m 90%

sure not it was Disney

until

the sixties or

it wasn’t, at the very least, it wasn’t like synonymous with

thinking about Disney. Yep. And then mm-hmm. now we know all the flavors and where you can buy it and yeah. yada, yada, yada, so

yada, yada, yada, yada.

Let’s

talk about your favorite place to get popcorn, and this is where I will give you the floor

to talk

about

roasty. Toasty

Great. Um, I don’t have one because, um, I never really ate popcorn a lot growing up in Disney. It wasn’t something that was, I don’t know, I just never really ate it a lot there.

So, um, I don’t really have a specific place that I like to go. I think,

think,

um, you know, I, I think that anywhere that suits you is fine in this case. Um, I do like the Roasty toasties, if you guys dunno what they are. Uh, roasty. Toasties are simply, uh, they’re these little, um,

little

like, uh, little like

rotating characters.

They’re these little characters and they basically hold onto a lever on the, um, popcorn machine that kind of like turns it and keeps the, uh, keeps, keeps the clock running. Um, and so they’re really fun. They have a bunch of different kinds, like, um, they have a clown, they have a Yeti, they have. A Rocketeer, they have Duke Boom, um, during Halloween, they bring in OGI Boogie.

Um, just all kinds of like, and then I think a classic like little, uh, dude with like a pork pie hat on. Um, so they have a lot of, they’re really fun. They’re only in Disneyland and, uh, dca. Uh, but those are really fun to see and I think that getting popcorn from those stands is

is

just sort of a fun thing to do because they’re cool to look at, you know?

Mm-hmm. Um, but other than that, uh, I don’t actually have a favorite place to go.

I don’t really either.

Um,

what I will say is I much prefer the flavored

popcorns

no. over standard butter popcorn. Um, I

don’t

actually love popcorn cause I hate that it stuck in your teeth Yeah. and I get like kernels down your gums.

So

the pain.

when I was, when I was growing up, um, my grandmother used to always make popcorn all the time in her house. So she would do like, um, homemade popcorn with, you know, her kernels and then whatever, vegetable oil, I suppose, salt. And then, um, I think that she had these pan that were just so well seasoned with.

Decades of popcorn in them that they just had this really great taste.

Um, and so

and so for me, I, I usually will associate popcorn with either being at my grandmother’s house as a little kid or going to the theater.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, going to theme parks and getting popcorn isn’t something that I typically think of

of,

or even like,

like

Baseball games or, you know, sporting events and stuff.

Um, so, you know, I mean, if you asking me where do I, where’s my favorite place to get popcorn at? Disney is kinda like asking me, where’s my f favorite place to get like a, a cup of water or like a Coke at Disney. It’s like, it doesn’t, any port and a storm, you know, it doesn’t really matter to me where I go.

Mm-hmm.

Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean I, my first time really getting a popcorn bucket though. If we can was um, in our October trip for Halloween. Mm-hmm. We got the Mickey um, mummy popcorn bucket. It was a mistake is what it was,

but it was very cute.

Alright. Mm-hmm. I threw it away.

I know

we probably have so many like Disney listeners whose ears are bleeding.

Hearing me say that I threw that away.

away,

we have been able to properly clean it

right

when we bought it, Mm-hmm. we would not try to throw it away, but it sat in a bag

for

nearly six months. With popcorn Andries

inside

of it, and we could have put it in the sink and let it soak and

put

it somewhere, I guess.

But it just was so specific to

Halloween that it’s like we

You couldn’t even like store it

with all of our other

I didn’t know what I was gonna do with it. It was,

it was very cute. Yeah. But

What I

getting I, what I wish we would’ve done is said, can we buy this popcorn bucket

and not.

and not put popcorn inside of it. Right. Like, can we just have a cardboard box of popcorn Mm-hmm. and we’ll pay for the bucket separately?

Well, the other thing is that,

um,

um, the other thing is that like, It’s not easy to get your hands into, so you kinda have to stop what you’re doing. Right? Open up the back, pull out the popcorn, jiggle it around to get it out of the ears and all the weird spaces that the popcorn hides.

And

when you close the little latch, it crunches the popcorn.

Yeah, it does. It really does. I don’t know, it’s the popcorn buckets are not for me.

me.

I mean, I

perhaps other ones are less.

less

messy.

Yeah. Like the R two D two one, the head came right off. It just kind of, and then, you know, the head came off. Um, but the ones where you have to, like, for the Simba one for instance, is very popular.

Same thing. You have to kind of, you know, undo his back and then reach your hand in there like it’s a puppet. Yeah. You know, um, except the very hard plastic puppet.

Right.

And, uh, it’s just

just not

not a joyous experience for me to do that.

Yeah. thank you.

What I do like, like I said, is like the plastic round buckets are cool.

Yeah, the plastic, like classic nineties Mm-hmm.

ones.

Yeah, exactly. I think those are pretty cool. And they, they definitely get the job done, which

you can still buy, like I said. Yeah. For a cheaper price than the character

I should have got one of those

instead. Yeah, That would be fun.

looking back.

Okay. What flavor would you like to try, if you could stomach a flavor of popcorn other than regular buttery popcorn, Um, which flavor do you think you would be willing to try?

I am going to pull up a list really quick that talks about the different flavors,

because you could probably try the caramel corn in the dr.

pavilion,

right?

Yeah, I would, I would, I would. Um, let’s see.

While you’re thinking and looking, I would try for sure

the

prepackaged Pandora one, Mm-hmm. that’s the blueberry almond.

I think that sounds amazing. I, I think I would definitely try that one.

I think so. I already know what, what caramel

corn

is like. I’ve had it a bunch. My mom used to make it for Halloween. It was kinda like one of those things my family did. Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I think the maple popcorn would be interesting in

Canada.

Yes.

That one sounds simple enough.

Yeah. Yes. I think, I think I would, I would be, I would be my, my heart would be open to that.

And what flavor sounds terribly gross to you?

Probably, um, probably the banana chocolate one, but I don’t really like banana flavored things very much.

I think like 10 of the ones that we’ve mentioned Some.

gross

Do you remember uh, runts. The candies And they had like,

they were like the fruit flavored ruts and they had the bananas. Yep. I always tossed those. I would put ’em in a pile and not eat those ones.

Yes. Yes. Sometimes

the orange ones too, cause they’ve tasted very artificial.

Yeah.

Um, it’s, but I’m just not

fruit things where it’s not the

apple fruit. No. Or like when you would get like banana popsicles. Remember those? Ew. Yeah, just

the banana laughy. Tappy always. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So for me it’s, you know, if you’re, if you’re already working with lemon, if you’re already working with yellow, just do lemon, right?

Lemon

Lemon’s great and lemon flavored things are usually great

They’re brilliant.

easy to

Lemon juice to flavored things. Banana.

and

and popcorn,

jelly beans. No thanks. Those are the worst.

Like

I said last time,

popcorn

smells like pee. The popcorn jelly means gross, but popcorn is good in in the right situation. Right. I think that popping a bag of popcorn at home is a little bit of an offense to the house.

I

like kettle corn at home.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

I think microwaveable kettle

corn

is actually pretty good.

Yeah. I just don’t like the way it stinks up the house very much. I

just don’t think pet corn makes this big of a nasty smell.

That’s, well, you’re not then regular, like perfuming your home in artificial butter.

Correct. Right

Gross. Um, the flavor that I think sounds the most gross mm-hmm. Is probably the,

the

the one in the two, you think

either the outpost mix,

which

is the fruit and chili, or maybe the.

the.

Buffalo Blue cheese.

You don’t like blue cheese

at all? So I don’t blue cheese at at all. I love buffalo. Mm-hmm. Buffalo with ranch. Yeah. One of the best combinations of flavors Mm-hmm. on anything.

I think Buffalo. Buffalo with buffalo. I think, um, I think buffalo with blue cheese is much better. It’s a much better,

I totally understand how people like buffalo with blue cheese, Mm-hmm. because I think if you like blue cheese, it would pair really

well.

I love blue cheese.

I

just can’t,

blue

cheese is like mm-hmm.

I get it.

Ew.

I get it. Blue cheese has to be blue cheese for me has to be in the right circumstance as well. Like I don’t really like a, like a blue cheese burger very much typically because it really,

so

well, it overwhelms the flavor of the burger quite a bit.

So if you got like a black and blue burger or something you, you kind of end up with, yeah. It just really overwhelms the flavor of it. But I mean, it’s not bad, so. Right.

Okay. Today Mm-hmm. Set up trivia. Okay,

I

I have a bus feed place for you.

you.

Hmm. I like that. I like the sound of that. Yeah. Okay.

you

you can’t get anything wrong.

We’re gonna have to link this in the show notes so

people can, you definitely will check it out.

You can’t

get anything wrong Good. because you’re just picking your options. Okay. Okay. So let’s see.

Let’s do it.

Which Disney Park food matches your personality?

Okay.

Are you ready? Let’s

do it. Yeah. Choose a

Disney Park Ride Splash Mountain Space Mountain. Tower of Terra. small World Sorin or Pirates. There’s

so many,

so many good ones.

Um, does it specify which park?

No, it doesn’t.

Doesn’t really. Okay. Um, I think I’m going to say Pirates, but the one on Disneyland. Okay. Okay.

Choose a Pixar character. Mm-hmm. Sully discussed

Dory.

Edna Mode.

Doug

or Miguel.

I don’t like that list.

It’s a random list.

Um, I’m gonna say solely, I

guess they’re like all secondary characters

I know Solely is a

solely is

a, a

character. He is, but, uh, but he’s a, he’s a half a character. Yeah,

he’s, he’s an a duo. I’m gonna say solely.

Okay. Pick an original Disney character.

So it’s

it’s

Mickey and Friends. Okay. Mickey, Mini, Donald Goofy, Pluto or Daisy?

I’m gonna go with Mickey.

Okay.

Pick a fictional Disney location. Neverland AEL, Zootopia Beast Castle.

A hundred Acre Wood or Wonderland.

Woo.

Um.

Zootopia seems like it has a lot going on.

Zootopia

would be super fun to visit. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Okay. Picks what? Picks a Pixar movie.

Picks a Pixar movie. Okay.

Pick a Pixar movie. Nemo Uhhuh Incredibles,

Coco,

inside Out Toy Story or Up.

Boy, they did me wrong on that one.

You got Toy Story.

I know, but Latitude, it should be on

the list.

Uh, I’ll go with Toy Story.

Choose a Disney or Pixar character to meet at the park. So, which meeting

and

can I just say? Nu none.

Mickey Uhhuh,

Poo

Lynn, ticker Russell, Mary Poppins, Woody and Buzz, or Joy and sadness?

Uh,

Mickey. Mickey again, I guess.

And finally pick a Disney song. Whole new World. Let it go.

Hakuna

Matata, be our guest. You’ll be in my heart. Or I’ll make a man out of you. I think

I’m gonna go with, you’ll be in my heart for a very, very specific reason.

So

just to give you guys a little background, that is our song for our dog.

Yeah. So when we were, uh, kid list

Liz,

and we were. You can pull up the results and you can tell me in just a

minute. I can pull

up. Yep.

Um, when we were kid list, the year we got married, uh, we adopted this beautiful little Pekinese mix. Um, she’s from Kuwait and, uh, she’s from a nonprofit that rescues dogs from the Middle East, which is very cool. And, um, I love her. She’s my, she’s my precious baby. And, uh, we dropped her off for the very first time

time

at a, at a, like a little.

like a

A boarding place when we were doing a, yeah, like, like a boarding place. Um, and I was really kind of sad about it cause I missed my dog. And as we were driving back home from our trip, Paige was playing just random Disney music. And, uh, you’ll be in my heart by the Phil Collins came on, uh, the great Phil Collins came on and, uh,

uh,

I, I got emotional about it cause I missed my dog And the lyrics were so perfect. Yeah.

we

Like number sometimes and every time we hear the vomit we think of it.

And now that I have like a human child and not just a fur child, it it, it puts it in a different perspective. Cause I love my dog, but

it’s a

different kind. I don’t feel the same kind of like heartache of being away from my dog that I did.

Now that I have a,

of

I, I love my, she sleeps in bed with me every night. She’s my best, uh, best girl. But

yeah. And that two dogs. we have two dogs, They’re both, they’re both my best girls now.

They’re so sweet. Okay.

Although I like to joke that I have a main dog and a backup dog.

Yeah.

Your main dog and backup dog is very offensive because the backup dog really became like my dog when we got her

Well, she, and, and since we’ve had a baby, she’s become more of my dog because,

Right.

I love both my dogs equally. It’s just a funny joke. Correct. That some people might take the wrong way. So don’t, don’t, don’t write me letters.

We love both of our dogs equally, and also we love our humans. Yeah. It’s like, um, it’s like, uh, it’s like Orwell’s Animal Farm.

You know? We all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

There you go.

Perfect.

On

On that note, would you like to know which Disney snack matches your personality?

Yeah. What snack am

I, do you have a guest? I think it’s gonna tell me I’m a churro or something. Okay. Or popcorn maybe. Okay. Let’s see, because I chose a lot of classic answers.

Okay. Yes. You chose a lot of classic answers and therefore you are the iconic. Mickey Bar.

Okay, great.

great. You’re as classic as they come.

You’re dependable, sweet, and introverted. While it takes you a while to warm up to new people, once they crack your heart exterior, they’re a friend for life.

And then once you warm up, you melt and are ruined.

So I think you are like a Mickey Bar. Thank you. You’re welcome.

Yeah, that’s great.

that’s

That was fun.

I don’t know how they knew I was an introvert though, but

yeah,

that’s pretty cool.

Buzzfeed. Cool. They know you. Mm-hmm.

Maybe the

characters you pick

No,

somebody. definitely introvert.

Um, yes, he is. He’s more introverted than Mike Mike’s more of the extrovert.

I. know. Yes. Have you seen, um, monsters University?

Well, yeah, but he was, yeah, but he was like, um, he was like the big jock on campus.

Nice. But he wasn’t a

huge, he was a social.

Yeah. But as he got older, you know,

but he liked being around people because remember, introverted and extroverted is not like

just, I know.

It’s not your personality, it’s where you recharge.

Correct. Which I feel

like

Sully was more himself when he was.

Around

No, I think that he was putting on an act because he was a Sullivan. There’s a lot expected from him.

Are we gonna do an entire episode

Yeah, no. So yeah, we could, um, no, he, he was a Sullivan, so there’s a lot expected of him.

And so therefore he had the, you know, he had the, um, varsity jacket. He was the big man on campus.

but

But when he and Mike, like, were in the real world, in that cabin, he’s like, between you and me, I’m terrified. I’m not good at this. So he was like deep down, you know, he didn’t feel like he had what it took

because how long does he take? four.

Yeah. So there you go.

Enneagram

four probably. He is for sure.

And Mike’s like a seven. Yeah. Or a three? Mike’s probably a three. Yes.

He’s a

three.

Yeah.

yeah.

Yep.

So anyways, that’s, that’s my thought on it. Um, he’s an introvert for sure.

Wow. Yeah. Mind blown.

Yeah.

Well that’s all I have for you.

That’s it.

That’s all this stuff about popcorn and,

and now, you know,

you’re dress like a classic winy bar.

It’s sweet. Um,

on

outside and soft on the inside.

Yeah. Also kinda like a churro, you know?

Yes. Just like a churro too.

Great.

Uh, I

I guess it’s gonna wrap it up for us. Um, Paige, thank you so much for doing all that great research for, uh, for this little series here. I don’t know if we have, do we have more snacks we’re gonna cover or is that sort of tb d

I think for this year that’s gonna that’s gonna be it for snacks.

Okay. We’ll

have I think for is a good round number.

the future.

Yeah, true. Um, we

we have

taken a hard stance, I think, on the direction that we wanna take the show and we are really liking sort of more of this educational feel.

I think it’s fun.

Yeah. You kinda like you, you looked at me very like, confused for a second.

Like, I was gonna say, I just, I was pondering as you were talking Uhhuh because I was trying to like brainstorm about what other stories I’m thinking about, but I think I, it seems like

mm-hmm.

Our listeners have been receptive to this

Yeah. And style. We’ve been at it for a little over a year now, and I think it, it can take a little bit of time to kind of find your footing with like who you are as a show and what your identity is.

Um, and I feel like this has been really good for us as a direction. So mixing

the

series with interview series mixed with occasionally throwing in

a

this or that episode. Yeah. You know, we’re, we’re still the same. Stephen and Paige we were when we started. Mm-hmm. We just have kind of found our lane, I think.

Yeah, I think so too. And one of the things that we would love to kind of look into is have some guest stomp for different types of, of, of knowledge series or whatever, you know, like, um, if we talk about.

about,

know, different parks or different types of ride histories or different kinds of resorts. I think there’s a lot of room for having some, some of our friends on who could talk to us about, you know, some of their specific loves and, and interests and bring their own insight to the table too.

So, um, yeah, like we said, that’s, that’s, uh, that’s gonna wrap it up for us guys. Thank you again for listening. Um, for supporting the show, all of you. Um, once again, we are sponsored, uh, by our friends over at Deepcut. Uh, you can get 10% off your first order of their record displays and accessories, uh, with the code TPA 10 checkout.

You can find us online at the Parks Academy pod dot. Com as well as on Instagram. We do a lot of our, uh, interaction at the Parks Academy there. Um, and finally, if you guys would, uh, be kind enough to leave us some positive words and a nice review on, um, apple Podcast, uh, that would, that would go a really long way.

Um, it, uh, really helps us to, uh,

uh,

You know, hear from you and, and understand what direction we want to continue taking the show. And of course, we’ll read it on air for you and, and give you a little shout out for, for your kindness and, um, taking the time outta your day to,

to

to share with us, um, what you feel and what you like about our show.

Um, that’s it, that’s all there is to it. So, uh, what start in Canada, start in Adventureland.

 

Um,

Testing the audio really quick, even though I think we’re good.

Testing 1, 2, 3. I really cut down all the information about corn and popcorn cuz it was just too much. What is going on over there? I don’t

know. It’s like busted

or something. Hold on.