Disneyland fan sets a record that will stand
A hardcore Disneyland fan who visited the Anaheim theme park on a daily basis for nearly 3,000 days in a row has set a world record that will likely stand forever.
Guinness World Records this week officially recognized Jeff Reitz’s mark for most consecutive visits to Disneyland with 2,995 trips to the Happiest Place on Earth from 2012 to 2020.
That’s eight years, three months and 13 days, if you’re thinking of challenging the virtually unbreakable record — but more on that in a bit.
The record-setting run of the 50-year-old annual pass holder from Huntington Beach began as a joke among friends when Disneyland announced a 24-hour Leap Day event in 2012 and ended when Disneyland closed for more than a year in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Back in 2012, Reitz found himself out of work, in possession of a Disneyland annual pass and in search of some free entertainment and a little exercise while looking for a job.
The Iron Man of Disneyland tracked his fledgling consecutive visits record with daily check-ins on social media as the run stretched from weeks to months.
A story in the Orange County Register about the record-setting feat got picked up by the Associated Press and suddenly Reitz became a celebrity around Disneyland.
“I was getting contacted by newspapers and radio stations from around the globe asking for interviews,” Reitz told Guinness World Records. “Then I started having guests in the parks stop me for photos and autographs.”
Disneyland honored his achievements with a gift basket after the first year, dinner after the second year and a backpack when he reached Day 2000 in 2017. His record stopped just short of the 3,000-day milestone he coveted.
The Register was there when Reitz’s record came to an end under the shadow of his favorite ride — Matterhorn Bobsleds.
“It’s the last hurrah,” Reitz told the Register on March 14, 2020.
Reitz’s message to those who want to break his record: good luck.
“You learn a lot during the time it takes to achieve such a record, like time management and finances, in order to be able to have a life and do more than just one thing,” Reitz told Guinness World Records. “Even to hold a full-time job required me to keep close tabs on the park calendar along with my own to be sure I could make it into Disneyland before it closed when they had special events.”
Breaking the Disneyland consecutive visits record today would be next to impossible — and much more difficult than before the pandemic.
Disneyland has changed its annual pass rules that now require advanced reservations to visit the park and limit the number of reservations that a pass holder can have at one time.
Calendar dates are blocked out when Disneyland decides a capacity level has been reached for pass holder reservations.
The former 365-day pass that Reitz had during his record run is no longer available — with the most expensive Magic Key annual pass blocked out around the busy Christmas season.
That means claiming the Guinness world title would require purchasing daily tickets whenever the would-be record-breaker ran into block out dates — an expensive proposition over eight-plus years.