For a grand total of eight years, three months, and 13 days, Jeff Reitz has been Waltzing through Disneyland.
Since 2012, the 50-year-old annual pass holder from Huntington Beach, California, USA, has made 2,995 consecutive visits to the magical Anaheim theme park, earning him the record title for the most consecutive visits to Disneyland.
There are people who are Disney enthusiasts despite being adults, and then there’s Jeff Reitz. Reitz's fascination with Disney led him to visit the company's famous theme park in Anaheim, California, every day for eight years, three months, and 13 days. As a result, Reitz, a 50-year-old from nearby Huntington Beach, has earned himself a place in the Guinness World Records for having made the most consecutive visits to Disneyland ever. Officials announced this last week.
Reitz "was actually shocked" when Guinness called him and informed him of the record he had set, he told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published on Saturday. "It was just wild how all this happened."
While unemployed in 2012, Reitz started visiting Disneyland every day with an annual pass that had been given to him as a gift. He did this to leave his house, exercise, and break up the monotony of job hunting. The visits boosted his spirits, and before he knew it, he had been going for two months straight. On his 60th day, Disneyland hosted a 24-hour event highlighting 2012 as a leap year, and he met a reporter who was covering the gathering.
The reporter started following the social media posts Reitz would publish at the start of each of his trips to Disneyland. Eventually, the journalist wrote an article about the Mickey Mouse aficionado that gained a lot of attention. After the media attention, Reitz began being recognized by other guests who would ask him for his autograph or to take a picture with them. He also started getting to know the park's employees, or "cast members." He wondered how long he could keep it up and whether he had something special going, so he investigated whether Guinness had a world record for consecutive visits to Disneyland.
Guinness didn't, but when he realized he might have to pay a fee to the organization to be officially celebrated for his feat, Reitz said he let it slip his mind. He ultimately made it to Disneyland on 2,995 consecutive days before the Covid-19 pandemic forced the park to close for more than a year beginning on 14 March 2020.
Going on trips to Disneyland for nearly 3,000 days in a row required immense planning from him once he got a job again. He had to go early in the day, late at night or on breaks from his job. And he had to decide whether he would make himself a sandwich to eat there or splurge for meals prepared by the park staff, he told the Times.
It's unlikely anyone will ever again challenge Reitz's streak. Since its post-pandemic reopening, Disneyland now requires visitors to make reservations in advance to keep crowds manageable. As the Times reports, not everyone who wants a reservation can secure one, and new annual passes also block out several dates in December for holders, all of which are in effect safeguards for Reitz's record.
Guinness essentially acknowledged all those factors by announcing on 21 February that it had decided to enshrine Reitz in its list of record holders.
At one point, Disneyland had given him a gift basket and a certificate proclaiming him an honorary citizen of the park. The park also made him a celebratory dinner and gifted him a special backpack as he continued extending his streak. Reitz doesn't hold an annual Disneyland pass anymore, the Times reported, but he still occasionally visits.
Reitz said, "it would be really fun to return with my Guinness world records title certificate to get pictures where I earned it – inside Disneyland."