Jeff Reitz, 50, has passed through Anaheim's Disneyland gates the most times consecutively in the world and now is recognized by Guinness World Records.
With close to 3,000 visits to the Disney theme park over the course of eight years, three months and 13 days — from 2012 to 2020 — Reitz said it originally started as a joke among friends.
“We decided to use Disneyland as a positive as we were out of work and had annual passes that had been gifted, so it was a source of free entertainment,” he said. “It helped to get us out and put a positive mindset, log exercise with all the steps taken, and always networking since you never knew who you would meet.”
Even after he found a full-time job, it didn’t keep him away from the happiest place on Earth.
He didn’t think that it would end up being what it is today, but he logged the whole experience anyway on his @disney366 Instagram account from the first day of his journey until the last.
In his last-day video in March 2020, Reitz mentioned that it would have cost him over $80,000 to visit the park 2,995 times if it wasn’t for his annual pass.
“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,” he said.
He frequented the park solo a lot of the time, but also invited others to join in on the fun.
You might be thinking, what did he do with all of those hours in the same park?
Reitz said that his love of photography kept him busy a lot of the time, and most days he would focus on small sections of the park, taking note of special events and other celebrations that would be fun to capture and enjoy, like anniversaries of the park.
While he doesn’t have a trip scheduled for the 100-year anniversary of Disneyland this year, he thinks it would be fun.
“I think it would be really fun to return with my Guinness World Records title certificate to get pictures where I earned it — inside Disneyland,” Reitz told People.