Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: The Man Who Went To Disneyland 2995 Days In A Row

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Jeff Reitz The Man Who Went To Disneyland 2995 Days In A Row...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to a bonus podcast from Jono and Ben on The Hits. Now, we tracked down someone who, a world record, that'll probably never been beaten for the amount of times attending Disneyland in a row, consecutively. It's incredible. For over eight years and three months and 13 days, this guy, Jeff Wrights, visited Disneyland every single day, 2,995 days in a row. And Jeff joins us from the stage now. Good morning.

How are you guys doing? We're doing good. Nice to talk to you. You too. I literally just got out of the ocean from going scuba diving and carving a pumpkin underwater. Carving a pumpkin underwater? What's going on here?

Hey, you guys like to have your fun stunt, sending your chips up with the weather balloons and everything. So you don't have to have my fun over here too. We won't judge you for carving a pumpkin underwater, Jeff. I mean, I didn't get the rock's name tattooed, but, you know, hey. You've done some research. We've done some research on you. You visited Disneyland 2,995 days in a row.

That is incredible. Yeah, yeah, that was a lot of days and it was a lot of fun too. Are you paying for, the first thing when I heard this is like, are you paying full admission every time you walked into the park? No, when I was doing it, I had annual passes. So, on average,

each day that I went was costing about $3.25 a day. Old Mickey Mouse would be like, why did I do annual passes, damn it? Eight years, three months, and 13 days. That's how long it would go every day that it was open. It kind of what? It started as a bit of a joke,

and then it just kind of spiraled into something else. Yeah. On New Year's Eve 2011, Disney ran a commercial giving you an extra Disney day. And at the time, myself and the person were unemployed, but had annual passes that were given to us. It was free entertainment. So we would go to the park for a few hours a day, have a good time. You're logging exercise time, let alone, you know, you never know who you're going to talk to from anywhere around the world.

I mean, heck, you're sending guests over here to enjoy the park already from New Zealand. Wow, that is incredible. So you went 2,995 days in a row, Disneyland every day. The pandemic cut this short. It was ripped away from you. Was there a part of you going, thank God, thank God the madness is over? Now I've got to deal with the whole virus madness, but the Disneyland madness is over. You know, it had a happy and sad to it.

Sad that I didn't get to go anymore, but I was happy in the way that it ended because it's not like if I went, okay, on day 3,000, it's going to be my last day. So if I had stopped there and then come Thursday, Friday, you guys are at the park post and having a good time, that I think would have been a lot harder for me versus the fact that nobody could go. So I wasn't missing out on anything.

So it kind of gave me a chance to wean off of it while everyone else was doing it. Because you went, as you said at the start, you were unemployed when you first started visiting Disneyland every day and then you got a job. So you'd obviously have to race from work to go to the park. What other events, what other things in your life did you have to head away to and try and get to Disneyland on the same day? You know, I did a lot of stuff during that time.

I was going scuba diving, and then I'd race home to hit the park in the evening before they closed. Other times I would hit the park first thing in the morning and then go down to San Diego to go to SeaWorld or the zoo, Palm Springs. I mean, I did a lot of other stuff

besides just going to Disneyland every day. If you had to, let's say, attend a funeral, for example, you'd have to do that and then schedule in some Disneyland action in the same day. And I did do that. You did do that.

And so I went and had the ceremony in the morning, spent time with friends and family and then later on that day I went up to the park. Yeah, what a rollercoaster of a day, literally ending on a rollercoaster. Yeah. Exactly, exactly. You know, life is a rollercoaster, so why not ride one? What is the one ride that, you know, our winners when they go over that they need to go on? Rise of the Resistance. So this is the one ride that our winners, when they go over, that they need to go on? Rise of the Resistance.

So this is the Star Wars ride. That's correct. They have two attractions in Galaxy's Edge. There's this one, which I'm talking about, the Rise of the Resistance, and then there's the Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run, which in that one, six people at a time get to help pilot and fight in the Millennium Falcon. You're actually flying the Millennium Falcon.

We're talking to Jeff. He went to Disneyland 2,000, sorry, 995 days in a row. Is there any part of the entire park that you haven't been to? There is, but it's not a normal part of the park. I've always wanted to go up and see the basketball courts inside the Matterhorn. Really? And, of course, that's not something everyone gets to do either. They've got basketball courts on that mountain.

There is. Back when they built the mountain during inclement weather, that way the climbers that would climb the Matterhorn wouldn't have to come all the way back down, and that way they could hang out inside the mountain to kill time while the weather passed before they could return to climbing on the mountain again. Oh, that is, that's incredible.

What an incredible journey you've been on. When was the last time you went to Disneyland? It was actually when COVID closed the doors on Friday the 13th of March 2000. Oh, so you haven't been back since? Not yet. So at some point, I do plan on going. I just haven't made it back yet.

You will be back one day. Well, Jeff, I tell you this has been an absolute honour to talk to you. Congratulations. What a wild ride. Literally a wild ride at Disneyland. That's amazing. 2, ride. Literally a wild ride at Disneyland. That's amazing. 2,995 days in a row at Disneyland. Thank you very much for your time.