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(CNN) --
There are Disney park regulars, and then there's Jeff Reitz.
The 50-year-old California native visited Disneyland every day for 2,995 days between 2012 and March 2020, earning him a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive trips to the theme park.
Reitz's adventure began a decade ago when he discovered he had an annual pass to Disneyland and—due to his recent unemployment—a lot of unexpected free time.
One visit led to another, and soon he was documenting his daily stays for thousands of followers under the social media username Disney366, a nod to the number of days in 2012's leap year.
His visits were interrupted by the pandemic in early 2020, but by then he had already made history (After all, you don't visit the same place every day for eight years without becoming a celebrity).
Guinness researchers learned of Reitz's feat and recently contacted him to discuss his new record.
Reitz spoke to CNN about his favorite moments in the park and what made it worth coming back there, day after day.
Why did his streak start?
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Reitz has a history with Disneyland.
In 2012, when he started his visiting streak, the park was already a good old friend of his.
"I grew up in Huntington Beach and my family used to come here several times a year," he tells CNN.
“It is a good place to walk and chat with people.
The park really is alive.
I have to see all the things that are changing”.
Also, the cost was pretty low, especially by Disney standards.
“One criticism I get is that people say, 'Oh, that must have cost a lot of money.'
I live about 20 minutes away and with an annual pass that also covers parking, a year of daily visits costs about $1,400.
It's a lot, but it's not what people think."
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Even when Reitz returned to work, he was making a daily commute from his job to Disneyland and then home again.
“Part of what made it fun was that I tried to mix things up and do them differently each time,” he says.
“The only consistent thing was that I would post a check-in on social media and try to post one image of the park per day.”
In 2012, Instagram wasn't the cultural giant it is now, and smartphones weren't nearly as smart.
In fact, Reitz captured the early years of his visit on a BlackBerry Bold 9700.
Your favorite things to do and eat
Reitz's favorite Disneyland destination is the Matterhorn Bobsleds, a pair of steel roller coasters that weave through an alpine landscape that mimics its jagged peaks.
“It's been my favorite attraction since I was little,” he says.
However, the 2019 opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, a park complex with several different rides and attractions, became his second favorite.
Any Disney fan will know that an attraction is not just an attraction, but an experience.
It is feasible to sit all day without getting on a single ride and still enjoy the atmosphere.
“There is an area by the boat docks facing the Matterhorn where I like to relax when I come here,” Reitz says.
“Sometimes I go to Galaxy's Edge and listen to the background sounds and music.
Or I go up to the Adventureland treehouse for a beautiful view.”
As for sustenance, Disney Park food is not cheap or easy to come by.
But Reitz discovered a reliable destination: pasta from the Pizza Port restaurant in the Tomorrowland section of the park.
The reason why he kept coming back
While thrill rides and carbs can be great incentives, they weren't the reason Reitz returned to the park day after day.
“It's always been the cast members that make the magic, not the place itself,” he says.
As the years passed and he became a bona fide Disneyland regular, he collected stories and secrets from park employees, known as cast members.
A cast member who used to be a park scenery painter told Reitz about the little Easter eggs the performers would have fun with, as well as a dumpster in Frontierland Park's "ghost town" that would occasionally come back to life. paint with different population numbers.
In 2013, when Reitz noticed a large tree missing near the park exit, a cast member told him he could tell him one of two stories about it.
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“He said that the realistic version was that the tree, which was very old, had gotten sick and had to be felled.
The feel-good story, he said, was that there were some trees that were planted when Walt [Disney] first opened the park, and they just moved somewhere else.”
Some time later, while passing a corner of the Soarin' attraction at Disney's California Adventure (the park next door to Disneyland, which Reitz also sometimes visited), he saw a tree he had not seen before.
He looked suspiciously familiar.
Was it the same tree?
Who knows if it's true.
But that's the kind of magic they can do."
What you are going to do next
Times have changed, and getting in and out of Disneyland isn't as easy as it used to be.
As a result of the pandemic, Disneyland now operates with an admission reservation system that effectively limits when guests can go to the park.
While it makes frequent visits difficult, it also ensures that Reitz's record is not called into question, at least not for a while.
Until then, there are plenty of new attractions for Reitz to discover, like the park's new Avengers campus.
“After being out of the park for three years, coming back is an opportunity for me to have an eye-opening experience,” says Reitz.
“It's going to be almost like starting over, and that's exciting.
(Walt) Disney himself once said: 'Disneyland will never be completed.
It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.'”
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