Jeff Reitz and Tonya Mickesh have gone to Disneyland together every day for the past year, 365 days in a row.
The Southern California couple, who both met in July 2006, used their annual passes to visit the Anaheim, Calif. tourist attraction every day in 2012, eventually becoming known as the “everyday Disneyland couple.” “It was a way to keep ourselves occupied because we didn’t have jobs,” Mickesh told the Orange County Register. “Originally, we thought we’d get jobs and stop doing it, but we kept it going.”
The couple often started the whimsical tradition early in the morning, pushing past the turnstiles and beating the crowds with the annual passes they had both received as gifts. What had started as a fun distraction eventually turned into a commitment that became hard to keep up as the seasons changed. The paper explains:
Going to Disneyland got tougher during the year, as they both found full-time jobs. Mickesh’s job started in late April and entailed working the second shift, so they would go in the mornings. Then Reitz found a job in September, making it difficult to go together. So during the week they would go at separate times, leaving the weekends for joint trips as the year progressed….
During the yearlong challenge, there were days they nearly didn’t make it. Reitz came off a planned dive in Ventura late, due to problems with the boat. He sped down the freeways to make it to the front gate with 20 minutes to spare.
Along the way, the couple picked up a couple of tricks of the trade (for instance, the Earl of Sandwich, an eatery located inside the amusement park, offers a 15% discount to Automobile Club members, but only 10% for annual passholders) and made friends with the staff.
Though both Mickesh and Reitz both thoroughly seem to have enjoyed their experiences, they have no plans to keep up their 2012 record this year.