“Weren’t you here yesterday?” - any random Disneyland cast member.

I have done it. I have spent one month of my life this year visiting Disneyland. I like to think of myself as the reason they raised the prices. We bought our passes on my birthday in January on a whim. Jamie and I do not have any family out here so holidays were a little depressing. Since we had already visited twice over a year (at $300 bucks for tickets for the both of us each time) we figured we would spend our entertainment budget on annual passes to help cheer us up on birthday and special occasions…and since then we have become addicted.

Taken on my birthday when we got the passes!

We figured even if we went 6 times in a year they would pay for themselves easily. So we got the best passes we could afford, with no blackout dates, percentages off food and merchandise and parking included. I mean when it’s that easy to visit, why not? Going somewhere and knowing you have parking is incentive enough living here. Parking in Los Angeles has become a new level of hell I never thought imaginable. If I can go somewhere and know I have a guaranteed spot and not worry about being towed or ticketed for a small fortune…I am in. Plus, I mean, it’s friggin Disneyland, do you need an incentive to go? It’s the happiest place on Earth.

Taken when my Mom and Sister came out for a visit...and we started drinking...

We have had a year of unforgettable holidays, special occasions, birthdays and random weekends wandering through. I make it a point to yell “Happy Birthday” at anyone wearing a “It’s My Birthday” Disney pin. I have gone on solo trips to experience the park by myself and it is still incredible. It is a bummer they raised the prices so we don’t know if we will be able to renew. It would be a bummer not to have access to it, this was always a dream, like “Oh, they go to Disney a lot, they must be rich.” But, I’m broke and we made it happen.

Taken from our most recent visit when we dressed up like Burt and Mary...

Glad we got them this year and who knows what next year will bring. I think I got my money’s worth.

Think I can I make it 40 trips?!

-YourFriendMatt

When we first moved across the country from Philadelphia to Los Angeles we barely knew anyone and had not family here. Our first holiday's were celebrated on cardboard boxes and makeshift furniture since we were still unpacking. We still had to use our GPS just to find a pizza place less than a mile from us. We were lost.

It was Christmas morning and after tripping over loose bubble wrap and the packing peanuts that littered our place we both came to a genius revelation. "Isn't Disneyland close to here?" We said, scrabbling to search Google Maps to find out how far it was. We were in the car within 15 minutes and battled the 405 to get to the happiest place on Earth, so we could drown our sorrows in Mickey shaped pretzels and ice cream.

Since then we budgeted our finances and looked into getting annual passes...and by the photo above, I think we are getting our money's worth...and we still have 4 months to go. Can we break 40 times this year?

Stay tuned...

Side Note: If we paid for tickets every time we went instead of getting passes we would be at around $3,500 each and about $400 in parking...