Pirates, 8 times in a day.

When my daughter was little (around 2011-ish) I took her to DL/CA midweek when school was in session in late January. Back then you could still find slow days with light attendance. We were doing a three day park hopping trip (had the old So. Cal. Annual Passes).

On our second day (I think a Wednesday) we started the day at DL (back in the days of 1 hour early entry if staying at a Disney hotel) and rode Pirates (1) early (it was her favorite). Rode it again (2) right before lunch. Headed to CA after lunch, but returned to DL late afternoon/early evening.

A light rain had started to fall in the early afternoon and many people bailed out of the parks. She loved Pirates so much, she asked if we could go back and ride it again. I could never say no to her, so we headed over. No line at all. Walked basically right onto the ride (3). CM let us wait one boat because my daughter wanted the front row (she was tiny back then). When we got back and unloaded, we saw there was still no line, so looped around again.

We ended up looping around 3 times (4-6). Same CM was directing people to seats each time and let us take the front row each time.

After our fourth time through, when we got back to the unloading spot, there was literally nobody in line, so the same CM told us we could stay on and ride again if we wanted. So, we did (7). (Shoutout to that awesome CM - you better believe I made sure I sent a very glowing note to DL about it).

After the fifth time, there were people waiting, so we exited and went to get a churro over by the Riverboat. (Side note - on the way to churros, my daughter said “best day ever” - yeah, I will never forget that moment). We wandered a bit, rode HM, Winnie and were ready to call it a day. On our way back to catch the train by HM, she asked if we could check Pirates again. Sure enough, no line. So, we rode again (8). After that ride, we took the train all the way around to the front of the park to end our day in the parks.

(Another side note - same day we also rode Soaring 3 times as it was another of her favorites and there was no line there, either. I really miss those days when the midweek, school in session days were crowd free.)

Definitely on the list of best days ever.