Have you ever had a "It's a small world" experience at WDW?

[KimberAnn]

Don't know if this counts,

But at AK two weeks ago my DD had a very long conversation with a CM on Dinosaur. She made him measure her three times to make sure she was tall enough. There was another little girl who was not tall enough.

On the way out of the park, we were talking about whether they let that little girl ride (As my dd was so scared by dinosaur I wish I hadn't taken her on). A voice behind us says "no" - it was that cast member! My DD was so excited to see him - you'd have thought he was Mickey.

 

[suevee]

We spent a day at Epcot. While we were there we visited Innovations. My granddaughter was checking out the activities when who should she meet but her choir director from home. We had no idea she was visiting WDW at the same time we were! Small World isn't it?

 

[crzy4mk]

We saw a teacher from the elementary school where my daughters attend . . . 500 miles away!

 

[lstokes]

My husband and I had been married for several years. We were in Typhoon Lagoon and saw this very large white older man in a very tiny SPEEDO walking in front of us.
After giggling to ourselves, he turned around..........................
It was the minister who had married us from IOWA!!!!!

We had to be polite and make small talk and NOT LOOK AT HIS SPEEDO!!!!!

Still a good laugh today!!

 

[dizneycc]

When we were with our parents back in the 80's, we were waiting for the bus back to our hotel at the MK, and ran into one of my cousins. We didn't even know she was there.

Last year my brother passed by another one of our cousins who had moved away from our hometown at the MK. He said they walked by each other, then they both did a double take. They couldn't believe it.

It really is a small world!

 

[crz4mm2]

On Our family trip to WDW in 1995, we were actually sitting outside of It's a Small World and my DH commented that this kid looked familiar. It was the son of some friends of ours from home, 1300 miles away! We still laugh about that. Had to drive 1300 miles to get together with friends.


Cathy

 

[philaround]

Many years ago DW & I were at WDW with our DD and my DM. We were there for ten days and met at least 6 different families from CT everywhere we went. The first Sunday we were there we went to a Catholic Church in Kissimmee for Mass where an older woman came up to us and said Hi Tara to our our daughter and Hi Adeline to my Mom. This woman had worked at a Duncan Donuts a block from my Mom's house until she had retired the year before. Whenever our DD spent a day at her Grandma's my Mom would take her to the Duncan Donuts as a treat and the woman remembered them.

PS: As we were walking back to our car in the church parking lot I noticed that at least 2/3'rds of the cars in the lot were rental cars. I immediately dubbed this church "Our Lady of the Vacationer". Till this day I could not tell you the real name of this church if my life depended on it.

 

[logan1_2000]

November 2000, we had DS (4) out of pre-school with us, and at the Epcot Japan pavillion, we stopped so DS could participate in a mask-making activity for children, and he said "Look, there's Turner". Well, we said "It can't be Turner, Turner goes to PRe-School with you so he is back home at Creme de la Creme (pre-school in ATL). DS said "No, its Turner" and we looked, and 4 feet away from us was a boy who had been in the same pre-school with DS since the baby room, at age 3 months. Turner's Mom had either won a trip as a business incentive or was using up some about-to-expire miles or points, I forget which.

We also go to the same elementary school and we bump into them at Braves games, too. And play youth sports in the same leagues. And we always talk about bumping into them at Epcot.

 

[wdarling]

when i was 11 i was staying at the floridian and every afternoon CMs organized fun activities for the kids either poolside or at the beach. it was my fave trip ever b/c of the friends i made. well 4 years later i was taking a late nite swim b/c i love watching the fireworks from the pool and i accidentaly swam into one of the kids i played with the summer i was 11. a year later we ran into each other again eating breakfast at the floridan.


Another story, i was on the keys to the kingdom tour and a family who was from the same town as me was in my group. in fact half of our group was from jersey...lol!

 

[leighe]

While we were waiting to go into the movie in France at EPCOT (I can't remember what it is called) DH kept saying, "I know that girl," in refernece to one of the CM's working. When we got close to her she called DH by his name. Turns out they used to play together when they were like six - her dad was the girls basketball coach and Greg's dad was the boys coach at the same high school. I was amazed that they recognized each other! They had the best time catching up. She has her MBA and has gotten a job at WDW and according to her, everybody starts out at the bottom. She said before she was in the World Showcase (she didn't work in the French pavilion, she was waiting for someone) she worked at Figment.

Oh - this isn't really small world, but it made my first Disney trip magical. My name is Chanda - which I have always hated because no one pronounces it correctly and I think it's hideous. Well on my first trip ever to WDW we stayed at the Poly and the girl who checked us in was named Chanda. I was like three and I still remember how I felt. I thought she looked like Barbie! I was enthralled. She gave me her name tag and that was the highlight of my visit. My mom found the name tag when she and my dad moved last year!

 

[Melann]

Oh yeah...my BF and I were in line for Buzz Lightyear at MK and a girl in front of me happened to be a ex employee at my job...i had trained her and had not seen her since she quit! It was intersting...and I immediately thought, "of all places!"

 

[mikenzacksmom]

I was walking through frontierland on one of my first visits and I kept hearing my name being called, I thought it was odd, it turned out that a friend from Highschool was there the same time Dh and I at the time were there. We both traveled from Pa. neither of us knew that the other was going to be there.

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

First one's not quite a Disney experience, but it was in Orlando ... I was going to a college football bowl game (I don't remember the name of the bowl right now, they change names so often, anyways) ... I'm walking around, crowd is roughly 75 or 80,000 people. Out of the blue, I hear my name being called. Turn around, and it's the artist that had painted my hockey mask.

A few days later, I was at Disney World, in Epcot, and I see someone wearing a letter jacket from my High School (I had graduated 1 year earlier). It wasn't someone that I directly knew, but we had some friends in common.

 

[goofy4tink]

Twice. The first time, we sitting on the curb of Main St. waiting for Spectro to start. Walking down the street were people from our home town. Second time, we were eating at CMs on our last day. My dd and I went to the ladies room to freshen up and were to meet dh after he paid. He met us, saying that the people at the next table to us were from the next town over and very good friends with the family we had traveled to WDW on our last trip! But, did he get their names? Of course not.

 

[FranP]

Love hearing your stores!

We have had several:

l. Once at OKW a man tapped me on the shoulder and said "I don't know of you remember me". Well, it turned out to be one of the salesmen from our local Disney Store who was also a DVC member!

2. When my DD got married at WDW, her MIL ran into a lady she used to know in Egg Harbor, New Jersey who was now working at the general store in OKW.

3. Once in Epcot, in one of the restaurants in Future World, a little boy ran past my son and I and I said to him "Alex, wasn't that Billy?" My son went after him and it was Billy and his family, who lived only a few blocks from us!!

4. Last spring, my DH and I were in Epcot Center near Italy when I turned and saw a fellow who worked for the company I worked for - the really interesting thing is that he is based in California and I was based in New Jersey so we really didn't have frequent conversations and had no idea we would be there at the same time!!!

It is a Small, small world!!!

 

[zaksmom]

We have two:

1. Most recently we were eating fast food at MK after driving down from DC. It was very crowded, Saturday night and I returned from the condiments to see my 17 year old son getting reacquainted with his kindergarten Sunday School Teacher who had moved away from our area.

2. When my son was 2 yrs old he had surgery. I was surprised to find that his roommate was the son of a gal who graduated from high school with me. She had married and moved several states away. We parted thinking we'd probably never cross paths again. About 10 years later while snaking through the line to see Mickey in Toon Town Fair, our paths did cross again!

It's a small world after all.

 

[RUSHBURY]

Hi

We come from a small town in Scotland and have 'bumped' into people from our town on several visits - some we knew were going others we were totally surprised.

The biggest shock we had was meeting, in WalMart, one of the local surgeons from our hospital, who had only recently done an operation on my husband.

Helen

 

[dcentity2000]

My girlfriend loves the "It's A Small World" ride in WDW.

Trouble is, every time I ride it I can't help but think of Chuckie and start to wonder what the little guys are hiding behind the scenery?

nb. For those of you who don't know, Chuckie was a doll like out of the ride but a bit more disfigured that when left alone with certain people would make every attempt to torture and kill. Anyone who survived and tried to warn others was viewed as being just a bit of a fruitcake...

Just thought I'd mention that



Rich::

 

[chilihead]

On our first trip (second in a few weeks!) we were coming back from the parks and I started chatting up the little boy next to me. He told me he was from CO. I told him my dad lives there and asked him where in CO. He told me the town and it was the same town my dad lived in. I asked where he went to school (my dad is a teacher). When he told me I asked who his teacher was (it wasn't my dad's school, but my cousin and his wife live there too and she's a teacher at the school he named). Turned out my cousin's wife was his teacher! We're from OK and they are from CO...talk about a small world!

BTW, cool thread.

Chilihead

 

[Debbie-TN]

We had a strange one happen a couple of years ago. We were having dinner at 50's Prime Time. Our waitress was asking everyone where they were from. When we told her we were from Nashville she said that the people next to us were from Nashville also. We started talking and found out that we had lived down the street from each other when we were children, went to the same school and knew the same neighbors. The waitress and every one around us thought it was great.