A great tip for anyone.

[Kimberlylyn]

Yes!...DH and I talk to all kinds of people all disney. We talk to people at home about talking to strangers at disney. Well DH is more social bit in the the "World" my more social side does come out

 

[dmea10]

Always thought it odd how people make no effort to chat. We always go out of our way to talk to those around us, well the ones who want.
Really enjoy talking to the Cast Members.

I am wondering where you are from? It seems different parts of the country are a lot more friendly.
I was born and raised in the Boston area and moved to Tennessee two years ago. When I moved here I was shocked by how nice everyone was here. Our new neighbors brought over baked goods and introduced themselves. We went to the supermarket and the cashier would strike up a conversation and driving through the neighborhood everyone would wave and say hello. I was shocked coming from Boston where I barely knew my neighbors and if someone waved at me I thought it was strange! I love it here. No beeping horns and road rage. People are just so nice and more down to earth. I could never go back to Massachusetts to live.

 

[CMByers]

I'll never forget this! During our last big family trip down to WDW, it was mid-August and the heat and humidity were brutal. My mom and I sat down on a bench in Epcot Showcase to take a break while dad went to get us drinks. We started talking with a couple sharing the bench with us. Not only did it turn out that they were from the same state of WI, but they knew of our little town and knew our neighbors, by name! Talk about it being a small world after all!

I had a story like this happen once! Back in 2013, while waiting in line for Journey of the Little Mermaid, we struck up a conversation with and older couple behind us. Turned out they were from the same state as us, and we actually knew their adult daughter. It's crazy how things like that happen at times!

 

[JJsMommy]

Hi... new to the boards. As a Florida resident and AP, I enjoy talking to others in line. Especially if I overhear them discussing their plans. I have helped many first-time families with where things are, things to definitely do or to avoid, etc.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

We all love talking to CMs. My DH can and does talk to everyone. We meet so many nice people this way. One thing we love to do is make Music videos from our recent trips (in my signature). We have asked many CMs to be in the videos - so many of them are thrilled to do it. Paul (In April 2015 video) from WCC and Lorenzo (In July 2015 video) from the BWI CL are two that we go back to see often. We love them being in our videos. Our first video had many CMs in it. It is so much fun talking with people.
Thanks for the thread.

 

[marthachick]

In 2005, DS was 14 and it was his first trip. We got on the bus for AK. We started talking to a couple and found out they do Renaissance Faires with full costumes and all. While they were talking, the woman pulled out a small case and they started fiddling with their teeth. Come find out, they had custom made vampire teeth that their dentist had made for them for Ren Faires. We're from a small Boring town so DS was shocked to see this and hear about it. They were very nice and answered his questions. He still tells the story!

 

[StraightToDumbo]

We once had a conversation with some swingers at RnR. What an interesting 40 minutes that was. Our kids were too young for that ride thank god. We learned more than we ever wanted to, but we'll never forget it.

 

[Little E]

My DS's name is Alex, and on our first day at MK on our 2014 trip, as we were walking down Main Street, a CM offered to take our family's picture. As we were getting lined up to take the pic, my son noticed the CM's name was also Alex, and the two of them immediately started talking about how cool their name was. The CM was so amazing; he took his name tag off, and put it on our Alex, and proceeded to take several pics of just our Alex with the Disney name tag on before he took our family's pic. After a couple of high fives, the CM told our Alex that he could now become a Disney CM, as he had taken our Alex's first employee picture. It was such a magical experience!

 

[kbmartin]

I love chatting with people, but sometimes I'm too shy to start the conversation, so it's nice when someone else does.

I'm a teacher, so I've had a couple interesting conversations about school. On our last trip, we chatted with a teacher from Ontario about his job and the similarities/differences from teaching positions in the US. At HS, we had to wait in a long bus line after the Star Wars fireworks, and a Canadian girl complimented my Star Wars dress. We ended up talking about Harry Potter quite a bit and then discussed what school was like for her (she was going into ninth grade, which is the grade I teach).

On our last trip, we were heading to HS on the boat from Swan/Dolphin and talked with a mom about trading with the Jawas. Later, I found her posting on the DisBoards, and she remembered our conversation!

Sorry to post about the Dark Side, but probably my favorite random meeting took place at Universal. It was when Escape from Gringotts first opened, and the line was THREE HOURS long. The heat was brutal, and we were miserable and bored for the first hour and a half. A couple who seemed just a bit younger than us was just ahead in line, playing Heads Up. We asked about the game, and then we all introduced ourselves. They were students from MIT, and one of them was visiting family in Florida for the month. We ended up playing the game and hanging out with them for the rest of the line, and it made it much more bearable! When it was finally time to board, we told them we were a group of four.