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

[Mike]

On our last trip, we were having dinner at Chef Mickey's. Another family was soon seated right next to us and our kids started playing together and talking about the rides they went on. Before long, us parents started talking and we discovered that we were from the same town - only a few streets away!! Here we are having dinner 1300 miles from home and we get seated next to "neighbors". What are the odds of that?!
Does anybody else have any similar experiences?

 

[BounceyOne]

OUrs is also at chef mickeys. We were eating and kept noticing a man looking towards us every so often. Turns out he recognized my DH, who was an NYPD officer. This happens almost everywhere we go, cops seem to all know each other

 

[grinningghost]

Ours was at the Beauty and the Beast show at MGM. Our daughter ran into her classmate/day care friend. We had no idea we were going at the same time. We took a picture of the two girls standing in front of the B&TB sign. It was really cool.

 

[pathubia]

This has happened to me 3 times,

1. Minnies Minihuna Breakfast at the Poly we ran into my cousin.
I didnt even know they would be there.

2. Typhoon Lagoon wave pool, almost crashed into my DD's girl
scout leader.

3. Universal Studios: Getting an ice cream I ran into someone
that I worked with.

Coming from Boston each time I couldnt believe that I ran into someone that I knew!!

 

[BethC1952]

First Time : New Year's Eve, 1982 (we were celebrating our 10th anniversary with my son who was 7 years old then and the woman who had been the maid of honor at our wedding). We outside the Emporium on Main Street, trying to get in (it was packed. I've never seen so many people in one place.)

I heard someone calling me by my maiden name--and turned to see the man who had been our best man whom we hadn't seen since about two years after the wedding! We stopped to get reacquainted, and admire each other's kids. Then he asked us to wait while he found his wife so he could introduce us. She greeted me by my first name...she's my OB/GYN's nurse! She used her maiden name professionally, so I couldn't have had any way of knowing who her husband was!

Second Time : Mid-November, 2002, attending a convention here in New Jersey, chatting with a woman who told me she was going to Disney World in early December. "Maybe I'll see you there".--no discussion of resort or time of visit or anything else. December 3, 2002, walking into the food court at All Star Music--there she was! We had quite a laugh! But it gets better...Fast Forward one week to Disney Cruise Line's "Wonder"...we met again at the adult pool! We exchanged phone numbers this time, and are planning to meet at our convention in November again, and we're both planning December WDW/DCL trips for 2003!

Beth

 

[Simba's Mom]

I remember once, on the coldest Enight the history of the MK (at least it felt like it), I ran into a student of mine from back home in the Haunted Mansion. Here we both were, almost 2000 miles from home, from a small school in deep south Texas, we were 2 of the about 30 people in the HM that night.

 

[hygienejean]

(1987)I was wandering around the France pavillion in Epcot while my parent's were sitting at the fountain. My friend and her new husband spotted my father.....wasn't quite sure it was him....She said she said to her husband, "That guy looks just like Jean's father." Well it was. My Dad came running around looking for me to tell me my friend was there. "I didn't know you would be here!" We all just laughed. I still can't believe we ran into them to this day!

 

[TLS4Mickey]

My Dad lived in CA for 15 yrs. and when I would visit him (from Pittsburgh, PA), we would go to Disneyland and I was always amazed that he would run into someone he knows. One time he even ran into someone he knew from PA and they didn't live to far away from me.

When we were in WDW, this past Feb., we stayed at ASSp. After we checked in and settled into our room, we went to the bus stop (We were heading to Boardwalk) and we passed a family and my son said "Hi" to the boy. At first I didn't think much of it and when we got on the bus it hit me that my son just spoke to a kid and we were in WDW. So I asked him if he knew the boy and he told me who it was. It's a boy that goes to his school (everyone knows this boy, he is always in trouble and every kid has had some sort of experience with the boy), Also, the boys Mother lives in our apt. building, she was there, somewhere, we just never ran into her, but we kept running into the boy. It's just to bad it wasn't someone my DS could play with, while we were there. He's the only child and I know he enjoys family vacations, but I'm sure he would like to have someone to play with.

 

[Allan]

At Islands of Adventure a few years ago, my DD and I were eating in the restaurant in the Jurassic Park section and a very good friend of mine walked up and sat down with us. We didn't realize we were both going to Orlando for the week. I also ran into a childhood friend at the entrance to MGM. It is definitely a Small World!!!

 

[lUVTOGO]

We were on the Disney Magic in November and heard someone call my daughters name. It turned out to be her gym teacher at school and her family.

 

[Susiesnowflake]

My husband always comments that we cannot go anywhere without me seeing someone that I know. In 1998, while in the Magic Kingdom, I saw an old college friend that I had not seen since graduation in '81. She looked absolutely the same! It was so much fun to catch up and meet her new baby.

 

[Kallison]

In college my best friend and I ran into a person we graduated high school with in one of the stores. We are were on one side of a turnstile trying to swing it around and he was on the other side.

Before kids my DH and I ran into someone he graduated college with in Epcot.

On our last trip we sat down at Cinderella's Castle and a family from our church sat next to us. Then the next day we were eating on Tony's porch when they announced the same family from our town were the Grand Marshall's. DH was not impressed when I jumped up screaming "We know them, HIIIIIIII" - they did not see us though!

 

[kdonnel]

On our last trip down we got on the resort monrail leaving the MK. Almost immediatly a woman asked if we were from Atlanta and if we had a three year old? She had been in our childbirth class 4 years earlier.

She has a 3 year old that is 2 weeks older then ours and a 4 month old that is 2 weeks older then ours.

That was strange.

 

[Hillbeans]

Great topic. This didn't happen to me, but my brother was down with his wife and kids attending a conference in October. My brother in his whole life only has one "ex-girlfriend" whom he dated for a few months, and wouldn't you know it, they bumped into each other in MGM. They were even attending the same conference and staying at the same hotel and didn't even know it!

 

[wannabee princess]

A few years ago, as we walked down Sunset Blvd at MGM, we saw friends of ours, from IL, walking towards us. We hadn't seen them since we had moved to OH!

 

[Luvinit]

When my DD was 20mo. she almost died from virual phenomina (SP sorry)...there was a nurse who saved her life, and had her transfered to a pediatric intensive care unit at a different hospital. I never got to tell the nurse thank you (in person, I sent her a card and flowers later on).

We walked right by her in DD with my kids; 3 years later. I had only known this woman for 12 hrs at the worst time in my life...and I immediatley reconized her...and finally got the chance to hug her and say "thank you" in person.!!

 

[Mish19]

Well we sort of knew our encounter would be there but thought the odds of seeing them would be low. My dog's groomer of 11 years asked us if we were in WDW 2 Halloweens ago and we were. She saw my family and I getting on a Disney bus but by the time it dawned on her we were gone. Fast forward to this past Halloween. The groomer mentioned she would be there the same time we would be and maybe we would see eachother.
We had no plans of meeting so the odds were low. We were walking in AK and my mom spots the groomer! To get her attention as we walked by she asked if she had an open appointment for our dog anf the lady spun around and laughed! We said our hi's and goodbye's and went on with our day. Two days later we were at Downtown Disney and once again bumped into her!

 

[CamColt]

Great stories everyone!

Last summer we were having breakfast at the Kona Cafe before we left for our cruise. Our waiter looked like he was from the islands as many of the Poly CMs do. He asked us where we were from and we said MA. He said "oh, where in Ma, Im from Billerica". Thats 2 towns(like 10 minutes) over from us. What are the chances?

 

[MOQ3424]

This actually happened twice!

We were in magic kingdom and we saw good friends of ours! We spent the whole day with them.

Also a couple of years later we were at the CR checking out and we ran into another good friend, they were actually checking in when we were checking out, but we had no idea they were coming!

 

[Disney845]

A few years ago SO and I were at IoA and ran into SO's older brother. He lived about 45 min from us so we saw him at home fairly often, but what was really weird about seeing him in Orlando was that he was supposed to be in North Carolina for some conference and it got cancelled. He was back home and got invited to go to IoA with his "Big Brother" (from the big brother/big sister program who he had stayed in contact with) and his family and just didn't mention it to anyone.