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

[Ears2YouVlog]

Last week I ran into a guy i was in a rock band with almost 15 years ago at Hollywood Studios!!! we live in Nashville and he lives somewhere in Florida but it was kinda nuts!! Especially cus we both grew up to be responsible adults... mostly. haha.

 

[bananabean]

While walking around in the Magic Kingdom we ran into family friends that had moved down to Florida about 10 years earlier.

Not me, but while on the bus one day the people sitting across from and next to me realized that they were from neighboring small town in Saskatchewan and they shared relatives by marriage.

 

[amyjmcc90]

We've run into familiar faces/families FOUR times! The first was my good friend & her hubby and kids. We knew we were going to be in FL at the same time but we didn't coordinate anything for some reason. The next time, we were walking through WS at Epcot and I bumped into a former co-worker and her family. Another time we were at the Beauty and the Beast show and we saw some neighbors. The last time was more of an avoidance of someone - we had just gotten to HS and were in line to meet Minnie. We looked over and saw some acquaintances/semi-friends their with their kids and in-laws. It was just sort of awkward so we did a quick turn and pretended not to see them. They either didn't see us or pretended not to, lol.

eta: I totally forgot about this one. On our trip this past January, I was chatting with our young cashier at Target and it turns out he is from our same small town in Northern VA. It was cool that we could talk about school and local stuff for a minute.

 

[bsiev1977]

Didn't happen at the World per se, but was talking to my next door neighbor while walking my dog and found out they are going this December the exact same days I'll be going with my niece and sister.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

We were in line for The Magic Carpets I'd Aladdin and the family in front of us had a little girl, who DD started playing with. We chatted up the parents, turns out they live 5 miles away from us.

 

[Under the Library]

Yes, our trip last March! We were heading for Tom Sawyer Island and bumped right in to our cashier at our local pharmacy & her husband that my DH knows through work. We laugh about it every time we go into the drug store!

 

[thewesterberg]

A few years ago I pulled my son out of school for a couple of days for a somewhat impromptu Mother/Son trip. We were walking around World Showcase in the early afternoon and it was HOT. As we passed Germany, I bought a pretzel for us to share and a beer for myself. We continued walking and all of a sudden there was my son's Kindergarten teacher as well as another teacher from his school! (they were there for an education conference and had a break that afternoon to explore the parks.) I joked that we were totally busted for pulling him out of school and having beer in the middle of the day!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

My uncle met a 20-something that he had had as a student in 5th grade while we were on the ferry from the Magic Kingdom back to Grand Floridian.

My wife ran into a colleague at Magic Kingdom during one trip.

 

[Julylady]

We were riding the Friendship cruise from Beach Club to Hollywood Studios. About halfway, I saw my cousin and his wife walking on the pathway. We screamed at them, but they didn't seem to recognize us. After we unloaded we waited for them to arrive. They said they heard some screaming from the boat but thought it was kids playing around. We were just off a Disney cruise and they were heading to the airport later that day. We also had no idea they were going to be there.

 

[Tomh]

On our first two visits to Disney World, we ran into families from our home town. We live 1100 miles away from Disney, in a town of about 5000 total population, so I would think that the mathematical odds of running into two different local families on two consecutive trips are probably pretty slim. First time it happened in Animal Kingdom, second time was at Hollywood Studios.

 

[StarGirl11]

A couple of incidents pop up:

1. Last Jan on our Marathon trip. A woman sat next to me on the bus to the start area. We started chatting and I asked where she's from. She said Alabama. Having lived some time in northern AL I ask where, thinking somewhere more central or south because that's what I usually run into. Turns out her and her husband live in the same city I spent a few years living.

2. Not at WDW but at DL. I was charging my cell in the Main Street lockers. And there was a small group of us of maybe three or four huddled around the lockers doing that. And I started talking to one of the guys. Found out he was from the same area I now live in Colorado.

 

[ttintagel]

The bartender at the Wave Lounge at the Contemporary Resort was from the next small town over to the one where I went to high school.

When I went to Disneyland in California, I needed to fill a prescription while I was there, and the pharmacist at the nearest drugstore was a transplant from a city that's a few hours away from my hometown. He said, "I just couldn't take the weather anymore."

 

[ttintagel]

Also, I work at a university, and I was wearing one of our T-shirts one day at EPCOT. Just as I was leaving the Character Spot, one of the CM's called out our slogan!

 

[newestkg06]

My grandpa ran into his secretary/office manager at Magic Kingdom. She was supposed to be back at the office in Minnesota.

 

[PrncessA]

I have never ran into anyone I knew beforehand, but I have had a couple of DisMeets by complete coincidence, no planning involved.

I ran into KatMark (who also lives 10 minutes away from me, but we had never met) when we ended up on the same elevator at Tower of Terror, we ran into each other a couple of other times throughout the trip as well.

I ran into mickey'stoontown (Lisa) as we were leaving Kona Cafe and they were going in.

Always really cool to run into someone you know or "know" at Disney!

 

[msp2mco]

My son saw a classmate and his parents enter EE late one afternoon. He ducked into the single-rider line and caught up with him so he could be his friend's single rider (he did not cut in line!!). We knew the family would be in Florida, but didn't expect to run into them at the theme parks.

 

[Disney Sheri]

We were at WDW celebrating our birthdays. My daughter turned 16 one day and mine a few days later(not going to say my age) . I had on my "Celebrating Birthday" button with my name on it. About everyone would say "Happy Birthday, Sheri". We were getting on the train at Magic Kingdom. The family behind us said, "Happy Birthday, Sheri" and I said "Thank you!" Then I looked at my daughter and said, "When they add my name to the Happy Birthday, I feel like they know me..." The gentleman behind me said, "I do know you, Sheri!" I looked at him and realized that we were in the same High School Class! That was such a nice ride catching up with a High School Friend!

 

[Catvondita]

This sounds awesome! I love reading stories like this. We never had anything happen like this before but for some reason we always end up talking to someone on line who's from Brooklyn! It happened most recently waiting online for Haunted Mansion and then again sitting at the Biergaten!

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

Last August we were getting off Dumbo and my son yells out the name of one of his daycare friends, I assumed it was just someone who looked like the kid, but then the kid replies by yelling out my son's name. We had always been friendly at school when we ran into them. We hung out with their family for about an hour went our separate ways and agreed to arrange play dates when we got home. Fast forward 10 months and I consider them practically family. Disney.

 

[SureAsLiz]

A few years ago in DL my dad, sisters and I were getting our photos taken in DCA when we noticed the photographer was from the same town my dad grew up in! (This town currently has about 600 people in it)

She was only a few years older that me, and he had moved by the time she was born, but in a town of 600 people they of course know of each others families