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

[snookhams]

The first time we took our son to WDW when he was 2 1/2 we bumped (leterally) right into my friends parents. We were in the area where you first enter the world section Epcot (good place to watch fireworks) between the two shops and my Son was wearing a set of reins ( a contraption used here in the UK to give children their freedom, they put there arms through and it does up at the back of the chest and has a long rein on it for the adult to hold) and Balloo bear and some of his friend were there and he took hold of the reins and started dancing with Daniel and Daniel spun round and walk straight into my friends Dad, we had both come thousands of miles, as we live just outside of London, England. What are the odds of that happening!

This is not quite the same, but last August we had an accident in the Car Park at the Contemporary Resort, another English family in there MPV hit our MPV, luckily no one was injured but a bit of damage, the other drive (male) was very upset and led off at me about useless women drivers, when my DH got out the car (He's 6'6") he backed off a bit, well would you believe the cheek of it I was stationary at the time waiting for a car to reverse out of a space and he drove straight into me, any way we were going in for a Character Breakfast and who should sit at the next table, the most unenjoyable meal at WDW I've ever had, but even worse, they were on our flight back to Gatwick 4 rows behind us, but he had clamed down a bit by then!

 

[Luv2Roam]

We always run into someone (we don't know) from Omaha! We just find out through idle chit chat.
Usually we are on a bus. Once we were standing in the FP line/lobby entrance in ToT.

 

[Mike]

Any other stories from recent visitors?

 

[DizMare]

When my kids were toddlers, I belonged to a mother's group that included a neato woman named Janice. Janice was Disney - obsessed and saved up each year to spend a nice long time at WDW. I thought she was nice, but nuts. Why would anyone want to go to WDW every year?? I had been there once in 1980 and, well, that was enough. We moved about 30 minutes away, and I lost all touch with the mothers.

Fast forward 6 years - one trip to WDW led to two, three, four and finally a DVC purchase. I often thought about Janice, finally understanding her obsession and wishing I could apologize for my inablitly to see!

I was walking down the long Boardwalk Villas corridor one day, and passed a woman going the opposite direction. We did the smile/hello thing and I kept going. She stopped and called out to ask if I had two kids and she named them - I was so startled. I studied her face and said "Janice?" It was her, and I finally got to commiserate with her about our joint obsession!

 

[BrerMom]

My DH works at Lowes Home Improvement here in NC. One day at work a woman with a small girl was there and the little girl kept looking at DH. Finally she said "Mommy! I saw him at Disney World!". Her mother just rolled her eyes but DH said "When were you there?".

very cool story! Kids have a fantastic memory.

We were standing at rope-drop the same week that school let out. I hear my name being called and it's another teacher that I work with. Neither of us knew the other was going, either.

 

[OhMari]

I don't know if this qualifies, but I come from a town of 2000.
Our highschool band marched in the "Magic Music Days" during Easter. We had
100 band students
13 chaperones
over 80% of band students parents, brother, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins come to WDW to see them march.

It was really wierd at the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday. You felt you were far from home, but everywhere you looked you saw someone you knew, and of course you stopped and chatted.

Someone asked if the last person remembererd to turn off the lights when we left town. (Old Joke) but I think it was true.

 

[patsal]

I always happen upon a student or two during my travels to WDW. We are always seated next to people from our area whenever we eat the Hoop Dee Doo!

 

[DisneyCP2002]

I ran into a family from my church while I was down in WDW on the College Program. They came to visit me at my place of work which was really cool. I also found out that a band from my hometown was down there during Magic Music Days. I didn't get to see them but I did run into some of the sponsors. Definetly a nice thing to run into people you knew when you were getting home sick at times.

 

[HAH]

In 2000 we took a WDW trip 2 weeks after moving into a new house. We were making the mad dash to Cinderella Castle for breakfast when I noticed a woman next to me pushing a stroller. I recognized her immediately as our neighbor. We had not yet met but her husband is a well known professional golfer and I had seen her on TV many times . I said 'excuse me I would like to introduce myself. I am your neighbor, we just moved in next door.' We all had a good laugh that we had to come all the way to WDW to meet!

That is one of several times that we have run in to people that we know. It happens almost every trip!

 

[goofyernmost]

The experience of seeing some one the either lives close to you or that you know has happened twice to me on my Disney Trips. The first time was actually during my first trip in 1984. I was walking through MK in the early evening and I heard someone call my name. I looked around and there was someone that had been my next door neighbor a couple of years previous to this. It seemed so strange.

Another time wasn't at WDW but in St. Petersburg, Fla. We were one of two small groups in a McDonalds having lunch when I overheard a conversation that the other group was having about how much nicer the weather was here as opposed to their hometown. When they mentioned the name of the town it caught my attention because it was only about five miles from where I lived. What are the chances of sitting in a McDonalds, 1800 miles away from home and being the only two groups in a restaurant in Florida. Sometimes it is just mind boggling.

 

[bonzie1]

We've had 3 such experiences!

First one: My DH + I were walking through Downtown Disney, just taking a quiet morning stroll in December, enjoying the solitude and the Christmas decorations. A High School Choir was performing over by the water, so we walk over to enjoy some songs. No sooner had we gotten there we saw our next door neighbors! All of us were in shock, and of course we raised our voices in excited greetings, totally forgetting there was a performance going on! oops!

Second one: We were on a celebration trip to celebrate my recovery from breast cancer surgery and splurged at the Contemporary Tower concierge. We had just finished checking in and were going to the elevator and we ran into a co-worker. Now, we had on our matching t-shirts and Mickey Ears, so, we did look a little different from normal, but our friend still recognized us. We still speak of it now that we're both back in NJ at work!

Third one: Just last October, while running to catch a bus pulling out of AK, I saw a friend from work. She + her daughter were just getting off the AK bus. Needless to say, we missed our bus, but had a good time chatting with my friend.

What FUN!

 

[tc]

We had two encounters.

The night before leaving for our third WDW trip, we had a party at our house for our youth group. I think it was the summer of 2000. Every Friday night the church sponsored Friday Flings, and we were picked to host that night. Stephen was entertaining the 100 or so students while I was finishing up the packing, and cleaning. I know, dumb idea to have 100 kids at your house before you go on vacation for a week. Anyway, one of the last students to leave was Eric. His dad came to get him, and we talked about 1/2 on what he did for a living (they'd just started attending our church), how we liked youth work, etc. The next night we were at MK for e-night. We were entering Country Bear when we heard our names called, "Hey, it's the Kings". There was Eric, his mom and dad and little sister. After talking the night before, neither of us mentioned we were going to WDW the next day. I didn't want them to feel bad because they were so late, and we had a 6:00 a.m. flight. We were so shocked.

The next happened at the Denver Airport. We were getting ready to board, just sitting around waiting for time to start, when Stephen looked over and saw a guy from work. It was him, his wife and two little girls (1 & 3). They worked together in Boulder a few years ago when Stephen was standing in as foreman for a few years. They see each other now and then. They were headed to WDW and Vero Beach. We were headed to Vero Beach, then WDW. We were switching resorts at the same time. We saw them again on the way home in the Orlando. They had just left Vero and loved it. I did note, that the little girls were not as happy looking as they were when we saw them in Denver. I guess they were plagued with stomach problems while at WDW and spent the time at Vero mostly sleeping and swimming. Not very magical for your first time.

 

[*123JOANNA123*]

We came all the way from Ireland via NY. On the flight down from NY, we were seated beside a family with a really pretty little girl a year older than ds (then 3). She was really chatty and played with ds all the way down (the plane was half empty). She said she was going to Florida to visit her Grandma.

Two days later, who is walking out of Mickey's house in Toontown only the same little girl and her family. What are the odds on that one?

 

[Gone Disney]

There's quite a few posts on this one so I only read part of them but I think it's pretty amazin how you can be half way around the world and run into friends/neighbors/family. Just goes to show you it really is a small world. I've unexpectedly ran into a few people at the World but it doesn't count for me because I don't live far from WDW.


These are some really neat stories though

 

[ilovefh]

We just took a trip in May. As I'm walking through Downtown Disney, rushing to make a movie time, I see two of my friends from college. Funny thing is, they didnt recognize me, they recognized my friend that I was with. I called their names and we of course had to chat for a bit. We then had to RUN to make our movie time. But it was pretty funny!

 

[kc&dmom]

Last August while walking around the castle we came across a family of 5 decked out in "Milton Pride" t-shirts. I recognized the t-shirts from our little town of 4,000 in WI. I shouted out a greeting and they didn't believe we were from the same town and about 1 minute of shared conversation later DD was in need of an emergency stop at the bathroom. I took off not getting their names figuring we would never see them again. Three months later I was shopping outside of town at Target when a man approached to ask me if my son played youth hockey, thought I looked "familiar". I told him no -- but we did figure out we were both from "town" and figured that was it -- until he hops out of his car in front of me while picking our boys from preschool. I laughed and told him -- gee I thought maybe you were the couple we bumped into at Disney world -- turns out he was!! Now from the scary part ---our children are roughly the same age and ---not only were we from the same little town in Wisconsin -- until six months before we were both living just outside of Detroit about a mile apart. I keep thinking we should have them over for dinner some night - but, I am afraid we may have the same furniture!

 

[OhMari]

Originally posted by kc&dmom
I keep thinking we should have them over for dinner some night - but, I am afraid we may have the same furniture!

LOL, you really need to be tagged! Clap real hard! and say you believe!

 

[Whitegloves]

While in line at Kilimanjaro Safaris my daughter thought it was one of her high school teachers ahead of us in line, turns out it was. After that we kept running into him in other towns up here, it was weird. The kids figured he thought we were stalking him. LOL! My son had him a year or so later for the same class.

We also found out ,after the fact, that a guy my DH knew through work saw him on one of the buses but didn't say anything because he wasn't sure it was him.

You just never know who you may run into.

 

[goofymom23]

This happend to us at the POC Gift shop. We were looking at some toys and this guy says excuse me Mr. Salyer, well that is my husband, and we look up and it is a person he used to work with. He worked with this person almost 3 years before and we have since left that company and moved. What a "Small World". It was good to see him and his family.

 

[disneyvacationmom]

On the bus to Magic Kingdom we ran into a Cast Member from our local Disney Store and again back at the hotel another day. We had a great chat on the bus.