It really IS a small world!

[bellaDisneydncr]

It seems like my family always runs into someone from home at WDW. We've encountered people countless times. Just on my trip on Spring Break- I'm walking through Town Square in Main Street, USA and I look over and see kids from the high school I graduated from. They were on their senior trip. It was crazy!

 

[pwdebbie]

Here's a non-Disney small world experience that happened to my son-in-law last week. He took off work for a death in the family, for the viewing on Friday. When he turned in the funeral card as proof, the HR fellow asked him how he knew the person. My sil answered that the lady that died was his wife's aunt. The HR fellow replied, "Well, she was also my aunt -- I went to the funeral on Saturday." Now, you could understand this IF we were all from the same area. But the aunt that died lived two and a half hours away, we are related to her through her husband (my husband's brother) with Baltimore roots while the HR guy was related to her through his mother, she was her sister, with Cleveland roots. And if you could follow that one, you are good!

 

[webbmom]

Here's a non-Disney small world experience that happened to my son-in-law last week. He took off work for a death in the family, for the viewing on Friday. When he turned in the funeral card as proof, the HR fellow asked him how he knew the person. My sil answered that the lady that died was his wife's aunt. The HR fellow replied, "Well, she was also my aunt -- I went to the funeral on Saturday." Now, you could understand this IF we were all from the same area. But the aunt that died lived two and a half hours away, we are related to her through her husband (my husband's brother) with Baltimore roots while the HR guy was related to her through his mother, she was her sister, with Cleveland roots. And if you could follow that one, you are good!

Amazing that is definately a small world story.

 

[Disney Yooper]

About 5 years ago, I ran into a coworker that I was working with on a special committee. We had all day meetings together every two weeks. Neither of us knew the other was going to be at Disney. We ran into each other at the front of Magic Kingdom.

My sister, niece & nephew went with me a couple of years ago. While my niece, nephew & I were waiting in line for Goofy's Barnstormer, they saw their neighbors on the ride. It was a total surprise to both families that they were at Disney at the same time.

I saw my cousin at Conservation Station after we got off the train. They were getting on. It was too late to call out to her so we didn't actually talk.

My daughter saw her ex-best friend at Magic Kingdom when we were there the 1st time about 7 years ago. Needless to say, she didn't call out to her.

I know there are a couple more instances but can't think of them right now. We have only been about 10 times. Just about every trip we run into someone we know unexpectedly. It's A Small World, definitely.

 

[Nebula]

In '98, my mother and I were waiting to be called to our table at CRT. Another family's (uncommon) name was called, and my Mom said,"Gee, that's funny, your Dad and I went to college with a married couple with that same name..." We brushed it off and said that we were in Disney, there was NO way it could be the same family.

We ate and headed back to the Poly for a break. Mom decided to head to the concierge lounge. As she stepped onto the elevator, there was another lady onboard. They exchanged pleasantries, then did doubletakes. "Marge?" "Sue?" *shriek*

Yep, the parents in that family from CRT were my Mom and Dad's old college friends!! And they were staying 3 doors down from us in the Poly. We ended up spending some time with them on vacation. Mom and Dad reconnected with their friends and I got to meet their kids. It was very unexpected and a wonderful surprise.

In March, my cousin ran into a girl from her school. My aunt and I ended up sharing the hot tub with her mom, and she and my aunt caught up on the PTA meeting my aunt had missed. I also saw a guy in AK wearing a Pottsville Maroons shirt and mentioned that I lived in Schuylkill County, PA. Turns out we live in the same town and he frequents the store where I work.

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

we have a few stories.

at bb in 2003? i think, dh and i were riding on the lazy river(sorry forgot name) and this other dude gets off his inner tube to swim over to us and seeing hubbys canadian flag tattoo asks us where abouts were from in canada. were from nova scotia, he was i believe from ontario.

last trip we were settling into to watch illuminations in canada- shock! and i took the kids to look in the stores while we waited. then i went for snacks and left them with dh. my dd whos not normally verytalkative, struck up a convo with the couple besides us. turns out they're from the province next to us, new brunswick. i thought of all the people to be stuck besides, we ended up next to another maritimer- amazing! they offered the kids snacks and during illuminations this poor lady ended up holding ds almost the entire time! god love her! lol

on our trip home from orlando to ohio to newark to halifax, god help me! going from terminal c to a or a to c in newark i noticed a couple across from us as they boarded the shuttle. their luggage tags were from cape breton...a smaller part of our own province. there was also a gentleman on board from our own city. i was very greatful to run into them since as i got off the shuttle she noticed i left my carryon behind! eek! i know its not disney related, but it was the end of our trip on the way home!

i love going to the parks and meeting up with people, and talking about where their from etc, it's great!

one more not really from the same area, but as i was taking dd on splash mountain last october, i called her goober, a standard nickname in our house. this guy in front of me says did you just say goober? i said yeah, he goes im a goober as well, and so's my ds! unreal, only at disney could you find someone who shares the same nickname with your own kid! lol

 

[Badgerfan]

Non-Disney small world story: In the mid-eighties, during Easter break, my parents took the family to D.C. to visit our aunt and uncle and see the sites. (We drove from Wis.). One day, we took the subway (metro) to the pentagon, and as we are riding I see a familiar face in our section of the subway. Its my middle school band teacher! What are the odds of not only both being in D.C., but being on the subway in that section at that exact time! Being 14 at the time, I thought that was pretty cool. All these years later I still think that was a pretty remarkable chance meeting.

The closest I can come to that at Disney is two years ago, someone said something about a Wis. Badger shirt I was wearing. I stopped to talk with them, and it turned out he lives about 1.5 miles from my house and actually went to high school with one of my parents! Small world indeed.

 

[Kumquatmelon]

When I was about 10 I met a girl at our pool at the All Star Movies from England and we became pen pals. About 3 years ago we ran into her again at the Wilderness Lodge. So weird!!!

 

[mrodgers]

Another non-Disney, nor a vacation for that matter. Oh, and it wasn't me, but it did involve me to some extent.

My mother was dating someone originally from Chicago. I'm from Pittsburgh and none of my family had ever been to Chicago before. So, Mom went to Chicago with him to visit his son for some holiday weekend, Memorial Day, Labor Day, I can't remember. While visiting the son, they were having some kind of neighborhood picnic thing. There was a guy who came from Michigan and was also visiting family. He ended up talking to my mother, asking her this and that, where she was from, etc. Well, it went something like this...

Mom: I'm from Pennsylvania.

Guy: Oh, I do some work in Pennsylvania and travel there quite a bit.

Mom: Where at in PA?

Guy: You probably wouldn't know it, it's a little town north of Pittsburgh called Butler.

Mom: I do know it, very well. That's where I'm from. What kind of work are you doing in Butler?

Guy: Well, I'm an engineer in the company I work for and I visit one of our plants often there in Butler. It's not a big place, but maybe you know of it...

Mom: I certainly do know of it, my son works there.

Guy: Wow! Who is your son? .... Yeah, that's him! He works in R&D. He's the one that I am working with a lot of the time when I visit. In fact, we were just both together last week in Ohio at our annual technology review meeting.

About 3 days after that, I hadn't talked to my mother in a while and didn't know she went to Chicago, but I got a call from him, over in Michigan, about some parts he was wanting to make and he shocked me with "I met your mother this weekend." I'm thinking, "How on earth did you meet my mother?"

 

[ksbean]

In 2007 while waiting for Breakfast at Kona Cafe I looked over and saw a co-worker waiting for breakfast as well. Had to do a double take as I hadn't known he was vacationing at WDW too.

 

[WiscMomof2]

Going through the walkway between Innoventions East and West we walked straight into a boy from my daughter's school and his family . It was so cool to see a familiar face at Disney!

 

[kldmom2000]

In 2004, we rented a surrey @ Boardwalk while staying at the Beach Club.... my girls were 2 and 4 at the time and I hadn't worked @ our MA Disney Store in 10 years..... while we were circling the lake, we came upon one of my former CM's and his wife who were staying at Old Key West? but visiting the BC/Boardwalk that evening

 

[taymaesmom]

Dh and I ran into a girl we both went to high school with, we all happened to be at the same soda dispenser in Club Cool at Epcot. We suggested she try the Beverly hehe. We also ran into another family from town, the kids all go to the school I work for, we knew they were going to be there and we all were staying at All Star Music but we only seen them one time at the bus stop.

 

[MYD714]

My husband and I are both high school teachers, and we almost ran into a student two years ago in Epcot. Normally, we enjoy running into kids; it happens all the time at the grocery store and the mall. However, this was a student who had weighed on our nerves all year; she was one of the reasons we felt we deserved a Disney vacation that year. We literally ran once we got through the turnstile to avoid seeing her. After a short time, we decided to hop over to the Magic Kingdom to avoid running into her again.

 

[Quicked Ween]

Oh I always worry about this when I enter the gates! Thankfully this has only happened to me once. I was doing a day trip, just me and DS and I saw two women from my high school that I did NOT get along with back then (I think we were in line for Peter Pan). We didn't say anything to each other, but there was definitely the, "Ew, don't see me, don't see me, oh God she saw me!" moment. I think we were all uncomfortable.