It's a Small World Stories.......for real!

[AStamm]

On Christmas Day 2005 we suffered through a day of freezing cold and downpours at Magic Kingdom just so we could keep our 4 p.m. Crystal Palace reservations. Heading out of the bathroom after drying off I saw a woman I thought looked familiar, but didn't think too much of it. A few minutes later I found out why she looked so familiar--she was the parent of one of my students--and she and her son with the rest of the family were seated at the table directly next to ours.

 

[dancin Disney style]

This past summer we were staying at CSR for a convention. I knew that some time that month my neighbor and her daughter were going to be going to Disney but we had never really discussed details about their trip. Well, the day we were going home we were sitting at the airport waiting to board our plan and along comes my neighbor and her daughter and they were also heading home. Turns out they had also been staying at CSR at the same time and were in the building right beside us.

A non-Disney experience that I think is my smallest world story happened in Las Vegas about 10 years ago. Just about every trip that my DH and I take he meets someone he knows. We were at a night club in Vegas and we were sitting at the table right in front of the stage. The band came out and played 2 songs and then they introduced their lead singer, who then came out from back stage. My DH leans over to me and says that he went to school with the singer (my DH grew up in the Phillipines). I thought he was just joking so I said "yah sure". After the band was finished they walked off the stage and the next thing I know the singer is sitting at my table and sure enough they really had gone to school together and had lived about 5 houses apart when they were children.

 

[frankenpooh]

First, about 6 years ago, my husband is having his tonsils out, and in walks the anesthesiologist .... a high school (different state) boyfriend of mine. Then 4 years later, we're at MGM, and there he is again with his family.

 

[markwake]

In August, 2005 we went to Disneyland. Sitting on a bench in Tomorrowland, I spotted a friend from many years ago. In fact, 40+ years ago, she used to babysit me in the nursery at the small church we attended in Northern California.

Weird.

We had a nice visit.

 

[mommic32]

I to have ran into people and did not know they would be there.
The first time, I was on my honeymoon in Sept 1992 and while we were waiting at the MCO airport,, (now, this is way back cause Fred Flintstone and Barney were there signing autographs right at the counters) who should be boarding the same plane as us,,, but our high school English teacher! The nicest women to ever meet! She remembered my hubby and I both.

The other time was this past May, as we were boarding Mission Space, My hubby had on a Penn State T Shirt and the CM and him started talking and asked were we were from, and he said Pgh, and she was like,,, where at, I am from there as well, and he said were we were from and she was screaming cause she is from the same town and lived right down the street, Here this girl was on her Disney intership and this was her last day,, And we were the first people that she had ever seen from her home town and she gave us,, 4 Fast Passes for Test Trac and 4 for MIssion Space!

It must be me, cause even when I was in California,, going to the JOhnny Carson taping,, I ran into a family friend waiting in line! Never knew he would be there either..

 

[tiggrbaby]

1975: I was in HS down for Jersey week with my family and as we were climbing on the SFRTH, I saw someone from my lunch table going down with her family.

1997: Ran into my son's LL coach at TOT, and someone from his school at SM (also Jersey week!). Did not see the family that I knew was going to be there!

Weirdest time was on the island of St. John. My husband and I rented a car and drove to the farthest end of the island. While we were stopped for a bite to eat, I heard someone that sounded like one of my bridemaids who now lived in Key West. Sure enough, it was her! She had helped someone sail a boat over, and was hanging out for the week!

 

[zachnlucy]

My husband and I were on an Alaskan cruise and we were spending the day at the tiny port town of Ketchikan. We were in a gift shop and my husband started pointing at a bench with what looked like a wooden indian sitting on it (they're all over the place there). I told him to stop pointing, that it was rude, and then realized he was telling me it was a friend of ours from church here in Missouri. Found out he and his wife were RV'ing through Alaska. Our town in Missouri has about 12,000 people. What are the chances, huh?

 

[Cameo]

I have a few:

1) Several years ago we were touring the Living Seas and someone calls my name. I figured they were talking to someone else even though I have an odd name (see my screen name). Well, it turned out to be a guy I graduated high school with. And, I am from a small town in North Dakota - far away from Florida!
2) Last June we crossed paths with our neighbors who were also there at the same time. I thought it was coincidence enough that we were going at the same time, but then to see them out of all the thousands of folks walking around - that was crazy.
3) During the same trip last June, a man walks up to us and says, "I know you." I recognized him but didn't know from where. He said, "I am your pharmacist."

 

[pyrxtc]

not a Disney one but - The dental hygrnist who cleans my teeth now every 6 months also cleaned my teeth when I was about 8 yrs old, for a different dentsit in a different state. She ahd moved to kentucky and came back East and I ahd moved a few different places and had quite a few different dentists since. It was weird to find out that we knew each other way back when.

 

[GoofyBaseballMom26]

Non Disney moment... my sister and I went to the Bahamas this past summer. Met for the first time, the mother of a man my DS was playing on an adult baseball team with this past summer also. This was the first time my son had played with this team. Talk about a small world!

 

[Pugrpooh]

I have a few. When I went to WDW in 1976, neighbors down the street from where I lived were waiting in the ticket line by us. Then a few years later, my DH, who is from a small village in Iran, his cousin and his wife and I traveled to Houston to visit a friend that DH and his cousin went to high school with in Iran. We all went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant (and how many of those are in Houston!) and the valet who got our car after the meal turned out to be another high school classmate! From 10,000 miles away! We live in my hometown and I rarely ever run into anyone I went to school with. Then we have friends from Michigan who went on a tour to California and the Panama Canal and they saw someone they knew from Wisconsin in a shop in Santa Barbara. They talked for a little while and then left the store and ran right into my parents who were visiting California with some friends!

 

[annameg]

So the old saying is true. You had better behave, you never know who might be watching you.

 

[ElleBelle]

This one STILL freaks me out. Summer of 2000 DH and I (He was DBF then...) were standing in EPCOT one evening watching Illuminations. We were right up against the fence of the lagoon and had been standing in our spot ahead of time for about 1 hour. When it came time for Illuminations to start there were what seemed like hundreds of people gathered around our area. Part way into the show someone started pushing me from behind- and I don't mean just "bumping" I mean I was shoved into about 4 or 5 times. I was getting quite uncomfortable and was about ready to turn around and give this person a piece of my mind when I turned to realize that the person doing the shoving was my dad's youngest brother (my uncle). To put it nicely- he is known as the- "I ALWAYS get my way" sibling. When we each realized who we were looking at he started apologizing profusely and explaining that "they had just gotten to the park and ran back to try and get a good spot". Yeah- I guess you can get a good spot that way.

We hadn't even known that he and his wife were in florida at the time. What a weird way to "bump into" someone you know!

 

[liamsaunt]

At Food and Wine October 2004, I ran into my aunt and uncle. I had not seen them for about three years so it was a pleasant surprise.