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

[Betty X]

Have you met someone you know while vacationing at WDW (or in real life) but you didn't plan to? It may be someone you know, someone you just recognize or after talking to someone you rode the elevator with, you realize their father was your teacher or something similar.

Here's mine. I have been to WDW many times and never once have I seen anyone I know.......until my sister comes with me to WDW! My sister is from a fairly small northern Canadian town. We were waiting in line to get on a ride and sure enough she sees someone her kids play sports with! They start chatting and they have driven thousands of miles down south for a vacation and they just happened to run into one another. Unbelievable! That was 2 years ago and of course I haven't seen anyone I know at WDW since!

I just thought of another one that is even better! My husband and I went to our friend's wedding and during the speeches our friends mentioned that they wished their daughter that they had given up for adoption almost ten years before was there. We had no idea they had a daughter at all. We met them as adults after they had moved away from their hometown.

Fast forward a few years later, our friends have moved back to the area of their hometown and have a baby. The mother is a nurse and goes back to work after maternity leave. She starts discussing her year old baby with a fellow employee from the same hospital and mentions that she had given up a baby for adoption many years before. Well, the co-worker says I adopted a baby and starts to tell her story.

They both start asking one another more specific questions about each other's situations and quickly realize that the baby my friend gave up for adoption is the SAME baby her co-worker adopted! (Born on the same day, in the same hospital, same given name etc.)

I guess normally in adoptions a baby does NOT stay in the same area it was born in for obvious reasons. This did not happen in their situation. Now they are friends with the adoptive family and are a part of their older little girl's life! And their new baby has a big sister! I just think that is the coolest thing....it still gives me chills when I think about it! The little girl is a dead ringer for her Dad and you can tell that she is his daughter!

 

[Joanna71985]

Yes. Last year while I was on my CP, I ran into a family from my church back home. I had no idea that they were going to be there at all! I was so surprised.

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

im not sure which trip it was, but whiel waiting for test track, there was anenglishmen and his son in the line ahead of us, turns out they live in the same city that my grandmother was raised in in england! also while in line at splash mountain there was an sustralian couple behind us, both he and my hubby are in the army(2 different countries of course) and she was involved in guiding as am i.

 

[Talking Hands]

Several times I have met people from home.
I think the 2 most interesting were:
I went to see the Festival of the Lion King and was entranced by the girl doing the aerial ballet. Awesome. Wasn't close enough to see the face though so I didn't know what was to come. Dragged my daughter back to see it as she is performer. The dancer comes on stage and this time I was on the side she comes in on. Show her to my daughter and my daughter looks at me and says Mom, it's XXXXXX, a girl she's been friends with since 3rd grade and had lost touch with. After the show we go to the stage manager and my daughter tells him she thinks the bird is a friend from hs. He asks the name and yes it is and he brings her out and we get to visit before her next show

I'm waiting for House of Innovations to start and chatting with the interpreter. A guy walks up behind me and starts to talk to me using my name but I don't really hear him. Interpeter asks me do you know that CM and I turn around and it is an old friend that I hadn't seen in ages that grew up with my husband. Even better he ended up being the tour guide and then he took a break and we got to talk for a bit.

 

[BlindTyldak]

I grew up in a very tiny town in Massachusetts, and last time I was in WDW eating at Coral Reef the family sitting next to us turned out to be from my old hometown. I got to do a lot of catching up on families I hadn't seen in years.

 

[Talking Hands]

One more. My husband and I were walking around the World Showcase before Tapestry of Nations. It was cold and we were wearing Miami Christmas PAgeant Jackets. My husband hears "Miami Christmas PAgeant!". We turn and it is one of the kids that used to be in the show with us. He was working crowd control because he was hurt and couldn't do his normal job as a puppeter in TON

 

[sweetinmaine]

A couple of years ago we were being seated at the Lion King Show at AK when the person behind me leaned down and said "I know you, you're my banker!" Sure enough, one of my very nice customers was seated right behind me We both had traveled over 1200 miles from little ol' Vermont and ran into each other in WDW. Very nice

 

[HugsForEeyore]

One time we were eating dinner at Chef Mickey's - I was with my brother, his wife, and my nephew. And who walks by? My brother's dentist from back home in Cary, NC! Of all people to see on vacation, you probably don't want to run into your dentist!!!

He was at the Contemporary for some big dental convention. Why couldn't we run into someone a little more exciting??

 

[digskat]

Our first trip we stayed of site. We met a couple with two young kids that our kids were enjoying playing with at the pool. We asked the couple where they were from and they sid Ottawa. When they asked where we were from I told them Goderich and they said "Oh that is where my mom lives" And get this she volunteers at the hospital where I work.

 

[hobogary]

We were coming down the escalator in the Virgin record store in DD and saw the wife of a guy I work with going up it.

 

[Loves Disney]

We stayed at All Star Sports and we decided that for lunch we would just hang around the resort and eat at the food court. We sat down at a table and who should be right behind us...but our neighbors of course! LOL We were shocked lol.

 

[RescueRanger]

On a spring break trip, we were in line for pictures with Sorcerer Mickey at MGM. I saw a family finish with their pictures and realized it was an officer from my department. We had no idea we were going to be at WDW at the same time.

 

[UP Disney]

Before our trip last year, I had two day meetings every two weeks with about 15 other people for 6 months. We got to know each other very well. While we were at Disney, a head of hair walking by looked familiar. Sure enough, it was one of the guys that I'd been in meetings with for 6 months. Neither of us knew the other was going to be there.

I also saw my cousin and her family one time. We also saw my daughter's "former" best friend one year.

I've always believed it is a very small world!!!!!

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Living within 3 hours of WDW, it isn't unusual to run into someone you know. What makes a small world to me is this board...
Posters do not use thier real names, I wonder how many of us know each other. There is a poster who is now living in Orlando, I had no clue at the time, turns out we both were from the same hometown, turns out we both went to the same high school...turns out, we know each other . Now to me, that is a small world. Wonder if there is a way we can see how many others we may possibly know

 

[BlindTyldak]

Haha, I have to share my favorite small world story, even though it wasn't someone I "knew". My first trip to WDW I was bound and determined to get my picture taken with Chewbacca at Star Tours - at the time, he and an Ewok came out daily. I sat on a curb for an hour and a half waiting, as there was NO way I was going to get stuck in a line or a broken down ride and miss my chance. After a while I noticed an elderly couple ask a CM something, and then they sat down and waited as well. As they had a camera, I asked if they were waiting for the characters as well, and they said yes, even though they weren't fans. We chatted for a while and I asked them why they were waiting then . . . did they have children or grandchildren that were?

it turns out they were from England and they were David Prowse's next-door neighbors - the man in the Darth Vader costume from the original movies. He had been having foot problems and hadn't been to MGM for a few years and made them promise they would get all the Star Wars pictures they could! We traded cameras, and I took their picture and they took mine. Being a total Star Wars geek, I'm just as proud of who took that picture now as of being in a picture with Chewie.

 

[G8RFAN]

I've bumped into friends, coworkers and former coworkers at WDW. When you think of all the thousands of people and the choices of parks, it's kind of like finding a needle in a haystack. The funniest was not at Disney, but we were part of a large party (mostly family) at a restaurant, and at the table right next to us was my ex-girlfriend and her husband and family. My DW knew of her but never liked to meet her. So I sat there for 5 minutes thinking if I should say anything. I decided not to. I'm glad my ex didn't either. It would have been "Harry met Sally"ish.

 

[joshsmom]

Was at Epcot World Showcase takin ga picture of my son. I have a college ring that is VERY unique that you can only get at the college I attended. While taking the picture, someone from behind me says "hey, a Woodsie!!" (that was the nickname for the college we attended). Turns out that someone that graduated a year before me was there with her family. It was nice catching up!!

BUT, the freakiest one I know if is my grandmother--this was YEARS ago--was on a tour in Italy with my aunt. Walking down a street, they pass someone and both women turn around in amazement. One of my grandmother's SISTERS was there, with a different tour and they passed on the street!! Neither even knew the other was going to Italy!!!!

 

[binkyboots]

ok...

we go to a very small church here in edinburgh (like, 30 people in it? less maybe)

we were at mnsshp '05 and, as we wander through the crowd we spot, the old lady who sits next to us and her grandaughter


wierd!

 

[da-winnie-pooh]

Well, my son saw a friend from pre-school at Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. That was funny. He's now 9, this was a few years ago.

I was walking across the Pop parking lot in September and saw a car from our county. I peeped in the window (OK, I snooped, but it's not like I tried to pick their lock or anything) and saw a tote bag from our church (church is huge). Well, hubby saw someone from our church in the food court. I'm guessing it was their car. On the same trip, hubby saw someone he knew from college on the shuttle bus.

I haven't seen anyone I know at Disney. Except hubby and kids, of course!

Anita

 

[Sleeping Jedi Beauty]

I belong to the booster club for my alma mater's athletic department and at a luncheon one month started talking with the man standing next to me in line who worked for the athletic department. A few months later, I saw a jacket from my alma mater in the crowd and as we got closer in line for DCA, I recognized him. My mom was surprised as we started talking.