Meeting someone you know by chance at WDW

[allgiggles]

I forgot one other incident. We drive from PA to WDW. On one of our trips, we had stopped for lunch at a Wendy's in (I think) North Carolina -- I know it was lunch on the first day of our drive. While standing in line to order our food, I started chatting with the lady in front of me as I heard her and her young son talking about heading to Disney World. I said we were on our way there as well. We chatted for a minute and then went our separate ways. Fast forward to the next day around noon and we were in the check-in line at Pop Century and a woman came up to me waving and saying, "I can't believe I'm seeing you here!" Yep, it was the lady from the line at Wendy's! Never saw her the rest of the the trip but still can't believe we ran into each other at check in.

 

[bgraham34]

This has happened to me half a dozen times or so. It happened to me 4 trips in a row once. What was really strange was sitting next to someone I went to high school with at Beirgarten.

 

[bmarkelon]

This happened to us on my first ever trip to WDW in 2001, I was a late-bloomer at 21; we ran into one of my friends in college on a January trip in HS (MGM). It was so fun, we took pictures and went on the TOT together.
I think it's still a surprise running into people that you know are going to be there. That happened twice last trip and both instances we were on the monorail and they (two different parties) just happened to get into the same section we were in. One was even going to the Poly for dinner at the same time as us; someone my DH works with, they were going to SOA and we were going to 'Ohana. It's a small world....

 

[Poofiesdream]

My husband and I took our grandson for a week. While waiting in line we saw my daughter and her husband, our grandson's parents in line in front of us! They never told us they were coming because they didn't want to spoil the time we were having with our grandson. We rode the ride together than seperated. They were there only for a day.

 

[Tinkerbell 8]

Once I ran into my cousin outside of Space Mountain, we had no idea that the other person was going to Disney. The second time I was in line for Soarin' and I noticed the CM's name tag said "Philadelphia" so I started talking to him since I'm from the suburbs, turns out that we went to the same high school, graduated the same year, our homerooms were across from each other and our lockers were right next to each other (I went to a really big high school with close to 5,000 students). It's amazing where you run into people at.

 

[93boomer]

Not ever thank goodness!! I like to get away from everyone when we come down there.

 

[ShookieJones]

Not ever thank goodness!! I like to get away from everyone when we come down there.

Ha you beat me to it...I was going to say the exact same thing...well actually mine was going to be more profanity laced:
"H3LL NO!! I don't want to run into any m*therf*ckers from home!! That's the whole reason I go down there to escape all their b*llsh*t!!!"

I swear I always get these premonitory feelings when I'm out somewhere about to see someone I know. I always point it out to my wife before it happens and most of the time we do run into someone.
If I ever get that feeling in the World I'm leaving the parks.

In all seriousness depending on who it was it might or might not be a good experience. I might have pretend I don't see the person depending on who it is...like @DisneyPrincess5 pulled.... For the record Liz I would never do that to you!

I do have a 2nd hand story though regarding this type of thing..some friends of ours were at the World for their first time. The husband is a good guy but not much of "fun loving" type. Well I guess they were at Whispering Canyon and unbeknownst to them there were some acquaintances of theirs that noticed them at another table..the guy from the other family said something about a birthday or something to one of the servers and they pulled some kind of embarrassing little skit on our friend. They made him stand up and sing while riding a horse or something...(I guess he didn't have the gumption to just say "no")He went through the whole thing in front of the whole place and then he was miserable the rest of the trip and it just about ruined their vacation.

So I guess what I said at first was the truth -- who wants to see all those MF'ers from the "real" world?!!??

 

[taz0162]

this trip we did not run into anyone that we know during our 2 weeks there. The previous 3 trips I had stumbled upon people throughout the parks I knew though. It is strange running into people there with four different parks and so many things to do that strange that each you and that person are in the same area at once. I do often wonder who else is there that I know but happen to be elsewhere in the parks or resorts.

 

[Phonedave]

Happens in airports all the time. But never at WDW. Strange.

I ran into a guy who at the time worked for me, at OIA, and I didn't recognise him. He and I worked in seperate offices, and I had worked with him for a while on some projects where we met face to face. Then we were in different groups for maybe a year or two and never saw each other. He then was assigned to my group but still working in a different office. I was in OIA comming back from Disney with my kids, and he walks by with his son and says "Hi" as he gets on the plane. I could not not recall who he was until he was on the plane. Later he said his son said "geeze dad, how bad is it when you boss doesn't even recognize you".

In WDW, I was down there for a weekend (work sent me down for a meeting and I took some vacation time) and I was watching wishes from on top of the train station when the person who grew up across the street from me (and is still good friends with my brother) walked up to me with his family.

-dave

 

[bethymouse]

Never.

 

[Disney_Belle]

It's happened quite a few times. Always kind of odd when it happens!

 

[Princess7]

I live in Miami (about 3 1/2 hours south of the MK). Because of that, I am always running into people I know. The only downside is you can't call in sick and sneak off for a long weekend. You will be spotted. Trust me. You will be spotted.

 

[materbuddy]

A couple of times. The first time I was walking by the noodle station and ran into a colleague of mine. The next time a co-worker and I met up at the airport. We were on the same flight, staying at the same resort, but never saw each other again the entire trip.

 

[sbkline]

The closest thing I have had to such an experience was in 2007. I had found and joined wdwmagic the previous year and my wife and I were standing in line for Maelstrom when a random guy asked me if we were wdwmagickers. I said that I am, and he introduced himself as a poster here named breakingnews (I know he doesn't have it fully spelled out in his screen name, but I can't remember exactly how he has it). So that was the first time I had ever met him, so I can't say that I have ever randomly ran into someone that I already knew, but it was close. I now have him on facebook, although we never really talk to each other on there.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

It seems that every time we have been down we have seen someone we know. Last trip (last month) we saw eldest M's cheerleading coach. DW is a teacher, and we see folks she knows on most trips!

 

[lunchbox1175]

Somewhat relevant, but there was a story one time on one of the morning national shows about a couple that was gettting married. They had grown up in different states on the east coast, and one day at his parents house, the girl recognized herself in the background of a picture of him and his dad (or something like that) as a very small child on Main Street USA. Now thats freaky.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I forgot one other incident. We drive from PA to WDW. On one of our trips, we had stopped for lunch at a Wendy's in (I think) North Carolina -- I know it was lunch on the first day of our drive. While standing in line to order our food, I started chatting with the lady in front of me as I heard her and her young son talking about heading to Disney World. I said we were on our way there as well. We chatted for a minute and then went our separate ways. Fast forward to the next day around noon and we were in the check-in line at Pop Century and a woman came up to me waving and saying, "I can't believe I'm seeing you here!" Yep, it was the lady from the line at Wendy's! Never saw her the rest of the the trip but still can't believe we ran into each other at check in.

You reminded me of one of my own. I was traveling solo and decided to spend the day at the Kennedy Space Center. I went to the Imax movie called, "Big Blue Marble", I believe was it's name. Great Movie for Imax by the way. Anyway, I sat next to a family, I think 4 of them, Mother, Father, Boy and little Girl. The little girl was sitting next to me and while we were waiting for the movie to start. She told me all about the Big Red Boat, (the old Disney Cruise Connection) that they had just gone on and that they were going to Disney World after the movie. I told her that I was going there too and maybe we would see each other there. The movie started and before very long I felt pressure against my arm. She had fallen asleep and was leaning against me. Her parents were upset that she was disturbing me. I told them to leave her alone, I was fine, in fact it had been a long time since my girls were little and I missed being disturbed like that. She stayed there throughout the entire movie, waking only when it ended and the lights came back on. We parted ways and she said she would be looking for me at WDW.

I didn't expect to see them again, but a couple of days later, while walking in the MK, I heard this little voice yelling, there he is, there he is. She was watching for me and spotted me in the crowd. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes but I had another place to be, and so did they. Didn't see them again the rest of the trip. I wonder if she remembers that encounter. I'm sure she doesn't, she was only 5 years old, she would be about 16 now. I remember it well!