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Have you had Proof that it really is a "small world" after all?


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This thread is all about fun. Any cruise line, any location, any which way.

 

Have you ever had an instance of "Boy, it's a small world, isn't it?" I've had two, one involving me directly, and one I got to watch unfold.

 

The first one was on our first RCI cruise on Splendour of the Seas. We went to the Love and Marriage game show (still one of my favorites) and the middle couple turned out to be from my, and my wife's hometown, Appleton WI. (We now live just south of Appleton in Neenah). The next day we saw the couple and congratulated them on their win. We talked a bit, and their daughter was attending the same private high school that I had attended.

And to top it off, on the 4th of July we went to Neenah's fireworks, and who should we see just a few feet away, but this same couple. They were sure shocked to see us!!!

 

The 2nd happened just last year in the Cayman's. I was on a 3rd party scuba excursion (cuz Royal didn't offer one), and the group was composed of a couple of other cruisers and some others that were staying at various resorts on the islands. Between dives, I was talking to a mother and her daughter. The daughter was going to be attending UW Madison for the summer and she wanted to find an apartment in a good neighborhood. So I put her in touch with my nephew who has lived in Madison for years. But while we were doing that, the mom was talking to another diver. It turns out he went to the same high school as her brothers (who were a few years older than her as I recall), and he even had worked at the same business as her dad and one of her brothers! He had left that place a while ago, but still remember their names.

 

I'm waiting for the next one.

 

Now, who's next?......

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A decade or so ago my wife and I were in Venice and decided to take a gondola ride. We shared it with another couple to save money. Turns out that other couple lived in Campbell, CA, less that 10 miles from where we live in San Jose.

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Crossing a road near Circ Quays, Sydney, Aus., I bumped into a friend from my home town.

We were both on vacations from the UK, the other side of the world. Neither of us knew about the other's vacation.

 

JB :)

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We were in St Thomas sitting at an outdoor bar having a drink and we look up and see my husband's first cousin and his wife walk by (they had come in on another ship).

 

We did a double take and then started yelling their names. They couldn't believe it.....and we couldn't either!!.:'):')

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On one of our cruises last year DH and I did a private tour in St Thomas, and we recognized the southern accent from another couple sitting behind us. We got to talking, and it turns out they were from our town here in NC.

 

On another cruise last year, at the end of the cruise as we were disembarking the ship I saw some clients I recognized from my work. We laughed about it being a small world, and a week later the husband was in and asked how I enjoyed my cruise. As he left, he said, "what happens on the ship stays on the ship, right?" I sure hope he didn't witness some of my behavior on that trip, I was mixing cold medicine and alcohol and had some wild moments!

 

 

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Last April we stayed in Venice post cruise and headed to the airport the next morning. I was standing in line at a cafe at the airport and turned around and there was a woman from my hometown that I used to work with me standing in line behind me.

 

 

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HI all!

 

I've had a couple of those small world experiences on cruises!:D

 

On the 1st beach of the Cozumel Bar Hop I was talking to some people from the roll call then looked over & saw a guy who looked like former business owner in Town. I stood beside him & softly said his name, he reached out, called me by name & gave me a hug. He was on his first cruise on another line.

 

In May on the NCL Getaway Baltic cruise I passed through the casino & saw a familiar face. This guy had sat beside me on the Carnival Vista solo table on the TA last Oct.

 

I've had a few other ones. The most frustrating one when the stewardess on my flight home from FL said I know you!

We had trouble determining where from & I thought about it the whole flight home. Finally I asked her her name & she turned out to be a girl I worked with 30 years ago!

 

SnowBird Cruzer ~ thanks for starting this fun thread!

 

~ Jo ~ :)

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This thread is all about fun. Any cruise line, any location, any which way.

 

Have you ever had an instance of "Boy, it's a small world, isn't it?" I've had two, one involving me directly, and one I got to watch unfold.

 

The first one was on our first RCI cruise on Splendour of the Seas. We went to the Love and Marriage game show (still one of my favorites) and the middle couple turned out to be from my, and my wife's hometown, Appleton WI. (We now live just south of Appleton in Neenah). The next day we saw the couple and congratulated them on their win. We talked a bit, and their daughter was attending the same private high school that I had attended.

And to top it off, on the 4th of July we went to Neenah's fireworks, and who should we see just a few feet away, but this same couple. They were sure shocked to see us!!!

 

The 2nd happened just last year in the Cayman's. I was on a 3rd party scuba excursion (cuz Royal didn't offer one), and the group was composed of a couple of other cruisers and some others that were staying at various resorts on the islands. Between dives, I was talking to a mother and her daughter. The daughter was going to be attending UW Madison for the summer and she wanted to find an apartment in a good neighborhood. So I put her in touch with my nephew who has lived in Madison for years. But while we were doing that, the mom was talking to another diver. It turns out he went to the same high school as her brothers (who were a few years older than her as I recall), and he even had worked at the same business as her dad and one of her brothers! He had left that place a while ago, but still remember their names.

 

I'm waiting for the next one.

 

Now, who's next?......

 

On a tour in Spain our group was joined by another group needing English speaking guide. What a surprise to be greeted by a man from that group that I'd taught with in the US ten years before!

 

Another time my husband was talking to a couple and discovered they lived in the same small trailer park his sister lived in!

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We were on a tour in Kenya and Tanzania. At our resort in the Serengeti most of the guests were watching a dance group. During small talk learned a nearby couple was from Montana, where my son lives. Found out that they were from a small town near his and they actually knew him--had attended a wedding he was at that summer.

 

We have had multiple instances of seeing people from our area in places like Disney World, or a cruise, which is surprising since we live in a very rural area.

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Since I was a kid I swear our family ran into either a school classmate's family, or a friend or co-worker of my father's--on Every. Single. Vacation. we ever took.

 

Can't think of what would be the best anecdote of all of them. Because thanks to the thread title I can't get that freaking Disney song out of my head :mad:

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While riding the Half Moon Cay ferry from the ship to the dock, I observed two people, seated facing each other. One remarked to the other, you look like someone who played on my high school football team years ago. With the exchange of names, there were tears and hugs with all seated nearby clapping for them.

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This thread is all about fun. Any cruise line, any location, any which way.

 

Have you ever had an instance of "Boy, it's a small world, isn't it?" I've had two, one involving me directly, and one I got to watch unfold.

 

The first one was on our first RCI cruise on Splendour of the Seas. We went to the Love and Marriage game show (still one of my favorites) and the middle couple turned out to be from my, and my wife's hometown, Appleton WI. (We now live just south of Appleton in Neenah). The next day we saw the couple and congratulated them on their win. We talked a bit, and their daughter was attending the same private high school that I had attended.

And to top it off, on the 4th of July we went to Neenah's fireworks, and who should we see just a few feet away, but this same couple. They were sure shocked to see us!!!

 

The 2nd happened just last year in the Cayman's. I was on a 3rd party scuba excursion (cuz Royal didn't offer one), and the group was composed of a couple of other cruisers and some others that were staying at various resorts on the islands. Between dives, I was talking to a mother and her daughter. The daughter was going to be attending UW Madison for the summer and she wanted to find an apartment in a good neighborhood. So I put her in touch with my nephew who has lived in Madison for years. But while we were doing that, the mom was talking to another diver. It turns out he went to the same high school as her brothers (who were a few years older than her as I recall), and he even had worked at the same business as her dad and one of her brothers! He had left that place a while ago, but still remember their names.

 

I'm waiting for the next one.

 

Now, who's next?......

 

I have 2:

1)A friend and his wife were on a cruise and wanted to see a movie .They went in and found that a person already seated was saving 2 seats .They found seats directly behind and when the other people came to get their saved seats it turned out that they were neighbors of my friends.

 

2)A friend went solo on a cruise and decided to walk to town at a port . He saw a woman reading a newspaper and asked her where he could go to see things that tourists did not ever go to.She replied that she too was a tourist.It turned out that they both lived in the same Manhattan High Rise building but never previously met.

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Closest we ever came was when we got back from our first cruise and we stayed the night in Seattle; stopped and had breakfast in the morning and there was a car with license plates from the same small town in Wyoming that we are from--1,000 miles away!

 

On both of our Hawaii shore excursions, the tour guides (two different guides) were originally from Montana and were familiar with the area where we live; my DH had a nice chat with one of the guides who comes out to hunt the same areas that DH does.

 

Other than that, it's the rare occasion that we even meet somebody else from Wyoming or Montana on a cruise, let alone the same town or people we know :D

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If memory serves, sitting in Cafe Promenade on Allure some years ago. Chatting with someone over a cup of coffee. Heard my name called and looked up to see the family lawyer.

 

Not involving a cruise, but the most unusual experience was in grade 5. We moved around a lot and I was joining a class part way into the school year. When the teacher asked if someone would like to be my buddy I heard "I will, we went to grade 1 together". Grade 1 was in a school on the other side of the city that I had left before the end of the school year!

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Oh, I thought of one more!

We were on an excursion in St. Thomas. One of the guides asked where we were all from. When it was our turn, we said Wisconsin. He said he went to college in Stevens Point. I said, my sister lives there and some of my family had gone there. He asked what city we were from. We said, "Neenah", He asked if we knew Abby XXXX. And that's where it got weird. Yes, we knew Abby. She was in our daughter's class from middle school through high school. Both were in the band. (Abby was the only girl amongst the percussionists). Her mother was the president of the Girls athletic booster club and I was the vice president!

A few months later when we ran into Abby's parent's, I mentioned the name of the young man, and they said, "Oh, it was you two that met him. He told Abby he met some people from Neenah, but he didn't remember their names"

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Missed our connections to Iguazu Falls in Buenos Aires in Argentina before our SA cruise and was put on a flight the next day. Looking out the window from the bus heading out on the Tarmac to our plane I said to my husband..."Look, that looks like Kathy from Vancouver..." and it WAS!!!! We were amazed that on a plane we were never supposed to be on we would run into someone we knew and then we realized my seat was next to hers!!! People on her tour thought it was so strange that she would run into someone she knew half a world away!!!

 

 

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This is fun. DH and I were on a Princess Cruise to Alaska. I got up early and was sitting in the Buffet area at the front of the ship. I started chatting with a nice Man also an early riser. He stated he was from Tehachapi CA which is about 2 hours from where I live. I told him the Best Man at our wedding lived in Tehachapi but sadly we had lost touch with him. Nice man says "Whats his name?" I told him and he laughed and said "He is one of my best friends and we get together with some other guys for breakfast every week." DH and I were able to reconnect with Jim (best man) at our wedding because of this nice man. Small world indeed.

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We've had several 'small world' encounters, but 2 really stick out in my memory. The first one was my 1st cruise, had just finished going through a grueling audit at work and couldn't wait to get away on the very small ship, the Fairwind. One of the first people I spotted onboard was the audit manager I was trying desperately to forget! Luckily, she didn't seem much happier to see me than I was to see her.

 

The other really bizarre one happened just last August on the Caribbean Princess, first night out of Southampton. We had Anytime Dining, and were planning on getting a table for 2, but there was a long wait so we reluctantly decided to share. We were led to a table for 8, with everyone else already seated. It turned out that everyone at the table lived within a mile of us, with one woman living only a few blocks away. She was a local realtor and we had actually met briefly at one point, but didn't immediately recognize her when sitting down at the table. Four of the people were traveling together, the other couple was by themselves, but somehow we all ended up at that same table. Even stranger is that we never saw any of them again on the entire cruise!

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This past March on our cruise to the Panama Canal we went zip lining in Costa Rica. My sister and I got to talking to one couple while waiting to take our turns and we found out that we were from the same state. Of course, then we had to ask them where they were from. It turns out that we new the town they were from, he bought his cattle feed from our cousin and I actually worked with his brother. Needless to say, we had a fun time!

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