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80S ERA
04-12-2002, 10:43 AM
I am willing to bet that this has happened to everyone at least a few times when visiting the parks. While on a ride -- or when in line for a ride, you tend to observe people and many times even meet different people. Some you remember are very pleasant, others you remember rude, some even become your new friend.

When boarding the next attraction, it happens quite often that many of the familiar faces from earlier in the day are recognizable. You say to your friends, "Hey, there are those 2 idiots who kept talking on the ride!" Or, "Hey, they were in line for Space Mountain!" Or even, at times, you'll jokingly say to them, "Hey you guys following us, or what?" (I usually save that one for folks I run into for the 3rd consecutive ride.)

During a recent visit, it became ironic when we met a few friendly folks while in line for the AP processing center. We had observed them earlier in the day while eating at the River Belle Terrace. It turned out that the man we met was a school teacher visiting from the midwest and had brought one of his prize students to Disneyland. We conversed for awhile and ended up saying our typical, "Nice meeting you guys. Have a pleasant trip..Blah..blah." After, we went our separate ways.

Later in the day, we felt the urge to ride Screamin, so we headed down to DCA. When we got to the line, it was about 1 hour+ for standby. We decided to bite the bullet and get in line. No more than a few seconds while in line, we hear this voice yelling, "Hey, you two!" It turned out to be the teacher we met earlier while in Disneyland. He eventually told us that he has 2 fastpasses and didn't need them because he was leaving for the day.

That made our day. :) We plan on returning the favor for another guest someday.

Techie7
04-12-2002, 10:55 AM
It is strange when you see a few people over and over in a park that has so many people. The odds are against you but it happens almost everytime I am at the park. Its always fun when you can meet people from different parts o the country.

Uncle Dick
04-12-2002, 12:20 PM
What's even stranger is how you can constantly run into some people but totally miss others. Whenever I hear that someone I know from up north is coming down to visit Disneyland, I always look around the park for them, but to this day I've never been able to meet anyone just by looking around. Somehow, I'm able to run into other people just by dumb luck, not knowing that they were going to visit.

After being in the Millionaire hot seat, I'll get stopped by people later on in the evening (over in Disneyland, no less) who want to know my strategy or something.

Then there's also those people you see on many different days.

What's also kind of strange is running into guests that I've seen earlier in the day, while working, and then run into later on while visiting the park as a guest.

Okay, enough rambling.

HBTiggerFan
04-12-2002, 01:46 PM
Two weekends ago me and my bf went to DL. I had to cash a check so we went and got in lne at the bank of Main St....there is a party of 4 ahead of us, so we're waiting and waiting and waiting...no one is going in or out. Finally after 15 minutes I said soemthing and one of the guys (who a rock had more intelligance) said "Oh, the bank isn't open for APs yet, they are open for banking. So I go ahead and try to go in the bank where the CM tells me that they are not open yet, they will be opening at 2p.m. It was 1:10.

So we left and went on our way, over to DCA, went on some stuff and got in line for MaliBoomer. In line we meet these 2 girls who were about 10 or so, and were terrified of going on the ride. They were asking me about it, and me, being the nice person I am was telling them that its fun but scary, just trying to calm their fears. One of the girls asked if we could all sit together and could they sit in the middle, and of course I said SURE! So we got in line, went over to our side (side 3) where the 2 guys from the bank were sitting there (they had row 1) right in the middle of the seats. I said something and they were like SO? So I said something to the CM who told them to move back to their row. They refused. They just sat there with the restraint pulled down. They CM said it a few more times, and then the line assigner finally came over and told them to go back to row 1. They still refused. The CM finally pulled up the restraint and made them move. We went on the ride (one of the girls decided not to go) and everyone loved it. When we got off the ride, one of the guys came over to me and said "You made us move". He looked like he was gonna flatten me. These were 2 people who I hope I never see again, but since they have APs, chances are I will :( But it was nice to see they finally left the bank!

A few side notes, I would not have cared about them sitting where they were if I did not promise the girls that they could sit with us, and the whole ordeal getting them to move took about 30 seconds. It was blatenlty obvious that they thought they would get to sit on the ride alone if they went over to the other side :confused: :rolleyes:

DisneylandBoy
04-12-2002, 07:10 PM
On not so quiet days I will see someone more than once. I generally won't start a conversation with them, but they'll be in line a few people ahead of us and then later in the day I see them walk by the table we are sitting at. I never point it out ot my friends (they'll think I was a freak), but I just notice it for myself. I'm weird like that.

Mouse
04-14-2002, 07:22 PM
I noticed this same phenomena happens at a shopping mall. Of course it's occurrence is multiplied by the facts that a mall is smaller, contains less people, and the layout and attraction of certain stories attract a specific group of people that could be considered to be following you.

Bill Catherall
04-14-2002, 07:47 PM
What about seeing the same people on two separate visits to the park?! :eek: That happened to us.

When we were living down in So. Cal and had an AP we went about once a month. On a tram ride from the parking lot I noticed a mentally handicapped gentleman sitting a couple of rows ahead of us in the front of the car facing backwards (you know those rear facing seats). I watched him for a while because he seemed to be putting some of the people he was with into some pretty entertaining antics. ;) (He was very overjoyed, and his party was trying to keep him under control for the ride.)

Didn't see him again for the rest of the day. However...the following month when we were back again we saw him. And again, he was on the tram ride into the park. I got a big grin on my face seeing him again. It's fun to "recognize" people that you don't even know because you feel a bit relieved that you aren't the only "Disney Freak" in the world. :D

Uncle Dick
04-14-2002, 10:55 PM
Originally posted by Bill Catherall
What about seeing the same people on two separate visits to the park?! :eek: That happened to us.
When I visited WDW a few years ago, I noticed this couple there with two small boys. They really stuck out in my mind because the husband guy was really tall (just shy of 7 feet, I'd say) and his wife was rather short (well, everyone [except Szczerbiak] is short to me ;)). Anyway, two weeks later, I swear I saw this same couple and their two boys in line for the log ride at Busch Gardens, Tampa. I figured that they were doing the same sort of Florida vacation thing my family was attempting and that we just happened to visit the same parks on the same days.

DisneylandKid
04-15-2002, 05:14 AM
Jamie Lee Curtiss seemed to be following my group around one day near DCA's opening.

One of the heads of my school was at Disneyland once. We saw him in Fantasyland, Pirates, and Animazement.

disneyholic family
04-15-2002, 05:44 AM
this post just brought back a wonderful memory from several years ago at WDW...
i was at blizzard beach with my kids....(hubbie wasn't with us that day)....the kids and i were riding the inner tube slides at the back of the park...the one you have to drag the tubes up about a million stairs and then you have a choice of 3 slides...two open and one closed (in the middle)....
somehow we were in line with a father and his two kids....we kept doing the cycle together....sliding down then running back up and then waiting in line for our turn.....so of course we chatted every time we had to wait at the top for our turn....
he was a farmer from wisconsin i think it was....this was their one week off....only one week the entire year was all they could take (when his brother watched over the farm)....
anyway, the wait in line was the most enjoyable i can remember...
then a few days later, we ended up in line with them again....this time with his wife (she doesn't like water parks).....this was before fastpasses and it was already well into the day so we had to wind our way around the outdoor area of splash mountain...(at WDW of course).....again it was a lovely pleasant wait together with this other family...

too bad we didn't bump into them again....:D ...