Small world

[lenquixote66]

Do you ever talk to a stranger on a cruise and after some conversation realize that both of you know some of the same people ? It has happened to me on every cruise I have been on since 2010. The most interesting was in 2017. We had lunch with another couple.They were from Virginia but grew up in NYC. The wife and my wife graduated from the same college in the same year.The husband told me that he had 4 close friends in HS that he has had no contact with since 1960. I said that I know a lot of people who went to that HS perhaps I know them.

Guy number one was the brother of one of my closest friends.Guy number 2 was someone I have known since 1958. Guy number 3 is my neighbor where I live now.Guy number 4 I did not know.

[LHT28]

yes 

Once  we chatted to a couple  & found out that DH  & the wife  knew each other as children also  we had a mutual friends

[wheezedr]

Had this happen on a European cruise when someone asked about a lady from our hometown (pop over 200,000) and turned out she was in my DW’s walking group.  Best for me was when I was telling a friend about a cruise I had booked and she mentioned that she had recently booked one also.  As we compared notes, both were on Princess to the Mexican Riviera but she was on a week after us, same ship, then same type room, then same deck and then realized that we had both booked the exact same room.  Wish I could have gotten odds on that one.

[George C]

We were in a resort in Mexico and was talking to a nice couple and found out that I went to same high school as both of them about the same time. 

[cruisegal40]

I love hearing these stories.

[ldubs]

On a Med cruise I was talking to the guy next to me while waiting for an excursion.  Turned out we lived within a few blocks of each other.   

[Krazy Kruizers]

We were on a Med cruise many years ago.  At lunch time a couple of people asked if they could join us at our table.  We, of course, said yes.

 

As we were talking,we discovered they were the parents of my husband's secretary and lived only 20 miles from us.

 

It is a small world.

[Heidi13]

Not only is it a small world, but the marine industry is even smaller. Way too many times I have boarded a ship and bumped into someone I sailed with many years ago.

[lenquixote66]

In 2010 we met a couple on a cruise from PA.He had a very distinctive southern accent while she did not have an accent. I jokingly said to her "you must be from NY".He grew up in Beaumont ,Texas and she in Brooklyn,NY.She and I went to the same HS but did not know each other.

[snyniew]

I was on a cruise in December and started talking to a couple in the evening that had been on an excursion with me that day. They cruise a lot and asked if I had ever been on a Halloween cruise. I said yes and so did they and commented that they never dressed up. I had actually just gotten off one about a month before where I took my nieces so we dressed up. I pulled out my phone and showed them a picture. They took one look at it and exclaimed the cruise friends we had meet on the Halloween cruise and were in the picture with us "That's our son". What a crazy world that I would meet the parents of someone I hung out with all week long on a cruise a month before.

[h_blond2]

We usually meet someone from our area (the bootheel of Missouri) on every ship. The conversations usually start because one of us is wearing a school shirt.

[dirtydan]

My DW is the queen of finding connections in the weirdest places and I am usually dumbfounded.  Her encounters have included:

 

Meeting a couple on a NCL cruise who lived 2 blocks away from us.

 

Discovrring that a passenger sitting next to us on a Vegas flight was a cousin I didn’t know I had.

 

Running into the daughter of a woman my wife grew up with (but does not see often) on the street in Israel (we live in Canada) whom she recognized from the brochures for our son’s school.

 

[pacruise804]

The one time we had traditional dining one of the couples at our table lived in a town about 30 minutes from us. 

[Lovely other]

When docked in Heraklion in Greece I heard a voice behind me in the bus station that I recognised instantly ... it was my Dad who I hadn’t seen in years ! Sometimes the world is too damn small 😳

[lenquixote66]

On February 8, 2019 at 9:31 AM, h_blond2 said:

We usually meet someone from our area (the bootheel of Missouri) on every ship. The conversations usually start because one of us is wearing a school shirt.

My first day on a cruise I wear a Born In ..........tee shirt.On the second day I wear a tee shirt from the town I grew up in.On the third day I wear a tee shirt from the town I live in now.People constantly stop me,we converse and almost always have a connection.

[evandbob]

People who are cruising with someone not their spouse or bestie boo might be interested in this thread.

[SRF]

I have told these in another thread, but .....

 

I was in Phnom Penh for work.  My contact person emailed me the week before and asked if I would like to go to dinner with her and her husband the evening I arrived (arrived on a holiday day).  Sure.   So I get picked up, and there is another lady in the vehicle.  My contact explained, she brought along her boss.  Fine by me.  Over dinner, I am talking to the boss and did the where are you from.  She said Maryland, I said I live in Maryland, where?  She said the country, and I said, I live in that county, where?  She named a town, and I said I used to keep my sailboat there.  She asked which marina, I told her, and it turns out, she worked there, when I had a boat there, and remembered the boat.  Then she told a story about herself, and I remembered her.

 

A couple of friends and I were in Orlando area (one lived there) and we went out for some entertainment.  And got to talking to some of the entertainers.  The one with my friend who lived in the area told her he lived nearby, but was from Cleveland.  So she asked where, and he named an area.  And she asked which part, etc.  Turns out her father was the school superintendent in the school district he had attended.

 

 

[swaddy]

Waiting in a queue at Vancouver airport for my flight back to the UK when the woman in front turned round and said 'I thought it was you'  An ex work colleague had crossed Canada from E  to W, while we had been cruising the Inland Passage. 

[Beachfrog]

Ever heard of 6 degrees of separation?  The world is truly small.

[lenquixote66]

A non cruise small world story. About 25 years ago a friend of mine traveled to Scotland. He wanted to visit places that tourists do not usually visit and stopped a woman on the street.She replied that she too was a tourist. He said he is from NYC,so was she. He lived in Manhattan ,so did she.It turned out that they both lived in the same hi rise building. Both were single at the time and made plans to get together when they returned.They dated for a while and became friends.

My friend believes that if two complete strangers seated next to each other on a plane trip conversed for a while it is quite possible that each would know someone that the other knows.

[CruiseFanatic223]

Not anyone I know, but people who have lived near me (town or two over). But after reading this, I'm expecting to on the next cruise since my girlfriend seems to know someone everywhere she goes, so it wouldn't surprise me if she knows someone on the ship.

[davekathy]

Len, on one of our recent cruises I was wearing a small beaded bracelet with the Vietnam colors another Vietnam Vet gave to me a few years ago during a traveling Vietnam Wall memorial replica motorcycle escort. On this cruise I was enjoying a beer in the sun and a shadow cast over me. I looked up and this guy said to me, where in Nam were you. I said Rocket City (DaNang AFB). He said so was I, when? I said 1970. He said so was I. I told him I was with the 366th MMS (Missile Maintenance Squadron). He said he was with the 366th MMS (Munition Maintenance Squadron). Same area different shops. That was the last sea day of the cruise and I never saw him again. That's my small world story. 

Edited February 12, 2019 by davekathy

[lenquixote66]

4 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Len, on one of our recent cruises I was wearing a small beaded bracelet with the Vietnam colors another Vietnam vet gave to me a few years ago during a traveling Vietnam Wall memorial replica motorcycle escort. On this cruise I was enjoying a beer in the sun and a shadow cast over me. I looked up and this guy said to me, where in Nam were you. I said Rocket City (DaNang AFB). He said so was I, when? I said 1970. He said so was I. I told him I was with the 366th MMS (Missile Maintenance Squadron). He said he was with the 366th MMS (Munition Maintenance Squadron). Same area different shops. That was the last sea day of the cruise and I never saw him again. That's my small world story. 

 

4 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Len, on one of our recent cruises I was wearing a small beaded bracelet with the Vietnam colors another Vietnam vet gave to me a few years ago during a traveling Vietnam Wall memorial replica motorcycle escort. On this cruise I was enjoying a beer in the sun and a shadow cast over me. I looked up and this guy said to me, where in Nam were you. I said Rocket City (DaNang AFB). He said so was I, when? I said 1970. He said so was I. I told him I was with the 366th MMS (Missile Maintenance Squadron). He said he was with the 366th MMS (Munition Maintenance Squadron). Same area different shops. That was the last sea day of the cruise and I never saw him again. That's my small world stor

Very interesting.

(Have you ever been to the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Manhattan ?)If not and if you are ever in the city you should check it out.

 

[SRF]

12 hours ago, CruiseFanatic223 said:

Not anyone I know, but people who have lived near me (town or two over). But after reading this, I'm expecting to on the next cruise since my girlfriend seems to know someone everywhere she goes, so it wouldn't surprise me if she knows someone on the ship.

 

Hmm, I might be concerned over that. 😄

 

[LuckyStar]

On 2/7/2019 at 9:32 AM, lenquixote66 said:

Do you ever talk to a stranger on a cruise and after some conversation realize that both of you know some of the same people ? It has happened to me on every cruise I have been on since 2010. The most interesting was in 2017. We had lunch with another couple.They were from Virginia but grew up in NYC. The wife and my wife graduated from the same college in the same year.The husband told me that he had 4 close friends in HS that he has had no contact with since 1960. I said that I know a lot of people who went to that HS perhaps I know them.

Guy number one was the brother of one of my closest friends.Guy number 2 was someone I have known since 1958. Guy number 3 is my neighbor where I live now.Guy number 4 I did not know.

Weird story. Hubby and I took a trip to Europe a few years ago and ended up in obscure little village in Switzerland.  We decided to take boat ride on a local lake.  Struck up a conversation with a woman on the boat.  After hearing each other's accents, we discovered she lived only about 15 miles from my mom in small town Texas.  The world is so small.