It really is a small world after all.

Two Niagara-on-the-Lake couples booked a trans-Atlantic cruise together to Portugal from Aruba aboard Oceana’s MS Sirena this month.

It was a two-week repositioning cruise and part way through it, in the middle of the North Atlantic, they discovered some neighbours from NOTL were taking the same trip.

Not just one or two, though. Six other folks from NOTL.

“Pure serendipity,” said Tim Taylor, who was aboard with his wife Kathy.

They were travelling with their friends Larry and Joan Bourk, also from NOTL.

“It’s a small ship, 600 passengers,” said Taylor, who when he’s not being Santa for Palliative Care is a frequent feature writer for The Lake Report.

Word got around quickly that all these other Canadians – also from NOTL – were aboard and in short order, they met up.

Among them were Luba and Warren Fraser, who are neighbours of the Taylors in the Village neighbourhood.

As well, Dawn and Jim Senyi, and Kathy and Tom Birchall – who both live in St. Davids – had booked passage on the Sirena to Portugal.

Which all seems to prove the notion that, serendipity aside, it certainly is a small world.