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Who is Bill W???

SandRaven

By SandRaven,
in Holland America Line

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SandRaven

SandRaven

Posted
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Who is Bill W? I noticed on our Westerdam cruise in Feb that the daily schedule had a timeslot for "Friends of Bill W"... also, family memebers were on the Maasdam a week before, and also noticed the "Friends of Bill W" on their daily program. So, who's Bill, and who are his friends?

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Sea King

Sea King

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Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous

 

there are always AA meetings on every HAL cruise for those who need help or reinforcement to get them through the day, week or cruise ..

 

surprise you simply didn't ask someone or "google it"

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Guest LoveMyBoxer

Guest LoveMyBoxer

Posted
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Who is Bill W? I noticed on our Westerdam cruise in Feb that the daily schedule had a timeslot for "Friends of Bill W"... also, family memebers were on the Maasdam a week before, and also noticed the "Friends of Bill W" on their daily program. So, who's Bill, and who are his friends?

He was the founder of Alchoholics Anonymous. I think there was a movie done recently

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Guest LoveMyBoxer

Guest LoveMyBoxer

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Hahaha

Honestly, I thought "friends of Bill W" was unique to HAL, so I chose this forum to pose the question before considering Google.

They have meetings on every cruise line we've been on (RCCL, Princess, Celebrity, Norwgian). The one interesting group we discovered on our August cruise on the NCL Crown, was the "friends of Dorothy", had never heard of them before and had to google.

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Krazy Kruizers

Krazy Kruizers

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Many, many years ago I also wondered the same thing. So one afternoon, I went to the Piano Bar where the meeting was to be held. No one was there - not even a bar tender. Waited around for about 15 minutes - not anyone from the cruise staff showed up to "conduct" this meeting. Not knowing what to make of this, I went to the front and inquired.

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jagsfan

jagsfan

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Friends of Dorothy are either a gay group, or maybe lesbian.......from the

Wizard of Oz, maybe. I think it's great the cruise ships offer people a chance

to meet discreetly within advertising their interests to the general populace.

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tomc

tomc

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"Friends of Dorothy," or FOD, is a code word for gays, as "Friends of Bill W" is for AA's. A room is reserved for any AA's who want to meet, but it's informal and up to those who wish to be there.

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HeatherInFlorida

HeatherInFlorida

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It's also a code used among alcoholics. If you're in AA and you meet someone who you sense may be, too, we ask "Are you a friend of Bill W?".

 

If they are, they'll understand. If not, they will generally look confused:D .

 

Of course it's less and less of a secret because so many people come on these boards and ask who Bill W is:D .

 

I guess we'll have to come up with another code.

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bepsf

bepsf

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"Friends of Dorothy," or FOD, is a code word for gays, as "Friends of Bill W" is for AA's. A room is reserved for any AA's who want to meet, but it's informal and up to those who wish to be there.

 

But the Friends of Dorothy get-togethers are alot more fun...

1) The bar is open, &

2) seeing the confused little blue-hairs wander in asking who Dorothy is!

:D

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Guest LoveMyBoxer

Guest LoveMyBoxer

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But the Friends of Dorothy get-togethers are alot more fun...

1) The bar is open, &

2) seeing the confused little blue-hairs wander in asking who Dorothy is!

:D

That is too funny!

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innlady1

innlady1

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But the Friends of Dorothy get-togethers are alot more fun...

1) The bar is open, &

2) seeing the confused little blue-hairs wander in asking who Dorothy is!

:D

 

It might be a toss-up...the get-together's being more fun! ;)

 

When I saw "Friends of Dorothy" listed on our Caribbean Princess Princess Patter, I hadn't a clue what it was. But someone soon explained.

 

It piqued our interest because DH has been a "FOB" for 28 years, and that wasn't listed on the Princess Patter! However, it didn't take DH and our friends cruising with us (the three guys are "FOB"...the wives are not!) to rectify the situation! ;)

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Grumpy1

Grumpy1

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My first cruise was in March of 1992. The daily bulletin always listed a "Friends of Bill" meeting... not Bill W. Since there was another well known Bill that had just recently been elected President, I thought the meetings were for his supporters. I wasn't a fan of his or I might have wandered into the meeting... drink in hand...:eek: It wasn't until the last day of the cruise that I overheard someone else ask about who Bill was and found out about the connection to AA.

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Sunshine91

Sunshine91

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I think we first noticed that Bill W had lots of friends & lots of get-togethers on our first Noordam cruise in 1997. We wandered around, but never poked in our heads. Kept seeing it in the programs on subsequent cruises. Oh my goodness does that man have a lot of friends. We finally asked veteran cruisers who kindly enlightened us before we went in & made fools of ourselves. :D

We've also been in the home of an aquaintance who is a FOBW who had a plaque that read For Better or Worse, another saying for the acronym.

Heather, Bill.....congratulations. :)

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christy744

christy744

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Does anyone else see a problem with the Friends of Bill W. meetings being held in the Piano Bar? Living as I do near the Hollywood Bowl, which hosts sing-a-longs with old musicals from time to time, the first time I was on a HAL cruise and saw the announcement for the Friends of Dorothy meeting I thought it might be a Wizard of Oz sing-along. Fortunately, the meeting was held at the same time as Bingo so I didn't go in and embarass myself belting out "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".

 

Christy

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HeatherInFlorida

HeatherInFlorida

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Thank you, Susan:) .

 

Actually, they only have one meeting a day onboard all the ships and it's always around 5:00, that being the difficult "witching" hour for cocktails. The cruise lines decide where it will be held, but generally in a smallish room. While it may sometimes be in the Piano Bar, I've also seen it held more often in coffee cafes or other small lounges when ships have them. There's just so many places that can accommodate what is generally a rather small group. And actually a bar on the ship when it's not open is just another room.

 

Grumpy, love your story!!! Now that would have been hysterical!!!

 

What I'm always surprised at when these threads come up is the number of people who almost wander into these "Friends of Bill W" or "Friends of Dorothy" meetings when they have no idea of who or what they are. Before I became a "member" and had not a clue what it was, I always assumed it was a private get together and never even thought of joining the group.

 

In fact, I remember thinking it was very accommodating of Cunard to have a meeting for these friends every single evening!!!!:D

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AZjohn

AZjohn

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Congratulations Heather and Bill!

DW and I have been on 4 cruises in all, and on the first 3 cruises we had always been the only ones who showed up for the friends of Bill W. meetings. On our last cruise (our first on HAL) to our surprise, there were 7 of us there for the first meeting. It made the best cruise experience we ever had and made life long friends. So for those who don’t understand, it’s nice for us in recovery to meet others on the cruise to help support each other in staying sober:D .

John

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