Friends of Bill W.

Who is Bill W? And why has he been on EVERY cruise I’ve ever been on?  And Dorothy…. Do they know each other?  They were BOTH on BOTH of the fantastic MSC cruises I recently went on.

Have you noticed this on your daily planner that your cabin steward leaves for you each evening? Chances are, you probably have.  Let me explain.

William ‘Bill W’ Wilson is one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.  Many moons ago, AA members started contacting the cruise lines asking about the possibility of holding AA meetings on board but the cruise lines didn’t really want to openly advertise the fact so they came up with the ‘secret club name’ instead.  I bring you ‘Friends of Bill W‘.  So now, with all these free drinks packages being throen in by the cruise lines, you know where to go when your liver starts complaining.

More recently, you may have also seen ‘Friends of Jimmy K‘ cropping up too.  To start with, the now members of this group were directed to Bill W’s group but because Jimmy’s group refers to guests recovering from narcotics or substance abuse which is rarer than alcoholism, it was decided they’d have their own group.  The names comes from James Kinnon who founded Narcotics Anonymous (NA) in 1953.

And then we have dear Dorothy.  A ‘Friends of Dorothy‘ event is a meeting for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.  Where Bill and Jimmy’s groups are more for support, Dorothy’s group is just a chance for people to meet up and make new friends, go on excursions together or just have a few casual drinks (and who wouldn’t with MSC’s fab All Inclusive drinks package at £22 per day!).  Sometimes, these meetings will be shown on the daily planner as LGBT get-togethers (especially more recently).  I’m not sure where the term Friends of Dorothy comes from though I’m afraid so if you have any ideas, please let me know 🙂

To see that video you all love so much of the rough seas when I was Divina, click here

For a fab MSC offer we currently have under £500 per person, click here