Have you ever been on a cruise and saw a room with a private function sign on it saying Friends of…..? Have you seen something advertised in the daily planner and not been sure what it was?
Despite appearances these aren’t just very popular people whom everyone onboard wants to meet; they’re instead code words for different groups or organisations that sometimes meet up on cruise ships for a variety of reasons.
Friends of Bill W, or F.O.B as it’s sometimes known, is named after William ‘Bill W’ Wilson, who helped found Alcoholics Anonymous alongside Dr. Bob Smith. At some point, (more than a few years ago now), AA members started to ask cruise ship entertainment directors about the possibility of holding AA meetings whilst onboard. The cruise lines were initially reluctant to advertise these meetings openly so, following the AA tradition of only using your first name, these meetings onboard were billed as Friends of Bill W meetings. Ever since then any AA support group held on a cruise ship has been called a Friends of Bill W gathering.
A Friends of Dorothy, or F.O.D meeting, is a get-together for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community on board a cruise ship. Rather than a support group like the other Friends of… meetings it's more of a 'mixer' to introduce likeminded people. It's typically a very casual affair with maybe a cocktail party held in one of the ship's bars or public rooms where people can meet up and arrange to go to dinner, for a drink or even go on shore excursions together. Some cruise lines will put these meetings in the daily planner and others will put them on the community bulletin boards around the ship. Today, the term "Friends of Dorothy" is used mostly by the older generation; young gay men and women may never have heard the term. Because of this many cruise lines now use the abbreviation of LGBT instead for these meetings. No one is quite sure where the term Friends of 'Dorothy' originated from but the most popular explanation is that it refers to the Wizard of Oz, either due to Dorothy's acceptance of others or, more likely, the huge gay following Judy Garland enjoyed after the release of the movie.
In fact a lot of cruise ships or lines won’t hold Friends of Jimmy K meetings at all. Instead anyone wishing to attend one of these would be directed to the friends of Bill W group for the duration of the cruise. Jimmy K refers to James Kinnon who founded the N.A, (Narcotics Anonymous), back in 1953. Friends of Jimmy K therefore is a support group for anyone recovering from narcotics or substance abuse. As said, because this is a lot rarer than alcohol
