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Friends of Dorothy


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I personally think of Cunard as British. Although actually an classed as British-American cruise line, founded by a Canadian and a Scot.

 

Anyway, moving on...

 

I think there is still a place for an LGBT meeting, just as any other social gathering. I hope it doesn't just become one of those long forgotten traditions.

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I have never seen an FoD/LGBT meeting advertised on P&O and have sailed with them 14 times since 1997. I have however found that there seem to be more LGBT pax these days - especially on my two cruises this year. P&O are usually happy to advertise any general meetings that a passenger wants to host.

 

Cunard 'affect' to be a British Line but the on-board currency is the USD, the menu is tailored to Americans and drinks etc have a 15% gratuity added. Don't get me wrong - I like Cunard - but it really does not feel like a British Line any more.

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Speaking as a friend of Dorothy and as a friend of Bill W (I know, I know, friends all over;-)) the reason it's called friends of Bill W rather than just Alcoholics Anonymous is because it's not just for alcoholics. Any of the "anonymous" group members are welcome, narcotics anonymous, overeaters anonymous, gamblers anonymous, sex addicts anonymous and all the other anonymous etc etc are all welcome at a friends of Bill W meeting.

 

Personally I've always understood that cruises were the gay-friendliest type of holiday since way back. Must be something about all those sailors[emoji38]. When I did my first cruise ten years ago I asked a fellow gay friend who had been on one if we would have any trouble as a gay couple on board and his response was something like "oh god no, I've been on the forums and it's really gay friendly, no problems at all".

 

I, too, prefer friends of dorothy to LGBT(Q) it's just so lovely and quaint. Personally I think it should be up to the group organising it to decide on which name to use, it shouldn't be dictated by the cruise line. But I suspect as many LGBTQ folk are as happy with either (if we could ever agree that is lol). [emoji6]

 

 

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I'm sure they'd get a lot more interest in a sex addicts meeting if they publicised it.

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I have never seen an FoD/LGBT meeting advertised on P&O and have sailed with them 14 times since 1997. I have however found that there seem to be more LGBT pax these days - especially on my two cruises this year. P&O are usually happy to advertise any general meetings that a passenger wants to host.

I guess it must just one of those random things. They either do them or they don't. I've seen the FoD/LGBT meetings advertised/held at least 60% of the cruises I've been on. Probably only on the last two has there not been any.

 

They had a former crewmembers (of a ship I can't remember the name of) get together a couple of times on the last one I was on. Guess both that and LGBT do come down to people requesting or setting up a meeting.

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I have sailed with P&O over 20 times, during which I have seen a FoD meeting advertised only once. It was hosted by two gay employees, an officer and a member of the entertainments team, who explained that P&O only organised one if requested to do so by a passenger. This happened infrequently. This contrasted with my sailings with Celebrity where FoDs were invited to meet daily before dinner in - where else - the martini bar.

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There has always been Friends of Dorothy and Friends of Bill W meetings held on every P&O cruise I have been on over the last 17yrs of cruising with them but never on a daily basis so they could be easily missed in the Horizon where they are always advertised.

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  • 1 month later...

Just off Arcadia, and there were no LGBT meetings on that particular cruise. I kept and eagle-eye on the Horizon, but there was nothing. There were at least three couples on board, so i know I wasn't the only one.

 

I was actually contemplating going to a meeting if there was one. (Admittedly I didn't ask for one to be added/created).

 

C'est la vie I guess.

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There has always been Friends of Dorothy and Friends of Bill W meetings held on every P&O cruise I have been on over the last 17yrs of cruising with them but never on a daily basis so they could be easily missed in the Horizon where they are always advertised.

 

Just goes to show how inconsistent it is. In your 17 years you have seen them on every cruise and in my twenty, I have never seen one. I may have missed a Bill W entry in Horizon but I would have certainly noticed an FoD or LGBT meet.

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There has always been Friends of Dorothy and Friends of Bill W meetings held on every P&O cruise I have been on over the last 17yrs of cruising with them but never on a daily basis so they could be easily missed in the Horizon where they are always advertised.

 

 

 

Nope never seen a FOD or Bill W meeting on any of our P&O cruises and I scrutinise the Horizon every day. How come everyone else has missed these meetings? I have Horizons here from 3 of our P&O trips and have re-examined them and there are no meetings shown in those.

 

 

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Just goes to show how inconsistent it is. In your 17 years you have seen them on every cruise and in my twenty, I have never seen one. I may have missed a Bill W entry in Horizon but I would have certainly noticed an FoD or LGBT meet.

 

I have seen both meetings along with Masonic ones on both Azura and Ventura but I can't remember for the Britannia. I'm sure they are arranged if passengers request them.

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Pete, it was listed in the daily newspaper on our Celebrity cruise a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately it's now called the LGBTQ meeting. Usually at the Martini Bar or World Class Bar. I hated to ask but unfortunately found out the Q at the end was for Queer. Apparently the US gays want to take ownership of the Queer term when for us it's already covered by the LGBT term. For us using Queer is a backward step and unnecessary. I long for the days of the friends of Dorothy meetings now. The US ships have the friends of Bill W meetings and yet don't need to spell out that this means Alcoholics Anonymous.

 

 

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Interesting, I'll keep my eyes out on our upcoming TA on Eclipse.

 

Apparently the 'proper' terminology is now LGBTQ+ according the those a lot younger than I.

 

I also object to the term 'Queer' because 40 years ago it was definitely a derogatory term and led to many cases of abuse. However, the young LGBTQ+ 'set' don't know about that period and I doubt want to know.

 

Btw the 'Q' is supposed to be used for those who do not fit into either gender and consider themselves 'non binary', '+' on the other hand identifies those who are pan sexual, asexual, gender fluid, two spirit etc apparently. :eek:

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Interesting, I'll keep my eyes out on our upcoming TA on Eclipse.

 

Apparently the 'proper' terminology is now LGBTQ+ according the those a lot younger than I.

 

I also object to the term 'Queer' because 40 years ago it was definitely a derogatory term and led to many cases of abuse. However, the young LGBTQ+ 'set' don't know about that period and I doubt want to know.

 

Btw the 'Q' is supposed to be used for those who do not fit into either gender and consider themselves 'non binary', '+' on the other hand identifies those who are pan sexual, asexual, gender fluid, two spirit etc apparently. :eek:

 

It was my understanding that the current terminology is LGBTQI, where the I stands for In-between or similar, but I suppose the + is a better option as it then suggests there is no need for any more letters of the alphabet to be coined.

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I must be old fashioned then, as I only use LGBT. Maybe + on occaisons.

 

Whilst we have already discussed that FoD is 'outdated' and was a descreet code for like minded passengers, you'll find that some people (not of the community) don't know what it represents anyway.

I have to resist saying its the new BLT.... 'Lettuce Guacamole Bacon and Tomato'. ;) (all in good humour of course).

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I must be old fashioned then, as I only use LGBT. Maybe + on occaisons.

 

Whilst we have already discussed that FoD is 'outdated' and was a descreet code for like minded passengers, you'll find that some people (not of the community) don't know what it represents anyway.

I have to resist saying its the new BLT.... 'Lettuce Guacamole Bacon and Tomato'. ;) (all in good humour of course).

 

Exactly that is why they use the term "Friends of Dorothy" discretion.

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Whatever the organisation, meetings onboard will only happen if someone has organised one.

 

This can be done on board but it can be done before hand. I do this for group meetings.

 

 

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Never seen one on any of our P&O cruises.

 

If interested maybe have a word with the entertainment director and see if they can arrange it in the horizon.

 

Cunard do them - non hosted at 5pm on a certain side of the commodore club (crows nest) daily.

 

There have been 'friends of Dorothy' meetings on most of the P & O cruises we have been on. Usually advertised in the Horizon.

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There have been 'friends of Dorothy' meetings on most of the P & O cruises we have been on. Usually advertised in the Horizon.

 

I read Horizon front to back and like others here have never seen a meeting featured.

 

David

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There were several on my cruise last week, LGBT now though. These are non-hosted so guess they haven't been requested by anyone, I'm sure I have seen these in Horizon on other trips.

 

lgbt.jpg

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General question now.. what are the specifics on hosted vs. non-hosted.

 

I would have thought that non-hosted usually meant it was a get together requested by a fellow passenger, whearas hosted is something the ship arranged in advance.

ie. non-hosted knitting or hosted whist.

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My instinct would say non hosted is just a room/area made available if anyone wants to go like ping-pong, tennis or bridge. Never saw anyone at the LGBT meeting but I was only walking past fleetingly.

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General question now.. what are the specifics on hosted vs. non-hosted.

 

I would have thought that non-hosted usually meant it was a get together requested by a fellow passenger, whearas hosted is something the ship arranged in advance.

ie. non-hosted knitting or hosted whist.

 

Non hosted means that the event is not organised by P&O and staff members will not be present. It is merely an advert placed on behalf of a passenger(s) hoping that others with a similar interest will meet up, or something that P&O facilitates without actually organising anything other than making a space available, such as solo traveller meets.

 

Although P&O will usually oblige and put something in Horizon if asked sufficiently in advance, roll calls can also be a good way to arrange meets. Somebody suggested a 'cruise critic meet' for the 2nd sea day of our May cruise on Aurora and around 15 of us turned up. We got to know a few of the people and it was nice to be able to chat to them at various times throughout the cruise, both on the ship and ashore in ports.

 

I can't say I've ever noticed a Friends of Dorothy meeting advertised, but there always seem to be non hosted Masons meetings (not that I've been to any). Somebody mentioned a sex addicts meeting in an earlier post. Now that would definitely spark my curiosity. ;)

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