AA Meetings in a Bar? Really?

[chascougs]

Speaking only for myself but also as someone who has been sober 20+ years and been on 8 cruises during that time with 2 more booked this year, if my sobriety is so fragile that I can't fellowship with some other recovering drunks in a room where alcohol is consumed (not while we are meeting mind you), then I have no business being on a cruise. I learned real early that alcohol isn't the problem...it can't do a thing to me unless I decided to take that first drink. My "higher power" didn't get me sober to live a life hiding from life. I just have to remember that I'm the one with the drinking problem.

[Seago2]

Where do I begin.... Or do I begin? Is it worth it?

 

Carnival does care about sober cruisers. A cruise is not one giant bar for many people on board. No we don't love being in a bar for AA meetings but I don't think anyone is so sensitive to that that they wouldn't come. There are worse places- wedding chapel, anyone? Chairs all facing forward and awkward repositioning? Card room with people walking by and staring in?

 

AA meetings on board are nice to meet people, and for people who really "need a meeting" they're a godsend. The cruise lines are very accommodating.

 

I agree with the OP that it looks wrong to have FOB in the Anything Bar, Library or otherwise. Nothing wrong with bringing that up here.

 

Some people, honest to god.

[Markmom18]

I'm in AA and don't mind at all where the meeting is held. My situation in March was that I couldn't locate the meeting! It was listed in the Fun Times. When I went at the said time, the room was being set up for a private party. I went to Guest Services, was told it was being held in the occupied area. It was a Bar, so many, I don't remember the name. I was on the Inspiration.

 

My husband and I are on the Glory in August. I hope we have a full ship of recovering alcoholics! :D.

[okgirl]

Wait a minute - there's a bar in the library? I don't recall seeing a bar in the library on the Liberty or the Conquest...

 

That's because they don't have one. I think only the Breeze and the Sunshine have a bar and/or a self serve wine machine in them.

[long Island]

Sometimes in the chapel

[wahooker]

How many AA members are on any given ship to begin with? Library may have been the only place suitable. I'm guessing the self serve wine machine is disabled for the meeting at the organization's request, too.

 

On the Sunshine, It's a full service bar.

 

(There may have been self serve machines there as well, I didn't see them, but I only walked by.)

[gtalum]

FWIW I wasn't trying to be argumentative to the OP. I'm just pointing out that there are few public spaces if any on a ship that don't serve alcohol. The library is the most comfortable place to have the meeting, and even if the library is a bar that's really where it's got to be.

 

My first point stands that someone who is recovering from alcoholism but doesn't have the willpower to be in a bar and not drink really shouldn't be cruising. I bring that up as a point of advice, not a point of admonishment or judgment. It would be like inviting oneself to fail.

Edited April 29, 2014 by gtalum

[snowskier]

Speaking only for myself but also as someone who has been sober 20+ years and been on 8 cruises during that time with 2 more booked this year, if my sobriety is so fragile that I can't fellowship with some other recovering drunks in a room where alcohol is consumed (not while we are meeting mind you), then I have no business being on a cruise. I learned real early that alcohol isn't the problem...it can't do a thing to me unless I decided to take that first drink. My "higher power" didn't get me sober to live a life hiding from life. I just have to remember that I'm the one with the drinking problem.

 

Awesome response. I too have well over 20 years in the program and feel the same way. On those days when I need the fellowship it really doesn't matter where we are, the important part is my fellow AA members are with me.

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Just got back from the Carnival Sunshine.

 

They had an item on the agenda each day for "Friends of Bill W", which is a non-obvious way of referring to Alcoholics Anonymous.

 

The meeting was held in the Library Bar.

 

It seems like they could have found some place - any place better than that to host those meetings.

 

If you can't handle an AA meeting in a bar you probably shouldn't even be on a cruise ship.

[francina]

You know I thought the friends of bill or dorothy was something else.

 

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[luvscruising2007]

You know I thought the friends of bill or dorothy was something else.

 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

I think Friends of Dorothy is something else.

[Disconnections]

I think Friends of Dorothy is something else.

 

Friends of Dorothy is for guests who are a part of the LGBT community.

[luvscruising2007]

Friends of Dorothy is for guests who are a part of the LGBT community.

 

Thanks for clarifying that. I thought that was what it was.

[OCruisers]

Not on Carnival ... but Celebrity .... Thought it was odd the AA meeting was in the Martini Bar. :rolleyes:

LuLu