Trivial Endeavors

[Verandah View]

I'm curious about the availability of any trivia gatherings on the HAL ships. My DW and I were fans of the games on the only other cruise we were on. I had read on a thread or two that some were a little "to competitive" for some cruisers. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who would like to comment. Good reactions or bad. Thanks in advance for any opinions.:)

[Globaliser]

There's definitely trivia, and on almost all the HAL cruises I've been on, they've been good-natured and fun. And educational.

[rkacruiser]

In my experience, it is only on the long cruises that the trivia games may become a "blood sport". The cruise staff member running the game has much to do with this. If their PR skills are good, the games are fun, even when some may dispute the "correct" answer. If their PR skills are lacking, , well, be sure you know your lifeboat number.

[CGYCruisingFamily]

We have only ever had fun with it but I still insist that the cruise staff had one answer wrong in one of the games we played :)

 

Usually all in good fun but there are definitely some people who are competitive.

Edited May 15, 2014 by CGYCruisingFamily

[ellieanne]

In my experience, they have all been in good fun.

 

Though I was pretty sure there was going to a revolt in one game when the question about the significance of 11:00 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month was discussed. There were many history professors on that particular cruise and an argument over the "correct answer" broke out. One team practically wrote a dissertation on the subject on their answer line.

 

I also find the best games are done by staff who know when to give in and when "Seattle" is wrong, or at least not as precise as they could be.

[POA1]

There has been trivia on every cruise we've been on. Sometimes it's twice a day.

[KirkNC]

Yes you will have trivia, twice a day on sea days (most of the time). It is usually good natured but occasionally there are a few that take it too seriously. I agree with the comment that the longer the cruise the more the competition ramps up.

[Padraic]

In my experience, it is only on the long cruises that the trivia games may become a "blood sport".

 

This is absolutely true. The only times I have seen bad conduct during trivia is during two of our fairly long HAL cruises: one of 46 days and one of 64 days.

[WisRiver]

You have a long cruise with lots of sea days. Your passengers usually are well educated, affluent, and competitive (how did they get to be affluent?). Many have been playing trivia games since college days. Mix those elements in daily trivia contests. You can get intense, but fun trivia contests. The team trivia is usually the most competitive. There may be two or three different contests every day. You can pick a contest that suits your interests.

[Jean1946]

We just came back from a 26 day TA and had a ball playing trivia. We traveled with another couple and hooked up with a couple from Canada and we were quiet good. Came back with a sack full of pins. Our cruise director was good and fair! Seems like all we did on sea days was eat breakfast, play trivia, eat lunch, play trivia, change your clocks ahead (I think) and happy hour then eat!

[kakalina]

I try very hard to never miss team trivia in the afternoons. One can choose/join a team of up to 6 persons. Although I have seen tempers flare it is usually quickly forgotten.

 

My only warning to you would be to get there early. On the cruises we take all the table and chairs in the Crows Nest are taken and oftentimes there is nowhere to sit your team. There will be empty tables but all the chairs will be taken.

 

I enjoy the evening trivia ( usually held in the Mix or Queens Lounge) but it generally is held about the same time we are eating dinner so I don't make that as often.

[POA1]

When it's just my wife and I, we try to team up with other people. It's a nice way to make new acquaintances - especially if they can fill in our knowledge gaps. ;)

Edited May 15, 2014 by POA1

[DrTee]

I used to love trivia. I'm a pretty smart person, and I know trivia about a variety of topics. But I agree that on the longer cruises especially it can get not only competitive but really unfair. What happens is that they take the questions from the Trivial Pursuits game, (and yes, some of the answers are incorrect), and they recycle them a lot. So the people who spend all their time cruising start to know the answers. So it's not really testing people's knowledge, since some people have heard the questions before.

 

I've quit playing. I don't mind losing, but I want a fair competition. And it's not fair anymore.

 

The daily trivia quizzes in the library are a joke now too. People will actually look up the answers--at ship internet prices! So they might spend ten dollars to get a 50 cent key chain.

 

The only one I won recently (I refuse to cheat, so I kind of compete with myself and never expect to win)--anyway, I can't remember why I didn't do the regular one--it was either too easy or too hard. So I took the Dutch one. I know some German, and I know a lot about how language works, so I was able to make out some of the questions. I wonder if they thought it was odd that I was answering them in English. It was fun.

[Krazy Kruizers]

It has been a mixed bag on our cruises -- some were good and others -- well they played for blood.

A couple of years ago HAL added a second trivia -- but we never made it to them -- 6 PM -- while we were having dinner.

[Cinder Again]

When it's just my wife and I, we try to team up with other people. It's a nice way to make new acquaintances - especially if they can fill in our knowledge gaps. ;)

Agreed, my friends and I play for fun, but we know if we want to win, we've got to have Canadians or Europeans partners on our team to expand our knowledge base! We (U.S. folks) have knowledge gaps, especially in questions about other countries/cultures. We've made some great friends playing the daily trivia, and if someone get too competitive (for a 10 Cent pin, no less!) then you know who you want to avoid around the ship!:D

[KirkNC]

I used to love trivia. I'm a pretty smart person, and I know trivia about a variety of topics. But I agree that on the longer cruises especially it can get not only competitive but really unfair. What happens is that they take the questions from the Trivial Pursuits game, (and yes, some of the answers are incorrect), and they recycle them a lot. So the people who spend all their time cruising start to know the answers. So it's not really testing people's knowledge, since some people have heard the questions before.

 

I've quit playing. I don't mind losing, but I want a fair competition. And it's not fair anymore.

 

The daily trivia quizzes in the library are a joke now too. People will actually look up the answers--at ship internet prices! So they might spend ten dollars to get a 50 cent key chain.

 

The only one I won recently (I refuse to cheat, so I kind of compete with myself and never expect to win)--anyway, I can't remember why I didn't do the regular one--it was either too easy or too hard. So I took the Dutch one. I know some German, and I know a lot about how language works, so I was able to make out some of the questions. I wonder if they thought it was odd that I was answering them in English. It was fun.

 

They definitely recycle questions. Almost every time we play there is at least one we have heard before. Of course our memories being what they are it usually doesn't help us.

[jtl513]

What really irks me is when they say "Rule number one, the answer sheet is the final word and rule number two, see rule number one" and then when scoring they accept something that's not on the answer sheet ... and the argument begins. ;)

Edited May 16, 2014 by jtl513

[cruiserr]

We just returned from an 11-day cruise on the Noordam. Trivia was held every evening in the Crow's Nest from 7:30 to 8:00, and I think there was usually trivia in the afternoon as well, although we weren't usually around for that. My husband and I always played as a team of 2, and we played most evenings. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and had lots of fun. Ours scores ranged (out of 15) from 3 to 11. I know - 3 is pretty low. But we were close on so many answers!

 

On the evening that we scored 11/15 (we were ecstatic!) a man who we had not seen at any other trivia games made a point of coming over to us after the game and asking 'how we had gotten the answers - were we using the internet to help us?' He seemed befuddled that we could have possibly won the game. We were equally befuddled by his reaction and simply shook our heads at one another.

 

We certainly didn't take the game too seriously, nor did anyone around us other than this particular person.

[KitKatK]

They definitely recycle questions. Almost every time we play there is at least one we have heard before. Of course our memories being what they are it usually doesn't help us.

 

We were told by the CD on our last HAL cruise that they have a database of trivia questions that randomly pulls 12 questions for each game. He didn't say how many questions were in the database, but I guess if the number is relatively low, it would increase the chance of retreads - especially on longer cruises when more games are played with the same passengers.

 

KK

[Verandah View]

In my experience, it is only on the long cruises that the trivia games may become a "blood sport". The cruise staff member running the game has much to do with this. If their PR skills are good, the games are fun, even when some may dispute the "correct" answer. If their PR skills are lacking, , well, be sure you know your lifeboat number.

 

Thanks to all for the info and advice! We will definitley note our lifeboat number in case it gets too crazy:eek:

Can't wait until we have an opportunity for one of those long cruises and can get really competitive :) Right now it's just for fun...probably because we never get too close to winning. Thanks again!

[Typhoon1]

Always an easy way to pass idle time without sitting in a bar.

[MrOZ]

When we were on the Zuiderdam in July 2012 (Alaska), the prize was chotchkes (pins mostly) AND a bottle of champagne for the team. I mostly played on my own, so I didn't win. (I came close a couple of times and felt good about it.) On the Westerdam in January 2013 (S. Carib.), the prices was JUST the pins. I found a good team, and we won all but one day. I think it was pretty good-natured, but mostly because who really cares about a pin?

 

I wonder if they lowered the stakes deliberately, or it was just ship-to-ship (or CD-to-CD) variation.

 

(I should mention that I'm not actually super competitive, but I do love trivia. (I do like to win, but I'm pretty okay when I don't.))

Edited May 16, 2014 by MrOZ

[HatRez]

We cruised on the same ship about seven months apart. The daily trivia questions were identical. So I was much more effective the second time around! haha But seriously, mix it up.

[BeagleOne]

My last cruise was 11 nights. I started out playing trivia with some fellow CC roll call members and we had a good time. But there was one woman, not from the roll call, and from a country with a reputation for nice citizens, who was just downright nasty, she was so competitive. She'd argue about answers (she was always wrong) and complain when other teams got answers right and her team did not.

 

She played both the afternoon and evening games and after a few days I just stopped going. The CD was good about handling her, but she really was a jerk who clearly thought she was smarter than everyone else.

 

She had two physical issues that might have impaired her going ashore, and I never saw her on shore excursions or anything, so I wonder if trivia was her big enjoyment on the cruise. But she was really unpleasant about it.

 

However, that was my only adverse trivia experience on all of my voyages, except for once on the QE2, when the trivia was held in the theater and the crew member would just ask the question and individual people would raise their hands. He asked me to quit after I was able to name all of the states and territories in Australia.

[MrOZ]

Being a gracious loser is pretty key for trivia. I like when it's timed to coincide with the happy hour specials for just that reason.

 

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