John Challenger Best Trivia Ever

[kakalina]

After cruising several times with Mr. Challenger and having cruised with many other Cruise Directors we just have to say that we think John is the best. For those of you who are trivia buffs and have been lucky enough to join John when he has trivia you know what I mean.

 

Please share any thoughts if you know John or on any other CD you really liked, Thanks

 

Trisha

[mrskmirolla]

Was he on the Zuiderdam in September for Eastern Caribbean??

 

Kathy

[sail7seas]

In all respects........we think John is one of the best!!! Great, great guy IMO

 

We haven't seen him for a while and would be really happy to find him aboard a 'dam' ship on which we were sailing.

 

 

 

[kakalina]

Was he on the Zuiderdam in September for Eastern Caribbean??

 

Kathy

Kathy, John was on the Veendam when we were there from 9-29-05 through 11-12-05 then on the Amsterdam when we were on from 1-06-06 through 1-05-06. He returned home to Idaho on 2-06-06. He plans to be on the Statendam in a few months. He is a wonderful man and we miss him and his trivia. :p

Trisha

[kryos]

John mentioned in his "chat" on one of the last sea days heading back to San Diego that he is generally assigned to the longer voyages since he has more experience. He said generally the newer, less "seasoned" cruise directors will be on the shorter voyages ... like the Zuiderdam's 7-day Caribbean itineraries ... since those cruises are much easier to plan entertainment/activities for.

 

I would imagine you'll see John on one of HAL's "grand voyages" later on this year.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Typhoon1]

John Challenger is a bumbling buffoon. I hope I never have the misfortune of cruising with him again.

[CPeters40]

After cruising several times with Mr. Challenger and having cruised with many other Cruise Directors we just have to say that we think John is the best. For those of you who are trivia buffs and have been lucky enough to join John when he has trivia you know what I mean.

 

Please share any thoughts if you know John or on any other CD you really liked, Thanks

 

Trisha

 

John Challenger was on our Celebrity Galaxy cruise on Febr 4-14, 2005, through the Panama Canal. He always delegated the Trivia contests out to the other activity personnel on that cruise. We really never saw him, except for the nightly shows in the theater.

Chris

[SDHALFAN]

John Challenger was the CD on the Amsterdam for the 2005/2006 Holiday Cruise (San Diego/Hawaii/San Diego). I honestly did not care for his version of Team Trivia but I would hardly call the man "a bumbling buffoon". Apart from the Team Trivia I thought that he was extremely personable, a lot of fun, and he did an excellent job of handling his staff and coordinating all the events that fell under his supervision.

 

My favorite CD, as far as Team Trivia goes, is Bruce (and I'm embarassed to say that I don't remember his last name offhand) who was the CD on the Ryndam for the Sea of Cortez cruise 4/25/05-5/05/05. Bruce would host what he called "Bruce's Brainbuster Team Trivia", and believe me those questions were very "brainbusting", which made one think very hard but the whole experience was a lot of fun.

 

My next "planned" cruise is not until January 15th of next year and I would be perfectly happy to see either Bruce or John onboard as CD.

 

Being a Cruise Director may sound like a fun job but, ultimately, when it comes down to keeping the majority of the passengers onboard happy that job falls to the Cruise Director (and of course the Hotel Manager who plays a huge part in keeping us happy also - we NEED those comfortable cabins and lots of good food in our stomachs.)

 

Valerie:D

[kryos]

John Challenger is a bumbling buffoon. I hope I never have the misfortune of cruising with him again.

I realize that it's "different strokes for different folks," but can you provide some insight as to why you consider him a "bumbling buffoon?" I thought that the last thing he was was bumbling ... he seemed to have a good handle on his job ... keeping his staff motivated so that they made all activities fun for the passengers. Of course, being a cruise director is all about personality ... and, of course, no matter how good one is at their job, some people aren't gonna like you simply because your personality grates on their nerves. That's understandable ... and maybe that's the case with you and why you didn't care for John. But, I would hardly call him a "bumbling buffoon." Quite the contrary, for him to even be assigned to the longer cruises that he's done, he would clearly have to be pretty adept at his job and at motivating his staff.

 

Some people argue that some cruise directors are not really "visible," but I would have to say that John always was. He was also very approachable. I was not anywhere near the "social butterfly" that a lot of my fellow CCers were on our 30-day Amsterdam cruise, but I can honestly say that I ran across John in my travels at least two or three times a day. Also, one must remember, a large part of the cruise director's job takes place behind the scenes ... making sure that the activities are set up, the entertainment is arranged for, passenger suggestions are being considered and perhaps implemented, etc. A lot of a cruise director's job is administrative ... and he relies on his underlings for much of the execution.

 

As for the cruise director delegating tasks to his underlings, well ... isn't that what a good manager is supposed to do? How do you equip your underlings to take over for you one day if you don't give them increasing levels of responsibility in accordance with their abilities? You know, the mark of a good manager is to always be training his successor. That's the only way for him to ever get promoted. Believe me, I learned that lesson first-hand in the past, and didn't get a much coveted promotion because there was no one trained to step into my current job. Believe me, I'll never need to learn that lesson again. Looks to me like John learned it a ways back too ... and that's precisely what makes him good at his job, in my opinion.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Stakeout]

maybe some of the frequent HAL cruisers might remember these two individuals....

 

for us, the absolute best Criuise Director that we've had the pleasure of sailing with was Rick Cameron.. a/k/a 'Cameron' as he was known by all .. we first had sailed with him back in '97 on the Veendam when he was the asst CD and subsequent trips afterwards on the Veendam , Westerdam and Volendam after being promoted to CD.. as an asst CD he was known as the 'best Bingo caller' around... spoke half a dozen languages.. plus sign language for the deaf.. his rendition of 'Say it in any Language' with the crew on the last day farewell in the showroom has never been topped.. have never run into anyone like him as a CD with that much talent ..always cheerful.. always accomodating.. got out there in the trenches and socialized with everyone.. a great guy that moved on to TV show production..HAL's loss...

 

another CD that was pretty darn good as well as a super nice person... Danielle Gomez.. we sailed with her back on the old Westerdam and Volendam half a dozen times when she was Hostess as well as after getting promoted to CD.. great gal... classy and super pleasant all the time.. socialized in the Ocean Bar with all the passengers.. we've found out that she too left HAL after marrying a HAL Chief Engineer and went back to Hotel management..

 

we have just not run into any CD's since then like these two folks.. both top of the line classy and pleasant individuals who we enjoyed sailing with immensely:D

[Deb C.]

Yes, Trish, you know I enjoyed John C. and his trivia (although could be quite hard). But I enjoy playing trivias---I don't think I missed any trivia contests on the 14 day Veendam last Fall. It was weird the way he had you write down your answer and then run it up to his podium--but atleast it was different.

 

Whenever I ran into John throughout the ship he always said hello. I enjoyed him as CD. Deb C.

[kakalina]

John Challenger is a bumbling buffoon. I hope I never have the misfortune of cruising with him again.

 

I too would like to know just what gave you this opinion of John.:confused:

 

Rita I agree with everything you said, as always with flair and style.;)

 

DebC. Good to see you here. I really enjoyed sailing with you and hope we meet again someday. Did I every tell you I thought you had the most beautiful hair.. It's true...:)

 

So typhoonwi, if you really have a reason for such a belittling and uncalled for statement we would really like to know...:rolleyes:

 

Trisha

[CPeters40]

Yes, Trish, you know I enjoyed John C. and his trivia (although could be quite hard). But I enjoy playing trivias---I don't think I missed any trivia contests on the 14 day Veendam last Fall. It was weird the way he had you write down your answer and then run it up to his podium--but atleast it was different.

 

Whenever I ran into John throughout the ship he always said hello. I enjoyed him as CD. Deb C.

 

I think it's good they ran the answer up to the podium--that's how they did it on the Celebrity ships. During the 10 days we were on the Volendam, we had repeat trivia guests, who knew all the answers because they kept using the very same trivia questions from the previous cruises, so these guests won all the prizes. It was a little unfair. I hope that they have made up some new trivia questions, to even it out and to be more fair.

Chris

Volendam Jan 2-12,2006

[kakalina]

I think it's good they ran the answer up to the podium--that's how they did it on the Celebrity ships. During the 10 days we were on the Volendam, we had repeat trivia guests, who knew all the answers because they kept using the very same trivia questions from the previous cruises, so these guests won all the prizes. It was a little unfair. I hope that they have made up some new trivia questions, to even it out and to be more fair.

Chris

Volendam Jan 2-12,2006

Cpeters40, I actually had this problem as I had sailed with John for 45 days from 9/29 to 11/12 and then again 1/6 to 2/6. He did of course change his questions around and get new ones after the first trivia game when he realized several of us from that cruise were on this one. It's kind of funny, do you really think any of us could remember trivia questions from a few months back? I don't remember what I ate last night:confused:

 

Trisha

[Deb C.]

Hey Trisha,

 

Thanks for the compliment on my hair!:D

 

On your last cruise, did they give prizes for trivia winners? Thought I had read that they didn't give out many (but maybe that was another cruise line!)

 

Any other cruises planned for this year for you and Virgil?

 

Deb:cool:

[kakalina]

Hey Trisha,

 

Thanks for the compliment on my hair!:D

 

On your last cruise, did they give prizes for trivia winners? Thought I had read that they didn't give out many (but maybe that was another cruise line!)

 

Any other cruises planned for this year for you and Virgil?

 

Deb:cool:

 

Yes, I won so many dam cups, key rings, luggage tags and calculators that I was giving them away. We are planning an in town move :eek: in May and depending on how that goes we may book an Alaska cruise. We have been thinking about renting a one way car here and driving to Fairbanks or Skagway and picking up the ship there for a cruise back home, it would be a long drive, but oh the scenery that we would see would be so worth it:D . Otherwise the only cruise we have booked is in '07, that's a round trip out of Boston that does Greenland, Norway, Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, London, Dublin and Cork. Or something like that anyway. We are really looking forward to that one!

I truly do hope we meet again I really enjoyed getting to know you and wish we had had more time together. Have you got anything planned already? Where and for how long?

 

Trisha