Trivia cheaters?

[houstoncruisers2001]

I have to admit I have never been to a trivia game on land or sea but after reading this thread I am looking forward to attending on my upcoming cruise and looking for those "desperate to win".:eek:

 

I'm with you. i love to see grown adults act like preschoolers.

[jeph]

Trivia quizzes are one of my favorite things about a cruise, and I try to attend them daily. For those who haven't been, I'd say don't avoid going merely because of the ridiculous stories you're reading here-- you have to understand that the people with, shall we say, "boundary issues" are pretty rare. I've seen that sort of thing in maybe one out of fifty trivia sessions, and I still don't let these weirdly hypercompetitive types spoil my fun.

[Cruisin' Chick]

i loved playing trivia but some of the questions were horrible.

 

i remember 1 that pissed me off, what dont any casinos have in las vegas.

 

well the answer was skewed cause theres a few answers and they said no to them.

 

1, windows. 2, floor 13 (except the imperial palace/the quad(just remodeled so i donno if they fixed it)) and 3, clocks.

 

they didnt accept windows or floor 13 but clocks was the answer? theyre ALL correct. pissed me off!!!!! i didnt argue tho. they gave out drink prizes on ours, not highlighters or key chains lol

 

A couple of cruises ago, some of us (three couples) joined up as one trivia team for several tries. We were all from Southern California (probably not the best thing given the many questions about UK culture in Princess trivia matches). There was one question about, I believe, which city is the Orange County airport located. We all knew this. Without a doubt. The crew member moderating had the wrong answer. We protested. Again, one couple lives miles away from this airport, we're about 50 miles, the third couple about 100 miles. We knew this answer. But we got overruled because the source (a British encyclopedia) said otherwise.

 

Seriously? That is so incredibly tacky. What a lovely couple they must be. They should be persona non grata on that cruise line to treat the staff with such disdain.

 

I guess I thought the trivia games would be a little more high tech like those in bars on trivia night which is done on a computer.

 

Apparently they had been on several thousand Princess cruises. I imagine that whenever a cabin steward sees their names on the name plate they're about to insert on the in-box, he or she groans loudly. Because it's forget about getting real tips from this couple.

 

I just wonder if these people who have to stoop to these levels do other similar stuff to people back home, or else they don't want to get a reputation among people they know, but all's fair in love and trivia amongst those they figure they'll never see again.

[citygirl62]

A couple of cruises ago' date=' some of us (three couples) joined up as one trivia team for several tries. We were all from Southern California (probably not the best thing given the many questions about UK culture in Princess trivia matches). There was one question about, I believe, which city is the Orange County airport located. We all knew this. Without a doubt. The crew member moderating had the wrong answer. We protested. Again, one couple lives miles away from this airport, we're about 50 miles, the third couple about 100 miles. We knew this answer. But we got overruled because the source (a British encyclopedia) said otherwise. [/color']

 

 

 

Apparently they had been on several thousand Princess cruises. I imagine that whenever a cabin steward sees their names on the name plate they're about to insert on the in-box, he or she groans loudly. Because it's forget about getting real tips from this couple.

 

I just wonder if these people who have to stoop to these levels do other similar stuff to people back home, or else they don't want to get a reputation among people they know, but all's fair in love and trivia amongst those they figure they'll never see again.

 

Maybe they are like the "Secret Santa" giver I got for my bowling tournament. I got a box full of used candles and 8 track tapes!!:eek:

[vacation luvver]

Now I don't know which is worse - when people cheat on the trivia tests, or when the host or hostess' answer sheet is wrong, and the host or hostess refuses to correct it.

 

I'm reminded of the times I saw "Family Feud" and "The Newlywed Game" on a cruise ship when the host refused to go by the rules and deliberately broke them just so that one particular team or married couple could win. Afterwards, I complained to someone (who had not been on the cruise), and she said, "But they're on vacation!" Meaning that it was okay for the host to cheat to let those people win. I said, "Yes, but the other people were on vacation, too. Why was it okay for the host to cheat them? How does the host look at people who are playing a game and decide which people he's going to help win, and which ones he's going to make sure they lose?" Of course, she didn't know.

 

Those were the only two times I saw those games on a ship. Since then, I stay clear of such games. Why waste time seeing people compete against each other, only to find out at the end that it doesn't mean a thing, because the host has already decided who is going to win?

[Lyndonn]

We used to love to play trivia.

But we did witness a couple of groups checking folders and little slips of papers. And of course they had all the answers right.

Haven't gone to a trivia game in a couple of years.

We've seen people take photos of the answer sheet using their Smart Phones for future reference. Gee...what some people will do to win a key chain????

[wwcruisers]

We have never gone to trivia on the ships and after reading all these posts, I know I never will. This is riduculous the extremes people go to in order to win a mug or key chain. Competition and will to win is one thing but wow....... is there no limit?

 

Doesn't sound like much fun to me.

 

I agree -- if there's no friendly competition, it's not fun. I stopped going to Bingo on RC, when they introduced the hand-held computerized cards. For me, getting a "BINGO" involves a level of skill and concentration -- you snooze, you lose. But, with these gizmos, a player could practically lapse into a coma during the game and still win -- the machine buzzes/beeps when you hit BINGO! :rolleyes:

Edited January 14, 2014 by wwcruisers

[Nitemare]

First time I've ever seen Bingo referred to as a game of skill! :)

[wwcruisers]

First time I've ever seen Bingo referred to as a game of skill! :)

 

LOL -- I'll have you know that it takes "considerable snake-eyed concentration" to make the right ball jump into the chute -- at precisely the right time! :p

(apologies to Dustin Hoffman: Little Big Man ;))

[hockeygal54]

We had one of these boorish know it all guys on my cruise last week. He showed up @ every game and generally did quite well until a question was clearly not in his comfort zone age wise. I got great delight in seeing my 23 yr old daughter with considerable pop culture knowledge beat him out on a question or two!!

 

BTW what city is Orange Co airport in? My iPhone isn't working! :)

[davecttr]

I like the daily trivia quizzes, especially the fighting :D

 

Over here on P&O the prize is usually a bottle of wine and they do make an attempt to curb the serial winners by imposing a handicap on previous winning teams. win one night and you will be deducted a point the next. win 3 times in a row and you will be deducted 4 on the next quizz.

[bonsai3s]

I like the daily trivia quizzes, especially the fighting :D

 

Over here on P&O the prize is usually a bottle of wine and they do make an attempt to curb the serial winners by imposing a handicap on previous winning teams. win one night and you will be deducted a point the next. win 3 times in a row and you will be deducted 4 on the next quizz.

 

...Really? :eek::rolleyes::confused:

[Lady Chew]

I like the daily trivia quizzes, especially the fighting :D

 

Over here on P&O the prize is usually a bottle of wine and they do make an attempt to curb the serial winners by imposing a handicap on previous winning teams. win one night and you will be deducted a point the next. win 3 times in a row and you will be deducted 4 on the next quizz.

 

On our HAL Grand Voyage, the prize was $50 onboard credit for each person on our team. Since Mr Chew & I played together, we had $100! Very nice!

[corieltauvi]

We've cruised about 25 times with Princess, played trivia a lot, and - yes - we have seen cheating. Internet devices, using pencil and eraser where there is self-marking, having some buddies in excess of the maximum allowable team size who help with answers (we call that pulling substitutes off the bench), marking another team's correct answers as incorrect. There are more.

 

The greatest irritations to us are:

a) People who take trivia seriously.

b) A cruise line recirculating the same questions and answers. Some people have cruised over a hundred times with the same company and remember nearly all the answers. (We're just off Emerald Princess where an excellent Aussie compere pulled random questions out of an enormous trivia question and answer book specifically to address that problem. And, oh boy, did he address it!!)

c) People who cannot accept that someone else can possibly know an answer which they don't .

 

You have to accept that occasionally a compere has a wrong answer, therefore shipboard trivia is about getting whatever answer the compere has written down even if it is wrong. Some examples are the Druids built Stonehenge, swimming pools at Olympic games have eight lanes, George Stevenson built the world's first steam locomotive, there is no such thing as 13-player rugby league...

 

So long as you don't take them seriously, trivias are tremendous fun.

 

Incidentally, a note for Cruisin' Chick. We've heard the story about 'that couple' several times. We thought it must be an urban myth - staff rely on tips to supplement their wages, and surely nobody could be so mean. But a couple of the cruise director's staff on Emerald assured us it is true.. One told us Princess have blacklisted them.

[Kathie44]

Just back from Silhouette last night. Great cruise and fun trivia. My complaint is the new system of not giving out prizes at each game. Now they have papers with 26 squares on them for players to get initialled each time. 3 for 1st place, 2 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd. Then on the evening of the last night you go and redeem your points. HAH! Unless you have an impossible amount of initials, even when you win 1st most of the time, it is slim pickins'.

I did enjoy the challenge, though, and fortunately was able to get in with a team with very good players. The Activity Staff did a great job and were lots of fun.

[JustCruiseMe]

Everyone keeps talking about team trivia players, we only played as a couple. How does the team thing work? If you win? There as only 1 SOAS stick when we won as a couple. I'm confused about the team thing. Are there special trivia games for teams?

[paul929207]

It may depend on the cruise line. On Princess there can be up to six on a team and each member of the winning team gets the exciting prize.

[Kathie44]

I've played on RCCL, but mostly on Celebrity. On this cruise we could have up to 6 on a team. For the last few cruises it's been only 4. On earlier cruises it was also 6. Some couples played by themselves, but I played with 4-6 depending who was available. On port days we were gone part of the day and teams were not always at full strength. Playing with 6 is good, because there is more input to help get the answers.

At home, I play Thurs. evenings at a local sports bar and sometimes we have to split into two teams if we have more than 15 show up. It's nice to have more than one age group because each generation has something to offer. On cruise ships I often play with people from other countries. Two of the regulars I played with were from Canada, but they knew a lot about the US, too. One game on this cruise it was just three of us women and we came in 2nd. In any case, it was fun all week.