Are prizes equally crappy fleet-wide?

[elycelynne]

Just wondering. On my last two cruises aboard the Noordam, the prize for winning anything (trivia, pub trivia, name that tune, etc.) was pins. Cheap, crappy pins.

 

Is this a fleet-wide practice now, or is it at the discretion of the individual ships' CDs, show hosts (and possibly hotel directors)?

[InTheWASide]

Just wondering. On my last two cruises aboard the Noordam, the prize for winning anything (trivia, pub trivia, name that tune, etc.) was pins. Cheap, crappy pins.

 

Is this a fleet-wide practice now, or is it at the discretion of the individual ships' CDs, show hosts (and possibly hotel directors)?

 

Haven't seen anything but pins in a long time... but some may depend on the ships and what they have on hand at any given time

[freestyling]

pins were the prizes in the last year aboard NA, Zaandam, EuroDam and Westy.

[iflyrc5]

On our 45 days on the Statendam this past Jan/Mar everyone that played trivia that wanted a pin got one - this actually made playing much more enjoyable since there were no arguments as to the correct answers to the questions. The CD did offer a drink to anyone if they could prove with documentation that an answer he gave was wrong - my DW earned a drink. Also, if a team got 100% correct he would give drinks to the entire team but in 45 days the best any team did was 2 wrong. Yes - the days of the DAM dollars are long gone.

 

Our 45 day cruise had lots of sea days and on the way back to San Diego from the south pacific they did have a "Carnival" on the Lido deck with various games sponsored by the various departments on the ship. You were given Statendam dollars for those events depending on how you did and the folks with the 5 highest dollar amount won some nice prizes. I think this is only being done on the Statendam and only on cruises with lots of sea days.

[Globaliser]

Is this a fleet-wide practice now, or is it at the discretion of the individual ships' CDs, show hosts (and possibly hotel directors)?

If you win enough pins, eventually the CD will relent and buy you drinks instead.

 

Although this is not necessarily a good thing if trivia happens to take place at 10 am.

[take us away]

Only other prizes we have seen in many years is on the grand cruises where you are awarded 'dam dollars' that can be turned in for prizes. Have a small collection of 'stuff' like small bears, zip drives (a crowd favorite), pedometers that sometimes work for a day or 2, HAL umbrellas, lighted pens, little flashlights, plus the all time favorite - HAL ties (you will probably find one in the bottom of your bag as they have problems giving these away). To put this into perspective, you will a few 'dam dollars' for a game and it costs 25 'dollars' for a little bear.

[take us away]

If you win enough pins, eventually the CD will relent and buy you drinks instead.

 

Although this is not necessarily a good thing if trivia happens to take place at 10 am.

 

But as a good friend once said "it is 5 pm somewhere in the world"

[Krazy Kruizers]

For the last few years, on the various ships that we have been on, pins were given as prizes.

Only the World Cruise and Grand Voyages give out the "Dam Dollars".

[whogo]

Two or three bottles of champagne were given away on our January Veendam Hawaii cruise. We also received a free drink when a staff member was fifteen minutes late to a quiz.

[Spinner2]

I think how a participant sees these things could be a function of previous experiences--perhaps a cruise where the prizes were substantial, or hearing that was the experience of others; just a different expectation.

 

A year or so ago a HAL CD told our CC group that the CD has a very limited budget for prizes, meet/greet favors, etc. This wasn't where they wanted to spend their entertainment budget; high value prizes too often led to arguments and hurt feelings. Of course this philosophy saves HAL some money, but his explanation was that the goal is to encourage people to join these activities for fun, not to win something valuable and in the process it does keep down arguments that can arise when the prize is valuable or hard to get any other way.

 

And the DAM Dollars (DDs) thing has been explained many times in about the same way to many of us (but of course not everyone happened to read about it, so I'll mention what I've been told by several cruise directors) is that there was way too much photocopying of old DAM dollars and bringing them on board for a new cruise to present a big stack, for a gift of some value. Sometimes the CD was presented with more DDs than had been printed for that entire cruise and they often didn't have that much merchandise on board for so many DD prizes. It is not their policy to call anyone out for cheating . . . thus, out went that program that a lot of us enjoyed. The original idea, I believe, was that generally the most that the average passenger could earn would lead to a modest prize--this too wasn't meant to be anything more than just for fun.

 

Many might see these decisions as "cutbacks" but others might see that there's always a budget--how should it be allocated? And if there are expensive, or unusual, prizes, what kinds of arguments will it lead to if people fight over them?

 

I'm not sharing any inside information, I dot have any source for that, n't I've led a bunch of CC M/G's and when you tend to work with the same CDs on these several times, you do hear snippets of this or the other. I know that once a CD, on a long cruise, offered to host a second M/G for our rather large (more than 50 people) group--he'd do all the arranging and inviting of the whole group; he said he had enough little HAL souvenirs he'd donate so everyone would get one; we wouldn't have to do anything to plan this but come, and one of our people actually asked if instead of souvenirs the "gifts" could be HAL sweatshirts for all of us! (As the CC M/G contact, I was mortified!)

[Scrapnana]

Pins were the common prize on my recent 21-day Westerdam cruise. Adult beverages were given a few times and twice (out of numerous trivias I attended) a deck of HAL cards were given.

[iancal]

I am of the belief that if you can't give out anything of value then why give it out. Last two times on RCI they left those cheap pins in our cabin.

 

A complete turnoff since we both scoff and chuck them in the bin. A three cent made in China pin does not turn our crank...even if or does have the cruise company name on it.

 

if I were a CD I would be embarrassed to hand these out. Giving nothing is better than that.

[Oceanwench]

At Disney World, similar pins cost at least $6.95!

:eek:

 

But yeah, pins are all we've gotten for quite a while.

[freestyling]

At Disney World, similar pins cost at least $6.95!

:eek:

 

And variuos HAL pins on ebay are $2 and up :D.

[kazu]

hnnnn, I thought people played trivia for the fun of it and the fun of winning and not so much the prizes.

 

The pins are valued by some for sure. Trust me I know, since they were the "big" prize at a wine tasting once. It was obvious one person wanted them :):rolleyes:

[elycelynne]

I already knew the story about the DAM dollars. It was explained to us at trivia by the CD on the Eurodam in 2011. I started cruising with HAL after it was discontinued, so I have no first-hand experience with that program.

 

I just noticed that in the short time I've been sailing with HAL (since Dec. 2009), it's gone progressively downhill, until it was "all pins, all the time". On the upside, it really does make you care a lot less if you don't win (and they take up a lot less space in my suitcase or tote bag).

[elycelynne]

hnnnn, I thought people played trivia for the fun of it and the fun of winning and not so much the prizes.

 

The pins are valued by some for sure. Trust me I know, since they were the "big" prize at a wine tasting once. It was obvious one person wanted them :):rolleyes:

 

Well yeah, we do play for the fun and the bragging rights, but the prizes were a nice little bonus.

[WpgCruise]

I am of the belief that if you can't give out anything of value then why give it out. Last two times on RCI they left those cheap pins in our cabin.

 

A complete turnoff since we both scoff and chuck them in the bin. A three cent made in China pin does not turn our crank...even if or does have the cruise company name on it.

 

if I were a CD I would be embarrassed to hand these out. Giving nothing is better than that.

 

Interesting.

 

I was taught that any gift, big or small, cheap or expensive, was a gift and the proper response was to say "thank you".

 

I suppose we're all different, and that's what makes the world go round.

[Caribbean Chris]

Wow, realizing from this thread how lucky I was to enter the recipe contest about five or six years ago on a long westbound transatlantic (before the big cuts in cruise staff.)

 

Only a few people entered, apparently, and on the last full day, one of the staffers called and asked me to meet her in a lounge to pick up my prize, which turned out to be a big HAL plastic bag stuffed full of swag. A dam ships sweatshirt with zip neck, dam ships navy blue ball cap, a large and very useful big screw-top plastic water bottle with logo, pen, and several other small logo items I can't remember. Quite a haul!

[sail7seas]

They used to give stuffed full large tote bags full of HAL items during the many years of Mr/Ms 'whichever dam ship'. It was a game designed to get guests speaking with each other and last day of the cruise during the CD's farewell talk in Show Lounge (which has also gone the way of the do do bird) the winners received that big bag of gifts.

[Banditswife]

But as a good friend once said "it is 5 pm somewhere in the world"

 

Had to laugh at this:D

[sail7seas]

At Disney World, similar pins cost at least $6.95!

:eek:

 

And variuos HAL pins on ebay are $2 and up :D.

 

Just wondering. On my last two cruises aboard the Noordam, the prize for winning anything (trivia, pub trivia, name that tune, etc.) was pins. Cheap, crappy pins.

 

Is this a fleet-wide practice now, or is it at the discretion of the individual ships' CDs, show hosts (and possibly hotel directors)?

 

 

 

It's a token souvenir. Pin it on your Medallion Ribbon on Mariners Brunch Day? Pin it on a tote bag........ Treasure the memories if not the trinket.

 

If you really want a t shirt or mouse pad or whatever, they likely have something in the gift shop you might enjoy having.

 

[Wakepatrol]

We don't need no stinkin pins!!!!

 

[Banditswife]

The real prize -IMO- is the fun & fellowship w other shipmates. It's all just for fun, if you don't want your pin, leave it, someone else would love to have it.

[two4me]

Our last cruise, we had a bottle of champania,lol in our room

which my hubby thought he would tackle, well close to end

of cruise we gave it to cruise director to give as a trivia prize,

we couldn't take it with us so.... why not!