Ship Building Contest Suspended for a while

[off2ctheworld]

Cruisinetta Lynn, we are sorry to hear your ship building is coming to an end. For others reading this... On our Zuiderdam cruise several years ago, our CC group cheered Lynn on with her wonderful ship. The group became friends, as she shared with us building and name ideas on our roll call and all enjoyed celebrating her win. Having the ship building contest gave us something to enjoy on the sea day. Some of our roll call members even helped build the ship I think.

 

We hope to hear that Lynn's 2 next ship contests will be so much fun that HAL will reconsider their decision.

Edited February 8, 2012 by off2ctheworld

[bob brown]

I had a very interesting discussion with a CD who didn't speak "on the record" so I won't supply the name but after being fortunate to be on several cruises with this individual and having many interesting conversations as we have other interests in common, I think I can reliably share what I was told.

 

It seems that increasingly some people cannot just go aboard and enjoy the "home-grown" entertainment that has been arranged, not worrying about winning or losing or what you get out of it; just planning to have a little innocent fun. And as a result all of us have lost a few things that we've enjoyed.

 

Example, having nothing to do with ships: One of the main reasons that the DAM Dollars program went away is because (can you believe it!) people were coming aboard with fake DAM Dollars, ready to turn them in. It isn't hard, probably; take a a few home with you, photocopy, cut apart, and there you go. My CD contact found two things wrong with this. First, the ordinary participants, proud of their 10 or so Dollars and hoping to take home a little souvenir that could be "show and tell" with their family, were amazed to see that at redemption time folks they'd never seen at any of the contests showed up with HUNDREDS of Dam Dollars to redeem. The CD said that the regular players felt insignificant and somehow "poor athletes" in the face of what seemed to be a lot of talent the regular cruisers didn't have. They just didn't go away from the events with a very good feeling and it showed in their comment cards. They felt cheated and certainly that wasn't HAL's intention. We all know how seriously HAL takes comments on those cards.

 

And, as my contact frankly pointed out, there's a budget for these things. Not a lot of money on a single cruise, but across the fleet, handing out prizes that weren't earned did begin to add up. Many people had enough DAM Dollars to pick out something of value. The staff didn't feel they could call out anyone for all these slips of paper so they'd redeem them, but everyone knew it wasn't right. So the decision was made to just quit doing it.

 

Trivia is, I'm afraid, in trouble also. I've read on several threads recently where it's almost turned into a brawl on some cruises as schoolyard epithets are hurled (cheater! seems popular) and as people have fought for seats; other participants have been found to google under the table for answers (who has the money to spend on internet time to cheat at a simple little game?) and once again, HAL takes the hit in remarks on the comment card that encourage any sane entertainment director to just steer clear of all this negativity.

 

I don't think there's anything we can do about it as an organization for it's not our role either to call out the troublemakers, but even simple inexpensive entertainment is sometimes falling into the "no good deed goes unpunished" category.

 

And for the record? Those of you who imagine the shipbuilding contest deprives people of endless days and hours in the pool, that's not the case. The pool (or a jacuzzi) will be needed just once, generally on the last day at sea, and near lunchtime when usage of the pool is minimal anyway, for perhaps a half hour at most. Which body of water they use pretty much seems to depend on the sizes of the entries.

 

And there's no need to get complicated, with "classes" of entries and all. People don't all admire the same things; as Lynn has said she's often not won and she's a great sport about that. People vote for what they want to vote for, every CD doesn't run the contest in the same way so really, one can't tell what the judging might be based on. One's model ship creation is not a judgment of your worth as an individual; it's just for fun. Every ship could probably win in some category.

 

Regardless, a good-sized crowd usually gathers; at lunchtime there are a lot of people around. They all seem to enjoy seeing the entries and how they look in the water. A lot of people have a few minutes of fun for very little of HAL's time and probably no more money than the cost of the items that the shipbuilders scrounged.

 

After all, when Cruisinetta needs 8 soft drink cartons or some such those were going into the trash anyway. Now, after she uses them, they just go a little later. Shopping bags that she gathers up for the hull were given out anyway and if you look closely you can see the little dividers on her cabin balconies are often discarded menus, carefully cut out. That's part of the fun, I think.

I lament the end of the Dam Dollars program, as well as the earlier Passport to Fitness program. We always had a lot a fun participating in these activities, as well as the company of "all the usual suspects" that followed along. It was a great way of making friends aboard.

The collection of dollars was great incentive to keep participating.

It really saddens me to hear that some people will actually make counterfeits.

NCL still runs a similar program on their ships. Instead of 'dollars', they give you a card to collect signatures from staff at each activity that will count toward prize redemption. Perhaps HAL could emulate that?

I don't thing people would attempt forgery....

[Cruisinetta]

I used to give my Dam Dollars away. I had most of the prizes already and didn't need anymore. I agree that it was the best for meeting people and making life long friends. Now on the ships, it seems the only thing where you can meet people and stay with them thoughout the cruise is trivia. I have had some fabulous trivia teams and still keep in touch with a lot of them. "Those were the good old days". :o

[Lynn and Fran]

Hi Bob!

We located you. So you and Millie are going on another cruise in May? I know it's HAL but what is the date? I read some of the posts here. Why didn't we think of googling answers for the Progressive Trivia on the Silhouette? We only lost out on a prize by 1 or 2 points! Only kidding. Number one, none of us had a computer device with us. We could have tried an expensive "phone-a-friend" call. Everyone, Bob should be your choice for a trivia partner! We are off to Ft. Lauderdale soon for a Navigator followed by an Equinox cruise.

Bye for now,

Lynn and Fran

[bob brown]

Hi Bob!

We located you. So you and Millie are going on another cruise in May? I know it's HAL but what is the date? I read some of the posts here. Why didn't we think of googling answers for the Progressive Trivia on the Silhouette? We only lost out on a prize by 1 or 2 points! Only kidding. Number one, none of us had a computer device with us. We could have tried an expensive "phone-a-friend" call. Everyone, Bob should be your choice for a trivia partner! We are off to Ft. Lauderdale soon for a Navigator followed by an Equinox cruise.

Bye for now,

Lynn and Fran

Hi guys--

You are too kind with that recommendation:o!

Yes, we're going on the Veendam 6 May to Hamilton. And the NCL Gem on 18 September to Quebec. All from 'the city', of course.

Bon Voyage to you!:)

[Cruisinetta]

Lynn & Fran, you will LOVE the Equinox. I just had a cruise on that ship in December.

[bob brown]

Sorry to be resurrecting this 7 year old thread, but I was curious if ship building contest is happening any longer on HAL?

 

I am currently aboard Oceania Insignia world cruise, and they just started one....

[Krazy Kruizers]

No

 

There were too many cheaters.  Some people arrived with partially built ships.  How the staff found out about it but the last one we saw was about 8 years ago and when the ship builders arrived at the whirl pool, the CD immediately disqualified 2 groups.  That left only groups to compete against each other.