elycelynne Posted May 20, 2015 #1 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheWASide Posted May 20, 2015 #2 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freestyling Posted May 20, 2015 #3 Share Posted May 20, 2015 pins were the prizes in the last year aboard NA, Zaandam, EuroDam and Westy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iflyrc5 Posted May 20, 2015 #4 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Globaliser Posted May 20, 2015 #5 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
take us away Posted May 20, 2015 #6 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
take us away Posted May 20, 2015 #7 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Kruizers Posted May 20, 2015 #8 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare whogo Posted May 20, 2015 #9 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinner2 Posted May 20, 2015 #10 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Scrapnana Posted May 20, 2015 #11 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iancal Posted May 20, 2015 #12 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oceanwench Posted May 20, 2015 #13 Share Posted May 20, 2015 At Disney World, similar pins cost at least $6.95! :eek: But yeah, pins are all we've gotten for quite a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freestyling Posted May 20, 2015 #14 Share Posted May 20, 2015 At Disney World, similar pins cost at least $6.95! :eek: And variuos HAL pins on ebay are $2 and up :D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare kazu Posted May 20, 2015 #15 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elycelynne Posted May 20, 2015 Author #16 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elycelynne Posted May 20, 2015 Author #17 Share Posted May 20, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WpgCruise Posted May 21, 2015 #18 Share Posted May 21, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Chris Posted May 21, 2015 #19 Share Posted May 21, 2015 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sail7seas Posted May 21, 2015 #20 Share Posted May 21, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Banditswife Posted May 21, 2015 #21 Share Posted May 21, 2015 But as a good friend once said "it is 5 pm somewhere in the world" Had to laugh at this:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sail7seas Posted May 21, 2015 #22 Share Posted May 21, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wakepatrol Posted May 21, 2015 #23 Share Posted May 21, 2015 We don't need no stinkin pins!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Banditswife Posted May 21, 2015 #24 Share Posted May 21, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
two4me Posted May 21, 2015 #25 Share Posted May 21, 2015 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now