Are prizes equally crappy fleet-wide?

[iancal]

Gift?????

 

I am not certain that anyone would place the 'trash and trinkets' given out at a cruise ship event in the same category as a gift.

 

This is junk given out by a commercial organization. No different than the nine cent advertising pen that you local garage may give out after you sign off on that $500 repair bill or the calendar that the bank may give you each December.

[Gojirart]

On our fall Statendam repositioning cruise, pins were the prizes for everything. Unfortunately, they were Alaska pins, from the previous voyage, which most of us did not visit on this cruise. After some complaining (not by us) they brought out the South Pacific pins that were for the next leg of the cruise after many of us would leave the ship! So, we went home with several pins that were not memories of anything related to the actual cruise we were on. :confused:

I actually mentioned this in my follow up review and got back a polite "We're sorry that this happened" and "we'll evaluate the prizes", but it sounds as though nothing has changed.

I also pointed out that the cheap chotzkes we got on earlier HAL cruises were actually things we used, and because the HAL logo was printed on them, people asked about our cruise experience when they saw them and it was like free advertising for HAL.

Oh well, as you say, we don't really play for the prizes anyway, but more to see if our brains are still cooperative at our age! :p

[ellieanne]

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)?

 

What would you consider a fair prize?

 

Bearing in mind that it has to be nice enough to be worth winning, but not so very nice as to induce cheating or fights, and still relatively cheap enough to be given out 6 at a time, at least twice a day every day (that's 65,700 "prizes" annually, assuming 2 contests awarding "prizes" per ship per day, with full teams of 6 winning each contest). Even the cheapest prize will run into serious money in those quantities.

[1of4]

I saw the inflatable ship being the prize during pool games. I like the pins better to be honest. DD and DS won a lot of them during the 20 day cruise and they were always different. Some HAL, some destination (Caribbean, Panama Canal, Alaska...).

[Fe504]

I would prefer to win a HAL pin over a "ship on a stick" .

[sail7seas]

One is always free to say No, Thank you to the trinket if they don't want it. No one will force you to accept an item you don't want.

 

[Bailey & Sophie]

One is always free to say No, Thank you to the trinket if they don't want it. No one will force you to accept an item you don't want.

 

Classy.

(Honestly, very classy. This is not meant to be snarky.)

[Randyk47]

One is always free to say No, Thank you to the trinket if they don't want it. No one will force you to accept an item you don't want.

 

 

We've done that......after awhile there's only so many coffee cups we can get in the kitchen cupboard and so many tote bags we can store in our closet. :) Of course that was back when those were some of the more typical prizes.

[USN59-79]

I don't play Trivia, so have never won any pins. But once the Amsterdam CD, Gene Young had a bag of them on the pier and gave me a handful. They were nice souvenirs to hand out to some children you might come in contact with in some third world countries.

[Globaliser]

Thinking back to prizes from days long gone, the ones I treasure most are the ship mugs, from the days when each ship had a specific mug and IIRC they were only given out as prizes; if you went to the shop, you could only get generic HAL mugs. So getting a ship mug was something to be valued, even though the mugs themselves don't actually cost very much.

 

I remember that my first one came when the cruise's schedule meant that bingo one day had to be at 9.30 am so the CD announced that it would be pyjama bingo. But I was the only person who was actually lunatic - sorry, fun - enough to attend in pyjamas.

 

I still have all of my mugs from that era.

[Nanner]

While the pins are the main prizes on all ships, on some of the longer, not "Grand" voyages, the CDs have done a few special prizes. On our 45 day Maasdam Mediterranean last fall, the CD split the cruise in 2 (there was a dominant team the first half) and gave the winners for both halves a dinner with him in the Canaletto. He also gave the first team to get a perfect score a round of drinks (took midway through the trip) and the first person to prove him incorrect on an answer a drink. I thought that was all pretty classy.

 

Gojirart, I can relate about not having pins relative to the cruise. 45 days, Mediterranean, and the CD had no Med pins!

 

A couple of years back on the VotV, the pub trivia was hard. Towards the end of the cruise a team finally got a perfect score, and the Asst. CD (now called "Show Host" for some reason) gave that team's members a swag bag with insulated mugs, Rubik's cubes, playing cards and some other "ship junk". The total cost if you purchased the items (for those you could purchase) was probably about $20 per bag, but it was a very nice gesture.

 

Do I play trivia to fill my luggage with prizes that have the HAL or ship's logo on them? No. Did I appreciate some of them? Yes. Were some of little value to me? Sure, but I can trade, decline or give them away. I have to admit I miss the variety of prizes from the past, but it won't ruin my cruise.

Edited May 21, 2015 by Nanner

[summer slope]

I love the pins I've collected on my few cruises. I have them on a felt piece I cut in the shape of a ship. I guess I'm in the minority.

[sevenseasnomad]

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)?

 

On our April Eurodam cruise, our trivia group received free drinks, anything each of us wanted to order, since we answered EVERY question correctly, even the bonus.

 

Now, ask me how we did during the rest of the cruise. On second thought, let's not, as we didn't fare too well, until the last night. The prizes after that first night were ship pins.

 

I don't know about most people, but we participate in trivia to meet other passengers and have a good time. To us, prizes, cheap or otherwise, never provide any incentive to play; we play to enjoy a few laughs & to meet people as already stated.

[YubaSutter]

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

 

Great that you're good friends with Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett.

[elycelynne]

What would you consider a fair prize?

 

Bearing in mind that it has to be nice enough to be worth winning, but not so very nice as to induce cheating or fights, and still relatively cheap enough to be given out 6 at a time, at least twice a day every day (that's 65,700 "prizes" annually, assuming 2 contests awarding "prizes" per ship per day, with full teams of 6 winning each contest). Even the cheapest prize will run into serious money in those quantities.

 

A BRAND NEW CAR! YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! YOU ALL GET CAAAAAAAARRRRRRSSSSSS!!!

 

Seriously though, even something like coasters, which at least have some practical value, would be okay. Free drinks were always welcome as well.

 

I guess I'll just learn to shift my focus to enjoying "the thrill of victory".

[CCRUZER]

On my recent Bermuda cruise I won a frisbee with the pins being a lesser prize. I asked for the pin instead of the frisbee. It was a pin for the upcoming Canada & New England cruise.

[summer slope]

Just to clarify, the pins we earned were for walking the deck, participating in the Relay for Breast Cancer, aqua challenges.

[Sue from Canada]

On our May 1st Cda/New England cruise (Maasdam) we had the option one day at Trivia of either a pin or a bottle of champagne.

[Oceanwench]

[quote name='freestyling'][quote name='Oceanwench']At Disney World, similar pins cost at least $6.95!
:eek:

And variuos HAL pins on ebay are $2 and up :D.[/quote]

Yeah - and Disney pins (or knock-offs) are even cheaper than that on eBay!
But we buy them at the park -- we are pin collectors. ;)

The pins make it fun when we're playing trivia or name that tune in the Piano Bar.
It gives the piano man something to do -- tossing pins to someone who shouts out the right answer -- and newbies are always happy to get them.

I know one member of Piano Bar Nation who gets a bunch of them each cruise (he's so smart) and at the end of the week, he gives them back to the piano man.
It's just the fun of winning them.

Back in the day when they gave out "better" prizes (key chains, mugs, hats, etc.) there were more arguments over who was first with the answer, or who was right ... I have seen it get ugly! Edited May 22, 2015 by Oceanwench

[Oceanwench]

[quote name='YubaSutter']Great that you're good friends with Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett.[/quote]

They sang it (5 O'Clock Somewhere) but they didn't write the lyrics.

[Lady Chew]

[FONT="Garamond"][SIZE="3"][COLOR="Indigo"]We were on the 75-day Grand Asia & Australia in 2012 ... they gave out dam dollars every session for the top 3 teams (or more, if there were ties) ...

But scores were cumulative, and the prize for the top team at the end was [B]MONEY[/B] - $50 OBC per person. Mr Chew & I were on the same team, so we had $100 to apply to our account (and boy, after 75 days, did we ever need it!)[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]