Princess Trivia Cheating - is this common?

[ram1977]

Hello, I'm new to this website and quite new to cruising in gerenal. My husband and I have done 3 Carnival cruises over the last 2 years and did our first on Princess earlier this year. While we thoroughly enjoyed the Princess cruise we did come across one thing that we never saw on our Carnival cruises.  Let me start by saying that we are not Trivia experts and do not take it seriously, but we do really enjoy meeting people, having a drink and having a good time while answering the questions. We didn't ever win any of the quizzes on Carnival but had a great time meeting people. There were usually only a couple of quizzes a day on Carnival but we were happy to see days when there were 4 or 5 trivia contests on Princess.

 

Now comes the problem! We teamed up with new people virtually everytime we did the trivia, and we usually got about 15 out of 20 answers correct. However the winning team always got all 20 correct. And it was always the same team (An older couple). This went on for a few days - no big deal we thought as the prizes were pretty awful! There's only so many plastic coasters you can want...right? Anyway, on about day 5 we teamed up with a couple who said they knew the people that won all of the time and they're long time Princess cruisers who keep all of their previous quiz answer sheets in a book and look at them while the quiz is going on! I actually thought they were joking but as we were sitting closer to the 'winners' for this quiz I did look over and sure enough, out came the little book filled with old answer sheets! Now I have no problem with people remembering answers from previous quizzes but this seemed like some pretty strange behavior to win a naff prize! the 'cheats' were an older couple too, probably in their early 70's - definitely old enough to know better. As the cruise went on we talked to more and more people who knew of them and what they did! A lot of people in the trivia contests were getting quite angry by their always perfect scores and it did make the atmosphere a little uncomfortable sometimes. I really don't want to sound like a bad loser but it is nice to go to a trivia contest and know you have a small chance of winning!

 

Now this cruise was out of San Pedro and we are thinking of doing a Mexican riviera cruise on the Royal later this year, also out of San Pedro. The trivia contests aren't something that will make us decide not to take a cruise but I just wondered if anyone else has encountered something like this on board?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback

[riffatsea]

Funny but we have been on many Carnival cruises and have enjoyed trivia on most of them.

Sometimes we win and sometimes we don't. On our first Princess cruise last year through the Panama Canal we found to our surprise that the so called trivia questions were more like riddles with weird answers and not what we'd call "trivial" at all! In addition there were NO prizes and it was not a cumulative game!! Just a one game thing with no prizes given at all!

After that we stopped going on that cruise.

We have a Mexican Riviera Princess cruise booked for this spring and will be interested to see how the trivia goes on that cruise.  It would be sad to think that cheating is rampant. It sounds like it was just that one couple that you found and not the general rule.

[Crown Cruiser]

The best way in my opinion to keep this from happening is to change the trivia questions/categories frequently.  We have been on cruises where it’s the same questions. Do we cheat?  No, because, #1 it’s wrong, and you’re right, we don’t want the same coasters!  More fun if it’s not the same old same old !

 

but it seems some people just want the attention of winning at any cost !

[nukesubsailor]

9 minutes ago, ram1977 said:

Hello, I'm new to this website and quite new to cruising in gerenal. My husband and I have done 3 Carnival cruises over the last 2 years and did our first on Princess earlier this year. While we thoroughly enjoyed the Princess cruise we did come across one thing that we never saw on our Carnival cruises.  Let me start by saying that we are not Trivia experts and do not take it seriously, but we do really enjoy meeting people, having a drink and having a good time while answering the questions. We didn't ever win any of the quizzes on Carnival but had a great time meeting people. There were usually only a couple of quizzes a day on Carnival but we were happy to see days when there were 4 or 5 trivia contests on Princess.

 

Now comes the problem! We teamed up with new people virtually everytime we did the trivia, and we usually got about 15 out of 20 answers correct. However the winning team always got all 20 correct. And it was always the same team (An older couple). This went on for a few days - no big deal we thought as the prizes were pretty awful! There's only so many plastic coasters you can want...right? Anyway, on about day 5 we teamed up with a couple who said they knew the people that won all of the time and they're long time Princess cruisers who keep all of their previous quiz answer sheets in a book and look at them while the quiz is going on! I actually thought they were joking but as we were sitting closer to the 'winners' for this quiz I did look over and sure enough, out came the little book filled with old answer sheets! Now I have no problem with people remembering answers from previous quizzes but this seemed like some pretty strange behavior to win a naff prize! the 'cheats' were an older couple too, probably in their early 70's - definitely old enough to know better. As the cruise went on we talked to more and more people who knew of them and what they did! A lot of people in the trivia contests were getting quite angry by their always perfect scores and it did make the atmosphere a little uncomfortable sometimes. I really don't want to sound like a bad loser but it is nice to go to a trivia contest and know you have a small chance of winning!

 

Now this cruise was out of San Pedro and we are thinking of doing a Mexican riviera cruise on the Royal later this year, also out of San Pedro. The trivia contests aren't something that will make us decide not to take a cruise but I just wondered if anyone else has encountered something like this on board?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback

Unfortunately there will always be some scumbags who get more pleasure out ot screwing someone out of a nickel than earning a dollar honestly.

[vampiress]

how weird.  no i have never seen that.  i wonder what enjoyment they can possibly get out of it.  the whole point, at least for me, it thehead scratching thinking of answers and the bad jokes

[ehogan]

I have also seen some use their iphones or tablets to research answers.  One can only hope the internet on board is too slow to be useful!

[Colo Cruiser]

Cruise Critic is a great platform to expose all kinds of cheating on Princess not just trivia.

It is the selfish life many live these days.

[ram1977]

15 minutes ago, Crown Cruiser said:

The best way in my opinion to keep this from happening is to change the trivia questions/categories frequently.  We have been on cruises where it’s the same questions. Do we cheat?  No, because, #1 it’s wrong, and you’re right, we don’t want the same coasters!  More fun if it’s not the same old same old !

 

but it seems some people just want the attention of winning at any cost !

I really agree with your last statement - sad but true!  If someone wins fairly I'll happily congratulate them but i don't like cheats!

 

So do you think that the cruise staff use the same questions too often. I suppose if they are using the same 20 questions and not mixing them up then it makes it easy for our 'cheaters' especially - if they can find the right sheet in their little book!

[nukesubsailor]

7 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Cruise Critic is a great platform to expose all kinds of cheating on Princess not just trivia.

It is the selfish life many live these days.

So true.  No better place for Princess to learn how people were smuggling liquor onboard or how they would share the unlimited drinks and canned soda from the former All Inclusive Beverage Package and take steps to end such thievery. 

[c-boy]

huh 🤨,   that's somethin' new, gettin' man handled by  conniving super seniors in trivia.  Kinda hard to police people at these events.  Princess should  mix it up and pull random question cards from the trivial  pursuit game .  

[MamaFej]

37 minutes ago, ram1977 said:

Now I have no problem with people remembering answers from previous quizzes but this seemed like some pretty strange behavior to win a naff prize! the 'cheats' were an older couple too, probably in their early 70's - definitely old enough to know better.

4 is old enough to know better.

[Level six]

I just witnessed the same thing a week ago on Princess.  A group with a  binder full of previous trivia questions!  The best was when the cruise staff became aware and played music instead of asking questions......awesome.  We graded their paper and after all their perfect scores, they got 8 out of 20.  It honestly was the best!!  

 

But, we were on 4 B2B on NCL and they did repeat the questions.  We just play for fun, so unless the other new team members came up with the answer, we would not give the answer unless we knew it before the previous trivia.  It's no fun to cheat.  Trivia was created to allow people to meet other cruisers and have fun, not to have the great honor of winning a coaster!  I refuse to take trivia so serious, but several on Princess do, which makes it less fun.  

[rkacruiser]

On a very long HAL cruise, someone stole the  Assistant CD's trivia question binder.  There had been much controversy between this gentleman (who was not the most competent person in this position I have ever met) and a couple of teams.  The gentleman had to resort to, I guess the internet, for future trivia session questions.  The competition was "cut-throat" among some of the teams and dulled my desire to this day to participate in such a game.

[leck57]

One day the prize will be a bottle of that rancid champagne that Princess occasionally use as a prize. That'll fix them.

[elliair]

We were on a Princess cruise and sat in on a trivia show.  We noticed that one of the players in a group next to us was on their laptop on the internet and looking for the answers.  So yes, cheating does go on - ALL THE TIME!

Edited September 12, 2019 by elliair

[Coral]

Who cares that much about winning a trivia game?

[Colo Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Coral said:

Who cares that much about winning a trivia game?

Apparently many people on many cruises. 

[ram1977]

25 minutes ago, Level six said:

I just witnessed the same thing a week ago on Princess.  A group with a  binder full of previous trivia questions!  The best was when the cruise staff became aware and played music instead of asking questions......awesome.  We graded their paper and after all their perfect scores, they got 8 out of 20.  It honestly was the best!!  

 

But, we were on 4 B2B on NCL and they did repeat the questions.  We just play for fun, so unless the other new team members came up with the answer, we would not give the answer unless we knew it before the previous trivia.  It's no fun to cheat.  Trivia was created to allow people to meet other cruisers and have fun, not to have the great honor of winning a coaster!  I refuse to take trivia so serious, but several on Princess do, which makes it less fun.  

That was the word I was looking for! A binder full of old quiz papers - I said a book but I know what I meant! I wonder if it was the same people.

[vampiress]

to be fair, i've been on my phone the whole time before, i am super addicted to spider solitare. but it never occurred to me to look the answers up, i also don't generally pay for internet

 

seriously, cheating at boat trivia is super low

[BIGADORF]

There will always be people who like to beat the system. Whether it’s parking in disabled parking spaces when they shouldn’t, cheating on their taxes, or even something as “trivial” (pardon the pun) as fixing the Trivia game. Don’t let those people spoil your experience. Play the game fairly and have satisfaction in knowing that you did the best you can by playing fairly. 

[Aus Traveller]

21 minutes ago, Coral said:

Who cares that much about winning a trivia game?

I have seen some of the practices described above. These people don't do this to win the prize, they do it to prove they are 'smarter' than everyone else.

[Lucky TGO]

46 minutes ago, leck57 said:

One day the prize will be a bottle of that rancid champagne that Princess occasionally use as a prize. That'll fix them.

I have seen people cheating at trivia for years on Princess. Just to win a Princess  keychain. But I don’t blame them for cheating 😳 to win a bottle of that Great Champagne that the boys make fresh every Tuesday in the boiling room..😳😁😁

 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Lucky TGO

[Brian1713]

Wouldn’t it be funny if you knew they were cheating , then got their sheet to score....and they ended up with a 5 instead of 20. How would they justify it?

[TheRabbit]

I'm not sure tracking previous answers you wrote down verses looking up new ones on your phone is one hundred percent cheating, but beating a group that does this is heaven! Came across this several years ago on a Quebec to NY cruise. Person I teamed up with had been on the previous cruise and saw them writing down everything asked. We were able to beat them about 5 times over the 12 day cruise. FYI, they stayed on at every port to play. Their loss! LOL

[TheRabbit]

42 minutes ago, Brian1713 said:

Wouldn’t it be funny if you knew they were cheating , then got their sheet to score....and they ended up with a 5 instead of 20. How would they justify it?

I would pay extra to cruise to see that one!!!!