Princess Trivia Cheating - is this common?

[Torence]

11 hours ago, caribill said:

 

I was once on a team where one of the team members would say in a loud whisper a joke answer.

 

Problem was that one time the joke answer was the correct one and not the one our team had put down. The team that used the "joke" answer beat us by one point.

Wow, that's something I never thought about, the "joke answer" actually being the correct one.  I guess it goes to show that if you cruise (or play trivia) enough, you really do see it all.  I have to point out though, your team member really needs to work on his "joke answers".  LOL

[TheRabbit]

On 9/15/2019 at 8:16 PM, MamaFej said:

I'm a dorky nerd. As such, I like NPR (National Public Radio for those of you not from the US and/or unfamiliar). I really enjoy their "game shows" on the weekends such as "Wait, Wait, don't Tell Me!" The shows sometimes have quizzes based on the past week's news. While many like to get away from the news while on vacation, it might be nice if some trivia questions were based on semi-recent news. It would make those notebooks obsolete. 

One of the Geo questions on a 2016 cruise was what is the number of planets in our solar system? Immediately about a quarter of the people competing indicated there was a problem Houston!

Of course this was question was written earlier right after Pluto was demoted, but we did not know that. Problem was there is evidence of a 9th planet with 10 times the mass of the earth that scientists have not found. Its existence was announced a few months before the cruise. Now, what's the answer? LOL

[richsea]

13 minutes ago, TheRabbit said:

One of the Geo questions on a 2016 cruise was what is the number of planets in our solar system? Immediately about a quarter of the people competing indicated there was a problem Houston!

Of course this was question was written earlier right after Pluto was demoted, but we did not know that. Problem was there is evidence of a 9th planet with 10 times the mass of the earth that scientists have not found. Its existence was announced a few months before the cruise. Now, what's the answer? LOL

Interesting point, lol. And that’s why people who play have to realize that it’s not life or death!

Some years ago we had a moderator who told everyone prior to the session there was a right answer, a wrong answer, & (possibly) his answer, & his answer was the right one for that day. Then he tell all that we’re here to have fun; then would say “if you don’t like it.....”, & with a flourish would point toward the exit. In 14 days, we never had a problem. Best moderator we ever had.

[NCbmwmom]

I love Trivia! It took me 4 cruises to finally win Game of Thrones, and I was more proud of that than anything. I lost a name that tune trivia twice by missing the exact same song. 

[Level six]

31 minutes ago, NCbmwmom said:

I love Trivia! It took me 4 cruises to finally win Game of Thrones, and I was more proud of that than anything. I lost a name that tune trivia twice by missing the exact same song. 

That always happens to me, same song!!  haha

[Level six]

1 hour ago, TheRabbit said:

One of the Geo questions on a 2016 cruise was what is the number of planets in our solar system? Immediately about a quarter of the people competing indicated there was a problem Houston!

Of course this was question was written earlier right after Pluto was demoted, but we did not know that. Problem was there is evidence of a 9th planet with 10 times the mass of the earth that scientists have not found. Its existence was announced a few months before the cruise. Now, what's the answer? LOL

The answer is............it doesn't matter!!  Whatever answer the cruise staff has, because, who cares!!  It is for fun not college admissions.  

[ahl]

2 hours ago, TheRabbit said:

One of the Geo questions on a 2016 cruise was what is the number of planets in our solar system? Immediately about a quarter of the people competing indicated there was a problem Houston!

Of course this was question was written earlier right after Pluto was demoted, but we did not know that. Problem was there is evidence of a 9th planet with 10 times the mass of the earth that scientists have not found. Its existence was announced a few months before the cruise. Now, what's the answer? LOL

It is often up to the discretion of the assistant CD hosting the game as to what answers will be accepted. Sometimes they can be persuaded to accept alternates, sometimes not. In one trivia, the answer was a large North American animal once hunted by Native Americans. Most Americans know this animal as the Buffalo (hence Buffalo, New York, the "Buffalo Nickel", etc.) But the assistant CD, from the UK, would only accept "American Bison" as the correct answer, despite many protests. (During the same cruise, another trivia session question was: What three animals are named in the song Home on the Range? Of course, Buffalo is specifically named in the song as one of them.)

[Yukonjake]

On the Ruby in March of this year, there were kids who had the wi-fi package and they were Googling the answers to the trivia questions. So, yeah, it happens.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Yukonjake

[Daniel A]

On ‎9‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 7:14 PM, nukesubsailor said:

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. 

Don't forget about selling coffee cards on eBay.

[Daniel A]

On ‎9‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 8:57 AM, partybarbie said:

My dad likes to play trivia, so I go with him.  We have also observed the cheaters and their little blue Princess journals filled with answers from prior cruises.  God forbid you correct their paper and mark one of their answers wrong! The question was who in the original Star Trek television series was the second in command of the Enterprise.  Instead of writing down Mr. Spock, they put Dr Spock (a writer of numerous childcare books).  They insisted that their answer was the correct one and changed their score.  They still lost to another team, which made them look even more petty.  Unless I cruise with my dad, I no longer go to trivia.  I would rather spend my time elsewhere, than arguing with idiots. 

 

If I remember correctly, Doctor Spock was also an expert on childish behavior....

[JF - retired RRT]

33 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

If I remember correctly, Doctor Spock was also an expert on childish behavior....

👍

[suzyed]

On 9/16/2019 at 9:15 PM, neverbeenhere said:

The wife says that I am a treasure trove of worthless information. So, we don’t participate in trivia. 😜

 

 

 

Please, I would appreciate no agreement from the cheap seats. Thank you. 

Actually you are perfect participant for trivia!

 

[callmedeb]

I love to play trivia. On one B2B I (my team and I) managed to win a few, lost a lot, and got a "boobie" prize for lowest score (3 1/3). It's just fun.

 

Now people think we cheat at music trivia, but two of my cruising friends are music trivia fiends and rarely get a question wrong. I do well with general knowledge, pop culture, lit, and movies.

 

It's just fun.

 

I have seen the binder people. I like to sit near them and loudly announce that the binder cheaters are at it again SMH.

 

😃

[partybarbie]

I've thought about holding my own trivia contests in the library.  I'm going to bring some old 1980's Trivial Pursuit cards.  To get a question correct, one must give the appropriate answer from the 1980's.  The prizes will be be from either the Dollar Store, or whatever I can scrounge up around the house.  Let the games commence! 😉

[Thrak]

Current trivia: Almost over now though. We just went through (are almost finished with) Palindrome "week". From 9/10/19 through 9/19/19 the date (in the US obviously) reads the same forward as backwards. Useless information and, as I said, only counts in the US where we do our dates different from everybody else. (We are, of course correct and everybody else is wrong!)

 

I love palindromes. They are spelled the same forwards as they are backwards. Racecar is the simplest one I know. There is a northern California town by the name of Yreka which has the "Yreka Bakery" - another nice palindrome. How about "Madam, in Eden, I'm Adam". I love "ten animals I slam in a net" (weird, I know) and "Straw? No. Too stupid a fad. I put soot on warts".  Then there are the "combo" palindromes. "A slut nixes sex in Tulsa" can combine with "Live, warm, raw evil" to make "A slut nixes live warm, raw, evil sex in Tulsa". Pretty cool combo which is still spelled exactly the same in reverse. There are some very long and complicated palindromes but, of course, they don't readily come to (my) mind.

 

There. You have now acquired more absolutely useless knowledge. Or not... On our last cruise we were asked, "What US President is on the $100 bill?" The answer, of course, is NONE. Ben Franklin is on the bill but was never president. I gave the crew member one he didn't know which was, "What Roman Numeral was used to represent Super Bowl 50?" The Roman Numeral would be "L" but it wasn't used. Instead, they used the actual number "50". He gave my wife a full set of the "fabulous" Princess coasters as a reward for a question he could use. (She had won ONE coaster for something else and we had joked with him that "drinking alone" was the only use for a single coaster.) Now we have a set of 6 coasters that are - sooooooooooooooooo - very fabulous.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Thrak

[suzyed]

10 hours ago, partybarbie said:

I've thought about holding my own trivia contests in the library.  I'm going to bring some old 1980's Trivial Pursuit cards.  To get a question correct, one must give the appropriate answer from the 1980's.  The prizes will be be from either the Dollar Store, or whatever I can scrounge up around the house.  Let the games commence! 😉

We do a little trivia with our friends....we love it!  It would be fun to do more!!  Great idea!

[Tucker in Texas]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

On 9/15/2019 at 8:16 PM, suzyed said:

One question we have gotten several times is "what is the name of the horse in Jingle Bells?"  People will answer Bob, Bobtail, Jingle Bells and, sometimes the host even has an answer of one of those.  Actually, the horse is not named in the song.  

 

[cormike1]

We sail on Saturday and we love to play Trivia.... I hope we get some of these questions and I can remember the answers by then lol.

 

[caribill]

15 hours ago, partybarbie said:

I've thought about holding my own trivia contests in the library.  I'm going to bring some old 1980's Trivial Pursuit cards.  To get a question correct, one must give the appropriate answer from the 1980's.  The prizes will be be from either the Dollar Store, or whatever I can scrounge up around the house.  Let the games commence! 😉

 

That makes your prizes 10 times more valuable than Princess trivia prizes.

[pablo222]

8 hours ago, Thrak said:

I love palindromes.

Cruise related:

 

A man.  A plan. A canal.  Panama!

[Kimba2]

OMG - six pages?

[Level six]

1 hour ago, Kimba2 said:

OMG - six pages?

Haha, lots of cheating going on!

[Vexorg]

I feel like they could make one of those Christopher Guest mockumentaries out of all the drama surrounding cruise ship trivia.  I don't think I've ever seen any of the more egregious stuff here, but I do recall seeing stores about the "Trivia tippers" on the board before.  I generally do reasonably well at trivia, but my most dubious trivia-related accomplishment was being the first person in two years who knew the answer to the "impossible" question that the staffer running the quiz liked to throw in at the end (something I remembered from one of the many useless facts books I used to read when I was younger).  I didn't win the quiz, but did get a prize for getting that one right.

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, Vexorg said:

I generally do reasonably well at trivia, but my most dubious trivia-related accomplishment was being the first person in two years who knew the answer to the "impossible" question that the staffer running the quiz liked to throw in at the end (something I remembered from one of the many useless facts books I used to read when I was younger).  I didn't win the quiz, but did get a prize for getting that one right.

 

Soooooooo...??? Are you seriously just going to drop that one in here and not elaborate?

[Gretchendz]

Wow..the number of replies here shows what a problem this has become.  We cruise often (not always, but usually Princess) and enjoy trivia very much.  We have seen much of the behavior reported here.  Like many of you, we like to play for the fun of it, not the coasters.

 

I have heard rumor of websites where people track the Princess trivia questions and answers. I have not looked to see if it's true because I don't want to know. 

 

I wish the cruise staff running trivia would do a few simple things to help reduce this because it does ruin the fun for everyone else.

 

1) Announce at the start of each session that cheating won't be tolerated and that if anyone sees someone else using a book or device to cheat--they should report it.  The crew may not like actually enforcing it, but perhaps the announcement would at least reduce the blatant cheating. They can do it humorously by talking about the crummy prizes.

 

2) There are zillions of sources of trivia questions--find some new ones cruise directors :) Lots of new ones.

 

3) On a recent Cunard cruise, they announced sternly at the start of each session--"No arguing, we are always right."  People accepted it. In fact, on two different nights the same question came up and two different crew gave two different answers :) Folks were a bit miffed but laughed and accepted it.

 

4) I like to think if there was someone blatantly cheating (like with the book) I would have a conversation with the offenders. And, if that failed, bring it to the attention of the crew.

 

P.S. You can tell we don't cheat because sometimes we get a question we had on a previous cruise and we still can't get it right :)