“Trivia” is a staple of cruise ships and on this one it’s frenemies and friendlies
By Andy Yemma
The gamesmanship starts before the competition even begins. First, there is jockeying for the best seats—like at a busy beach resort where beach chairs are in short supply.
People have to get their teams together (no more than six!). And name their team. We are The Long Islanders, because we all have a connection. Eileen grew up there. I was born there, but lived there only briefly. Some of our teammates lived there too. Another dude likes Long Island Iced Tea.
Every day at 4:30 p.m. (ship’s time) is time for Trivia aboard the Regent Seven Seas Grandeur, drawing it seems at least a few hundred passengers to the Observation Lounge on Deck 11 “Trivia is a blood sport here,” joked one of the ship’s top executives. Albeit one with plenty of drinks being served.
Passengers aren’t really playing for prizes, though those teams who come in first, second or third can turn in their point cards for token gifts at the end of the cruise (a bookmark, perhaps?).
This game isn’t for the faint of heart, the weak of intellect, or the lack of imagination. Some of the questions are tough. How many US States have the same first letter as the state capital city? (Four – Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Oklahoma).
How many meters in a marathon? (42,195). Now here’s where it almost gets bloody. Most people were very close at 42 KM. At first no group claimed 42,195 m. Going once, twice, and suddenly one group claimed that they got it exactly. What the, even?
What is the smallest bone in the human body? (Stapes bone in middle ear, also known as Stirrup bone). But the MC didn’t say stirrup bone, only stapes, so our entry got counted out by a rival group scoring our entries. We protested. Won on appeal, much to the delight of other groups who had the same answer as we did.
To avoid the next team overhearing your answers, scratch paper and pencils are supplied—so you can compare notes without speaking. But that doesn’t stop some folks from blurting out their answers,
A little like middle school, perhaps. “We’ve made friends and frenemies,” joked Lani Oprescu.
“What I like about it on this ship is everybody is seems consensus-oriented and easy going, said New Yorker Sheelia Matts, a retired New York City school principal. She and her husband, Bill, have been on our team “The Long Islanders” since Day One of the cruise. We have finished third three times, second once.
Me to Bill: are people cheating? Bill: of course!
On some other cruises they’ve been on, Sheelia said, they’ve had teammates with the “my way of the highway” attitude. Some trivia MC’s too. “Don’t challenge me with the facts!”
We might have placed first in one of the early games. But we couldn’t quite remember the title of the third book in the Harry Potter series. When we later reported this to our youngest daughter, who grew up on Harry Potter books and movies, she joked: “You must be getting senile if you couldn’t remember after we binged all the movies last Christmas.”
“ZZZzzzzz!” I responded.
We still have more than a week until this transatlantic cruise ends in Barcelona. Here’s to the bloodsport!
