ONBOARD THE CELEBRITY BEYOND -- At 4 p.m. on our first sea day, I dropped into a cruise ship trivia game unlike any I'd ever attended. The star of the show? Captain Kate McCue's pet cat.
Feline fooled? Don't be: The elf sphynx (hairless) cat, full name Bug Naked, has phenomenal fans, and when I showed up to the Beyond's Club at showtime, the room was busy. I sat in a back row, in front of a family gearing up for the trivia quiz. The subject was a Bug's Life.
One of the cruise hosts took the mic to welcome everyone to the game. When the crowd found out that Captain Kate and Bug were about to take the stage, a murmur of excitement rippled through the room. Then we found out that the winner of the trivia game would get to hold Bug and have their picture taken with her (!!!).
Out came Celebrity's two celebrities: McCue and Bug. The cat was dressed in an outfit, and McCue had a furred blanket thrown over her shoulder -- for Bug's warmth? For effect? -- no matter, it was stunning. McCue held Bug aloft for the room to see, and the room oohed. Phone cameras were whipped out.
McCue and Bug settled into a chair on the stage, and Bug was wrapped in the blanket. Then the quiz began. How old is Bug? In which Beyond suite did Bug first take a bath? Does Bug have an EU passport? Does she have status with American Airlines? What did she dress up as at Christmas?
Bug Naked was wrapped in a blanket on Captain Kate's lap during a game of trivia on the Celebrity Beyond. Photo Credit: Rebecca Tobin
McCue, wearing a face mask like all Celebrity crew, gave away no answers. Meanwhile, Bug surveyed the audience through narrowed eyes, as only a cat can. When one of the possible answers to the Christmas question was "Angel, because she has an angelic meow," the announcer held the mic close to Bug. On cue, she meowed. The room ahhed.
A lot has been written in Travel Weekly about McCue and her position as the first female U.S. cruise ship captain, her passion for bringing gender diversity to seafaring positions and her social media presence. A later Q&A session with McCue did in fact attract more passengers to the main theater than the Bug trivia quiz did to the Club, and I was again impressed by McCue's commanding presence, gentle humor and fearless approach to her work.
But Bug has a serious presence of her own. "How many followers does Bug have on Instagram?" was one of the quiz questions. "I think about 45K," I whispered to my husband. (I was wrong. The number is higher.) Oh, and Bug has a TikTok, too.
It was time for the answers to be checked and scored. The main fact I know about Bug Naked from my interviews with McCue is that McCue calls Bug an MSM -- marine support mammal. Bug often hangs out on the bridge during maneuvers, and McCue claims that her presence helps calm nervous officers. Unfortunately that wasn't one of the questions on the quiz, so my score would have been dismal.
In deference to future Bug trivia participants, I won't reveal answers. But the competition was fierce. The family behind us knew a lot about the cat, but they didn't know enough. The winner got 15 out of 15 correct.
The winner got to hold Bug as promised, and the rest of the participants surged to the front of the room to get a closeup of Bug and McCue.