We started our cruise on land in Seattle, Washington at the beautiful old KR Trigger building.  We set up a Saturday buffet with bahn mi sandwiches, pupusas, and good old tacos, and we stocked the bar with our favorite beers and wines.  The cruisers and their plus-ones got to know each other in a relaxed environment before we set foot on the boat.

Doug and Michelle Lane at SQLBBQ

About half of the cruisers and speakers showed up for this early tradition, and half were still making their way to Seattle.  For this cruise, our farthest traveler came from Austria (Klaus Aschenbrenner), and we had a few from the UK.  Everyone was jet lagged this first day, though, so rather than doing karaoke after the SQLBBQ, we all went home to our hotels and crashed.

Sunday morning, a few of us gathered at Lowell’s in the Pike Place market for a hearty breakfast before boarding the Norwegian Pearl for a week of Alaskan sightseeing and SQL Server training.  We had a funny moment when Red Gate’s Grant Fritchey said, “I’m really excited about meeting the StackOverflow guy.”  I pointed to my right and said, “Actually, you’re eating with him right now – this is Kyle Brandt.”

Grant and Michelle Fritchey at Lowell's (and Kyle Brandt at the right)

My favorite thing about SQLCruise is the discussion between cruisers – seeing them get to know each other better and learn from each other.  Even just at SQLBBQ, one of the guests said, “I’ve learned more in the last four hours than I’ve learned in the last four months at work.  I’ve been trying to decide how to architect my new server, and I learned the right answer right here!”  If you just sit and listen in a class without asking questions, you’re only hoping that your particular problem will get addressed.  At SQLCruise, we make sure everybody gets to ask the questions they’re struggling with every day, and we break up into small groups to get everybody the right answers.

The discussions moved from restaurants to the bar as we boarded the Norwegian Pearl.

Norwegian Pearl - Great Outdoors Bar

We talked about our technical challenges, our home cities, and the excursions we’d planned for Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Victoria.  After dinner, the party moved into the Star Bar, where we gathered for the first official onboard activity.

The Red Gate Photo Scavenger Hunt required cruisers to break up into groups, then run around the boat as fast as possible looking for a series of items.  The whole team had to be photographed with the item, which meant the cruisers couldn’t even take the picture – they had to recruit strangers to work the camera.  Photography scenes included getting on the disco floor, finding a man with a funny hat, finding a sign with a version of SQL Server, and re-enacting a scene from the Titanic.

The winning team was eligible for a series of prizes including an iPad, a 1TB external hard drive, and more, but we had to have a tiebreaker to determine the winner.  After our most exhausting finale yet, Grant Fritchey awarded the Red Gate iPad to Christina Leo.

Red Gate Scavenger Hunt Winners

We retired back to our cabins (well, some of us partied first!) to get some sleep before the first full day of training.