We’re proud to announce two cruises for 2011, and registration starts now!

March 6 – Miami to Grand Cayman and Cozumel – 5 Days

SQLCruise 2010 - Shoes Optional

This cruise is geared towards entry-level and beginner SQL Server Professionals who have 1-3 years of experience working with SQL Server.  We will be covering the early stages of advanced topics:

• High Availability – Clustering, mirroring, log shipping and replication are difficult technologies to master.  We’ll explain how to make the right choices.  Attendees don’t need any experience with HA, because we’ll be teaching you how to get started.
• Performance Tuning – When users complain that your SQL Server is slow, learn how to use the free tools SQLDiag and SQLNexus to get to the real root of the problem and prove it.
• SAN Storage – Learn what’s happening inside the black box.  We’ll teach you what SQL Server DBAs need to know about RAID and multipathing in order to get your money’s worth out of your SAN.
• Using DMVs – We’ll go into depth about our favorite dynamic management views for easier server management and tuning.  No DMV experience required – we’ll teach you from the ground up.

We depart Miami, FL on March 6, 2010 for a five day cruise to the Cayman Islands and Cozumel on board the Norwegian Dawn.  Book your cruise through Norwegian – rooms are as low as $400 per person, and you can choose from inside or balcony rooms.  The cost for training and materials is an additional $495.  (You only have to pay the training cost for folks who are coming to the training – if you bring your spouse & kids, there’s no training cost for them.  Unless they wanna learn SQL Server too, in which case, bring the crayons!)

May 29 – Seattle to Alaska – 7 Days – SOLD OUT!

Everybody into the hot tub!

This cruise is aimed at the moderate and advanced SQL Server Professional.  Our special guest speaker will be none other than Buck Woody (Blog – @BuckWoody)!  We’ll be covering:

• High Availability – We’ll dive into how active/active clustering, mirroring, and log shipping interoperate with each other to meet your HA and DR needs, and cover common implementation pitfalls.
• Performance Tuning – We’ll show you how to use SQLNexus to write a report for your internal users or clients to pinpoint performance problems.  We’ll walk through constructing and delivering that report to convince them to make changes.
• SAN Storage – We’ll cover what you need to know before you make a bad SAN investment decision.  Don’t buy more drives or a new SAN controller until you learn how to test with SQLIO, design for snapshot backups, and see the differences between vendor implementations of SAN storage.
• Using DMVs – We’ll go into depth about our favorite dynamic management views for easier server management and tuning, plus show how to consolidate the data for easier reporting.

Plus more, like how to give back to your local user group via presenting.  We depart Seattle on 5/29/2010 en route to Ketchikan, Skagway, Juneau, and Victoria on board the Norwegian Pearl.  Book your cruise through Norwegian – rooms are as low as $800 per person.  Cost for training and materials for this week-long SQL Cruise is an additional $895.

Update – in just one day, the Alaska cruise sold out! Spots are still available for Miami, though.

But The Best Thing You’ll Learn On Either SQLCruise…

Is that you’re not alone.  There are fun people who do the same thing you do all day long, struggling with the same issues, and we’ve all come up with cool ways to get things done.  Session after session, day after day, you get to bounce ideas off people who you respect.  We all share, we all bond, and we all relax together.  It’s easier to ask career questions, salary questions, or manager questions when you’ve got a margarita in your hand and everybody’s wearing flip-flops.

SQLCruisers Having a Ball in 2010

You want honest answers from real people?  Here’s where you’ll get ’em.

How to Register & When Payments are Due

First, you need to contact Norwegian Cruise Lines to book a room.  They’ll reserve your cabin with a $200 deposit per person, and you’ll need to pay the balance of the cruise before departure.

Then register for the SQLCruise training, and we’ll send you an invoice for the training fee.  Hopefully your company will foot at least that part of the bill, but if not, you’ve got until January 31st to pay that portion.

Your next steps:

• Download the SQLCruise 2011 brochure and leave it discreetly on your manager’s desk
• Check out Norweigan’s rates for the March 6th Miami cruise and the May 29th Alaska cruise (and note that you can book your room with as little as $200 down)
• Meet your fellow cruisers
• Register for the SQLCruise training
• Ask for forgiveness from your spouse

Act quickly – we’ve only got 15 spots open per cruise, and our prior cruisers have already booked spots on both cruises!

Update – the Alaska cruise has sold out! Spots are still open for the Miami cruise, though.

The SQLCruise 2011 schedule is set, and we’re proud to announce that Quest Software, SQL Sentry, and Red Gate have signed on to sponsor both cruises!

I’m proud of this because it shows that we made a difference in the community, and these companies saw the value in helping you get trained and have fun.  We simply couldn’t do this event without their help – both Tim and I take unpaid leave from our jobs in order to pull this off, and you can’t imagine how much planning and work it takes ahead of time, too.  Tim and I do this because we’re passionate about the community, and we want to build an event that’s completely different from anything else out there.

SQLCruise 2010 Back Deck Mixer Session

The SQLCruise attendees weren’t the only ones who learned on our first cruise – Tim and I learned a lot about event planning.  We’ve put even more time into putting the next cruise together, and we think you’ll be thrilled with the results.  We’re also pushing our sponsors harder to send people along on the boat, because they’ve got employees who are real experts in SQL Server and can lend a lot to the discussions.  In order to pull that off, we’re giving each sponsor a spot on the boat – and no, that doesn’t take away from your 15 open community spots.

You can read about our first cruise from Miami to Key West and Cozumel in our day-by-day blogs:

• SQLCruise 2010 – Day 1 Sponsored by SQL Sentry
• Day 2 Sponsored by Quest Software
• Day 3 Sponsored by Red Gate

On Thursday, November 4th at 8AM Eastern, we’ll announce the locations and dates of the 2011 SQLCruise schedule.  There are two cruises – a spring cruise out of Miami, and an Alaskan cruise out of Seattle.  We’re still limiting both cruises to just 15 attendees, and because we’ve opened up registration to our past cruisers, some of those slots have already been taken.  Space will be first come first serve, so come back here at 8AM Eastern or follow us on Twitter to get in on the fun!

In the meantime, join me in thanking @Quest_Software, @SQL_Sentry, and @RedGate for their dedication to the community.  If you’re going to PASS, stop by their booths, say hi, and thank them in person, too.  They do things like this for you, and they want to know if you appreciate it.

Want to get a sneak peek at the kinds of presentations we covered on the boat on SQLCruise 2010? Check out the first nine minutes of What I Wish I Would Have Known When I Started, brought to you by Quest Software:

We’re getting ready to announce our 2011 schedule – stay tuned, or subscribe to our updates via email.

Want to get a sneak peek at the kinds of presentations we covered on the boat on SQLCruise 2010? Check out the first six minutes of Tuning T-SQL Step by Step, brought to you by SQL Sentry:

We’re getting ready to announce our 2011 schedule – stay tuned, or subscribe to our updates via email.