Day One on board the Carnival Imagination consisted of learning important things about our ship: where our mustering stations were in the event of a catastrophe, where our meeting rooms, individual staterooms, and luggage were located; how strong the fruity drinks were. We also met on what would end up being our SQL Cruise deck (aft, starboard side on the Lido deck) to go over Why We Are Here. This was not an existential discussion of Life, the Universe, and Everything, but rather why we (trainers and students alike) were on SQL Cruise. Brent and I spoke of our desire to provide deep dive training in both technical and professional development areas of concern to a small number of students that would allow for group interaction and cross-training (even on topics we were not presenting on.)
The way SQL Cruise was structured we were able to foster a sense of community between all cruisers, Brent, and Tim all prior to ever being within sight of the ship. This led to more-productive networking and customized training once we were all together on the High Seas.
Rebecca Mitchell won the SQL Sentry Netbook
Afterwards we all collected for a first night buffet dinner and then met once again on the SQL Cruise deck for our first sponsor event of the cruise: The SQL Sentry Search the Ship Contest. The winner of this first contest would receive a SQL Cruise Netbook sponsored by SQL Sentry. The premise was simple: all students and guests would be divided into teams of 4-5 you need to secure a laptop, digital camera, and a USB SQL Sentry lava lamp. You will then be given a list of photographs that you must stage as a team. You are then awarded points based upon the successful composition of the photos. The winner of the netbook will be selected by random drawing from the list of members from the team with the most points at the end of one hour. The teams would occasionally check in or we would see them running around on ship. It appeared that everyone was having a great time! We heard several reports from teams that other travellers on the cruise wanted a copy of the list so that they could join in. Peter Shire of SQL Sentry even provided us with a challenge: a shot of the lit SQL Sentry lava lamp, on a piano, while the piano is being played. We met that challenge 5 times over thanks to our students!
The list the Cruisers had to work from is reproduced below:
- Picture of team with crewmember of ship – must be wearing epaulettes.
- Picture of team with elderly couple in either Hawaiian print shirts or funny hats.
- Picture of team with someone wearing shorts with dark socks.
- Picture of team at base of water slide as someone is finishing their run on the slide.
- TEAM CHOICE: Photograph of team member with oddest funniest person – subjective points awarded by judges on scale of 0-3 points.
- Team picture with wedding, bachelor, or bachelorette party. Extra point for each male team member wearing a tiara.
- Picture of team with people soaking in hot tub. Bonus point for each person in tub holding an apparently fruity drink. Two bonus points if the drink has an umbrella. Maximum of 6 points for this photograph.
- Photograph of team on dance floor with visible disco ball.
- Team picture of bartender with drink shaker. Three bonus points if he/she is shaking the SQL Sentry lava lamp like it is a drink shaker. Additional two bonus points if the lava lamp is lit.
- Picture of team with SQL Sentry lava lamp on a piano. Two additional bonus points if someone (can be a team member) is playing the piano. One additional bonus point if the lava lamp is lit.
- Team photo in the buffet line.
- Team treadmill photo shot.
- TEAM CHOICE: Two team members re-enacting the Titanic “King of the World” shot.
Photos from the various teams are viewable here:
- Team Rebecca’s SQL Sentry Scavenger Hunt Photos
- Team All-Men’s photos
- Team All-Ladies’ photos
- Team Diane’s photos
Oh, and the winner of the SQL Cruise / SQL Sentry netbook? That would be Rebecca Mitchell (@SQLPrincess on Twitter)! But after seeing the smiling faces on all our Cruisers I’d have to say we all won!
Thank you Cruisers and thank you SQL Sentry!