My wife and I took our first cruise after the Year 2000 non-event. It turned out to be the most exhilarating vacation we'd ever had. Cruises have been around well before the Titanic. Originally, the ships served as a way to get from one continent to another, until the passenger jet airplane took off. Now, as vacation destinations, they're making a serious comeback, with hundreds of cruise ships visiting thousands of ports all over the world and over twenty new large ships scheduled to be sailing within the next few years. In a bid to increase their market share, many cruise lines offer theme cruises, ranging from big band music to Cajun cooking to Star Trek.
In fact, it was Neil Bauman's first cruise, a Star Trek cruise featuring cast members from all the Star Trek television shows, that gave him the idea to found Geek Cruises (www.geekcruises.com). Having a conference on a cruise ship wasn't a new idea (conferences at sea aren't uncommon in the law and medical professions), but a "Geek Cruise," targeted at software engineers, was. Bauman has considered himself to be a geek for at least two decades. And, if you read this magazine, chances are you're also a geek. It's not a derogatory term, but rather a compact description of someone who is inquisitive, exploratory and driven to excel. Geeks need to grow, sometimes in ways that ordinary industry conferences can't address, and Bauman believed cruise conferences could provide geeks with top-notch technical information, and allow them to expand their "inner geekness" through new experiences. "I'm trying to provide an awesome and rich geek experience," Bauman said when asked about the cruise. "Clearly, I'm introducing geeks to cruising for the first time. More than 90 percent of our attendees have never been on a cruise ship before."
Day Zero
With one cruise under my belt, I had some idea of what to expect on the Java Jam. Since I planned on shopping in the various ports, I brought an empty suitcase. I also knew that the ship's cabins typically had only one or two free outlets, so I brought a power strip to run my laptop and battery chargers for various electronic gadgets. Since the ship has formal dinner nights, I also packed a tuxedo and suit.
The earliest flight from Denver arrived moments before the ship left, so I flew out a day early. This gave me time to get to know some of the geeks and speakers at the party that night. It also gave me a chance to do a bit of shopping—as you might guess, snorkeling gear is more competitively priced in Ft. Lauderdale than in Denver.
The party was held at the hotel's marina, and we were surrounded by beautiful, but unbelievably expensive yachts. I quickly discovered that very few of the attendees had ever cruised before, so I found myself telling some of the geeks what they could expect in the coming days.
I also tried my best to get a good night's sleep, as I knew I would get little sleep once on board the ship. When I go on a vacation or to a conference, I sleep very little because there is so much to do: I can relax when I get home. As this trip was both a conference and a vacation, I expected to get even less sleep.
Day One—All Aboard!
After a leisurely morning, we boarded a bus to the ship. Holland America's Ryndam is literally a floating resort. On this cruise, it held its full complement of over 1,200 passengers, more than 100 of whom were Java Jam attendees and their spouses, significant others and families.
Cabins typically hold two people and can be located towards the interior or exterior of the ship. Cabins on the exterior, or outside, can have a window. Each cabin has its own bathroom in addition to a TV, safe, and plenty of closet and drawer space. If you want to be decadent or just want more space, suites and mini-suites with verandahs are also available.
The Ryndam is 720 feet long (think of a 70-story skyscraper laying on its side), has eight elevators, a library, casino, movie theater, health spa and two outdoor swimming pools. There are plenty of bars, restaurants and shops as well. The passenger decks consist of five decks of cabins and five decks of public rooms. The main dining room spans two decks at the stern (for you landlubbers, that is the back of the ship). The theater spans two decks at the front of the ship and is used for evening entertainment. Bars run the gamut from intimate piano bars to a lounge called the Crow's Nest at the very top of the ship. And, of course, there are conference rooms.
Holland America prides itself on service. Each section of rooms is presided over by a steward (or stewardess). Like elves, they tidy up your room when you're not looking. If you have a problem or a question, the steward can probably provide a fix or an answer. You will also have a waiter, busboy and headwaiter you will see every evening at dinner and often at other times as well. Holland America maintains a ratio of one crew per two passengers, providing a level of service exceeded only by upscale cruise lines at twice or three times the price. The ship's officers are in attendance at parties and dinners, the shows have dozens of performers, and you can often find someone varnishing a deck at three o'clock in the morning.
The first thing I did after dropping my bags in my cabin and checking the day's schedule was visit all of the ship's public areas, ending at the buffet for a late lunch. The ship is large but finite, so I was able to figure out where things were pretty quickly. As the ship sailed out into the ocean, I gathered with other passengers in the Crow's Nest.
Dining is typically a lavish affair on cruise ships and tonight was my introduction to it. Each dinner consists of a choice of appetizers, soups and salads, followed by a choice of entrees and finally dessert. The choices include delicacies such as escargot, crab legs, lobster, prime rib and baked Alaska. My table was at the very back, affording a view of the wake behind the ship. Besides an assigned table, each passenger also has an assigned seating time—mine was the early 6:00 p.m. seating rather than the later 8:15 p.m. seating.
I was assigned to a table for six that included several of the conference speakers. The speakers for the Java Jam were an interesting and authoritative mix. Most of them are published authors, many with O'Reilly & Associates. Several work for Sun, and most have Java experience stretching back almost as long as Java itself. I was rather surprised to find that most of the speakers were younger than myself—this is typically not the case at other conferences.
Day Two—The Caribbean
I awoke early to watch the sunrise, a cruise tradition I'm starting to cultivate. As I ate breakfast, I watched as we sailed past several small islands, finally dropping anchor not far from Half Moon Cay. This island, owned by Holland America and used exclusively by their ships, has miles of beaches, both pristine and civilized (with chairs and bars). Here, you can indulge in everything from sunbathing to snorkeling to parasailing. The island is also riddled with hiking trails, and there is even a lagoon for kayaking.
As we left Half Moon Cay, the geeks gathered in one of the larger conference rooms for Neil Bauman's "Welcome Aboard" speech. Bauman then introduced Steve Roberts, who spoke about his Microship project.
In 1983, Steve left a normal life to roam across the U.S. on a custom bicycle, communicating his adventures via CompuServe using a Radio Shack Model 100 computer. His latest project is to roam America's waterways in a pair of small ships that will serve as living quarters, transportation and communications hub for Steve and his partner Natasha Clarke. Their voyage, which will be chronicled on their Web site (www.microship.com), will start in the Pacific Northwest and take them across the Northwest, down to the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida and up the Eastern Seaboard, and then finally through the Great Lakes. Roberts's ships are wonders of miniaturization (unlike the Ryndam!). Starting life as 19-foot canoes, they've been modified with full cockpits, a mast, pedals and retractable wheels for portages. The ships' electronics are extensive: There are hundreds of sensors, controllers and user interface devices, as well as wireless networking and satellite communications, all of it driven by banks of solar cells. At its heart is a Linux server running custom Perl scripts.
After Roberts's presentation, I scurried back to my cabin to dress for dinner. In keeping with cruise tradition, several nights require formal dress, and this was the first of two. Apparently some geeks resist the concept of dressing up, so Bauman provides special "Wizard" bow ties. Clip it on any shirt, add a pair of nice pants and a sport coat, and you could hold your own against anyone in a tuxedo.
Day Three—Feed Your Mind
The Java Jam conference takes advantage of the time the ship is at sea by reserving that time for conference sessions. On this cruise, we had two full days at sea, plus other odd hours. The majority of sessions were three hours long, held either in the morning or the afternoon. And there were five tracks to choose from during the days at sea.
After the relaxing day at Half Moon Cay, I was ready to knuckle down for some serious learning. As a relative neophyte with Java, I decided to start with Ethan Henry's Java Fundamentals sessions. His track stretched over a total of four sessions and included a CD-ROM with development tools and sample projects. Other sessions that day covered servlets, XML, JDBC, Perl and Jiro (Java-based management services for storage networks).
I took a brief afternoon break and toured the ship's bridge. The Ryndam is infested with computers. In fact, the bridge and engine room systems allow the ship to run largely unattended, although watch officers and staff man the bridge 24 hours a day and rarely turn the ship over to the computer. Fortunately, none of the geeks on this trip seemed remotely interested in hacking this system. They did, however, use the Internet Café to monitor e-mail and election news (yes, it was that week). In addition, most geeks brought laptops, and there were also several desktop systems and printers, along with high-quality LCD projectors.
After dinner that night, Core Java 2 (with Cay Horstmann, Prentice Hall, 1999) author Gary Cornell hosted the keynote session. He examined some of Java's drawbacks and how Microsoft's C# language was designed to fix them, before detailing some of the drawbacks of C#.
Since many attendees brought their significant others, there was even a group of sessions designed to teach non-geeks how to get along with their geek partners. Psychologists Wendy Forman and David Greenwald hosted these sessions, covering a variety of issues related to interpersonal relationships with a specific focus on the problems geeks (and workaholics) encounter in their lives. As Bauman said, "Not only are these topics relevant and valuable to the geeks, but employers should readily appreciate the benefits of providing some mechanisms by which their employees can deal with their stresses and their lives outside of the office."
Holland America provided good conference rooms, although some of them were not able to provide adequate power for the plethora of laptops (geeks who brought power strips tended to keep them in their rooms). Fortunately, I was able to recharge my batteries (and my stomach) between sessions.
For lunch, I noticed that most geeks tended to gather either in the Lido buffet or at the pool area on the same deck. The buffet included various soups, salads and entrees, and even had an ice cream bar. If nothing looked appetizing, the pool area offered burgers, pasta and a taco bar with decent guacamole. And eating on the deck allowed me to watch a dolphin pacing the ship.
Day Four—Grand Cayman
When I arose for sunrise, I found we were already at anchor off George Town, Grand Cayman. The cruise offered several shore excursions here at minor additional cost: The trips ranged from rides in two types of submarines to a tour in a glass bottom ship to an endangered sea turtle farm. I had heard rave reviews about the Stingray City tour (which took passengers out to a sandbar teeming with stingrays) so I booked it immediately upon boarding the ship.
After a short lecture about how to behave around stingrays, everyone stepped off the boat into waist-deep water. There were at least a 100 people there, from our boat as well as others. However, there were probably at least a 1,000 stingrays swimming through the crowd. As the slick sea creatures slid past my legs, I felt as if I was in a room full of friendly cats. We could feed and hold the stingrays: like docile cats, they enjoy being petted and cuddled.
After the tour, I visited some of the duty-free shops to stock up on some of the local delicacies. Before dinner, there were a few short conference sessions. As part of my job involves applications localized for multiple languages, I attended David Czarnecki's (coauthor of an upcoming book, Java Internationalization, to be published by O'Reilly & Associates) session on Java Internationalization. While I was familiar with some of the issues, I found there were many areas of potential problems that I had not considered, mostly dealing with accented characters and capitalization. Other potential problems related to bi-directional languages such as Arabic and Hebrew whose main direction is right to left. Those areas do not impact me today but might soon. I wish this session had lasted longer than an hour.
Day Five—Cozumel
As we didn't reach Cozumel until noon, we had another group of five sessions in the morning. Again I sat in on Henry's Java Fundamentals, although I could have attended EJB, XML, servlets or regular expression sessions. Right after the sessions ended, many geeks left the ship at Playa del Carmen for some of the Yucatan shore excursions. Randal Schwartz, one of the Java Jam speakers, for instance, took the flight to Chichen Itza, the most impressive of the Mayan ruins, while others boarded a bus to visit the coastal ruins at Tulum.
I joined a group of geeks, led by Geek Cruises Entertainment Director Bill Harp, to visit the Chankanaab National Park south of where we docked. This park offered snorkeling, sunbathing and swimming with dolphins. The park also features a lagoon fed from the ocean through underground caverns and a botanical garden with numerous Mayan stone carvings.
Due to our late arrival in port, we didn't sail until almost midnight. This gave the geeks a chance to gather at Carlos 'n Charlies, a local nightspot. We were joined by some of the crew from our ship, as well as passengers from some of the other ships in port that day. And on our way back to the ship, we still found time to shop for native crafts, gold, jewelry and onyx carvings.
Day Six—-More Classes
It was a good thing we had a day at sea after Cozumel: The sessions were well attended despite the effects of the previous evening's entertainment. Since I have a Perl-based discussion forum on my Web site, I decided to attend the second half of Randal Schwartz's Perl class. Schwartz is probably the second-most knowledgeable Perl developer on the planet (first, of course, would be Larry Wall, Perl's creator). He's a powerful speaker with a great sense of humor, which is obvious in the sample code he uses. Other sessions that day included subjects such as Jini, security, Jiro and wireless. I also took time to attend an afternoon trivia contest with other passengers. The geek team, which included "Geek on Patrol" Adam Turoff, Steve Roberts and myself, managed to win first place and get souvenir mugs.
During the afternoon, I was able to corner Neil Bauman for a discussion about Geek Cruises and what he hopes to accomplish with the concept. "Like most computer conferences," Bauman said, "we offer some pretty in-depth and heady stuff. However, we also provide what land-based conferences can't—an enormously conducive environment for learning, one that is completely removed from the usual stress and strains we face day to day in our personal lives as well as the pressures from being tethered to the office via our beeper, phone and e-mail."
It's almost impossible to compare the Java Jam with other industry conferences because it's an apples and oranges comparison: They're both fruit, but that is where the similarities end. To start with, the Java Jam price covers all your food and entertainment as well as lodging. The food, in this case, is food most of us seldom eat due to its expense, and the entertainment is also more elaborate than most of us would get on any other vacation. In addition to nightly shows in the main theater, there were first-run movies, fitness activities, shopping, lectures and the ports themselves.
Another difference is that this conference has only a few days of sessions, compared to other conferences that may have five full days of sessions or pre- or post-conference tutorials. The conference session length, however, is misleading. I've noticed a sad trend in regular conferences: Typically, a speaker may fly in one morning, present a session or two, and fly home the same day. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to ask detailed questions and debate issues.
On the Java Jam, all speakers were aboard for the duration and were available for roundtable discussions at almost any time (most of us slept very little). Due to the recreational nature of a cruise, we found ourselves spending valuable time with the speakers and other attendees during the non-classroom time. Jim Farley, a speaker at the conference, agreed. "The various distractions of the cruise actually help," Farley said. "There is something very memorable about discussing obscure technical topics while exploring ruins in Tulum or while having an outstanding meal in Cozumel."
Before dinner, Geek Cruises sponsored a geek trivia contest, with teams of four. I didn't enter as it was billed as "Java and Internet" trivia, but probably should have, as I knew a number of the answers. We dressed up for dinner again—this was the last formal night.
After dinner, we adjourned to the Crow's Nest for the Geek Cruises Wizards' party. Later, the lounge hosted a karaoke party. I always thought geeks were shy and reserved, but this party proved otherwise. Randal Schwartz was, from my viewpoint, the most talented geek there with his musical solo performance of "Mack the Knife," which played well to the crowd. Numerous other geeks participated, including Bill Harp, who belted out an excellent rendition of "La Bamba." Even the geeks who didn't go on stage to sing managed to sing along to most of the songs as background accompanists.
J.D. Hildebrand, an industry icon and editor and publisher of such magazines as Computer Language (which later became Software Development) and Windows Tech Journal, once wrote that a high percentage of geeks also have musical ability. While this conference didn't have a band composed of geeks, future conferences may. One of the speakers, David Czarnecki, said he had spent several hours at a recent Java One conference in San Francisco playing in a geek band and called it one of the more memorable experiences in his life.
Day Seven—Key West
Upon docking in Key West, I was happy to find my cell phone functioned again. After checking my messages, I spent the morning shopping and just wandering around, before taking a kayak trip through the mangrove swamps that afternoon. As the ship pulled away from the dock, the geeks gathered on the bow for the full conference photo.
Geek Cruises also sponsored a pub-crawl that included a visit to Ernest Hemingway's house and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. Key West is also home to the Mel Fisher museum, which holds many treasures from shipwrecks such as the Atocha.
After dinner, everyone retired to the Crow's Nest for one last night of revelry, but we had to adjourn early to pack our suitcases, because they needed to be in the hall before midnight. The cruise was almost over.
Retrospective
As our ship sailed into Ft. Lauderdale, many of the geeks gathered around the pool for the last breakfast, unwilling to believe their time at sea was over. As we all exchanged business cards and took pictures, I found others enjoyed the conference as much as I did. "One of the best parts of a conference is meeting and talking to the participants," said Barbara Brooks of Motorola. "On the Java Jam, I got to really know many of the participants and most of the speakers, and it was one of the most relaxing vacations I've ever had."
After disembarking, everyone dispersed to the airport or hotels. A few of us managed to hook up at the airport as we awaited our flights home. When I returned to Denver that night, the temperature was well below freezing—a major change from the Caribbean.
Having attended many different conferences over the past twenty years, I must say I liked the Java Jam. There was one noticeable absence—there were no vendors. Most conferences have a vendor area or "expo" for companies who make products pertaining to the conference subject. We've all been to these conferences, and we've all returned home with "stuff we all get" (also known as SWAG). Well, there was none of that here (well, there was a little SWAG, but not the suitcase-filling batch from a large conference—we made up for it by shopping in the ports we visited). Attendees did end up with books relating to the sessions they attended. The lack of vendors was more than offset, in my opinion, by the intimacy of a small group and greater speaker-to-listener interaction.
Forward-thinking companies are also beginning to use Geek Cruises in innovative ways. Veranto, a company in the highly competitive San Francisco area, gives a cruise to anyone who accepts a job offer within 24 hours. Other companies are considering the cruises as devices to retain valuable personnel. Given that Arthur Anderson and the Saratoga Group have calculated that the cost to replace a software engineer can approach $250,000, it makes sense to offer incentives such as a Geek Cruise.
Would I go on another Geek Cruise? In an instant! I'd even be willing to spend my own money rather than my employer's to do so (and next time, I'll bring my wife). Will Geek Cruises succeed as a company? Well, it certainly looks that way at the moment. Bauman has five cruise conferences scheduled for 2001, eight for 2002, 14 for 2003 and a whopping 22 planned for 2004 (of particular note is a trans-Atlantic crossing in 2002 on the Queen Elizabeth II, the world's premier ocean liner, targeted at technical managers, CTOs and CIOs). These cruises cover a wide variety of subjects, including Linux, XML, databases, Lotus Notes, security, Visual Basic and Windows NT and 2000 administration. My only problem lies in deciding which cruise to attend next.