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COMPANY

Geek Cruises

Type: company
Industry: Technical Education & Travel
Founded: 2000

  • Geek Cruises

  • Geek Cruises was a pioneering travel company founded by Neil Bauman that organized educational, technology-themed cruise vacations (such as MacMania, Perl Whirl, and Linux Lunacy) for programmers, developers, and tech enthusiasts.
  • I was a frequent high-profile speaker and instructor on many of these voyages, teaching Perl and other technologies. Over the course of my speaking career, I accumulated 488 sea days total—spending more time at sea than most professional cruise staff (such as entertainment coordinators).
    • Having spent so much time on board, I became incredibly familiar with ship operations and crew secrets. I famously knew the cruise line's internal billing codes well enough that I would walk up to a staff member and ask them if they would "[redacted code]" me a drink—the secret crew code for a free complementary drink for a passenger.
      • Because of how frequently I sailed, I would often see the same bartenders rotated from ship to ship. It became a regular occurrence to step onto a completely new vessel and have a bartender recognize me immediately, saying: "Oh, back again Randal? Rum and diet?"
        • Over the years, I watched several crew members climb the ranks. I specifically recall watching one friendly bartender rise to become senior bartender, and eventually the senior overall bar manager. It was incredibly rewarding to watch their career progression over our shared years at sea.

  • Notable Cruises & Associated Memories

    • Alaska Inside Passage (August 2001): The 3rd Alaska Geek Cruise ("ScriptScape"), where Python creator Guido van Rossum held a private OO spreadsheet design session. See The Day I Decided Never to Learn Python.
    • Linux Lunacy (October 2001): The 4th Linux Lunacy cruise, featuring a spontaneous yelling match between Richard Stallman and Eric S. Raymond. See The Great Shouting Match.
    • Antarctica Cruise (February 2002): A highly anticipated tech cruise with Steve Wozniak that featured a last-minute cancelled Antarctica excursion. See Antarctica Excursion Cancellation.
    • Arctic Exposure (June 2003): One of the first digital photography cruises, where I learned photography techniques from instructor Chris Campbell during excursions in Sitka, Alaska. See Arctic Exposure Photo Cruise and Chris Campbell.
    • MacMania Cruises (General): I assisted with coordinating the technical curriculum alongside Apple PM of Automation Sal Soghoian, technology author David Pogue, and Macworld's witty "Macalope" columnist Rob Griffiths.
      • The Naming of MacMania 4.5 (June 2006): MacMania 4 and MacMania 5 had already been announced two years in advance, as these events typically were. But when Macworld magazine requested one more cruise in between them, it led to the unique naming of this Western Mediterranean voyage as MacMania 4.5.
    • MacMania (January 2007): The cruise where Steve Wozniak met his wife Janet Hill, which I witnessed. See Steve Wozniak Meets Janet Hill.

  • Booking Speakers vs. The Standard Conference Grind

    • Booking elite speakers for these voyages was a stark departure from the standard conference grind. At traditional technical conferences, organizers struggled to recruit top-tier talent who were weary of sterile hotels, exhausting flights, and speaking for an hour before rushing back.
    • For Geek Cruises, getting top people was never hard. Presenting on a cruise meant a free luxury vacation, high-fidelity networking, and the ability to bring their spouses or families along to beautiful, exotic destinations.
    • There was also an unintended, brilliant side effect: because ship bandwidth was low-speed and high-latency, everyone—speakers and attendees alike—was forced to not be online as much. This forced "digital detox" was almost enough reason in itself to join, fostering deep face-to-face conversations, uninterrupted teaching, and genuine relaxation that is impossible to find at land-based events.
    • The high-fidelity mingling extended all the way to dining. The entire Geek Cruises group was always seated together at the same seating (the second seating) in the dining room, and everyone was actively encouraged to "table-hop" on different nights. This brilliant arrangement allowed attendees to mix it up and sit with different elite speakers every single evening, continuing the day's technical discussions over a relaxed, elegant multi-course dinner.
    • As someone once famously put it: "Yeah, they gotta sleep on the same boat." There was no escaping to off-site VIP dinners, distinct hotel rooms, or exclusive clubs. Everyone—speakers and attendees alike—was sharing the same physical vessel, eating the exact same food, sailing to the same ports, and sleeping on the same boat. It was the ultimate social equalizer.

  • Origin Story

What links here

🔗 Antarctica Excursion Cancellation 🔗Bebo White 🔗Bert Monroy 🔗Blue Pixel 🔗Caribbean Click 2 Cruise 🔗 Catching Up with David Pogue on Land 🔗Chris Campbell 🔗David Pogue 🔗Deke McClelland 🔗George Takei 🔗Half Moon Cay 🔗 Illiads Oddysea and Caribbean Click Cruise 🔗Janet Hill 🔗JD Frazer 🔗JoCo Cruise 🔗Jonathan Coulton 🔗Kevin Gilbert 🔗Linux Lunacy III Cruise 🔗Loreto Dockside Translation 🔗MacMania 4.5 Cruise 🔗 Maturin Venezuela Conference and Learning Perl 🔗Neil Bauman 🔗 Origin of Geek Cruises and Karaoke with Neil 🔗Panama Canal 🔗Photoshop Fling 3 Cruise 🔗Randal Schwartz 🔗Rob Galbraith 🔗Rob Griffiths 🔗Sal Soghoian 🔗Steve Wozniak 🔗 Steve Wozniak Meets Janet Hill 🔗 Stonehenge Visit and Forrest Gump Moments 🔗 The Day I Decided Never to Learn Python 🔗The GNU Linux Headlock 🔗The Great Shouting Match 🔗 The Legendary Juneau Pub Crawls 🔗Tijuana 🔗 Visit to Arecibo Observatory 🔗 Web Services Cruise of May 2004 🔗Wil Wheaton
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.