The Pocket PC Cruise Plan

UPDATE: Due to lack of interest, I am not pursuing holding the cruise. Maybe I'll try again for next year; check this site for any updates. I am leaving the details of the propsed cruise here for reference purposes.

I was thinking of putting together a Pocket PC Cruise. My wife works for a travel agency, so I'm getting the details on what that would involve, but I wanted to share the information I have with some people I know to get an idea of the interest.

The current plan would be a four-day cruise from New Orleans to Cozumel, Mexico. The cruise would be either Labor Day weekend or over Halloween (which could be fun).

As I'm not aware of this having been done before, I'm keeping my goals modest — about 100 paid registrants (plus any family members). However, there is some flexibility involved.

Events and Highlights

Plans would include the following:

• A hosted one-hour cocktail party for all registered participants and their guests
• At least four seminars or presentations by various industry people
• A dealers room for people to see and buy the latest hardware and/or software

Tentative Itinerary

Here is the tentative itinerary for the cruise.

Date & Time	Event	Notes
Thursday 4 PM	Depart New Orleans
Thursday 9 PM	Cocktail hour	All participants and their guests are welcome to meet the event organizers, presenters and each other
Friday 10 AM	Dealer Room opens
Friday 2 PM	Presentation #1	Scheduled Pocket PC presentation
Friday 4 PM	Presentation #2	Scheduled Pocket PC presentation
Friday 5 PM	Dealer Room closes
Saturday 8 AM	Arrive Cozumel
Saturday 4 PM	Depart Cozumel
Sunday 10 AM	Dealer Room opens
Sunday 2 PM	Presentation #3	Scheduled Pocket PC presentation
Sunday 4 PM	Presentation #4	Scheduled Pocket PC presentation
Sunday 5 PM	Dealer Room closes
Monday 8 AM	Arrive New Orleans

NOTE: The times for the cocktail hour, presentations and dealer room are not confirmed yet.

Projected Prices

The fares aren't fixed yet, but would be roughly as shown below for participants:

Date	Interior 1	Interior 2	Oceanview 1	Oceanview 2
Labor Day (September 2-September 6)	$415/$440/$465	$445/$470/$495	$465/$490/$515	$495/$520/$545
Halloween (October 28-November 1)	$410/$435/$460	$440/$465/$490	$460/$485/$510	$490/$515/$540

The above fares are based on double occupancy, and include port taxes, but not any airfare, ground transportation or tips. The first price would be for people booking in the first 30 days; the second price would be for people booking after the first 30 days, but within the first 60 days; the third price would be for people booking later. Guests of partipants (not eligible to attend the presentations or dealers room) would be $15 less than the above fares. Prices are approximate and subject to change.

All reservations would be booked through FAST Travel, a full-service travel agency, which is helping put the cruise together.

Presentations

The intent is to have four to eight one-hour panels, presentations or demonstrations of new products. There would be one or two panels of invited guests, probably to talk about the joys of running a Pocket PC Web site and/or a Q&A session with MVPs. Other presentations would be determined by the corporate sponsors and presenters.

I've asked Microsoft to attend and possibly show Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, but they have declined. I've also asked several Pocket PC manufacturers — including Hewlett-Packard, Dell. Viewsonic and ASUS — to attend, but haven't gotten any interest.

I have gotten interest from several Pocket PC Web masters and MVPs, though. These include:

Name	Site	Notes
Chris De Herrera	CE Windows.net	MVP
Jason Dunn	Pocket PC Thoughts	MVP
Steve Mueller	Silicon Valley Pocket PC	Me! (Also a contributor at pocketnow.com)
Derek Snyder	pocketnow.com
Don Sorcinelli	Boston Pocket PC	MVP

NOTE: Depending on the cruise date, not all of these people may attend. They have expressed definite interest in being there, though.

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