Words cannot fully describe how awesome SQL Cruise 2010 was.  For me this has been an excellent experience, from getting a chance to connect with other SQL pros to the great sessions put on by Tim Ford (Blog – Twitter) and Brent Ozar (Blog – Twitter).  With only 14 “Cruisers” in attendance, it is a completely different training experience than you’ll get at a SQL Saturday or the PASS Summit. We had lots of time to connect with fellow SQL geeks and time for fun too!  Check out the pics at SQL Cruise on Flicker.

Each day of the cruise was sponsored by a different company.  And they each gave away a netbook to one lucky cruiser!  Here are the lucky winners:

Monday – Rebecca Mitchell (Blog – Twitter) won the SQL Sentry “Search the Ship Team-Building Event”

Tuesday – Karen Lopez (Blog – Twitter) won the Quest “Through Your Laptop Bag”

Wednesday – Yanni Smith (Blog – Twitter) won the Redgate “Show Us Your Hairy Execution Plans” contest.

Thursday – Erin Stellato (Blog –Twitter) won the MSSQLTips.com “SQL Server Poolside Trivia” contest.

Congrats to these lucky gals!  And yes, all the winners were ladies.  Sorry guys, better luck next time!

The technical sessions included a very informative session by Tim on DMV’s (check out his DMV Starter Pack) and a great T-SQL tuning session by Brent. Brent & Tim put on a outstanding event, thanks for all of your time and hard work!  And thanks to Gareth Swanepoel (Twitter) and his lovely wife Jen (Twitter)for hosting the SQLBBQ Sunday night before the cruise started!

One thing I want to note here – I paid out of my own pocket to go to this.  And took vacation time too.  And it was worth every penny (including the overpriced drinks on the ship!!).

I highly recommend SQL Cruise to my fellow members of the SQL Server community.  If you get a chance to go, do it!