Is it really a vacation if you take your work along?  Many people do it these days, so I decided to try it, and in late August, I took my job on a cruise to Alaska with me.  Many people, including me, work online now, so it really is possible to work from almost anywhere.  I learned a lot by giving it a try.

At the beginning of the trip, we had a night in a hotel in the Twin Cities and another in Seattle.  Both hotels were chosen because they said that they had internet access.  I was not able to get online at all in the Twin Cities, and the ethernet connection in our room did not work in Seattle, although the wireless connection in the lobby worked very well.  We had had an earlier experience with the laptop not working in a hotel, so we were beginning to think that the problem was my laptop.  It turned out that the laptop was fine, but apparently there are a lot of hotels that promise internet access but don’t really have it.  That is aggravating when you work online and are relying on being able to work!

This was our third cruise to Alaska, and I am glad that I did not do my work/vacation experiment on an itinerary that I was visiting for the first time.  It was also a cruise with several days at sea, and I was glad of that because it gave me work time.  I decided that I wanted to spend the time that we were in port visiting the area, so I opted to purchase computer time on the ship rather than sitting in internet cafes in port.  There are advantages and disadvantages to doing that.

Computer time on ships is very expensive.  The cheapest plan available to me was $100 for 250 minutes.  I got 30 free minutes because I am a past passenger of the cruiseline, but I still bought $300 worth of computer time.  That’s a lot of money, but I knew that shipboard computer time was expensive and I thought that I might spend a lot more.

This particular ship does not have computer service in the cabins, so passengers have to go to the internet cafe onboard or to certain “hot spots” in the public areas of the ship.  The manager of the internet cafe suggested that since I was working, I might find the ship’s library or meeting rooms provided a quieter environment, so I tried those areas first.  The library had no tables, so working there was difficult.  The meeting rooms had tables and wall outlets where I could plug in my laptop, but many activities took place in those rooms, so I was surrounded by jolly, and noisy, passengers.  That left the ship’s main lobby or the internet cafe, which overlooked the lobby, as my remaining choices.  I opted for the internet cafe because it had a plug-in for my laptop.  The cafe received the live and usually loud music coming from the lobby, but it was still quieter than the meeting rooms.

The ship did have several computers in the internet cafe, and it was not difficult to gain access to them, but I was very happy that I had brought my own laptop.  Computer time cost the same whether I used the ship’s computers or my own, but their computers were not powerful enough to run some of the functions in the program that I use in my classes.  My own computer ran most of those functions easily.  The ship’s computer system is slower than mine at home, but, on my own computer, the difference was much less noticeable.  I still was not able to use my gradebook because the system was not fast enough and kept timing out and freezing.  I had that problem occasionally in other functions, but most of the time I was able use all but the gradebook function.  I warned students in advance that I might not do any grading until I got home, so it was not a problem.

I enjoy shipboard life and at first I resented being alone in the internet cafe while my family and the friends who were traveling with us were out having fun, but I did get to go to the shows and to eat the fabulous meals, so I adjusted.

Our last port was Prince Rupert, Canada.  It is a small city with an interesting history.  I know that I would have enjoyed visiting the museums there, but I decided that I needed to work because I did not want to buy more computer time on the ship and I still had things that had to be done.  I bought 3 hours of computer time in a very nice little internet cafe there for $2 – quite a change from shipboard prices!

The week after we got home was very hectic because I had all of  the grading to do from the week that I was gone, plus the grading that was due the week that I returned.  I felt a little like I was chained to my computer, but that is the price that I paid for playing!

We are going on vacation with my job again in February when we take a cruise to the Caribbean.  This will be a longer cruise and we will have fewer days at sea, so we shall see how it goes.  I think that what I have learned will help me have a good time and still be productive.

Here are a few pictures from my trip.  You can see a larger version of these pictures if you click on them.

Our first port was Juneau.  We took a bus to the area around the Mendenhall Glacier to do some hiking.  It’s a beautiful area and in spite of the fact that we were near a glacier, the weather was warm and sunny.  Before we got off the bus, the driver told us that there were a lot of bears in the area.  He assured us that the bears had no interest in us.  They were there because there was a stream full of salmon nearby.  He said that if we saw a bear, we should not run, but that we should take out our cameras and take the bear’s picture.  We were almost ready to return to town when this bear ambled across the path about 4 feet in front of me.  I was hurriedly backing away, and then I remembered the picture-taking advice, so here’s my bear.  Even though he is brown, he is a black bear.

After we left Juneau, we spent the day cruising in the area of the Sawyer Glacier.  Our ship was very large and getting it into the area near the glacier involved navigating through some very narrow spaces.  It was fascinating to watch the very small course adjustments necessary to accomplish that.

Dan took this picture.  He found it interesting because you can see the glacier and the ice chunks in the water, but in the ship’s pool in the area near the hot tub (the round red and white structure just under the yellow water slide), you can just see a swimmer’s head.  It was warm enough to swim very comfortably.

Here’s a closer view of the Sawyer Glacier.  Glaciers are really remarkable.

That’s my first experience with making my job portable.  The good thing is that I can work just about anywhere.  The bad thing is that I can work just about anywhere!