Hello from the Caribbean ! Yes , it ’s that time of twelvemonth , whenMacworldeditors write about what ’s going on at the late MacMania sail — where gobs of Mac users ( but not you ) are mixing a fantastic , exotic holiday with the latest and greatest Mac info from a team of adept speakers .
This installment , MacMania 7 , is a 10 - twenty-four hours cruise in the Caribbean aboard theMS Volendamwith the highlight of the tripper being a passing into the Panama Canal . I sayintoand notthroughthere because this is n’t one of those two - week , start in San Diego , stop in Florida eccentric itinerary . Instead , we leave and return to Fort Lauderdale , Florida . But in between those two hitch , not only do we pass intoGatun Lakein the center of the Panama Canal , but we visit legion Caribbean destination .
Being mindful of the fact that the calendar is slouch toward the holidays , I have to point out that it seems to be 80 degrees and sunny everywhere we go . Today I meet a guy rope from Chicago who pointed out that temperatures were in the 40s when he leave home — dependable timing .
The Volendam is anchored off Half Moon Cay , Bahamas .
As I say , we departed from Ft . Lauderdale on Saturday , with dozens of MacMania conference participants , not to mention the additional syndicate members they brought along with them . ( I ’ve done that , too — my wife , kids , and parent are aboard for this one . ) The speakers on the cruise admit myself , New York Times(and as I must always head out , formerMacworld ) columnist David Pogue , photo expert Derrick Story , longtime Mac source Robin Williams , and two fantastic speaker who work at Apple , AppleScript maven Sal Soghoian and iLife expert Janet Hill . We ’ve also get an Oscar - come through actor aboard as both a league attendee and a speaker , but I ’m going to milk that little piece of selective information for all it ’s deserving , so check back later for more .
Sunday sunup we found ourselves in the Bahamas , at a little position of land known as Half Moon Cay , which the Holland America sail line hire from the Bahamian regime . The end result : a long , crescent - form white-hot - sand beach with warm water supply and nobody there but us cruisers . And let me tell you , there ’s really no undecomposed elbow room to spend a Sunday good afternoon in November than sitting on a ardent , sandy beach . ( And given that we ’re currently on Atlantic Time , one 60 minutes ahead of Eastern , we were back in our stateroom just in sentence to relax and watch theColts - Patriots gameon TV . sing about endure in the lap of luxury . )
Monday was a “ sea day , ” and the way these conferences work is that MacMania is in session when the ship’snotin port . So on a ocean sidereal day , there ’s a full cargo of sessions , as well as the Ingenious Bar , a hang - out for cruisers and speaker system to burgeon forth the zephyr . Monday Sal Soghoian and I drop a dyad of hours in theVolendam’sPiano Bar with cruisers , talk about what Apple ’s go to be up to next ( it ’s fun to engage the Pure Speculation Engine and let ’ er rip ) , the lying-in of would - be iPhone buyers in Canada and Puerto Rico , and the folly of Hollywood studios in break down to embrace the digital rotation .
Neil Bauman of InSight Cruises , co - producer of Mac Mania , addresses league attendees before Jason Snell ’s “ Leopard 101 ” school term .
Just before dinner party , it was time for the featured introduction in the ship ’s movie theater . And in the eccentric of MacMania , that meant me . I spend two hour with a centripetal audience give a “ Leopard 101 ” intro , going over the highlighting of the new operating system , demoing some of the cooler features , and answer questions about what Leopard can and ca n’t do . The turn - out and activity of the audience was even better than I expected , considering that I learned early on on that the majority of MacMania sail - goers have — surprise surprisal — alreadyboughtLeopard . I hope I uncovered some feature that they had n’t had prison term to pick up for themselves , at the very least .
On Tuesday , after a few sunup Mac Mania sessions , the ship docked at the island of Aruba , a Dutch possession just 20 miles off the coast of Venezuela . Aruba is a tourist destination , and I can see why . It ’s engender long , beautiful beach and cheery , warm atmospheric condition . I ’m glad my kid like to play in the Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin and surf , because that meant that all of us got to spend a fantastic afternoon at Aruba ’s Eagle Beach , bobbing in the water and building ( and leveling , my three - year - old ’s favorite part ) sand castles on the beach .
All the while , all of us Mac types have been able to persist in contact with the remote world if we so desire . The ship has satellite - base Internet , which is slower than broadband , but serviceable . And all of us discovered , to our surprise , that Holland America is plain being fast-growing in adding Wi - Fi hotspots to the ship . Although the Wi - Fi sign is supposed to be limited to a few specific areas of the ship , everyone I ’ve talked to has said that they can pick up a Wi - Fi signal in their staterooms . I definitely can , which allows me to quickly enter and send off off atomic number 99 - ring armor ( and dispatches like this one ) without hiking up to the ship ’s Internet Cafe .
Anyway , that ’s my paper as of now . Forthcoming on MacMania 7 , we ’ll be visiting the island of Curaçao , cruising the Panama Canal , and call in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica , before come back to Florida . Stay tuned for more update on the goings on , along with ( if the multimedia system divinity are with us ) a Macworld Podcast segment and a Macworld Video installation .
MacMania 8 , create byInSight Cruisesand Macworld , is coming next November . Mac Mania 8 is sailing to the Eastern Mediterranean , include Italy and Egypt .
