This third cruise 4 newsletter is primarily to ask for your input into our cruise program, but I will first mention two other milestones:
  1. during the last week booking numbers reached the same as we finished up with for the 3rd cruise – with more than 8 months to go
  2. we are giving you the first look, a preview, of our all new cruise web site – see below for more information
Tell us your 4th cruise topic preferences
Almost all presenters have now submitted a list of candidate topics for us to choose from. We have put these into a survey to give you the opportunity for input into the final selection. I have also included inquirers in this email. Please feel free to do the survey if you are thinking of attending but have not yet booked.
 
CLICK HERE to do the survey. It can be done in as little as 5 minutes, but as it doubles as a guide to the topics to expect on the cruise I am sure some of you will take more time to explore the list. A few notes about the program and the survey:
  • the survey lists over 100 topics. About 60 of these will be selected for the main program
  • some of the more specialised topics that don’t get on the main program may be run as smaller special interest groups outside the main program, e.g. software interest groups or regional (state or county) research interests
  • unlike the 3rd cruise all Research Help Zone sessions will be scheduled without competing talks. We have provisionally scheduled 11 of these on days at sea  at 3pm (30mins) and 5pm (30 mins but could extend to 45 mins if need be). These are great for:

    • one on one sessions with experts
    • informal smaller group discussions
    • lower interest topics or special interest groups that are not on the main program
  • the program will at times have two parallel streams, possibly even three
  • topic names are not necessarily final and some of the more creative titles may not be full understood, but make the best judgment you can from the topics as listed
Future cruises – preview our all new cruise web site – www.unlockthepastcruises.com
More choices – more cruises, more itineraries, more price levels, more varied programs
 
This site is not quite ready to announce publicly so I would ask that you not post about it on social media or elsewhere yet. But most of the content is there.
  • feel free to browse generally and give us your feedback on the site
  • do the survey – see the your say tab – but not before you do the 4th cruise topics survey. This is ready to go and we would like to start getting feed back. Apologies if you feel all surveyed out, with previous surveys. But this is a very major development and if you have any interest in further cruises it is as much in your interest as it is ours to get your feedback. The survey is the best way to get to know the kind of cruise options we are considering in the coming years – and help shape our cruise choices
  • sign up to the cruises email newsletter – “keep in touch” under cruises tab. This will only be sent when significant developments (new cruises, etc) are announced – maybe four to six a year
  • follow us on our Cruise Facebook page and hit the LIKE button.
 
Alan Phillips and the Unlock the Past team