SandG

We have watched the Super Bowl onboard cruises a few times and we've found it's fun to watch with other fans around.  This time we will be in a pre-cruise hotel on 17th Street on Super Bowl Sunday.  It's a little early, but we're starting to think about strategies for watching the Super Bowl (aside from watching from our hotel room).  I see there is Duffy's Sport Grill very close to our hotel - will it be a zoo?  What other good choices are there in Ft. Lauderdale?  We don't mind going a little further for a fun experience, but we want to be able to get a seat!! 

Thanks everyone, you have all been so helpful.  It is 5 weeks before our journey and we have decided to book our rail tickets today.  To review, we are going from Windsor -> Southampton, and I decided to go by way of Reading as this was a fairly inexpensive route compared to the other options, especially when purchasing off-peak tickets (£24.3 for RDG to SOU).  I'd considered getting advance tickets for £17.6 but that not such a big savings and I'm glad to have some flexibility if needed.  I also feel good that we have reserved seats on that train, because it originates in Manchester and there are a few cruises leaving both that day and the next (ours).
 

I did flip back and forth several times between saving myself any hassles and purchasing a ticket for the entire route vs. booking just the CrossCountry train (RDG->SOU).  It turned out that ticketing the whole route ended up just a little more expensive than using the contactless payment from Windsor to Reading, so I booked only the CrossCountry train on their website today (no UK address required, just like LNER!).  I've worked out a flexible schedule that will give us 40 to 70 minutes in Reading, so we'll be exiting the train area there anyway to grab some lunch.
 

So now we are all set with transportation because we will be using some OBC to pay for the transfer to Heathrow after the cruise.  Thanks all again; if I remember to do it, I'll report back here on how it all went.

On 7/8/2023 at 2:08 PM, Bill Y said:

We have made the journey from Slough to Southampton but not for a few years. It’s a simple journey, and you do not have to book a particular train, we bought tickets to Southampton at the Slough ticket office.

 

You probably know most of this, In the UK:-

 

Tickets are purchased before boarding the train and in most case before entering the platform (track)

 

There are normally different ticket prices on long distant trains, via London or not via London which is normally cheaper, I don’t know if Clapham Junction is classed as London or London is defined as a London terminus such as Waterloo.

 

If you are returning by train, a return ticket can be purchased for up to a month (30 days) for considerably cheaper then two single tickets.

 

I don’t know if there is any restriction on using a main line ticket on the Elizabeth line which I believe is a London Transport service, Also I have not used contactless outside of London and I would not think it would operate on Cross Country services

.

There are changes rumoured, return tickets may be withdrawn and talk of closing of ticket offices at stations.

 

People that use the trains regularly will no doubt be able to clarify, current practices.

Thank you Bill, I'm glad to hear from someone who has done the trip from Slough to Southampton that it will be a straightforward trip. 
 
We are getting transportation from the cruise ship back to Heathrow, so only a one-way trip is needed.

You're right, there is no contactless ticketing on CrossCountry, and I have decided to buy that segment in advance for some piece of mind.  I could have saved a little more money getting an "advance" fare but it wasn't a big savings, so I got the off-peak one to be safe.  (We took a train from London Waterloo to Southampton in early May and the off-peak price was £41 but advance fare was £9.20!  That time I booked the advance fare since there were 4 of us on that trip.)

4 hours ago, Thejuggler said:

The time to change trains will be in line with the maximum required at each station change platforms.  if they are giving 11 minutes between changes it is probably a 10 minute connection time station,

 

Rather than manage this yourself by taking other trains if you want longer connection times you can add time when searching for tickets and alternative timings will be given.

Thanks.  I did also notice that if I use the National Rail Journey Planner, it has an option to add extra transfer time.  So I can at least get it closer to what I want to do.  I do wish it had the flexibility of adding more time at a specific station instead of applying it to all transfers because I'd rather have more time in Reading station than tiny Slough, but it's better than nothing.

On 7/2/2023 at 12:38 PM, Aulanis said:

This is getting a bit too in depth for me  and I wouldnt like to give you duff advice so

my suggestion is that you join this forum         damn its blocked !  anyway

google  railukforums      and  it should come up. They have a full  section on ticketing queries.

They have experts on there that collectively know everything about uk rail.

Thanks for that tip!  Doing a little searching on that website, it turns out that someone on that forum was asking questions that were somewhat similar to mine only 4 weeks ago.  It gave me a better idea of what to expect.  There is also a "RailUK Fares & Ticketing Guide" on the site with lots of good information, although it was a little outdated in places since it's from 2012.

Hmm, I looked again at booking tickets from Windsor to Southampton, and they are very optimistic about our ability to change trains quickly, 11 minutes at each station. We're a couple over 65 with enough luggage for a 14 day cruise, which means that we'll be taking lifts.

Only the Reading to Southampton train has seat reservations, so my plan will be to take an earlier train from Windsor and Slough than what is ticketed to give us a little more buffer at the stations.  Since they are off-peak tickets, that should be okay, right?

Another question: The segment from Slough to Reading is serviced by both Elizabeth and GWR.  If we purchase tickets which uses the Elizabeth line but the GWR ends up the next train coming, can we use the same ticket to get on either? 

Also, I see we have the ability to reserve seats on the Cross country train to Southampton, but how does this work if we're booking off-peak tickets and can travel on any train?  What if someone takes a different train, how do their seats get released?  (Unassigned)

Sorry for all the questions but I like to be prepared on what to expect before I leave. 
 

19 hours ago, fruitmachine said:

@SandG It's also worth noting that if you buy an 'end-to-end' ticket and there is a delay, I believe the refund compensation you get is based on your total delay at the end-point of your journey.

 

I like LNER.  It's a straightforward website and doesn't need a UK address to work.

It's nice to hear from you again. You had kindly helped me out when I was trying to buy advance tickets from London - Waterloo to Southampton 2 or 3 months ago, but had been unable to create an account because of the USA address issue.  I did end up creating an account on LNER for that trip and received my tickets as files via email.  It worked out great, so I would definitely use them again. 

20 hours ago, Aulanis said:

Hi - Its a minefield, but looks like you have done the "due diligence"  on this.

We have done waterloo to Soton  several times  advance fares were good.

I am therefore amazed at how much the standard fare and super off peak  fare

( which appears to be the one on offer) are now.  Advance is still cheap.

 

I think you will have noticed there are 2 stations in Windsor & Eton   Central & Riverside.

Services run by different companies.   Both have manned ticket offices at the moment.

My first thought to keep it simple was  to suggest  Windsor to Waterloo Waterloo to Soton

but if not using advance tickets that seems expensive.( to Me)

Next up is  your plan   W&E  > Slough>Reading> Soton.

 

You can book tickets with any company  This is a link to a suggested route on  Cross country trains    which is £71.20  for 2 pax.  These show as  off peak which are usually refundable

and also mean you could set off at 10am  11 am  or 12 am    so if first train was delayed or missed you could pick up later service on second/third train  at no extra cost.

https://www.buytickets.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/book/results?origin=dfb79efbaae393df35945001df8b3d5e&destination=4ec8cbc9b7487a526f2ffa5be9ff110a&outwardDate=2023-08-19T13%3A00%3A00&outwardDateType=arriveBefore&journeySearchType=single&passengers[]=1993-07-01&passengers[]=1993-07-01&directSearch=false&selectedOutward=QWMXoT0UwG8%3D%3AFg%2FHzRr8oq0%3D&temporalDirection=previous&transitDefinitionDirection=outward&paginationPriceDisplayed=false&searchId=48532b4e-fe81-40ba-83d9-8ce5cffe690c

 

As well as being able to buy all the tickets  at the station  you can buy them online and

pick up from a ticket machine in the station.  When you buy you will be given a number

to collect the tickets   which is different to the booking confirmation number.   You also

need the credit card you used to book with you.

 

One thing to remember is not to board a train that doesnt have touch in /out  WITHOUT tickets  as they dont like selling tickets on the trains  and the Penalty charge is £100!!

 

Maybe others who live locally and use those routes regularly will have some other ideas.

Thank you so much for the advice and taking the time to look at the options.  It's nice to have a second pair of eyes on these things.  Although I've used and enjoy the UK rail system several times before, it's always been on direct trains.

Because the Elizabeth line is part of the London transport system, I'd assumed that I would have to pay for that segment separately, and so I'd use my contactless credit as worked so well during our last trip.  I didn't think I could get a since ticket in advance from Windsor to Southampton when travelling via Elizabeth, but as you point out, the website will sell you that combination.

And yes, I was excited to find out that there was another train station in Windsor but as you noticed, the options from Riverside (I looked at Waterloo and Clapham) were a lot more money (almost double!) and there are two of us traveling that day.

I will look into pre-purchasing the tickets to save the extra time at the station.

We are Americans, yet comfortable with the idea of taking a train to Southampton from London since we always fly in early.  We did this a couple of months ago, and I purchased "advance" tickets from Waterloo and saved a lot of money by doing so.  (The off-peak ticket was £41 and we bought "advance" for £9.2.)  But that was a direct train and it was easy for us to pick a specific train that we could easily catch from our hotel with a relatively small buffer time.
 

In August, we're cruising out of Southampton again but decided to stay in Windsor pre-cruise this time.  Getting to Windsor from Heathrow looks simple enough, but I'm puzzling over how much time I need to allow from Windsor to Southampton.  I've considered several routes, via London, Clapham Junction or Reading and believe Reading will be the best choice.  It's a quick ride on Great Western to Slough, and from there I can take the Elizabeth or Great Western to Reading and change onto a CrossCounty train to Southampton, which runs every hour.  I've poured over the train maps and schedules but have a few questions about using the different rail lines and what we'll have to do at each transfer station as a result.  I've been unable to find the answers, and hoping someone here can help out.
 

1) I read that I can use contactless payment from Windsor to Slough and Slough to Reading.  We used the "tapping in and out" with our credit cards on the underground and it worked great.  But how will this work on the trains on our route?  Do we have to tap out and back in again when we change at Slough and if so, do we have to exit the tracks area to do that?  Or can we just cross the platform from one train to another and tap out on Reading?  (I'm guessing we cannot do this because the "Single fare finder" on the TFL site does not tell me a fare for Windsor to Reading.  Also I've read about the "pink" readers but no evidence of one in Slough.)  Does it matter, and/or will it be the same price whether we take the Elizabeth line or the GWR line from Slough to Reading?
 

2) It looks like a ticket is required for the CrossCountry train from Reading to Southampton (which originates in Manchester).  Since we're reliant on catching/changing trains to get to Reading, I'm not confident in booking an "advance" ticket this time, but that's okay because the savings are not as big as they were on the Waterloo to Southampton trip.  Right now, their website shows that the advance ticket is £17.6 and off-peak is £24.3.  Can we do it the easy way (although slower) and wait to purchase tickets when we get Reading station, will we be paying this off-peak price or might it be even more money then?  If we wait, is there a risk of not getting onto the train because it's full?
 

3) To make things the easiest that day, can we just buy tickets for the whole journey (3 segments and 2 to 3 different train lines) at Windsor station?  I am aware of the option of buying all of the tickets with "trainline" but nervous about using a 3rd party agent in case of strikes.  That's another good reason to wait to buy tickets if it won't cost us much more money to do it that way this time.

4) Am I missing a better option or a better route?  I also considered getting ourselves back to Heathrow and taking the National Express Bus from there, but that will ultimately be slower.  I have no idea how expensive a private car hire or Uber to Southampton would be.

23 minutes ago, barneyboy said:

I believe that photo might have been posted from the Silhouette. As it is now sailing out of the U.K. gratuities are included with the price. 

Yes, I think that's a big part of the reason for the higher prices.  We are on the Silhouette and I also noticed that the upcharges I've been paying for our drinks (since we have the classic package) had no gratuity added onto them either.  Sailing from the US, if I got a drink that cost $2 more than my package, I think would pay an additional 20% (?) gratuity and probably see $2.40 charged to my account.  Here, I see simply $2.

If the 20% is correct, then that $15 martini would have cost around $18 in the US with no drink package.  But $20 is 33% higher, so there's also a price increase going on here as well.

We are onboard the Silhouette sailing which is from the UK, and we are seeing the higher prices ($20) at the Martini Bar and also most of the World Class drinks are $20 as well.  I was wondering if prices have gone up on all the ships, or just pricing for the UK sailings as we were on a Caribbean cruise in February that had the $15 prices.  

The classic package is including drinks up to $12 (reminder: this is a UK sailing) and so I paid $8 last night to get a fancy drink, and I'm paying a few dollars to get better wines.  The premium package now covers up to $20, so it does cover the large martinis and world class drinks.  I had been planning to upgrade to premium as I had always done, but it now costs about $24/day 😳 before CC discounts, and there is a new rule that both people in the cabin must get the upgrade, so that would cost us $48/day.  I might get my money's worth because I like more expensive wines, but my husband is mostly happy with the classic package selection.  So we will pay the upcharges as we go and see how it works out.  

10 hours ago, cortcase11 said:

 

I was too impatient, I just put in my real address but put that I was in the UK lol

And it spit out tix for me. They look OK, so hopefully there won't be any issues!

I believe they only need your mailing address to cross check the billing address on your credit card.  But since you paid with Paypal, it didn't matter!!  I'm sure your tickets are fine.  Have a great trip!  (We leave this weekend!)

For the record, and future readers:
On the same day I first commented to this topic, I sent an email to Southwestern Rail asking what to do since I was unable to create an account with a US address. I got an automated reply saying they were backed up because of the recent outage and I would hear back within 4 weeks. 🙄  In the meantime I got excellent help here. 🙂  I was able to purchase advance tickets through LNER.

I did finally get a response back from them today, just 11 days later, not as long a wait as they'd warned.  They replied with the following: 
"Thank you for contacting us.

Kind regards,

xxxxxx  xxxxxx
Executive Contact & Complaints Team"

I was a little surprised that they recommended the third party sellers and not another UK rail line, or maybe they weren't aware that others had a more modern website than they did.  😉
 

4 hours ago, Bob++ said:

Get the E-tickets and save a picture on your phone. That way it doesn't matter if you have a signal.

Thanks Bob++ (Curious, are you a programmer? I used to be one, LOL). 

Yes, that's what I ended up doing!!  When I got the tickets from LNER, my tickets came to me as 1 PDF with the 4 tickets and also 4 PDF files with individual tickets.  I put the files into "Drive" (the cloud) for us all to access, and we'll each take a screen shot before we leave the hotel.  I also printed off the tickets as a back-up. 

The way I was interpreting the Southwestern site (I could have been wrong), my choices were to send the tickets to a their app or pick up the tickets.  I didn't want us all have to download an app and so thought that picking them up was the simplest, thinking we could scope out the station while at it, but getting the e-tickets is even easier!

On 4/14/2023 at 3:38 PM, fruitmachine said:

 

Any of the UK train companies will let you book tickets on every UK train route.

I'm in the UK and always use LNER.co.uk

As far as I can see, they don't even ask for your address.  I happen to be in Italy at the moment, and their website even tried to offer me it in Italian, so must be happy to sell you a ticket anywhere!

Note that the cheaper fares (sometimes any fares) are normally only loaded into the fare system a few weeks before travel.

Thank you so much for the suggestion!! 
 
Yes, the LNER site did not care where we lived when I made an account on their website.  I did have to supply our home address when using our credit card to pay for the tickets because they needed to confirm that our billing address matched the card info.  But again, there was no issue with supplying my US address.  (If there was a problem, I could have gotten around that by using paypal, but we prefer using our card.)

I do feel much better about being able to buy from a UK rail company in case of operational issues.  Several trains were cancelled only a couple of days ago because of "switching" problems.

We will be doing this again later this year, so it's nice that I'm all set up now and will know what to expect next time. 

Thanks again for your  help!!   

I am having the same issues using the Southwestern Train website.  It forces me to create an account but when I try to create an account, it says my postcode/address country must be the United Kingdom and will not let me create an account, and so I can't get to this past this point to pay for the tickets.  I also tried to buy from the National Rail site and it transferred me to Southwestern.  I even tried travel from wales, but that site T&C stated the website was only for UK residents.  

I am trying to use the option to pick up tickets at the station, not using the app, because I'm not sure I will always have wifi access while there.

Is there another way to purchase advance fares?  Is using trainline that big a risk?  The difference in fares right now between advance and offpeak is huge.

I sent in a request for an early November cruise last Tuesday and I have not received an email confirmation yet, but it showed up on the "payments" page of my cruise by Saturday.

On 7/29/2022 at 8:08 PM, wolfcathorse said:

TY

 

Adventure OTS - Capt Krzyszthof Szymkarczuk (started rotation 7-8-22)

Adventure OTS - Capt Jaret Barry

Allure OTS - Capt Ron Holmes (started rotation 7-9-22)

Allure OTS - Capt Shawn McDuff

Anthem OTS - Capt Srecko Ban (started rotation 6-17-22)

Anthem OTS - Capt Iv Vidos

Brilliance OTS - Capt Juan Luis Caranti (started rotation 6-26-22)

Brilliance OTS - Capt Frank Martinsen

Enchantment OTS - Capt Ivo Paskvalin (started rotation 7-28-22)

Enchantment OTS - Capt Daniel Budzelewski

Explorer OTS - Capt Toni Tomljanovic (started rotation 6-26-22)

Explorer OTS - Capt Kjetil Gjerstad

Freedom OTS - Capt Michael Lindberg (started rotation 6-4-22)

Freedom OTS - Capt Trym Selvag

Grandeur OTS - Capt Antun Regjo (started rotation 7-9-22)

Grandeur OTS - Capt Pehr Pehrsson

Harmony OTS - Capt Trym Selvag (started rotation 5-22-22)

Harmony OTS - Capt Johnny Faevelen

Independence OTS - Capt Marshall Bartlett (started rotation 6-10-22)

Independence OTS - Capt Gus Andersson

Jewel OTS - Capt Trond Holm (started rotation 5-22-22)

Jewel OTS - Capt Ervin Pajic

Liberty OTS - Capt James MacDonald (started rotation 6-19-22)

Liberty OTS - Capt Malvin Bardsnes

Mariner OTS - Capt Panagopoulos Panos (started rotation 6-25-22)

Mariner OTS - Capt Tobias Oster

Navigator OTS - Capt James Nazar (started rotation 6-10-22)

Navigator OTS - Capt tbd

Oasis OTS - Capt Göran Peterson (started rotation 5-22-22)

Oasis OTS - Capt Tore Grimstad

Odyssey OTS - Capt Sindre Borsheim (started rotation 7-17-22)

Odyssey OTS - Capt Per Kristopherson

Ovation OTS - Capt Espen Been (started rotation 6-17-22)

Ovation OTS - Capt Rumen Yovchev

Quantum OTS - Capt Arild Hansen (started rotation 7-10-22)

Quantum OTS - Capt Krzyszthof Szymkarczuk

Radiance OTS - Capt Teo Strazicic (started rotation 6-24-22)

Radiance OTS - Capt Marek Slaby

Rhapsody OTS - Capt Toni Calne (started rotation 5-30-22)

Rhapsody OTS - Capt Trond Holm

Serenade OTS - Capt Kjell Nordmo (started rotation 7-10-22)

Serenade OTS - Capt Stig Nilsen

Spectrum OTS - Capt Flemming Nielsen (started rotation 7-9-22)

Spectrum OTS - Capt Huimin Wu

Symphony OTS - Capt Rick Sullivan (started rotation 7-23-22)

Symphony OTS - Capt Angel Oviol

Vision OTS - Capt tbd (started rotation 6-21-22)

Vision OTS - Capt Diego Lombardic

Voyager OTS - Capt Thordur Thorssen (started rotation 5-22-22)

Voyager OTS - Capt Carl Graucob

Wonder OTS - Capt Rob Hempstead (started rotation 7-10-22)

Wonder OTS - Capt Henrik Loy

Icon #1 OTS - Capt Inaugural (started rotation 10-1-23)

Icon #1 OTS - Capt Yard Captain

I am currently on the Adventure OTS and the current captain is Erik Standal from Bergen, Norway.

On 8/30/2022 at 2:55 AM, DELTABLUE said:

ADVENTURE: Tanya Yates Tongue #116 , Marvin Wilson as of 9-29-22 #263

ALLURE: Corey Rogers > 9-3, then Chris Brown #237

ANTHEM: Joff Eaton #204

BRILLIANCE: Jamie Fentiman #177 , now on vacation #270

ENCHANTMENT: Eric Lopez #Me 

EXPLORER: Elvis Pinto #214

FREEDOM: Chris Turdo > mid August #196

GRANDEUR: Talita Leoni, from Brazil #Me

HARMONY: Dan Whitney #244

INDEPENDENCE: Rickey Matthews #35

JEWEL: SusanAdams #288

LIBERTY: Katy McCullagh #205

MARINER:  Mario Isla #229, Marc Walker returns 8-13/11-26  #95

NAVIGATOR: Eric Lopez, as of 8-29-22 #287

OASIS: Bobby Broughton, as of 8-26-22 #277

ODYSSEY: Ana Riberio from Portugal #170 >late summer then Mitch#155

OVATION: John Grantham, as of 8-26-22 #276/279

QUANTUM:  Mike Hunnerup #168, Steve Knisley 7/13 > 9/20 #187

RADIANCE: Mark Rous #260

RHAPSODY: Bill Brunkhorst, as of 6-16 #239

SERENADE: John Blair #52

SPECTRUM: Bonnie Bai #243

SYMPHONY: Brian Leavitt #190

VISION: Michelle Oliviera #126

VOYAGER: Rob McNally as of 8-28-22 #285

WONDER: Michele Scarpato as of 5-8-22, 

                              Mike Szwajkowsk returns Mid August #166

We are currently on the Adventure OTS and the Cruise Director is Lauren Armstrong from Newcastle, England.

I submitted one month before the cruise and got our approval 9 days before the cruise.  But fellow passengers who submitted theirs only 2 weeks early got the approval on the same day I did.  I'm still happy I did it early because others who waited to the last minute were really stressing out over it.

On 8/6/2022 at 10:26 PM, sunlover2 said:

Always boarded first and yes, even an hour earlier.

I'm jumping on this thread because I had a similar question, and this is also my first experience with the suite category, in Bayonne.  I had also read that we can arrive early, but I was able to snag what I think is the earliest arrival window @ 10:30.   Does this really mean we can arrive at 9:30?  I was guessing we still have to sit in the terminal until after 10 but will we be in the front of the line?   

I don't want to drive to the port early, "thinking what a great perk I have", only to be able to stand in a special line for an hour.   😳

17 minutes ago, mom2miracles said:

We got these earlier this year, they are cruise approved and work great!

 

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B091DW6Q9D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I bought one of those a few months ago for our Adventure of the Seas cruise but unfortunately the outlets were too low above the vanity and there was no room to plug it in, so it went unused.  Hopefully I'll be able to use it on a different ship.

I'm booked on a 5 day cruise to Bermuda in late August and got really excited when I read the press release, until I was reminded that a negative Covid test is still required by the Bermuda government for entry.  Oh well. 

We have cruised on RCL and Celebrity in the past 5 months out of Port Canaveral and Ft. Lauderdale.  In both cases, it was important that we adhere to the arrival times assigned to us.  Separate queues were set up outside the cruise terminal according to arrival time.  If the line for the "current" time was empty and there was room inside the terminal, they would let the next time slot go in.

I was wondering if we should expect the same at the Cape Liberty terminal?  Pre-Covid, you could arrive somewhat early in the hope that your loyalty status (or an empty terminal) allows you to board earlier.    

18 hours ago, TMaine said:

Hi All,

We just got off of Equinox yesterday and had a wonderful cruise!   
<...>

Best excursion:  Calabaza catamaran in Barbados, absolutely great day and met some really nice people from the ship and folks who were on a land based vacation.   

We did have one issue and that was someone smoking on their balcony the first two days.  We went to guest relations and they moved us to another room.

<--->

 

We were on the same sailing and I wholeheartedly agree with the rating of "wonderful".  We loved the itinerary and our food was very good.  We ate in the MDR all but 1 night.  We had a couple of disappointments only because our expectations are always so high on Celebrity, and so we had no complaints there.  The wait staff was great.

We definitely noticed and were very spoiled by the low capacity!  There was no problem getting a table by the window in the buffet, the MDR or the Tuscan Grille.  🙂   The same goes with getting a good seat in the lounges and theater.  The elevators also arrived quicker!  I'd say this greatly enhanced our enjoyment of the cruise.  It's going to be tough going back to full capacity after this.

Our best excursion was also on a catamaran in Barbados - Silver Moon.  We had sailed with them 3 other times and Calabaza was booked early anyway.  Calabaza put us on a wait list, but I think they lost track of us because I noticed that there were some openings later on.  At that point we decided to stick with SM and we had a terrific time anyway - we love their luxury cat.  Like Calabaza, they sail with only 12 passengers.  It was funny, we two were the only people from a cruise ship on our tour (I was getting rather nervous when waiting for pickup when there were no others with us).  The others were 2 English couples sharing an Airbnb, and a business man working in Barbados, entertaining a visiting brother and both their families, and they were all so nice and a whole lot of fun.  They asked us lots of questions about our cruise, and we were asked several times when our ship leaves as they were very concerned that we make it back to the ship on time.  😄

We also noticed a cigarette smell on our balcony early in the cruise.  I couldn't figure where it was coming from, and we weren't using the balcony so much in the first few days anyway.  We didn't notice anything later on, so I'm guessing that someone figured out the source and shut it down.  It's nice to hear that guest relations was so accommodating to you.