Kevin and Suzanne Jones were enjoying a breakfast of bacon and eggs when another married couple asked if they could share the table. "Don't worry, we will be quiet," said the woman who had appeared, a sprightly 82-year-old Scot with a gentle voice.
Her name, it turned out, was Ann McLauchlan. Kevin and Suzanne from Ammanford introduced themselves to Ann and her husband Alistair with exactly the kind of small talk you might expect between strangers on a cruise. The '80s-themed holiday, which had begun two days earlier, featured entertainment from the likes of Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley, and was by this point somewhere near Lisbon in Portugal.
The couples exchanged questions like: "Is this your first cruise?" They spoke about their previous travels. Kevin, 58, mentioned that he had spent part of his childhood in Malaysia and that his father had died there.
