1. Our carry on fit underneath the bed, but our checked luggage we just sat it close to the washroom.
2. Food was consistently solid. There were several "special" meals, like a whole turkey one day! Lunch and Dinner both had special separate dessert served. We never asked for food otherwise, but there was a couple of baskets of crackers/cookies and a fruit bowl that was out that we could take whenever. Jonathan the hotel manager was often found in the dining room, or Christopher who was the bartender and whenever you needed a drink (wine, beer, soda) they would provide it. The bar on the second floor was sparsely used as we all were often too beat. Often when coming back from an excursion Jonathan and Christopher would greet us back on the boat with a welcome drink.
3. There was a meeting point in the Baltra airport where those who were JAC (just a cruise 🤣) and like you said, they met those who arranged their own travel. 10/12 of the people on Xploration did the pre cruise tours, and 2 were there previously in Santa Cruz and once they met at the airport were taken with the rest of the group who had done the Quito tour.
4. I am a poor sleeper so the constant hum of the engines was kind of annoying. Even with earplugs it only helped a little. The bedroom itself (we were in the internal cabin) was great, all the drawers were pushed lock. Due to some of the choppiness during the night there was a lot of banging if you didn't have things properly locked down. A couple of nights we didn't lock the safe and you'd hear "bang bang bang" until it was locked. There was turn down service with a chocolate treat during dinner which was fun. I am a notorious overpacker (on any trip!) and found that since we spent so much time in the water that I didn't end up using as much socks and underwear as I thought. Often I had a set of "evening attire" that I wore several consecutive nights because I'd only wear it for 2 hours. The wet suits that they had on board were shorties so your arms/legs are uncovered so be sure to wear a rashguard and/or have enough sunscreen.