We took my father on one last cruise in September on the edge - appropriate as it was the same ship he sailed last on. All was as Jim stated. In addition, we met with the concier5on board who arranged everything. They asked if we wanted a private burial or if we wanted an officer (beyond the environmental officer) to attend. I thought my dad would get a kick out of having an officer just for him, and said so. We were blown away when the captain himself attended. He read a poem and gave us a lovely portfolio with lat/long. It really was lovely and my father would have loved it.
On a side note, they did comment that the boat had to slow to a certain speed and the wind had to be just right, so timing was really all based around that.