Im beavering away trying it out for the first time now 
Do you just compile and output ... ot spend time with the settings and getting the right version?
9/10 times it just seemed to do it all for you. You choose pictures. Then click align, and after a bit it shows you the preview. If it looks alright, you click the last button/create the image. The preview sometimes has rough joins, which normally are blended out in the final piece.
Sometimes an image or two might not be quite right so you can deselect it in the preview and then "re-fit" it and see if it makes much of a difference, often it does.
Out of about 20 odd panoramas, I only needed to add manual control points to 1 of them, as I had 4 rows of images and it didnt like that.
As to the cottaging references, you wouldnt be the first Pete hah. Just because it was a cottage, and not camping...
