This was our 8th cruise. We have cruised on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, and Norwegian. We are not terribly brand loyal, we base the decision more on itinerary, but we both agree we tend to like Princess best (of all the lines we have cruised).
Pre-cruise: Flew overnight to Gatwick. Easily found the trains and took a train down to Southampton. We walked (easily) to our hotel (the Novotel), and amazingly, they had a room ready for us. We checked in, and then took the train to Salisbury, had lunch, and took the bus to Stonehenge.
Embarkation: very smooth and quick, although we did not arrive until 2 hours after embarkation had begun.
Aloha 701, double balcony. We loved the location, it was aft, close to the stairs and only 2 floors down from the balcony. We could pop up there and get some food, and then bring it back down to enjoy on our balcony. We never had problems w/noise. Also, this room has a covered balcony, so there is more privacy.