After spending 3 glorious, busy days in London, we used Princess's transfer to Southampton. After we collected our luggage, we entered the terminal for embarkation ready for long lines and, instead, we received an alphabet letter and were seated in comfort until it was our turn to board; it was all relatively painless and pleasant. We had booked a standard balcony cabin, and it was lovely, overall; the shower was the tiniest I've seen since the early 1990s, but the rest was perfect for 2 people. The closet and neighboring shelf unit was the most spacious we remember ever seeing. We seldom saw our steward, but the cabin was wonderfully cared for. We chose late dining, as we enjoy having the same dining companions and waiters each night. The service was fine; the food was always acceptable, but not dazzling. We're from a big city, so we didn't choose to pay for the specialty restaurants, but our British companions did and raved about the steaks they ate there. The night of the Gala dinner, I ate rather mediocre lobster and shrimp and became very ill almost as soon as we had returned to our cabin (I don't know if there was a connection.) I was totally flattened for most of the next 3 days, so missed most of Scotland. The service in the buffet was usually most accommodating; there was always help available to find seating (which is a great help when you have a full plate!)It would have been lovely to have more time in every port, but that's always the case on a port-heavy cruise! The stage shows were standard off-Broadway fare, but we very much enjoyed the entertainments provided by local music/dance groups who came onto our ship to perform in many different ports. We did buy an internet package, but service was slow and spotty, so we didn't really get our money's worth on that. The service in every bar we visited was lovely; we especially enjoyed the martini bar and its nearby lounge entertainment. The port talks were very well-done and were rerun several times on the tv, in case you missed something. We did pre-book excursions at every port, but it's easy to cancel or switch adventures once you're onboard via the drop box. We have been on cruises without drop boxes and spent, literally, hours in lines to change/book excursions. We had traveled with Princess in Alaska with our whole family years ago; that was wonderful. Now we've traveled on Princess more recently and enjoyed it just as much; many, many of our fellow passengers were Princess regulars. We have given up on Carnival and Norwegian, but Princess is up there with HAL and Celebrity; we would happily sail Princess again!