I have cruised on 5 previous cruises including princess,carnival,regent seven seas. I travelled with girlfriend from N.America for this cruise. We stayed in London at the Novatel. It was okay but travel by train on a sunday took 6 hours instead of what I expected.
If going to the ship specifically for this cruise-stay in Southampton.The Weather in the 1st week of may '08 sucked-cold wet damp in either london or Southampton.
Embarkation in Southampton is long lines unless you are a 'platinum' member. Expect a wait in a cold damp building for about an hour or less.The lines are like that of a long amusement park ride but the crowd is 90% british and older. The majority of this 'older'(age 70 and up!) are not from around the world-I did hear french and german and there are a LOT of tour groups but not alot of Americans. This is a total british crowd.