That happens on land as much as at sea. Haven't you been following the Michel Roux Jnr story? Or many others concerning tipping and poor wages in restaurants?

I would add that passengers often group together and use the local taxi/mini cabs as a much cheaper alternative to the coaches cruise organisers use. They also drop you in much more convenient places. One regret I had about Cadiz is that some passengers had grouped together and taken a minibus to Seville and it worked out at just €30 p.p. That was when I first became aware of these taxis/minicabs. When docking at Livorno we clubbed together with others and took a trip to Florence for €25 p.p.

I am not familiar with either Genoa or Cagliari but ports I have visted often leave you enough opportunities to explore further afield using buses and trains. When anchored at Villfranche, we took the train to Monaco and then the bus back along the coast to Nice, very cheap and allowed us plenty of time to make sure we were back on board on time.

It isn't until you take a couple of cruises or seek advice from others that you discover all these little tips. I held out for over 2o years not agreeing to a cruise but when I finally did, I never regretted it, had one of the best holidays ever, we just used the cruise liner as a convenient hotel waking up each day in a different place was brilliant, Breakfast and off exploring as early as we could and getting back just before it sailed enjoying the food and drink in great little places onshore.

Remind me to come back to you for advice on which cruise liner not to use. I have only been on two and both were brilliant including guests and food. The first cruise was on the Marco Polo before it changed hands and I agree some guests can be, well lets say overpowering, on the first night we sat with a group that included a New Zealander and he was loud and complaining. On the second night we met up with really nice guests and stayed with them each evening at dinner and shared what we had done that day and other topics, they were brilliant. The second cruise was the Grand Princess and this time we had a table to ourselves which worked out well, the food wasn't as good as on the Marco Polo but was okay. But to be honest we had enough on shore we only eat lightly on board as I posted earlier we used the liner as a place to sleep, shower and change and relax in the evening with a movie, never caught a show.

If you look at cruise lines for Food, you are best doing the smaller ones, the ones that don't have speciality restaurants at extra cover charges...the cruise lines want to make money out of you onboard, so the food on these larger ships tends to be downgraded in the main & buffet restaurants.

And again the larger companies tend to spend less time in port, in order to save costs these days as well.

For drinks the best ones for prices tend to be those ones that use sterling as onbaord currency, the US Dollar ships tend to be the most expensive.

MSC are poor in most aspects, but they do have some wonderful ships & great itineraries, you just have to weigh that up against everything else...personally I loved the ship & itinerary...Kotor & Dubrovnik are two of the most fantastic places you could visit.

There are a variety of cruise lines depending what you want:-

Luxury

Silversea
Regent Seven Seas
Seabourn
Crystal Cruises
Seadream
Windstar
Azamara
Hebridean

5*

Celebrity
Cunard
Princess
Disney

4*

P&O
Fred Olsen
Royal Caribbean
NCL

3*

MSC
Costa
Thomson
Cruise & Maritime
Carnival

Something different

Star Clippers
Hurtigruten

Lectures

Voyages of Antiquity

And several I have probably missed.

1. Possibly an inside cabin?
2. If you get a drinks package, you probably won't spend any money at all.
3. No idea.

We went with NCL on our cruise and the tips had to be paid up front. A bit odd i thought, but apparently the norm.
Excursions are well expensive! For what we spent we could have had another weeks holiday.
Americans. They are everywhere.

Yeah, Holland & America. I'd place them a strong 4-star.

We've been on two Cunard cruises (QE2 around the med, QM2 around the caribbean) and one H&A cruise (Ms Oosterdam around the med). Cunard are better, but H&A for me aren't too far away from them.

Thats what I hated about Royal Caribbean on a cruise to the far east, my other half doesnt drink booze and I wanted a package but had to pay for 2 on the package.

Another thing I hated was they confiscate your duty free. I had my Heathrow duty free in my suitcase and had asked my attendant where is my case , finally found that it had been confiscated by Security because it had "contraband" ie 2 bottles of Rum. They scan all cases onto the ship and the ones with contraband booze were seized . So if you expected a wee half un in your room it was a no no.

After that I refused all tips on my account and didnt pay a penny. I also boycotted all RC Tours doing or own thing instead. ( Along with many others who had planned well ahead).

But other than the above I enjoyed the cruise.

Yes...forgot Holland America, probably a 4* +...and Cunard could possibly fit in to the luxury category depending on which standard of cabin you are in.

Indeed. My inlaws have been in the Queens Grill, etc. on Cunard and, rather unsurprisingly, said it was wonderful! But, even when people like me are in steerage , it's still a very nice experience!

So just how poor should I expect the food on the MSC to be? If you could compare to a UK restaurant - even if it's only Weatherspoons - that would be helpful.

Weatherspoons would be better.....the best thing to say about the food on MSC was that it was edible.....though I could get tastier from an ASDA ready made microwave meal.