After reading some of the reviews of MSC Splendida, I was a bit apprehensive about going on this cruise, and after my cruise I can say that there is a little bit of truth in most of the reviews I have read on this site and elsewhere.
Our flights were with British Airways from London Gatwick and were inclusive in the Cruise price. The flight was fine, but was not dedicated to this cruise, meaning that we had to pick up our cases after the flight and take them to Arrivals where an MSC rep was waiting for us, she gathered what seemed to be everyone from the plane and took us to the coach which was parked just outside.
After a 20 minute ride to the ship, we left the coach and proceeded to the cruise terminal, our cases would be transferred to our room. The terminal was complete chaos with a HUGE queue, luckily we had checked in on-line and were directed to a (thankfully) much shorter queue. We were then directed to a room where they were trying to sell wine & cocktail packages, they had sample cocktails and wines there. We had read that it was a good idea to purchase some of these as they are a bit cheaper than drinks on-board, so we purchased 2 of the cocktail packages (with 12 drinks in each).