There are loads of ships which do the Western Mediterranean which may be what you are looking for, often sailing from Barcelona. The last couple of times we have done this itinerary on the Norwegian Epic.

You can sign up for email newsletters with offers from these, Google will find you many more.

http://www.scotlandscruisecentre.co.uk

http://www.cruisedirect.co.uk

Whether you can get a last minute bargain depends on when you want to travel. Early and late season are best for good deals.

Hi medot
You need to talk to someone who has cruised with lots of different lines so that they can give you the low down on what they all provide. So you can fit this to your requirements.
Some people like a smaller ship for the friendlier more intimate atmosphere and some like the larger ones for all the onboard activities, it also depends on your budget or if you are taking the family.
Some of the smaller ships do more ports of call typically on a two week cruise with Thomson you have eleven ports of call but on the no fly cruises you may only get seven or less lots of days at sea and as its your first its nice to visit a lot.
Have a great holiday.

Another point to take on board (if you'll pardon the pun) depends how you feel about cruising with people of other nationalities. Thomson offer Mediterranean cruises where nearly all the guests are English, and the catering and entertainment tends to reflect English tastes. Costa on the other hand, although Italian-owned, welcome many French, German and Italian guests and English guests may find themselves in the minority, which means listening to announcements in several languages before the English version is heard, and the catering tends to be far more biased towards Italian cuisine and Italian mealtimes (later dinners) and more 'international' entertainment rather than purely English tv and culture (eg 'Mr and Mrs' (yes, it still plays regularly on board some ships) and Bingo).

Perhaps more important is what you want from your cruise. Do you want to spend most of your time relaxing on board or are the ports you visit the greater attraction? If it's the ports, it might be worth comparing how much time is actually spent in the port .. some cruise ships are only there for a few hours, and others for the whole day.

As regards excursions, it is not always necessary to book them with the cruise line, much as they'd wish you to do so! You can explore independently or pre-book a tour from a local land-based excursion agency on a 'made to measure' basis. I think you'll find Cruise Critic a good site to help you with this - and to learn about cruise lines, specific ships and shore excursions from people who've already cruised on them (http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/).

Hope you find the information you want and that your cruise will be very special.

also bear in mind that a lot of cruise prices in the the newspapers and the internet DONT include your flight!!! so if you book a cruise say starting in spain then you have to add the cost of getting to the ship on top of the price for the actual cruise.

thanks for the replies so far.

its a lot to think about. i will look on the sites you have all given me. any input is a bonus.

i think if we are going to cruise i would like to start from southampton and not fly.

i think i have looked at some cruises and not realised they dont actually start from this country!!!

This site will give you an idea of who sails from where and when

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/