The port is particularly exotic. On my first cruise to the Middle East, a place as foreign in culture and language as anywhere I'd ever been, the comfort of the tours arranged by the cruise line was indisputable, especially in challenging places such as Yemen's Aden and Oman's Salalah. I'd also book cruise line shore excursions in smaller, more offbeat ports on Asian itineraries, in South Africa, South America (particularly in the Amazon) and in Russia's St. Petersburg.