Europa and Romantica are older ships (although hardly vintage), and offer fewer of the high-profile bells and whistles, but those are less of an obsession for Europeans, who tend to care more about the ports.

Shipboard dining is traditional assigned seating in the evening, as well as several basic buffets that ranged from fair to mediocre in variety. Service on our trip was genial, although it's probably best to adopt a flexible attitude regarding time to match that of the staff. Entertainment focused more on cultural acts (African dancers, for instance) than is typical for North American ships, where Vegas rules.

When not trying to experience a foreign culture on land, we were immersed onboard in Europe-ness as thick as brie, which made for educational and amusing people-watching.

One afternoon by the pool, we looked on as seven pasty-white German boys stormed a hot tub the size of a coffee table, sending two French woman fleeing (a historical re-enactment, maybe?), and then launched into a Teutonic-tinged version of a hip-hop tune by American artist 50 Cent. (I'm not convinced they understood all the words.)

In the evenings, we repeatedly passed the same pair of chain-smoking Eastern European women who were either chatting about life or reciting really bleak poetry about something really, um, bleak.

FOCUS ON PORTS

The focus of this cruise, clearly, is on the ports, trophy destinations that offer a broad look at the eastern Peninsula -- as well as the experience of sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, within 30 miles of the Iranian shore. The ports -- Abu Dhabi; Dubai; Fujairah; Manama, Bahrain; and Muscat, Oman -- are not entirely unknown to cruisers, but are typically only found as occasional hits on the schedules of the ultra-luxury ''Obscure Ports of the World'' trips with lines such as Seabourn, Crystal and Silversea.

The 800-pound gorilla in the room for Americans -- and the likely reason Costa didn't even bother to market the trip last season in the United States -- is the Islamic factor, the painfully misguided assumption that all Muslims everywhere (especially those around the Gulf) despise U.S. citizens and all have some part in terrorism. It's not entirely surprising -- most of what we know of the Middle East comes from bombing and beheading reports on CNN or Fox News -- but we are in the minority.

Most Europeans are familiar with the Arabian Peninsula's vacation offerings, as are Australians, New Zealanders, South Americans, the Chinese and, well, pretty much everybody but us and a small tribe of pig-hunters in rural Northern Thailand who refuse to fly.

We felt safe, if for no other reason than because it was obvious at each stop that Western tourism is becoming a priority -- and Allah help anyone who endangers that.

ABU DHABI

The Cultural Foundation in the city of Abu Dhabi is a contemporary fusion of art gallery, history and culture museum and university library, as well as an air-conditioned oasis from the hot, noisy city of 1.8 million people. Down the hall from the historical photos and displays (including the aforementioned model), women in full burqa demonstrate traditional carpet-weaving, and a guy in sheikh's robes lounges inside a tent and demonstrates, apparently, how past sheikhs historically lounged. It was a tiny window into the emirate's heritage, but I couldn't help but compare it to demonstrating U.S. heritage with a theme park Wild West show.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@