Take your pick of new port calls

Throw a dart at a map of the world, and you're likely to hit a country where a cruise ship visits.

Cruise lines are adding new ports of call and new shore itineraries, leaving no stone unturned in their quest.

At a port call in the Baltic city of Klaipeda, Lithuania's third largest city, for example passengers from a Regent Seven Seas cruise could opt to descend into almost-90-foot-deep corridors, mine shafts and underground tunnels of a former Soviet nuclear missile site.

Other big names in cruising also are seeking new turf in Europe. This year, for example, Holland America Line is adding nine new port calls that could comprise a geography lesson for the uninitiated: Lulea, Hudiksvall and Karlskrona, Sweden; Aalborg, Denmark; Newcastle upon Tyne and Barrow in Furness, England; Santander, Spain; Portimao, Portugal; and Split, Croatia.

Book voyages on either of SeaDream Yacht Clubs' two luxury 55-stateroom vessels, and your choices include a baker's dozen of European ports mostly off-limits to bigger vessels and mainstream cruise ships. These include Mahdia, Yasmine Marina (Tunisia), Trapani, Porto Empedocles, Ponza (Italy), Porto Banus, La Gomera Island (Spain), Saint Florent (Corsica), Pythagoreion (Greece), Nassabur (Bulgaria) and Setubal and Cascais (Portugal).

Far off in the Indian Ocean, Costa Cruises last year, according to the company, became the first major cruise line to offer Indian Ocean cruises departing from Mauritius. The Costa Marina features two-day stopovers in Mauritius and Mahe (Seychelles), and one-day calls at Mombasa (Kenya), Mayotte, Nosy Be (Madagascar), Toamasina (Madagascar) and Reunion.