Riding camels in the Jeddah desert may be a little different to jumping on rollercoasters at Disney World, but Newcastle United are not the only side down at the bottom who have travelled across the globe to build team spirit over the years.
West Brom jetted off to Florida in 2005 after a similarly difficult start to the season. In fact, the Baggies, like Newcastle, also picked up just one victory from their opening 20 league fixtures.
However, remarkably, upon returning from the US, Bryan Robson's side won three of their next four games before going on to stay up on the final day of the campaign.
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To put that achievement into perspective, the Baggies are the only one of the last 12 teams who have survived in the top-flight after such a poor start.
Rather than deter Newcastle, that statistic will give Eddie Howe's side renewed hope that the Magpies can also pull off the great escape when they fly home - particularly after the win at Leeds last time out.
Of course, it is important to note that this trip to Saudi has led to some uncomfortable questions being asked - Amnesty International feared the authorities would use it to try and 'sportswash their appalling human rights record' - but Howe has repeatedly stressed it is a 'football decision'.
For Howe, it is a chance for an already tight-knit group of players to bond - just as West Brom did in 2005. Indeed, Thomas Gaardsoe, the Baggies' former centre-back, previously told ChronicleLive that getting to know his team-mates better away from the training ground was what 'really changed it for us'.
Gaardose could sense that the players 'started believing again that this miracle might actually happen' and fellow defender Paul Robinson felt likewise.
"There was no media around to be at the training ground so it was nice to get away from all that side as well to just go over the other side of the world and just switch off and be in each other's company," Robinson told ChronicleLive.
"We asked questions of ourselves of what we needed to do better as a group and, when we came back, it was like we were all possessed. No one was going to get in our way and this was how we were going to do it."
Among those who asked questions on that trip was Kevin Campbell, who was one of a handful of signings Robson made in the January transfer window alongside Kieran Richardson and Richard Chaplow.
Robson, like Howe, was careful to bring the right sort of players into the club and the aforementioned trio all made an impact on and off the field: Campbell was a leader; Richardson helped to raise the intensity of training; and Chaplow was a positive influence in the dressing room.
The trip to Florida allowed these new arrivals to gel with their team-mates - just as Kieran Trippier has in Jeddah.
For the wider staff, too, it was a chance to get to know each other better after Robson, like Howe, had only been appointed the previous November.
As far as goalkeeping coach Joe Corrigan was concerned, the break 'lifted a huge weight off all the players and staff'.
"We all found out what a good bunch of lads they were," Corrigan told ChronicleLive. "Everyone looked after each other. We went out, we trained, we had a few games of golf. It was a good bonding session, really, and it was good for the staff as well to get away.
"We gave the lads nights off on their own to go out and enjoy themselves and they all behaved themselves really well and we didn't have any problems at all.
"It was, mentally, a great experience for the staff to get together and throw ideas across and try and work out a strategy with one another."
West Brom ended up claiming 16 points from a possible 33 to stay up following a dramatic final day win against Portsmouth.
It was a remarkable turnaround after the Baggies picked up just eight points from their previous 11 games before the trip to Florida.
Robson went on to describe that mid-season break as the 'best £40,000' he had spent that season and top scorer Robert Earnshaw certainly agreed.
"Maybe if we didn't go on that trip to Orlando and get away from things, we wouldn't have stayed up," he told ChronicleLive.
"We came back really refreshed and changed. There was almost a feeling of, 'Let's begin the season now. What have we go in front of us over the next couple of months and what do we have to do?'
"That's what happened. The mentality changed. It was a different team."
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