The Orinoco and Amazon rivers are the stars of this January 2003 cruise on the Royal Olympic's Olympia Voyager. Well, the rivers and the price. This 17-day excursion out of Ft. Lauderdale starts from a low $1,355 per person, based on double occupancy, and that includes your port fees and taxes. That fees gets you an oceanview stateroom instead of an inside cabin that is usually the only available for that rate.
The two-year-old Voyager leaves port on January 15, 2003 cruising through the Bahamas Channel to reach its first port of call, Virgin Gorda, site of the fun-to-frolic in Baths--large, smoothly sea-worn rocks that form innumerable heated-by-the-sun pools and tunnels to explore. You'll leave there for a call in Barbados before finally hitting the Orinoco River entry point in northern Venezuela, which is when the real adventure begins as you wind your way down along the waterway through Venezuela and French Guyana out to Devil's Island to meet the mouth of the mighty, mighty Amazon on the twelfth day. For the next five days you move along the that river making ports of call at Boca de Valeria, Manaus, and Santarem before finally spilling back out into the Atlantic once again to begin making your journey homeward with two notable stops along the way at Trinidad and St. Thomas.
This roundtrip voyage is being offered by The Vacation Shoppe (www.vacationshoppe.com, 866/727-8473), which offers similar discount and last minute cruises and other vacation packages.