Welcome aboard Princess Lala, a Komodo phinisi with two tables and six cabins

A chef sails with us on every trip, and the day is arranged around the galley. You come aboard straight from the morning pickup, the crew hands over your cabin key, a short safety briefing follows, and then comes your first lunch. Meals run from that lunch to breakfast on day three, and water, tea and coffee are out all day.

There are two tables. The long one runs through the indoor dining room, with sea-view windows beside it and the tea and coffee station at its far end. The other stands in the open air at the stern, under a timber roof, with the water an arm's length from your chair. Sit where you like.

The kind of plates that come out of the galley: grilled whole fish, prawns and calamari with corn, sambal ground in a stone mortar, fried banana with cheese, dragon-fruit juice. They are what our photographs show: examples, not a promise of one dish on one day. Five crew look after the boat and the table: a captain, a cruise director, the chef and two deck crew. On open trips a local guide comes along too.

Every cabin has a sea-view window and air conditioning, so the first thing you see in the morning is water. Cabins 1, 2 and 3 are on the upper deck; Cabins 4, 5 and 6 are on the main deck. Cabins 1 and 6 are the masters, each with a private balcony: Cabin 1 has windows on three sides and a bean bag on its balcony, Cabin 6 one double bed and a bench.

Cabins 1 to 5 each have a single bed beside the double, and that single bed is why families ask for this boat. Two adults and a nine-year-old fit in Cabin 4 behind one door, and the third guest pays the extra-bed fare on the cabin's card.

Two things we would rather you heard from us. Cabin 3 has no bathroom of its own, which is why it carries the lowest fare on board, IDR 3,250,000 (≈ USD 199) per person for three days. And Cabin 6 is sold for two on open trips, so a family of three should look at the other five; a charter adds its single berth.

Day one starts gently: Kelor for a short, steep climb and a swim, Manjarite for snorkelling off the jetty, Strawberry Rock when the sea allows it, and at dusk Kalong, where the fruit bats leave the mangroves while dinner is laid at the long table. Day two is the full one. The Padar ridge comes first, with a torch for the first steps and breakfast on board when you come down; then the dragon walk on Komodo behind a park ranger, Pink Beach, lunch, a drift over the reef at Manta Point and the sandbar at Taka Makassar.

Guests on the two-day fare go ashore that evening. Everyone else stays for another dinner and breakfast, and swims at Kanawa on the last morning.

Some things are out of our hands. On the open trip the park's quota decides between Padar and Gili Lawa and between Komodo and Rinca, and Namong beach can take Pink Beach's place. Dragons and manta rays are wild, so nobody can promise you either. The Taka Makassar sandbar shows only at low tide.

The open trip leaves Labuan Bajo every Monday & Friday. The fares are for sailings from 1 January 2027; every sailing up to 31 December 2026 costs IDR 100,000 (≈ USD 6) less per person in every cabin.

One sailing carries two fares. Three days means two nights on board and a return to Labuan Bajo between 10:00 and 11:00 on day three, from IDR 3,250,000 (≈ USD 199) per person in Cabin 3 to IDR 4,750,000 (≈ USD 291) in Cabin 1. Two days follows the same stops and puts you ashore on the evening of day two, from IDR 2,750,000 (≈ USD 169) to IDR 4,450,000 (≈ USD 273). Both include transfers, every meal, a local guide and a photographer; park fees are paid separately. The 2027 fares run to 31 July 2027, and for later sailings you ask us for the price.

Or take the whole boat. Three days cost IDR 38,000,000 (≈ USD 2,331) for one to four guests, IDR 41,000,000 (≈ USD 2,515) for five to eight and IDR 46,000,000 (≈ USD 2,822) for nine to twelve, with IDR 2,250,000 (≈ USD 138) for each guest beyond twelve, up to 18. A charter quotes the guide and the photographer separately.

One question settles most enquiries: can everyone you are bringing sit down to the same dinner? If so, this boat fits. She is at her best on three kinds of trip. Family trips, because a single bed sits beside the double in five of the six cabins and children under 3 travel free. Photography, because the open-trip fare carries a photographer with a GoPro, a mirrorless camera and a drone, and the route puts you on the Padar ridge early and off Kalong at sunset. Travelling on a budget, because Cabin 3 trades a private bathroom for the lowest fare on board and the two-day fare starts at IDR 2,750,000 (≈ USD 169).

She does not suit everyone. She is a snorkelling boat: a mask and a snorkel for each guest, no fins, no tanks, no compressor. If someone in your group needs a dive deck, a lift between decks or a signal bar at sea, another trip will suit them better. Send us your dates and how many you are, and we answer with the cabins that are free.