Cabin allocation on a Komodo phinisi: who sleeps where

Do not start with names and look for gaps. Start with constraints and let the names fall into them.

• Pass 1: list the constraints. Who avoids stairs. Who sleeps lightly. Who gets seasick. Who must share with whom. Who is being celebrated.
• Pass 2: main deck first. Jawa, Papua and Maluku reach the restaurant without a staircase. Offer them to guests who avoid stairs, to grandparents and to families with small children.
• Pass 3: balconies for guests of honour. Jawa, Sumbawa and Flores each have a private balcony. If the guest of honour also avoids stairs, Jawa answers both questions.
• Pass 4: light sleepers upstairs. Our rule of thumb, not a measurement: the upper deck moves more and hears the engine less, and the main deck moves less. Jawa, at the stern beside the galley, hears the most. A guest who is prone to seasickness and also a light sleeper should say which of the two spoils a trip, and that answer decides the deck.
• Pass 5: extra beds last. They start at guest 22 and never go into Flores.

Then write the rooming list with one row per cabin, in the way the door plates read. Each plate is clear acrylic with a gold number and the island's name, so a row looks like this: 7 · Jawa · A + B · double + single · tub, no stairs. Use the island names in your group chat from the first day, and a guest who hears "Sulawesi" on the quay already knows which door to look for.

Seasickness is a deck question and a month question. By the same rule of thumb the main deck moves less, so put every nervous sailor there if the month you sail is rated rougher on the best-months page, even if that costs the group a balcony.

Stairs are fixed. Three levels, no lift. The sun deck, where the evening programme happens, is a climb for everyone, so a guest on the main deck still needs a plan for it.

Snoring is a pairing question, not a cabin question. Each cabin has one door and one air conditioner, so a snorer sleeps better beside someone who agreed in advance. If your group is under 21, a cabin can stand empty and the snorer can have a room alone. Settle it inside your group before the names go in.

Two colleagues who are not partners share a cabin of two this way: one takes the double and the other takes the single. Agree who before the list goes out.

Put children in their parents' cabin. A child under 3 travels free, and a child from 3 up pays the full fare. A family of four fits a cabin only with the extra bed, and never in Flores.

Keep families on the main deck when you can. The route from bed to buffet has no staircase, and the sun deck, which has a low rail, needs an adult beside every child. Bali's door opens onto an open walkway beside the sea, so a family with a toddler should not take it.

Grandparents get the same main-deck logic, with one addition: the boat has no lift, so ask them before the trip whether they can manage the stairs up to the sun deck. A grandparent who cannot should watch the sunset from the restaurant windows or the main deck, and the rooming list should say so.

Guests of honour take a balcony. Jawa has the bathtub, outdoors on its balcony, with two bean bags beside it. Flores has a side balcony and two bean bags. Sumbawa has a roofed stern balcony with a rattan chair and table, reached from the cabin like the one on Jawa.

Twelve guests make six pairs, so one cabin stays empty. A 3D2N charter costs IDR 6,330,000 (≈ USD 388) each. Group: an anniversary couple, the organiser and partner, a couple with a knee problem, two friends, two couples.

• Jawa (7): the anniversary couple. Balcony with the bathtub, no stairs to the restaurant.
• Sumbawa (1): the organiser and partner. Roofed balcony, upper deck.
• Papua (5): the couple with the knee problem. Main deck, no staircase.
• Sulawesi (3): the two friends, one in the double and one in the single, with a sea window along the bed.
• Flores (2): the first of the two couples. Side balcony.
• Bali (4): the second couple.
• Maluku (6): empty.

If the count grows to 14, Maluku fills with a pair. At 13 the figure becomes IDR 5,850,000 (≈ USD 359) each and at 14 it is IDR 5,430,000 (≈ USD 333). The boat price does not change until the count crosses 15.

Eighteen guests fit in 7 cabins without a single extra bed: four cabins of 3 and three of 2. The 3D2N charter costs IDR 4,640,000 (≈ USD 285) each. Group: three couples and four trios of colleagues.

• Jawa (7): couple 1, the guests of honour.
• Sumbawa (1): couple 2, the organiser's cabin.
• Flores (2): trio A. This cabin stops at 3, so it suits a trio exactly.
• Sulawesi (3): trio B, the light sleepers.
• Bali (4): trio C, who will be first on the deck for the early start.
• Papua (5): trio D, which includes the colleague who avoids stairs.
• Maluku (6): couple 3.

Count it: 2 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 2 = 18. In a trio, one person takes the single. Decide who before the list goes out, because a draw on the quay is nobody's idea of a plan.

Twenty-five is the licence, so every berth is used and four guests sleep on extra beds. The 3D2N charter costs IDR 3,840,000 (≈ USD 236) each: the 16-to-20 band price plus five guests at IDR 2,500,000 (≈ USD 153). Group: a family reunion with grandparents, parents, children and a few friends.

• Flores (2), 3 guests: the guests of honour and one companion. It stops at 3.
• Jawa (7), 3 guests: the two oldest guests and one carer. Bathtub balcony, no stairs.
• Sumbawa (1), 3 guests: the organiser, partner and their youngest child.
• Papua (5), 4 guests: a family, with one child on the extra bed.
• Maluku (6), 4 guests: a second family, one child on the extra bed.
• Sulawesi (3), 4 guests: four young adults, the fittest sleepers in the group, one on the extra bed.
• Bali (4), 4 guests: four more, one on the extra bed.

Add up the rows: 3 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 25. The masters and Flores keep their fixed beds, and the four extra beds sit in the sea-view cabins. The type of extra bed is not printed, so ask us which one each of those four cabins takes.