Komodo snorkelling cruise, not a dive boat

Princess Nabila carries no diving tanks and no compressor, so there is no diving from this boat. If your group came to Komodo to dive, book a dive vessel, and read the rest of this page only if some of your party would rather float than descend.

The boat is built for something else. It has seven cabins with private bathrooms, a restaurant with a buffet island, a turf sun deck and a licence for 25 guests, which makes it a good base for a group that snorkels, walks and eats together. The water gear is a mask and a snorkel for each guest, one inflatable kayak, one paddle board and a white open tender with a red-painted bow deck. The way back aboard is the ladder on the boarding platform, on the starboard side.

Snorkel sets come without fins. Bring a pair of your own.

The figures below are general planning times for each place, and the order of stops on the day belongs to the captain and the sea. The 3-day 2-night route page lists the stops day by day.

• Manjarite, on day one: a snorkel after the Kelor hill.
• Pink Beach, on day two, where the printed itinerary also names Namong: reef close to the shore, 45 to 90 minutes in the water, with calmer water in the morning. The sand shows a pale pink tint that depends on light and tide.
• Manta Point: 30 to 60 minutes in the water, carried along the reef by the current. Water of three to fifteen metres and a current that can be strong.
• Taka Makassar: 30 to 60 minutes over a crescent sandbank and shallow reef. The sandbank shows only at low tide.
• Kanawa or Seture, on day three: shallow coral and an easy final snorkel. On a private 3D2N charter, Sebayur takes that slot.

A private charter and the open trip share much of this route. The open-trip fare includes a local guide. On a charter nothing is guided unless you buy the guide line.

You do not need to be a certified diver to see a manta ray in Komodo. You need to swim well enough to keep your face in the water for half an hour in a current, and you need luck. Mantas are common at Manta Point, and a sighting is never guaranteed. It depends on the tide and the current, and the stop can swap places with Taka Makassar on the day for that reason.

Season matters. The peak months for mantas are December, January, February, July, August and September, and the two seasons feel different on the water. January and February are wet, rough and low in visibility. July and August bring the strongest wind of the dry season and the busiest anchorages. September is the gentler month: winds ease, visibility is high and mantas are still around.

Anyone who is not a confident swimmer should wear a life jacket at Manta Point. A guest who would rather not go can stay on the boat. Nothing else in the day depends on that stop.

A mixed group is awkward to plan. The divers need a dive vessel for the days they dive. The others need somewhere to sleep and something to see.

This boat answers the second half only. It can be a charter or an open-trip cabin on dates that suit the non-divers. Say in your first message how many dive and how many do not, and on which days.

If the divers will not come to the boat at all, the non-divers still get the full park route. A group of 10 non-divers pays IDR 6,850,000 (≈ USD 420) each on a 3D2N charter. Below 15 guests the open trip costs less per head, and a sea-view bed is IDR 5,150,000 (≈ USD 316) per person on the current list.

Choose another boat if every guest in the party is a diver, and spend your nights on a liveaboard built for it.

Inside the open-trip fare: the boat, all meals, free-flow water, tea and coffee, a mask and snorkel, a local guide, and the documentation set. Inside a private charter: the same boat, meals, water, tea and coffee, mask and snorkel, kayak and paddle board, but not the guide and not the photographs.

Outside both: fins, a rash vest or wetsuit, and the park. Snorkelling in the park is covered by the entry ticket, which you buy online in your own name. Ranger and pier charges are separate.

Pack for the water as you would for any warm reef. A rash vest saves your back from the sun on the long floating stops, and reef-safe sunscreen protects the corals you came to see. There is little shade at Taka Makassar and none on the turf deck.

Tell us who snorkels, who does not swim and who has a mask that fits, and the quote follows with the head count. The cabins page holds the open-trip fares.