37 m premium phinisi · 9 en-suite cabins · 21 guests — weekly shared departures & private charter from Labuan Bajo
Elbark Cruise is a 37-metre premium phinisi liveaboard sailing Komodo National Park from Labuan Bajo, carrying 21 guests in nine en-suite cabins. Shared 3D2N cabins run from $400 per person; whole-boat charter from $8,400 per night. Book via the Komodo Trip desk — operated by Komodo Luxury since 2015.
The photographs below show the actual hull you board in Labuan Bajo — no renders, no stock. From the air, Elbark’s 37-metre profile reads clearly against the turquoise shallows of the park; on deck, three levels break into a shaded outdoor dining area at the stern, an indoor saloon, and a full-length sundeck up top. The cabin shots walk the five classes in order: the Misool master suite with its private balcony jacuzzi, the sea-view Weh and Mentawai doubles, Rote and Selayar, then the porthole-view Toraja, Alor, Banda Neira and Savu doubles. Every cabin photographed here is en-suite and air-conditioned.
Two details worth checking in any cabin set, here or on a competitor’s hull: whether the bathroom shots are genuinely en-suite (every Elbark cabin’s is), and whether a “sea view” claim means a window you can sit by or a porthole above the waterline. Elbark is straightforward about the split — Misool, Weh, Mentawai, Rote and Selayar carry proper sea-view windows; Toraja, Alor, Banda Neira and Savu are porthole cabins, priced accordingly, with about $110 per person between the cheapest sea-view double and a porthole double.
Spec sheets for Komodo boats get copied from brochure to brochure until nobody knows what is true. We publish only what the operator verifies, and where a number is not documented — this hull’s build year, for instance — we leave it out rather than guess. What is verified: Elbark measures 37 metres with a 6.8-metre beam, carries 21 guests in nine en-suite cabins across three decks, and cruises at 7–10 knots on a Mitsubishi 8M20 — a pace suited to the short anchorage hops of the park rather than open-water passages. Some guests arrive searching for the Elbark yacht; she is a traditional wooden phinisi, not a motor yacht, with modern electronics layered on a timber hull.
| Specification | Elbark Cruise |
|---|---|
| Type | Traditional wooden phinisi (motor-sailer) |
| Length × beam | 37 m × 6.8 m |
| Decks | 3 |
| Cabins | 9 en-suite, in 5 classes |
| Guest capacity | 21 |
| Cruising speed | 7–10 knots |
| Engine | Mitsubishi 8M20 |
| Generators | 30 kVA + 40 kVA, with 8,000-watt emergency backup |
| Fresh water | 5,500 L |
| Navigation & comms | Compass, GPS chart, AIS, SSB radio, VHF radio, handy talkies |
| Trip formats | Shared 3D2N open trips; private charter 2D1N–6D5N |
Two numbers matter more than they look. The paired generators — 30 kVA and 40 kVA, with an 8,000-watt emergency set — mean the air-conditioning keeps running overnight at anchor without the main engine turning; on a July night in the park that is the difference between sleep and none. And 5,500 litres of fresh water is a real allowance for 21 guests over three days of salt, sunscreen and post-snorkel showers. Navigation runs GPS chart, AIS, SSB and VHF radio alongside the compass, with handy talkies for tender operations — the fit-out you should expect from a licensed Indonesian tour operator with annual maritime safety inspection, and worth confirming on any boat you compare.
On this site Elbark carries the Premium badge — the middle of our three-tier vocabulary, between Value hulls and the Superyacht class. In practice, Premium means every cabin en-suite and air-conditioned, a documented safety fit-out, and shared per-person pricing in the $400–850 band. What separates Elbark inside that tier is spread: five distinct cabin classes on one hull means a $400 traveler and a $700 traveler share the same sundeck, the same chef and the same route.
The honest way to read the Elbark Cruise price list is per cabin class, not from a headline. Nine cabins split into five classes, each named for an Indonesian island, and on a shared 3D2N departure you pay per person for the class you pick — from $400 in a porthole double to $700 in the Misool master suite, roughly IDR 6.3–11 million at current rates. For reference, the broader Komodo shared-trip market runs IDR 3.5–5.5 million per person; Elbark prices above that band because every cabin is en-suite and air-conditioned and the trip carries drone, GoPro and mirrorless documentation. All rates below are from-prices for 2026 shared departures.
| Cabin class | Cabins | View | Bed | Extras | From (pp, 3D2N) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Misool | 1 | Sea view | Double (+ extra bed $340) | Private balcony + jacuzzi | from $700 |
| Weh · Mentawai | 2 | Sea view | Double (+ extra bed $340) | — | from $570 |
| Rote · Selayar | 2 | Sea view | Double | — | from $510 |
| Toraja · Alor | 2 | Porthole | Double | — | from $430 |
| Banda Neira · Savu | 2 | Porthole | Double | — | from $400 |
Every class has air-conditioning and a private bathroom; extra beds are available only in Misool, Weh and Mentawai at $340 per person, which is how a family of three keeps one key. If you would rather take the whole boat, private charter starts from $8,400 per night on the 2026 rate — around IDR 131 million — with itineraries from a 2D1N shakeout to a 6D5N sweep of the park. The arithmetic is worth running for big groups: fill the nine cabins with 18–21 guests on shared rates and you are already in charter territory, without the control over route, meal times or pace that a charter buys.
Park fees are never bundled into these numbers, on Elbark or any honest listing: Komodo National Park entry is IDR 250,000 (about $16) per person per day, ranger trekking is IDR 200,000 per group of up to five (IDR 150,000 on Padar), plus small harbor fees. Budget $40–50 per person on top of a 3D2N — our Komodo trip cost guide has the complete fee table.
Choosing a class is mostly a question of where you will spend daylight. If the answer is “on deck” — and on a 3D2N it usually is — the porthole doubles are the smart money: same bed, same bathroom, same food, $400. Couples marking an occasion book Misool for the balcony and the jacuzzi and treat the cabin as part of the trip itself. The sea-view middle classes earn their premium at anchor, when you can watch the light change on the islands without leaving your pillow.
Elbark sells two ways, and the split is clean. The first is the shared open trip: weekly 3D2N departures from Labuan Bajo year-round, where you book a cabin class as an Elbark liveaboard guest and share the boat with up to 21 others. One 2026 calendar covers the shared fleet — Elbark’s availability against each block is confirmed at booking — with weekend blocks (below) plus a separate weekday shared program if you would rather sail outside the Friday–Sunday window; the open trip Komodo page carries the weekday schedule. Day-one pick-up is at 09:00 from your Labuan Bajo hotel or the airport. The second is whole-boat private charter from $8,400 per night, from 2D1N up to 6D5N — the format for weddings, dive groups with their own plan, or any party of 14 or more that wants the route to itself.
November and December blocks run weekly through year-end; message the desk for dates beyond October. Weekend blocks carry the demand — and, in August, the waiting lists — so if your dates are flexible, the weekday shared cruises are the same boat, route and rate with thinner crowds at Padar and the dragon trails, and easier SiOra quota availability on your permit day. Charter parties get the same crew, chef and documentation service as shared departures; the difference is that the route becomes yours — an extra hour at Manta Point, a night anchored off Padar for a second dawn climb, or a 6D5N reach into the quieter south of the park.
| 2026 month | Shared 3D2N departure blocks |
|---|---|
| July–August turn | 31 Jul – 2 Aug |
| August | 7–9 · 14–16 · 21–23 · 28–30 |
| September | 4–6 · 11–13 · 18–20 · 25–27 |
| October | 2–4 · 9–11 · 16–18 · 23–25 · 30 Oct – 1 Nov |
Nine cabins, 21 guests per sailing — dry-season weekends fill first. Tell us your dates and cabin class.
This is the route the shared 3D2N actually runs — on the page, not buried in a PDF. Distances inside the park are short, which is why a 7–10-knot phinisi is the right tool: most legs are under two hours, and the boat anchors overnight instead of steaming.
Pick-up at 09:00 from your hotel or Komodo Airport, harbor formalities, and a short crossing to Kelor Island for the first snorkel and a steep climb to the ridge viewpoint. Lunch is served on board en route to Manjarite, where the pier-side reef makes an easy drift over hard coral. By late afternoon Elbark anchors off Kalong Island, and at dusk thousands of flying foxes lift off the mangroves — dinner is on deck while they cross overhead.
The alarm is early on purpose: we time Padar for 05:15, when the trail is cool and the light comes up over the three bays as you climb. Back on board for breakfast, then Pink Beach for a swim over the red-tinged sand. Midday is Komodo Island itself — a ranger-led walk to see the dragons, with the IDR 200,000-per-group ranger fee paid at the gate; Andi, our lead park guide, briefs every group on distance and behavior before landing. The afternoon runs to Taka Makassar, a crescent sandbar in open water, and closes at Manta Point, where the current lines carry reef mantas over the cleaning stations. Snorkeling gear and life vests are on board, and this is where the documentation team flies the drone.
A first-light snorkel at Sebayur — usually the calmest water of the trip — then breakfast as the boat turns for home. Elbark is back alongside in Labuan Bajo by early afternoon, in time for a late flight, though we recommend an evening one; raw files from the drone, GoPro and mirrorless documentation are shared before you disembark.
The shared rate includes your cabin, all meals, drinking water, coffee and tea, a licensed guide, snorkeling gear, life vests and that documentation service; it excludes park fees (above) and crew tips. If you plan to fly your own drone, the park requires a BTNK permit at IDR 2,000,000 per day — most guests rely on the included aerial footage instead. New for 2026: the SiOra reservation system caps Komodo–Padar visitors at 1,000 per day from April, one more reason firm dates beat loose plans.
Season matters to this route: June through September is the dry season — calm mornings, long visibility at Manta Point, and the heaviest demand for cabins — while January and February bring afternoon rain and the occasional resequenced Padar climb. The itinerary above runs year-round, with the captain reordering stops around wind rather than canceling them. For the wider picture of what any Komodo boat trip includes, start with our overview guide.
Elbark’s closest sisters in the shared fleet are Neptune Cruise and Naturalia — same 3D2N route, same booking desk, different strengths. The one-line version: Elbark for cabin-class choice at the widest price spread, Neptune for divers, Naturalia for the newest build. The table gives the numbers; both sister pages carry full photo sets and cabin sheets.
| Boat | From (pp, 3D2N) | Charter / night | Cabins | Guests | Length | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elbark Cruise (this page) | from $400 | from $8,400 | 9 | 21 | 37 m | Five cabin classes, jacuzzi master suite |
| Neptune Cruise | from $610 | from $8,900 | 7 | 20 | 40 m | Divers — dedicated dive deck |
| Naturalia | from $400 | from $7,800 | 8 | 24 | 33.45 m | Newest build, jacuzzi & bathtub cabins |
Still deciding? The full fleet page compares all our Komodo boats side by side, from value hulls to superyachts, with the same verified-spec treatment as this page. And if your question is really about the format rather than the boat — shared cabin versus private charter, multi-day versus day trip — the Komodo liveaboard guide walks that decision before you commit to a hull.
Reading an Elbark review on an agency site usually surfaces the same three points: the cabin variety, the food, and the documentation. What a review cannot do is confirm this weekend’s availability — that takes the desk. Message us on WhatsApp with your dates, party size and preferred cabin class; Dewi from our guest-experience team checks the live 2026 calendar, holds the cabin, and sends a written quote that itemizes the trip rate and park fees separately, so there are no surprises at the harbor. Booking runs through the Komodo Trip desk at Labuan Bajo Harbor; the vessel operates under Komodo Luxury, a licensed Indonesian tour operator rated 4.8/5 from 150+ Google reviews, with annual Indonesian maritime safety inspection across the fleet.
After you approve the quote, the desk sends payment instructions and a confirmation with your pick-up window, cabin assignment and a packing brief; nothing is charged before you confirm in writing. If a block later fills or collides with a charter buy-out, the desk offers the nearest alternative dates or a sister hull before anything is finalized. For dry-season sailings — July through September — confirm four to eight weeks out: Elbark Komodo departures cap at 21 guests, and August weekend blocks go first.
Shared cabins from $400 per person · private charter from $8,400 per night — the desk replies with live availability.
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