Nine cabins, eighteen guests: who fits where on Elbark

Every cabin has air conditioning, its own bathroom with a rainfall shower, and a double bed for 2. None takes a third guest, which is why 18 is the ceiling. Beyond those basics, the nine fall into five groups.

• Misool, upper deck: the master cabin, 34 sqm, with a bathtub, a work desk and a private balcony with a sofa and a jacuzzi. Misool is named after one of the four main islands of Raja Ampat; the cabin itself looks out over Komodo water.
• Weh and Mentawai, upper deck: 13.6 sqm each, big windows onto the sea and a bathtub.
• Selayar and Rote, main deck: 9.24 sqm, windows and a work desk, on the same deck as the dining room and the lounge.
• Toraja and Alor, lower deck: 8.75 sqm, a small round marine window and a work desk.
• Banda Neira and Savu, lower deck: 8.75 sqm, a small round marine window, no desk listed.

Mentawai, Rote, Alor and Banda Neira are the same types as Weh, Selayar, Toraja and Savu. Our photographs are of each type, not of every single cabin.

Three generations, 18 guests

Picture two grandparent couples, four couples in the middle generation and six grandchildren: nine cabins exactly. I'd put the grandparents in Selayar and Rote, on the deck with the dining room and lounge. The four couples take Misool, Weh, Mentawai and Toraja, and the grandchildren pair up in Alor, Banda Neira and Savu.

A family of four needs two cabins, since none sleeps more than 2. When you count cabins, count the children as guests.

Sixteen friends

Eight pairs fill eight of the nine cabins. The fare follows the 16 guests, so the empty one costs nothing. Leave a lower-deck cabin free, since the windows are upstairs. The one conversation to have early is who gets Misool, and drawing lots is kinder than ranking people.

Fifteen colleagues

Six pairs and three people on their own. Give the solo cabins to whoever most needs quiet, and the master cabin to the team's longest-serving member. The fare doesn't change with the cabin, so none of this costs the company anything.

The lower-deck cabins have a small round marine window and no real daylight view of the sea. Anyone who wakes badly without a window, or who wants to see the water from bed, belongs upstairs or on the main deck.

Only Misool has a balcony and a jacuzzi, and only Misool, Weh and Mentawai have a bathtub. If your party is expecting a balcony in every cabin, tell us now; a gap between expectation and the boat costs least when it's closed before booking.

Mobility matters too. Elbark has 3 decks, and how they connect and how high the steps are has not been described to us. Anyone who finds stairs hard should have the answer in writing before the cabin is fixed, not on boarding day.

One more honest limit: the lower cabins are the smallest, at 8.75 sqm. Two adults with big suitcases will notice. Two teenagers won't.

On a private charter, nothing at all. The fare is for the whole boat and moves only with the head count: 18 guests on 5D4N pay IDR 248,000,000 (≈ USD 15,215) whichever cabins they use. When the boat is yours, the master cabin costs no more than one below deck.

On an open trip, the shared 3D2N departure, the cabin does set the fare. Each place is priced per person by cabin, with 2 sharing: IDR 11,500,000 (≈ USD 706) for Misool, IDR 9,350,000 (≈ USD 574) for Weh and Mentawai, IDR 8,350,000 (≈ USD 512) for Selayar and Rote, IDR 7,000,000 (≈ USD 429) for Toraja and Alor, and IDR 6,500,000 (≈ USD 399) for Banda Neira and Savu.

A party of 18 fills the boat by itself and has no need of an open trip. The table matters to a smaller family joining a departure and choosing a single cabin, and the same ranking holds: more window, higher deck, higher fare.

Send us the guest list with ages and who's sharing with whom. Tell us who needs a cabin alone, who can't manage steps, and who would rather not climb into a bathtub to shower. We reply with a cabin-by-cabin plan for your dates and the fare for your head-count.

Whatever we do not yet know, we ask the boat and put in writing before you pay the balance, including which cabins are neighbours and how high a step is.

If the boat can't sail your dates, the replacement-boat guarantee in the booking terms applies. The cabin plan is then redrawn for the new boat, and you see it before anything is final. A party of 18 has no spare bed to soak up a mistake, so every plan is checked against the guest list line by line.