Run-of-show for a 3-day company trip on a phinisi: 20 people, one boat, every block with an owner

The premise is a department of 20 on Zada Ulla. Twenty sits at the top of the 15 to 20 guest band, so the whole boat for 3D2N is IDR 110,000,000 · about USD 6,748, which is IDR 5,500,000 · about USD 337 a head. The boat has 11 cabins, so 20 people fill ten pairs and leave one cabin free. The guide and documentation are quoted on top, and park tickets stay outside the fare.

The route is the standard private route for three days. The captain sets the order of stops, the anchorage and the timing on the day, by weather and park rules; times on this page are a sample. Where I give a clock time, it is a sunrise or sunset for a named month, not a promise.

Most of a run-of-show happens before the boat leaves the harbour. I count four hand-offs, each with one owner and one cut-off. The dates sit in your written quote, because they depend on your sailing date.

• Quote and deposit. You approve the quote; the deposit is 50 percent. Owner: your finance contact.
• Manifest. Names exactly as on the ID, each marked Indonesian or foreign, because the park tickets differ. Owner: your PIC.
• Rooming list and dietary list. Who shares, who needs a cabin alone, who eats what. Owner: your PIC.
• Balance. Due 30 days before sailing. Owner: your finance contact.

A manifest that arrives after the cut-off delays the park tickets, because they are issued against names. Ask the producer on your file to read the lists back in writing before the cut-off, so a wrong spelling is found at a desk and not at a harbour.

Day one starts at the quay and asks little of anyone. The call time and the meeting point arrive in writing. On the boat the PIC reads names off the manifest, each guest is pointed to the cabin on the rooming list, and lunch follows as the harbour falls behind.

The July sunset at Kalong is at 17:57. Where the boat anchors for the night is decided by the captain and the weather; the group sleeps aboard.

Day two is the long one and the one a PIC should plan hardest. Padar comes first, and it comes early. July sunrise there is at 06:18; across the year it runs from 05:31 to 06:18.

The Padar staircase has about 816 steps, according to a Telkomsel travel feature of 5 February 2026, which also says walkers must stay on the path, that rangers stand at posts along it and that the trekking takes about 45 minutes. I plan with 45 minutes as the floor, and a group of 20 spreads out well beyond that.

The same Telkomsel piece says Padar entry is booked in advance through the park's SiOra system from April 2026, seven days ahead. Floresa's report of 7 April 2026 confirms the booking system and a cap of 1,000 visitors a day but names no lead time. The desk checks the seven-day lead time with the park before you sail.

After Padar the stops follow the route: Pink Beach, the Komodo Island walk with a ranger, then Taka Makassar and Manta Point, which depend on tide and current. Dinner and the night anchorage close the day.

Day three is short on purpose. Breakfast on board, a swim and snorkel at Kanawa, then the boat returns to Labuan Bajo. The return time on the last day is confirmed in writing; book flights only after that confirmation.

The hand-off is the part most plans leave blank. I would write three lines into it: luggage counted off the boat against the manifest, the manifest closed by your PIC with the captain, and a named person at your office who is told the group is ashore. The producer sends the closing message once the PIC confirms.

What I cannot give you is a clock time for the return. Weather and the stops move it, so any fixed hour on a slide is a guess, and I would take it off.

Four parties touch a company trip, and a run-of-show works only when each line has one name beside it.

The line I would fix first is the one most plans leave to chance: the Padar morning. Name a fast group and a slow group before you board, give each a leader, and agree the meeting point at the top. A plan that holds for 20 holds for 10 and for 28, because only the number of leaders changes. Put the leaders' names on the rooming list next to the cabin numbers, so the PIC and the producer work from the same page before the early start.