Gamsbock

May 1 m wave height with 10 m wave distance. More flat than rough...

We booked a resort in Ubud for 6 nights before entering the Star Clipper. Hotel, flights and transfer was independent booked by myself.

It was a private pool villa in the Puri Sebali Resort for 200 € per night. Transfer was approx 20 € from airport to Ubud and from Ubud to Benoa.

The reason for borading not before 4PM is the period they need for cleaning and preparing the whole ship. The disembarking guests leave latest at 10AM and they need their time. There is no space to hang around during this period.

You can check in at the harbour late morning and they take your luggage until it will be handled on board (may after 6PM you can find it in front of your cabin).

No. Non alcoholic. It's not allowed.

Komodo is free of charge for all passengers...but...you get what you paiy for...see my post in other thread

And it's the only excursion on the Eastbound trip....

Bali Eastbound from 08/26 - 09/02: some people got plaster behind the ear, my wife a pill which hepls inbetween 15 minutes. Star Clipper was rolling 70 % during the cruise, not rhytmical due to the length of the waves. At some nights the cabin stewart was flapping out the fence on the bed (cabine 506) during the eveing prepairing to avoid falling out, but we never need it.

There was not realy rough sea, but allways some long waves to lift the Clipper or let it roll.

Staff was complete friendly, all of them.

Guest 60 % German due to some offers in Germany for the Indonesian cruises and the long travel time for US East coast citizens. Some Italian, French, Australian and US.

Gilli Kondo: small island, wet landing, less shadow, you can walk aroud approx. 20 min., snorkeling better on the left side (allways looking from the sea), on the "main" right side some jellyfish and allmost all the swimmers there got some red marks on the skin. 2 hours there it's enough.

Komodo: see above

Pink beach: wet landing, nice beach with some shadow, recommendation: climb up the hill on the left side, marked by a tree: the nicest view on the cruise with the sawanna islands around and the Star Clipper right in the middle.

Satonda: wet landing, may dry landing depending on the tide. Short walk to the lake in the middle, recommend to walk onto the peak at the right side, allmost on the top there is a nice view onto the Star Clipper. On the right area of the beach (looks not nice there) a family of Monkeys in the trees and on the beach. Some residents from Sumbawa have there a small kiosk and a restaurant, which is mostly closed. They come with boat from Sumbawa only during the stop of the Star Clipper to earn some money.

Sonorkeling tour was offered with Tender boats, but they stopped the first tour and cancelled the two others due to thousands of jellyfish there.

Gilli Trawangan: dry landing in the crowd of hundereds of boats, ferries and excursion vessels. That Gilli is backpackers paradise, the main street is a row of bars, travel agencies and cheap hotels or hostel. You can make a roundtrip by horse buggy or bycicle. Leaving the main street will open a view to the real life and much more hostels / resorts.

Recommend to sit in on of the bars and look at the heavy traffic of backpackers, buggys, bikes and freaks.

Gilli Meno: Wet landing on a beach which is not realy nice, some snorkeling possible. But better stay more time at Trawangan and may miss Meno.

Gilli Nanggu: nice island with one resort. Nice beach with the best snorkeling spot, there is a "farm" for corals and million of fishes, cuttlefish, turtles and more to see. If this is your only snorkeling spot, it will be enough.

BBQ on the beach will be prepared by the crew. Nice but you have to eat without sitting, working with plastic knife and forks. Drinks are sold by the crew, as also on all beaches a crew member sells soft drinks, beer and water.

You do not need any cash on the whole tour beside Trawangan for some drinks or tourist stuff and Komodo if you want to buy a wooden dragon or other stuff. The drinks on the beaches are payed by signing the bill like on the ship.

On the beach you can do sailing (Laser), stand-up paddling, kayak, water sky or wake board, all for free. Only some guests used this possibilities.

Action on the Star Clipper: Mast climbing, a must do. Also lying in the sprit net during crusing, but without anything with you can falling down into the sea (mobile phone, key etc.). Every evening is startin at 10PM some life music, talent show, fashion show or equal.

Snorkeling equipment you will receive at the first day and will be returned on the last day, you can also take only the mask or only finns, depending which own equipment you have with you.

There is a small shop on the Star Clipper, selling nice shirts, trousers and bath clothings, having every day a 20% discount for certain products.

Cocktails are good, German standard as I can compare. Wine list is large, they store your bottle if you can not empty the first time. Water is free all day from a fountain at the deck, also served during the meals. Coffee and tea is also free 24 hours behind the bar.

Sunbeds are not enough for 170 people, specially shadow places are rare, depending on the number of sails set. At our cruise we had been 115 and sometimes also not enough sun beds, but you can find a lot of alternative places to sit or lay down, even the net in front.

During sail setting every evening, they play "conquest of paradise", but very quiet. Find a place near the speakers and it will be fine. You can take the wheel after starting for some minutes to keep the course, teached by the steersman. The bridge is small and can be visited 24 hours for information, looking on the map of the speed.

We booked cabine 506, nice access to the deck. Ship was well maintained, during the cruise they did always some work like painting, polishing etc.

Everything was clean.

Finally it was a great tour and we will book mediterean sea for next year.

We returned from the Bali Eastbound tour yesterday:

Almost all of the passengers have been disapointed about the Komodo Dragon tour. It was free of charge (included for all passengers), but it is also almost worthless. You have the choice between 1 hour and 2 hour tour (complete with transfer from the ship, tender operated). All take the 2 hours tour, but this ís only a one hour walk round the ranger station in groups of 20 people. You will see 3 dragos, the first directly behind the ranger station and 2 additonal animals short time before the end of this "zoo" walk. The dargons are feeded by the rangers and are lazing around, only swinging the tail a bit. One of them moved a few feet. Even the deers there comming very close to the dragons, less than 10 feet, knowing that they are full of food. I took picturs with dragon and deer in one shoot. You can stand behind the dragon and the rangers will take a picture with you and the dragon. It look like a mixture of zoo and circus. At the end all of us stand very close to the dragons without hesitate. The rangers told us more about the plants than of the wildlife. You can also see wild boars.

At the briefing one day before, the cruise director recommends to wear long trousers and lond sleeves, at the end 90% allmost get an heat stroke due to the savanna temperatures on the island (I went there with short trousers and t-shirt, no problems with the plants and insects, it's a walk on a paved way.

There are a lot of people selling cheap stuff behind the entrance to the park, more or less made in China.

If you want to see the dragons in their natural environment, you should go to Komodo for 2 days and make the 18 km tour with a ranger.

The cruise itself was the best I ever did, and I did a lot of different holidays the last 49 years ;-)

We returned from Bali Eastbound, 7 days, yesterday.

I will clarify some open points in the former posts:

- price of the drinks, examples: soft drink (330 ml, Coke etc.): 2,50 €, beer from tap, 0,3l: 3,30 €, Weissbier from Bavaria: 0,5l: 4 €, house wine bottle 0,75l: 16 €, lot of other wines between 20 and 28 €, some expensive up to 160 €. Cocktail 5,80 €, Cocktail of the day: 5 €, water bottle 3 €.

- seasickness: the Star Clipper was rolling often, after the first day some people got a plaster behind the ear, helping 72 hours. My wife got a pill, it helps within 15 minutes and she got no additional symptoms the rest of the journey. Pills are available free from the nurse (there is no doctor on board, only a nurse).

- wet landing: we had totally 3 dry landings (Komodo / Gilli Tranwangan and Gilli Nanggu) and 4 wet landings (Gilli Kondo, Satonda, Pink Beach and Gilli Meno). One wet landing was with the tender, you must leave the tender at the front with the installed ladder, also enter. The other wet landings with the zodiac, jumping or climbing from the side into the water, enter at the back close to the outbord motor. Water was between 3 inch and 1 foot in the depth, recommended are water shoes or swimm slippers, you need them also for swimming due to many corals. 2 wet landings in sandy ground, possible barefoot.

For the wet landing with the Zodiac, you have to change from Tender boat to Zodiac approx. 30 feet distance to shore (more or less), climbing from Tender to the side of the Zodiac. Staff is always helping.

But this cruise is focused on beaches, no trips to villages or excursions, only Komodo was a small excursion to the Dragons.

On the last day there was a possibility to enter a Tender during the Star Clipper was lfting the anchor and set all the sails (16) for taking photos. That was very very great, also some staff including the captain was standing on the sprit.

The attached phots have been taken with my Canon 750D.

Have you additional questions, may I can answer them