Cruise America fly-n-rent
We recently did a fly-n-rent vacation with Cruise America. I did some research ahead of time and did not find a lot of info out there aside from Yelp, which in my experience is deeply slanted to the negative so I didn’t give much weight to the complaints there. In light of the limited web based info out there, I figured I’d post my experience here!
Background, we’ve been RVing with a travel trailer since 2002 (when our youngest was born), our current combo is in my sig, 20 year old Ford van and 20 year old Fleetwood 24’ trailer. I’m experienced on the RV side of things, but have never driven a motorhome.
Since we were flying in, we were somewhat limited on what we could bring but I did pack a small toolkit, our water hose (just worried theirs would be nasty. Turned out fine, I didn’t use my hose), sheets, sleeping bags, blankets and towels. This saved us from having to buy the $55/person convenience kit. We bought $4 pillows at WalMart after we picked up the motorhome, then donated them to Cruise America when we were done.
The Airporter ride from Seattle to Everett was easy, about an hour. We arrived a few minutes before 1p (which was our scheduled time to pick up) and I spend a few minutes on paperwork with the lady at the desk. Everything was as expected, no surprises. Another lady took us out to do a walk-through of the RV. It felt very rushed and she got visibly annoyed anytime I’d ask a question. I asked about noting on the form that there were paint chips on the hood and she replied, ‘I don’t give a **** about small stuff like that.” OK fine, but we’re walking through with our family, I know as teenagers they’ve heard worse but still it felt inappropriate to swear as a customer service representative of the company.
Moving on… as we looked around inside, I saw the freezer had a slurpee type drink spilled all over inside. I asked about having that cleaned out and her reply was that the RV had already gone through their cleaning process, and they would not be doing any further cleaning for us. We’d have to clean it out. A little surprised, I asked if we could at least have some paper towels to wipe it out with, since we didn’t have any stuff with us (our first stop was going to be Walmart to get food/supplies). She said no!! That it was the customers responsibility to supply their own cleaning equipment. Wow.
I also asked to confirm the mileage on the motorhome and she looked at me like I was crazy. She said it was already written down by the tech’s during cleaning so we didn’t need to check it. I insisted, and it was like I was accusing her of lying about the mileage or something. No ill intent was intended, is just seems like common sense to make sure the mileage is written down correctly since we’re paying by the mile! This woman really should not be in customer service...
After the inspection was complete I went inside their building to the bathroom and snagged a few paper towels and my daughter cleaned out the freezer.
The motorhome was their 30 foot class C. I didn’t check the year, but it only had ~13k miles so I assume 2018. It was in good shape, though there was a fair amount of wear present on the living portion. Drawers that didn’t stay shut, a leaky kitchen faucet, and many many rattles. Nothing that caused real problems. There did appear to be a leak in the fresh water fill line somewhere, as I noticed pooling of water under the bathroom sink cabinet after filling the tank up. If it were my unit, I’d be very concerned about long term water damage here, but it’s not so I’m not...
I was super impressed with the motorhome from a driving point of view. Compared to my van/trailer combo (older 265 hp Ford V10 with 120k miles, which combined with my trailer probably weighs about the same as the 30’ motorhome), the motorhome handled WAY better (easier to drive than my van alone, from a wandering perspective) and had much better power. The trans/gearing was probably a big part of that being a lower geared differential with a 5 speed trans vs my 3 speed (I always tow with OD locked out because of my 3.73’s). I also flogged it harder and drove it faster than I would my personal van. I generally keep the revs under 3.5k on my van, but I just let the motorhome do what it wanted and it saw a lot of time at 4+k when in the hills. The newer higher power V10/5spd is a great working combo, I’m jealous.
On the downside, it is MUCH louder inside when driving. All wind noise. At freeway speed, the radio was useless, and conversations between the driver and co-driver were definately at raised voices level. Talking to anyone back in the coach area from the drivers seat required a full on yell. I considered using earplugs on the long high speed freeway day. Not sure if that’s because of lack of insulation and low end construction of a rental motorhome, or if that’s just how they all are. As I said, it’s the first motorhome I’ve driven but I have lots of seat time in a Ford van.
I won’t go into a lot of details about the trip (which was spectacular, and excellent in every way!), but in 7 nights of camping we dry docked 3, had electric only 2, and full hookups 2. Everything in the motorhome worked well and we had no significant issues. My kids did spend the first few hours on the road tracking down and fixing rattles and bungee cording drawers that wouldn’t stay shut, the only rattle we couldn’t quiet was coming from the vent over the stove. It was something internal and we just lived with it. In all we drove 1400 miles in 7 days, including a bomber 550 mile day. My whole family officially wants a motorhome now :-)
At the end of the trip, I filled up with gas/propane and drove to a rest stop close to Cruise America where we did the final cleaning/dumping. Aside from there not being a broom (which should have been included with the rental, I just didn’t notice at checkout) it was no problem to get ready to return. The hardest part was packing all our stuff back into suitcases.
The return process was simple and painless. Fortunately our return inspection was performed by a different guy who was super nice and efficient. Unfortunately, he was uninterested in hearing about the small problems I’d found (thought I was being helpful, he said maintenance will repair as they find problems). There were no hidden costs, we were done and on our way in a matter of minutes. But I can guarantee you that motorhome will have water damage from that leaking tank fill if it’s not resolved, and based on their inability to find a slurpee in the freezer I wouldn’t put good odds on it being repaired....
In all, I would absolutely use them again. Though not cheap, it was very easy (snarky check out person aside) and a great way for a working stiff with limited vacation time to RV in an area of the country that would be too far to get to otherwise. We’re seriously considering doing it again next year somewhere else.
Background, we’ve been RVing with a travel trailer since 2002 (when our youngest was born), our current combo is in my sig, 20 year old Ford van and 20 year old Fleetwood 24’ trailer. I’m experienced on the RV side of things, but have never driven a motorhome.
Since we were flying in, we were somewhat limited on what we could bring but I did pack a small toolkit, our water hose (just worried theirs would be nasty. Turned out fine, I didn’t use my hose), sheets, sleeping bags, blankets and towels. This saved us from having to buy the $55/person convenience kit. We bought $4 pillows at WalMart after we picked up the motorhome, then donated them to Cruise America when we were done.
The Airporter ride from Seattle to Everett was easy, about an hour. We arrived a few minutes before 1p (which was our scheduled time to pick up) and I spend a few minutes on paperwork with the lady at the desk. Everything was as expected, no surprises. Another lady took us out to do a walk-through of the RV. It felt very rushed and she got visibly annoyed anytime I’d ask a question. I asked about noting on the form that there were paint chips on the hood and she replied, ‘I don’t give a **** about small stuff like that.” OK fine, but we’re walking through with our family, I know as teenagers they’ve heard worse but still it felt inappropriate to swear as a customer service representative of the company.
Moving on… as we looked around inside, I saw the freezer had a slurpee type drink spilled all over inside. I asked about having that cleaned out and her reply was that the RV had already gone through their cleaning process, and they would not be doing any further cleaning for us. We’d have to clean it out. A little surprised, I asked if we could at least have some paper towels to wipe it out with, since we didn’t have any stuff with us (our first stop was going to be Walmart to get food/supplies). She said no!! That it was the customers responsibility to supply their own cleaning equipment. Wow.
I also asked to confirm the mileage on the motorhome and she looked at me like I was crazy. She said it was already written down by the tech’s during cleaning so we didn’t need to check it. I insisted, and it was like I was accusing her of lying about the mileage or something. No ill intent was intended, is just seems like common sense to make sure the mileage is written down correctly since we’re paying by the mile! This woman really should not be in customer service...
After the inspection was complete I went inside their building to the bathroom and snagged a few paper towels and my daughter cleaned out the freezer.
The motorhome was their 30 foot class C. I didn’t check the year, but it only had ~13k miles so I assume 2018. It was in good shape, though there was a fair amount of wear present on the living portion. Drawers that didn’t stay shut, a leaky kitchen faucet, and many many rattles. Nothing that caused real problems. There did appear to be a leak in the fresh water fill line somewhere, as I noticed pooling of water under the bathroom sink cabinet after filling the tank up. If it were my unit, I’d be very concerned about long term water damage here, but it’s not so I’m not...
I was super impressed with the motorhome from a driving point of view. Compared to my van/trailer combo (older 265 hp Ford V10 with 120k miles, which combined with my trailer probably weighs about the same as the 30’ motorhome), the motorhome handled WAY better (easier to drive than my van alone, from a wandering perspective) and had much better power. The trans/gearing was probably a big part of that being a lower geared differential with a 5 speed trans vs my 3 speed (I always tow with OD locked out because of my 3.73’s). I also flogged it harder and drove it faster than I would my personal van. I generally keep the revs under 3.5k on my van, but I just let the motorhome do what it wanted and it saw a lot of time at 4+k when in the hills. The newer higher power V10/5spd is a great working combo, I’m jealous.
On the downside, it is MUCH louder inside when driving. All wind noise. At freeway speed, the radio was useless, and conversations between the driver and co-driver were definately at raised voices level. Talking to anyone back in the coach area from the drivers seat required a full on yell. I considered using earplugs on the long high speed freeway day. Not sure if that’s because of lack of insulation and low end construction of a rental motorhome, or if that’s just how they all are. As I said, it’s the first motorhome I’ve driven but I have lots of seat time in a Ford van.
I won’t go into a lot of details about the trip (which was spectacular, and excellent in every way!), but in 7 nights of camping we dry docked 3, had electric only 2, and full hookups 2. Everything in the motorhome worked well and we had no significant issues. My kids did spend the first few hours on the road tracking down and fixing rattles and bungee cording drawers that wouldn’t stay shut, the only rattle we couldn’t quiet was coming from the vent over the stove. It was something internal and we just lived with it. In all we drove 1400 miles in 7 days, including a bomber 550 mile day. My whole family officially wants a motorhome now :-)
At the end of the trip, I filled up with gas/propane and drove to a rest stop close to Cruise America where we did the final cleaning/dumping. Aside from there not being a broom (which should have been included with the rental, I just didn’t notice at checkout) it was no problem to get ready to return. The hardest part was packing all our stuff back into suitcases.
The return process was simple and painless. Fortunately our return inspection was performed by a different guy who was super nice and efficient. Unfortunately, he was uninterested in hearing about the small problems I’d found (thought I was being helpful, he said maintenance will repair as they find problems). There were no hidden costs, we were done and on our way in a matter of minutes. But I can guarantee you that motorhome will have water damage from that leaking tank fill if it’s not resolved, and based on their inability to find a slurpee in the freezer I wouldn’t put good odds on it being repaired....
In all, I would absolutely use them again. Though not cheap, it was very easy (snarky check out person aside) and a great way for a working stiff with limited vacation time to RV in an area of the country that would be too far to get to otherwise. We’re seriously considering doing it again next year somewhere else.
