Royal Car Rental Bad Reviews??

[laceyjane]

Hi,

I booked over the phone with Royal Car Rental for a jeep for our Sat. Feb. 10 cruise stop. He said we just pay after we return the jeep-no deposit required. Has anyone else that called the 1-800 # had to put a deposit down? I was so excited to get a jeep through them because I thought I wouldn't have to worry at all about getting a decent jeep.

 

In the last day or so I have read alot of bad reviews on Trip Advisor web sight about Royal. One women that has always given them glowing reviews said they have new ownership or managment and over the past year they have gotten horrible reviews, have many vehicles in disrepair, and many people that thought they would have a reserved vehicle waiting for them are left without a rental car the day they arrive.

 

Has anyone used Royal for a jeep in the past year? I don't know if I should cancel with Royal(since I didn't have to give a deposit) I contacted Avis but they said they do not offer jeeps at their cruise port location.

 

Looking for a decent automatic, jeep wrangler, with air-anyone have any idea who else we should contact that is at the cruise ship pier?

 

Thanks for the help.

[AMR40509]

I was in Aruba earlier this month.

 

I saw some w/ Royal on the door -- they looked rough, but not too bad.

 

Compared to our Jeeps from American Car/Jeep Rental, the one's from Royal looked great.

 

Our Jeeps from American were junk. Both had check engine lights on, mine had the front left shock broken in half (bottom half wasn't there at all, just the coil spring), random missing parts, was full of mud, clutch was 95% gone, tires dry rotted (one blew), missing/broken seatbets, AC worked but AC Blower did not (the vents were cold, but there was no fan) in mine our other Jeep had a fan but no cold air. It looked like it was bought salvaged and rebuilt w/ used parts. Mine was hard to keep on the road because the alignment was completely off (had to hold the wheel 1/3 turn left at all times) -- off road it was a challenge due to the bad clutch.

 

BUT we had a wonderful time driving the off road part of the island, and I would do it again. The best looking Jeeps I saw the whole time were a few sitting at the bottom of the trail to Natural Pool from More4Less, I don't know anything about the company but they were new/clean looking.

[laceyjane]

Thanks for the info, I am going to try and find out a contact # for More4 less. Did you get a map to tour the island from the car company? How did you know which parts of the island you could go "off roading" on? Any things that are must see places to stop? Did you head north on the island first to see the California lighthouse?

 

Thanks for all your info and telling me about More 4 less. I really appreciate it.

[atlanta99]

We were there three weeks ago and, by default, got to compare Royal and American side by side since I think we were renting the last two automatic jeeps anywhere on the dock--one from each company. Our Royal jeep was fine--clean and relatively good shape. My brother's American jeep was literally a wreck, however, as it broke down and they had to send someone out to replace "corroded" spark plugs or something. At least they sent someone out quickly after I called and we only lost an hour or so of our day--and at least it broke down at a convenience store in town right before we were setting out onto the dirt roads. It would have been quite a disaster, however, if the American jeep broke down at the Natural Pool or Arikok park. And, yes, Royal did give us a decent map and plotted out a suggested route for us to circle the island.

[AMR40509]

We rented w/ 1/4 a tank of gas, so right after you pull out of the cruise port parking (turn left) there is a gas station. We stopped there and put in $20 for each Jeep. Then kept going straight to the California Light House on paved roads. At the light house we got off on a dirt road that takes you out past the wishing rocks and all the way around to the old natural bridge (pretty long ride). A couple of weeks ago this was all brown sand (brown is hard, white sand is bottomless and soft) and rock with one water crossing (about 2 feet deep, felt like a rock bottom not sand/mud). Then at the natural bridge you get back on paved roads and go to the trail to Natural Pool (both are on the map the rental place gave us). This first part is also good practice if you have never been off-road as it is a much easier road then you will take to Natural Pool. Going to Natural Pool you will be doing a fair amount of rock crawling. As soon as you hit the dirt I suggest going to 4wd LOW range. Remember to get back into 2wd when you hit pavement. Most importantly, take you time. There are no obsticals that should get a Jeep stuck on this route if you go SLOW in the tough spots, but if yuo go to fast you might break something.

[AMR40509]

If you want an automatic, be sure you request it early.

 

 

We had 3 Jeeps reserved w/ American. We had specified 2 automatics and one 'no preference'. All they had for us (at 7am...well we got there at 7am like they told us to, but the rep didn't get to his both for about 1.5 hours) were the two old broken down standard shifts. This made it a tight squeeze as we had 8 adults, includeing one over 300lbs.

[laceyjane]

Hi,

I emailed more 4 less didn't get a reply yet so I am sticking with Royal since we are leaving for our trip in 6 days. Thank you all so much for the very helpful information-don't know what I'd do without this board!!

 

Leslie

[lauren0309]

We rented from Royal 2 weeks ago. No problems. I gave a credit card deposit a few months ago to reserve a Jeep Wranger for us. We arrived in Aruba, gave them our confirmation sheet and got into our jeep. It was fine. Air conditioning, Power brakes which we ordered. We ended up paying cash for it since it cost us a few dollars less paying in cash. We had a nice day driving around. They also gave us a map of the island.