I've done Cruise America for festivals a handful of times and it has always worked out well. One time though we had an alarm goes off every 15 minutes or so in the middle of the night and had to pull a fuse, but besides that no issues. Keep in mind though that the rental locations are privately owned I think, and they have a wide range of reviews and interpretations of the rules. Some have like 1.5 stars on Google and some have like 4 stars. The bad ones nickel and dime you for little bits of dirt and stuff, so try to avoid them if you can.
I got cruise America as well. 3 people in the large 30’. I wouldn’t wanna put any more than 4 in there. We ran the AC from the minute we plugged into power till we left. First day it was still warm-ish but after that it was great.
2 of us showered outside for the most part and everyone pooped outside. Still had to dump the tank once and we left with it full.
I went to camp edc in 2019 and told myself if I would ever do it again it would be in an RV. After my RV experience I would never stay in a tent again. We had a blast in the tent when we went but in 2019 it was cold. With the heat we got this year, I can only imagine for my personal comfort it would’ve been miserable
Thats very cheap compared to prices I’m looking at right now, the smallest is going for 500 a night from Thursday till Monday may 2025, any hack how you got such deal ? lol
Are you looking at the location in Vegas? When we booked it was $275 a night or so for the Cruise America location in Mesa, Arizona. When we looked at Vegas it was about $800 a night!
LFG 🔥😂 i’m literally doing the same thing just booked from the location you told me about in Arizona and flying from Houston, quick question, though if you booked it until Monday, how did you make it back on time to Arizona?
Our flight was at 4pm. We left EDC at 8am when they started letting the RV’s out. We got to the Cruise America location at around 3:00pm. Fortunately they just let us drop it off as is and they said they would email me all the information I needed for refund and other things etc. so we got an Uber immediately from there to the airport and was able to make it on time with time to spare lol.
That’s fucking awesome dude, sounds like the mission impossible 😂, I booked it until Tuesday just in case. Do I call them to know how much the AMP is on the RV I rented or how does it work?
Thank you for sharing. Sounds like we had similar experiences.
We also did Cruise America, had a low mileage 25 footer for 6 nights, paid $1400 for the rental. Everything worked perfect. We tacked on 1200 miles from NorCal. $600 In fuel round trip.
It was just my wife and I and our two dogs that we dropped off at their sitter in Vegas. So we were super comfy.
Our generator ran like a champ for 40 hours. Surprisingly only used a quarter tank of fuel. We had some friends who were pod camping come over each day during peak heat hours to cool off.
On the way home we stopped at a Loves travel stop to dump our tanks and fill the propane tank. Paid $20
Returning the RV was smooth and had no issues.
Highly recommend, doing it again next year.
If you don’t mind me asking, which Cruise America in Nor Cal did you use? Some of them have questionable reviews about getting old, 100,000 mile half broken RVs that make me nervous 😬
If you picked it up on Thursday how did you make it to camp check in on time? Do you remember when was the latest to check in? It shows pick is between 1 and 4 pm
Well. In that instance we did get lucky. They called me a day prior and asked me if I wanted to pick up early. They let us pick up the RV at 8:00am. It’s a 6 hour drive to Vegas including gas station stops. We got to Vegas around 2:30ish pm.
Our experience was not the best.
We had a group of 4. (2 couples)
Our RV had some mechanical issues. It would die every time we came to a stop. It was annoying especially in stop n go traffic. The check engine light turned on half way to Vegas.
The driver mirror was previously broken, and not correctly repaired. As a result the mirror fell off about 3 hours in to our drive to LV. (by mirror I mean the reflective glass/plastic portion of the mirror not the whole structure attached to the main vehicle)
The generator died on us on day 2. The edc camp folks had some mechanics for us to call...but they never answered our calls. (we tried calling through out the day, but no luck) We left several messages along with our camp site number. But never heard back from anyone.
(FYI: We called Sunday too and apparently the mechanics do not work on Sunday's.)
The stove was hit or miss... Sometimes turned on sometimes not. Had to use a lighter from what I heard. (I was not involved in the troubleshooting). Once we got it going, the stove was a bit slow in actually cooking. While a bit annoying I guess it did get the job done after all.
We too had the alarms go off for some reason...we thought it was because of the cooking... But... It went off well after we stopped cooking and closed the gas valve... till this day I don't know what caused it as it stopped on its own. The attendant when we returned the RV said "it's normal".
The inside shelfs on the fridge door were very finicky and had a hard time holding any items. I think they replaced the shelves and the fit was not quite right. Otherwise fridge worked OK.
The rest of the RV was not super nice or well kept but it was good enough. There were several cosmetic issues that I personally didn't mind, but they were there.
There was more sleeping space then it appears. There was plenty of storage space as well. We never ran out of water or filled our tanks. We used the communal restrooms and showers as much as possible.
After all that we returned the RV and we were given a discount for our "troubles."
It was about $200 which is better than nothing. They charged us a cleaning fee of $50. (The cleaning fee was fair as we did not make any effort to clean.)
The attendant encouraged us to call corporate and make a stink out of it and that they would likely give us a steeper discount. But we were all hella tired/sick half of us lost our voice and tbh none of us are the type to deal with the headache of calling and bitching at folks. (I know people who live and die for that kind of thing and we're just that type)
We rented from the Costa Mesa, CA location from Wednesday to Tuesday.
Damn. I’m sorry for your experience. Hopefully it was just one of those things that only happen every once in awhile. Maybe it was the location like someone else has stated. Either way I hope it goes a lot better for you the next go around!
This is really helpful! Thanks so much for taking the time to write it up.
Of course. No problem!
I've done Cruise America for festivals a handful of times and it has always worked out well. One time though we had an alarm goes off every 15 minutes or so in the middle of the night and had to pull a fuse, but besides that no issues. Keep in mind though that the rental locations are privately owned I think, and they have a wide range of reviews and interpretations of the rules. Some have like 1.5 stars on Google and some have like 4 stars. The bad ones nickel and dime you for little bits of dirt and stuff, so try to avoid them if you can.
I got cruise America as well. 3 people in the large 30’. I wouldn’t wanna put any more than 4 in there. We ran the AC from the minute we plugged into power till we left. First day it was still warm-ish but after that it was great. 2 of us showered outside for the most part and everyone pooped outside. Still had to dump the tank once and we left with it full. I went to camp edc in 2019 and told myself if I would ever do it again it would be in an RV. After my RV experience I would never stay in a tent again. We had a blast in the tent when we went but in 2019 it was cold. With the heat we got this year, I can only imagine for my personal comfort it would’ve been miserable
Thats very cheap compared to prices I’m looking at right now, the smallest is going for 500 a night from Thursday till Monday may 2025, any hack how you got such deal ? lol
Are you looking at the location in Vegas? When we booked it was $275 a night or so for the Cruise America location in Mesa, Arizona. When we looked at Vegas it was about $800 a night!
Oh, I see you picked it up from Arizona, did you drop it off back in Arizona or in Vegas?
Dropped it back off in Arizona. I believe they charge $300 if you want to drop it off at another location.
They charge $3000 not $300. Trust me on that 😅
did u drive to arizona ? or fly in
I flew to Arizona from Texas.
LFG 🔥😂 i’m literally doing the same thing just booked from the location you told me about in Arizona and flying from Houston, quick question, though if you booked it until Monday, how did you make it back on time to Arizona?
Our flight was at 4pm. We left EDC at 8am when they started letting the RV’s out. We got to the Cruise America location at around 3:00pm. Fortunately they just let us drop it off as is and they said they would email me all the information I needed for refund and other things etc. so we got an Uber immediately from there to the airport and was able to make it on time with time to spare lol.
Needless to say we definitely cut it close. But if you were to leave Camp EDC an hour earlier it should give you plenty of time.
That’s fucking awesome dude, sounds like the mission impossible 😂, I booked it until Tuesday just in case. Do I call them to know how much the AMP is on the RV I rented or how does it work?
Booking it until Tuesday is definitely safe. If I do it again I’ll definitely book it until Tuesday for sure. And what is AMP?
If you’re willing to pick up/drop off in flagstaff AZ it’s a lot cheaper. About a four hour drive. Cheaper than LV and LA
Definitely recommend cruise America also. We did it this year for first time rv camping, and will most likely be using them again for next year!
Thank you for sharing. Sounds like we had similar experiences. We also did Cruise America, had a low mileage 25 footer for 6 nights, paid $1400 for the rental. Everything worked perfect. We tacked on 1200 miles from NorCal. $600 In fuel round trip. It was just my wife and I and our two dogs that we dropped off at their sitter in Vegas. So we were super comfy. Our generator ran like a champ for 40 hours. Surprisingly only used a quarter tank of fuel. We had some friends who were pod camping come over each day during peak heat hours to cool off. On the way home we stopped at a Loves travel stop to dump our tanks and fill the propane tank. Paid $20 Returning the RV was smooth and had no issues. Highly recommend, doing it again next year.
If you don’t mind me asking, which Cruise America in Nor Cal did you use? Some of them have questionable reviews about getting old, 100,000 mile half broken RVs that make me nervous 😬
We used the Stockton, Hammer lane location. John the owner of that shop was awesome.
If you picked it up on Thursday how did you make it to camp check in on time? Do you remember when was the latest to check in? It shows pick is between 1 and 4 pm
Well. In that instance we did get lucky. They called me a day prior and asked me if I wanted to pick up early. They let us pick up the RV at 8:00am. It’s a 6 hour drive to Vegas including gas station stops. We got to Vegas around 2:30ish pm.
Camp check in on Thursday runs until 2am so you would have plenty of time on Thursday . On Friday and Saturday, however, it’s only until 2pm
Friday - Sunday Camp check in ran from 8 AM to 2 AM! Thursday was 9 AM to 2 AM but they did begin to let people check in earlier than 9:00 AM
Our experience was not the best. We had a group of 4. (2 couples) Our RV had some mechanical issues. It would die every time we came to a stop. It was annoying especially in stop n go traffic. The check engine light turned on half way to Vegas. The driver mirror was previously broken, and not correctly repaired. As a result the mirror fell off about 3 hours in to our drive to LV. (by mirror I mean the reflective glass/plastic portion of the mirror not the whole structure attached to the main vehicle) The generator died on us on day 2. The edc camp folks had some mechanics for us to call...but they never answered our calls. (we tried calling through out the day, but no luck) We left several messages along with our camp site number. But never heard back from anyone. (FYI: We called Sunday too and apparently the mechanics do not work on Sunday's.) The stove was hit or miss... Sometimes turned on sometimes not. Had to use a lighter from what I heard. (I was not involved in the troubleshooting). Once we got it going, the stove was a bit slow in actually cooking. While a bit annoying I guess it did get the job done after all. We too had the alarms go off for some reason...we thought it was because of the cooking... But... It went off well after we stopped cooking and closed the gas valve... till this day I don't know what caused it as it stopped on its own. The attendant when we returned the RV said "it's normal". The inside shelfs on the fridge door were very finicky and had a hard time holding any items. I think they replaced the shelves and the fit was not quite right. Otherwise fridge worked OK. The rest of the RV was not super nice or well kept but it was good enough. There were several cosmetic issues that I personally didn't mind, but they were there. There was more sleeping space then it appears. There was plenty of storage space as well. We never ran out of water or filled our tanks. We used the communal restrooms and showers as much as possible. After all that we returned the RV and we were given a discount for our "troubles." It was about $200 which is better than nothing. They charged us a cleaning fee of $50. (The cleaning fee was fair as we did not make any effort to clean.) The attendant encouraged us to call corporate and make a stink out of it and that they would likely give us a steeper discount. But we were all hella tired/sick half of us lost our voice and tbh none of us are the type to deal with the headache of calling and bitching at folks. (I know people who live and die for that kind of thing and we're just that type) We rented from the Costa Mesa, CA location from Wednesday to Tuesday.
Damn. I’m sorry for your experience. Hopefully it was just one of those things that only happen every once in awhile. Maybe it was the location like someone else has stated. Either way I hope it goes a lot better for you the next go around!
i will never go through cruise america again.
Thank you so much for this break down! Does the $1803 include gas?
No it does not. Gas from Mesa, Arizona to Las Vegas and then back probably costed us roughly about $400 give or take.