Royal Traveler

Very comfortable, seats recline, WiFi, and DirectTV on every seat– You really can’t ask for more. The driver was very polite and offered us water, blankets and headphones. I think it’s the best way to travel to NYC.

Recently took the Royal Sprinter from Embassy Suites to NYC and back and loved the experience. For the price and the customer service, this will definitely become my only means of transport between the two cities. I split my time between NYC and DC and have done the trip pretty much every way possible.
First, I really like that you can relax at a hotel while you await pickup. This definitely beats waiting in line for the bus or trekking downtown to Union Station or dealing with the security at the airport. For my return trip, I arrived 20 minutes early (habit I guess) and had a glass of wine at the beautifully renovated Loews Regency in NYC before we departed.
Second, in an age where transportation services take your business for granted (I’m looking at you United) or where you are herded onboard while pushing through crowds (Amtrak) or waiting outside in a long line so you don’t have to sit next to the bathroom (name your bus company), this seems like a company that cares about the customer. The drivers seem well trained and actually seem to care about your comfort! How bout that?
Third, the actual riding experience is very nice. Personal DirecTV, Wifi that actually works, reclining leather captains chairs, and complimentary Fiji/​Pellegrino is a nice touch. I like that it stops halfway too, so you can get some fresh air, grab a bite and use the loo.
My only wish is that they open up even more pickup and drop off locations! I like luxury, but I’m also a value conscious traveler, so they’ve converted me.

Love the price, convenience, service, and pickup locations. 7-​seater, nicely-​spaced for comfort. Reclining seats are very comfortable. Fiji water and Perriers, pretzels. AC outlets, wifi, and Direct TV. Drivers appear well-​trained, offering steady pace and smooth rides (no jerky braking etc), and very professional. Online ticketing and phone support are superb.
Hope you guys succeed !!

Royal Sprinter is that wonderful inbetween of bus and train that’s been missing from the market for so long. I had a wonderful first experience taking it down to DC for 4^th of July weekend. The sprinter we took was recently redesigned and had 7 leather electric reclining seats that were insanely comfortable. I slept the entire way, and I am normally never able to sleep on trains/​buses. The DirectTV is great but does cut out briefly when driving under bridges – that didnt bother me. The only cons I’ve found is that the UES pick up location is a considerable distance to the tunnel and the drop off locations in DC arent very close to metro stations. I did enjoy the ride and will be taking the Royal Sprinter for all future NYC to DC trips.

Used RS to surprise my hubby with two days in NYC for our anniversary. Loved it!!!
Expensive, but still better than driving ourselves, taking the train, and still cheaper than Acela.
Only down sides: satellite was spotty entire trip both ways, and we made mistake of leaving our car in Chevy Chase… paid $ 52 for parking at Embassy!!! Next time we’ll get a ride down from a friend.
Drivers Lee and Victor were awesome and we were very fortunate to have good co-​passengers.
Thanks!

I am a long time and frequent user of the Vamoose buses between Bethesda and NYC, and recently took my first trip on the Royal Sprinter luxury van because Vamoose was sold out for the day I needed to travel. I did the NYC to Friendship Heights trip. I am very happy to have another option for the NY-​DC run. My criticisms here are in the hope that they can improve a few things. Given my own priorities and preferences, I will probably continue to prefer Vamoose Gold over Royal Sprinter. (They are all more convenient for me than Amtrak or one of the shuttles.)
The set-​up inside the 8 passenger van is single seats on each side which are arranged at an angle toward the aisle to provide space to elevate the footrest. The 8^th seat is a rear-​facing seat in the front — try not to be the last to board. The angled, offset seat arrangement creates a little triangular low shelf behind the seat in front of you suitable for your small bags and gear. However the seat configuration also means that it will not be easy to have a conversation with anyone you are traveling with. The driver himself drives well, was exceptionally courteous to the 8 (max) passengers and was very helpful.
The pros are mostly due to the NY pick up/​drop off location:
— If you are coming from (or going to) the East side of Manhattan Royal Sprinter’s location is a big plus. (It is also convenient to stops on the N, R, Q and 6 subway.)
— East 61 and Park is a more comfortable, quiet and upmarket location versus the Penn Station area. The location comes with lots of nice restaurants nearby (especially on Lexington) for a pre-​trip meal. The Loews hotel lobby is also far more pleasant to wait in, with a clean, attractive lobby restroom, (compared with queuing up on West 31^st Street or waiting in the Bagel Maven deli).
— They have some blankets on board to help if it gets chilly (I am always cold on the bus.)
— There is no toilet on board, and therefore no bad smells from it. The van made one stop for a break. (I imagine he would be ok if a passenger needed to request a stop also.)
— There are both USB outlets and 12v (lighter) type outlets at each seat.
The cons have mostly to do with limitations of the vans themselves.
— Very narrow seats. I am only 5’6″, neither slim nor obese and I fit without a problem into all airline seats. However, I have encountered seats this snug only on very small turbo-​prop passenger planes. (The hint was the warning on their website that a toddler car seat will not fit.)
— The footrest elevates, BUT. .. You must then keep very still because your legs are just a couple inches from the arm of the passenger in front of you on one side, and the legs of the passenger across the aisle on the other side.
–There is no good work surface — nothing comparable to an airline (or Gold bus) tray table. There is a little ledge with a cup holder, tiny bits of counter space for things the size of an iPhone, and a small slide-​out surface that measured about 6 inches by 10 inches.
— The Direct-​TV is in the «better than nothing» category. I was able to watch the news and some shows on HBO that I like (I forgot my iPad), but the signal typically was cutting out for a couple seconds every minute. Sometimes the signal went longer without cutting out, and sometimes the dead time was much longer — 30 seconds plus.
— Amenities are more limited than I imagined. They do provide little earbud headphones if you need them, a choice of 2 types of water & pretzels, but no newspapers or magazines at all.
— Bring your own electronic media for reading because the reading light is very poor. The blu-​ish LED lights do not provide good, strong light for reading, but they are up and un-​shielded so that they annoy your neighbors plenty.
— It is not for the claustrophobic if the van is more than half full.

Just rode back from NY with an excellent driver named Victor. This guy is the epitome of customer service. I left a shopping bag on the vehicle. He contacted me before I realized I had left it. He brought it to me at an agreed upon meeting point about an hour later. He went above and beyond. I can’t imagine any other service that has a driver as dedicated as Victor. A true professional

Not a fan. The ride out of NYC was slow and VERY bumpy. Once we got out of the tunnel the driver made a first (and not needed) stop… followed by two more unnecessary stops adding 45 min to the trip. Took 5 hours with very limited traffic. I don’t generally get car sick but I was feeling badly the whole ride. Also, another passenger told me the driver was checking his cell phone while on 95!!! Yikes. Glad I did not see that! Don’t think I’ll use it again.

I like my personal space. I like elbow room. And I like amenities.
So of course I enjoyed my experience on this eight seater, Mercedes van with Direct TV, internet, snacks and Perrier. (I don’t even like Perrier but I felt fancy so I drank it with one pinky in the air and a bundle of knotted power cords on my lap.)
Yes, perhaps the train is cheaper and faster at times but on a holiday weekend it was not. I took a $ 90 one way up to NYC on the Friday before Easter. I took a one way, regional train back on Sunday that ended up being delayed an hour and a half. So, it’s not always apples to apples.
I was happy with how easy it was to book online and when I arrived for the shuttle a little early, was pleased that the pick up location at The Embassy Suites — Chevy Chase had a Starbucks that was open inside of the adjacent shopping plaza.
As I patiently waited, I also thought it was a nice personal touch that I received a text at the time I thought the shuttle would arrive indicating that they should be arriving in less than 10 mins.
I could tell that everyone that road up with me felt a bit experimental with the experience at first, not quite sure what we all were getting into. But for the most part, everyone threw on their head phones, watched TV, surfed the net and/​or slept. I think one of the things that Royal Sprinter really has going for them is their WiFi connection. The train’s WiFi is wack, so if you’ll be working while riding this is probably the best way for you to be efficient and productive.
I was able to recline but not all of the way because the guy next to me had fully extended his legs (which would have interfered with mine.) Even without full extension, I still had plenty of leg room and could still stretch out on the floor of the van.
Our driver was so frickin’ sweet and professional; an older gentleman that was extremely customer service oriented. He would often check on us to make sure the temps inside were to our liking, told us that if we needed to stop at all outside of out scheduled stop to just let him know, and helped us with our luggage off the bus. He was so personable and accommodating.
If in the future if they decide to offer a pet friendly shuttle, it might become my only way to travel to NYC. But until then, I’ll probably continue to switch between the train, Royal Sprinter and automobile depending on the purpose and length of stay.

I was on Royal Sprinters maiden voyage on Friday April 11^th from dc to NYC. I appreciate that they are trying to do something different, offering a new service to travelers, and I genuinely hope that my feedback is helpful and constructive, from a passenger’s point of view.
— ride time: we left dc at 9:30am and didn’t arrive into NYC until approx 2:30pm. In my opinion, a 5 hour bus ride (even with a quick stop) is far too long to warrant a $ 90 one way ticket. Why would I come on their bus again if I can take the train for 3.5 hours and is cheaper ($ 49 – 80 if booked in advance)? A normal bus ride from dc to NYC is around 4 – 4.5 hours, and I just felt that the journey was far too lengthy especially for the price. The drop-​off in NYC is only on the upper east side– It was frustrating to have to drive all the way to up town for drop off. we probably spent 45 min driving uptown on a Friday afternoon. Why not offer a drop off in midtown for riders that need to go downtown?
— tv and power outlets: for the first half of the ride (2.5 hours) the power outlets were not working (apparently the bus driver forgot to turn them on). Either were the tvs. I booked the bus specifically because they advertised power outlets and individual tvs. I had to do work on my laptop and had to stop working for about an hour because my laptop wasn’t able to be charged. The driver turned the power and tvs on during our halfway stop, but honestly it was a huge nuisance and something that should have been sorted out before we started driving
— space on the bus: to be completely honest, the photos of the bus and the way they market the bus as being luxury and spacious is slightly over exaggerated. I do appreciate the small number of people on the bus, but it just seemed a lot larger in the photos. The high expectations set made me felt crammed when I actually got on the bus.
— professionalism of the driver: I feel bad saying this, but the driver was a bit lacking in the professional area. He forgot to lock the fridge door and at one point, the door swung open and like 20 water bottles fell out of the fridge onto my feet. He was also a bit flustered the entire journey, making comments at the start of the ride that he had «never driven in NYC before». What an awkward thing to say to passengers at the start of your journey! I understand that it was the first journey but I just think that for $ 90 you expect professional, black car service for a driver and I did not get that. In fact I felt nervous when he told me that unnecessary info.
I think the Royal Sprinter is a good idea, but truthfully don’t think I will ride it again. the high cost is just not worth the minimal benefits of the journey.