PrimeTime Boat Rentals

The worst service! Long wait, they lure tourist with low prices just to bring you there and then lie about the prices not to mention hidden fees. The deposit is $ 3,000.
Insurance $ 200.
And some more fees that you have to purchase.

We got a coupon for an 18 foot power boat rental. First it said on the coupon that it could fit up to 6 people. But when I called to make the reservation I asked to confirm that number and the woman on the phone said «No way I wouldn’t have more than 4– people on it because the boat won’t steer right». Awesome. Then they told us that we could only rent it in the early morning if we wanted the boat on the weekend. 9:30am was not exactly when I wanted to be on the water. The speedometer was broken on the boat.
Once we were on the boat though everything went great. When we returned the boat we were only charged taxes and fuel which was pretty straight forward and we had a good time.

Used a livingsocial, which was annoying to book, they wanted us there at 9:30am no matter what which was not ideal. The boat was fine, but there were some missing items (spedometer, depth meter) and overall it seemed okay for maintenance. They didn’t screw us around and we had a good time.
Bring your own music, the stereo doesn’t work.

Though the guys who help us to navigate the water and give an overview of the boat are great, the rest of EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS BOAT RENTAL COMPANY SUCKS.
They do not really maintain their boats very well, as we could plainly see the crusty dirty bottom and dingy interior.
The 18′ boat we’ve rented twice and found that there are NEVER ANY WORKING SPEAKERS — so be prepared to listen to NOTHING except the engine noise while out trying to have a good time.
Upon returning the boat after four hours, we were charged an additional $ 100 for a propellor blade that was JUST scratched by sand or something. This is a plastic piece, not metal, and of course when you’re driving a boat in the ocean you are going to naturally have some light scratches on a plastic blade. For something that costs $ 5.00, it is RIDICULOUS to have to pay $ 100 for it — even the cost of labor included — does not justify it at all.
It is a scam. This is what’s called a RIP-​OFF.

Nice people and convenient. Will rent a boat from them again.

My experience with PrimTime/​Golden Yacht Charters was 5-​star up until my actual boat rental. The online reservation system was easy to use and the staff at the office was easy to talk to when I was planning my rental. On the day before the rental, the staff called me from the office to confirm everything. I showed up 30 minutes early and was shown all the recommended routes for our 4-​hour excursion, as well as some helpful insider information for our trip.
Our boat, however, did not live up to expectations. It only hit about 7mph when we pushed the engine as hard as we could. The staff at PrimeTime told us that the boats should get up to about 35−30mph. We didn’t know this was a problem until we were too far from the marina to turn back. So, we figured we would just stay positive and get on with our trip. We called the office to inform them of our issues and were told we could return the boat late, since it would take us a very long time to get back at the rate we were traveling.
When we got back to the office, we were met by a man who was not there when we first set out on our trip. Upon informing him of our issue, he became very defensive. He told us that the boats are all serviced regularly, and that they are heavily used so the staff can’t always know when there is something wrong. I don’t consider this an acceptable answer, but my group was afraid to press our points to this man because we did not want our argument to escalate to a bad point. In the end, PrimeTime let us leave without charging us for fuel and that was that.
Overall, I am most disappointed with the defensiveness with which we were met when we voiced our concern with PrimeTime’s boats. Our boat did not operate as advertised, and we had less time to enjoy ourselves because of it. In addition, a boat traveling at 7mph on Miami’s heavily trafficked waterways is not very safe, because it could capsize when hit with the wake from a larger boat. I am also suspicious of PrimeTime’s claims that they service their boats regularly, because if they did they would know that their boats do not operate as well as they should.
I will not be renting from PrimeTime again, and I don’t recommend that anyone else rent from them, either.

My fiancé had planned to rent an 18 feet speed boat during our vacation in Miami, FL. He carefully planned it and kept it a secret as he originally had planned to propose on this excursion. Thankfully, he did not wait for that day to come! We arrived 10 min before our appointment to find a note on the door saying the office was closed due to bad weather (it had been raining but it was sunny the day we rented the boat). Nobody had gotten in contact with us to cancel our appointment. We called the phone # on the door and nobody answered! We were both very disappointed!
Anyway, the reason why this review is 3 stars is because they made it up to us. After waiting 30 minutes, we tried to call back again and someone picked up. There was some mild arguing/​back-​and-​forth (not only did we not get a notice but the receptionist wrote down the wrong time for our appointment — fortunately we had a printed proof). At that point, we told them to simply refund us ASAP. The employee was cordial and tried to find a solution. In the end, he came to work to enable us to go on our excursion, one and a half hour late. They nicely upgraded us to a 24 feet boat and it was a lot of fun!
The boat itself was great (besides a technical issue at the end of the 4 hour excursion when it took us 15 minutes to start the boat again), the weather was clear and sunny, we put the music on and went a ride in the bay. It was a unique experience to go around the private islands, to hang out by ourselves on a small island where we ate our pick nick and napped (monument island), to visit downtown Miami from the river, etc. In the end, we were both really happy to have been able to go on this speed boat cruise.
In conclusion, make sure to call them after booking online, make sure they have the right times and dates, call them to confirm the day before, etc. After dealing with the administrative side, really it’s just a lot of fun!
Last note: please be aware that the business will hold $ 1,000 from your debit/​credit card in case you damage the boat. They informed us that the hold would last 24 hours but it lasted over 72 hours! It was difficult as we were traveling to have such a significant hold on our debit card. Additionally, I had to call them 3 times in the following days to have the money released. They told me it was our bank who was still holding the money, so I called Chase but, really, it was their merchant account. Anyway, make sure you have a large bank account first!