Episode 1095 - All Aboard!

Authored by: cotterpinx on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 09:46 AM CDT

I LOVE LOVE LOVE taking the train! And so do my kids! (and my husband who would otherwise have to drive 17 hours...) It can be pricey, but some stuff you can do to help -- book EARLY, as Mike said. You can reserve 11 months ahead. I checked from DC to Orlando and even at 11 months, for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids the "regular" train from DC Union Station to Orlando is still pretty close to the $1800 round trip with 2 roomettes that Len saw. However, the same family could take the Auto Train from the dedicated Auto Train station Lorton, VA roundtrip AND bring their minivan for about $1400 roundtrip. That would be even better than the "regular" train in my opinion, not only for the fact that you're bringing your car along (no need for a rental) but also the train cars they use on the Auto Train are a different style and have slightly different sleeper car room configurations. The Auto Train uses the "Superliner" style of train car, which includes a Family Bedroom -- two longer bunks for adults plus two shorter bunks for kids. This is even BETTER than two roomettes IMHO, as everyone is in the same place together.

There are also a few minor discounts -- 10% off coach fare for AAA, plus a few military and student discounts. I think it's standard that kids (coach) are 1/2 price with a paying adult, though that one may come and go. It seems to be available most of the time. No discounts on the sleeper car upgrades, though.

We did Auto Train when my kids were 10 months and 5 years and it was fantastic! The baby could roam the room freely, no need to keep her buckled into anything, and much less concern about annoying other passengers with our noisy baby. Another thing you might do IF you think you would want to do the train frequently is look into the Chase/Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card. We've done that, and can probably fund a trip w/sleeper car on the Auto Train about every 1.5 years or so using only the rewards points.

We've also done an overnight train trip from DC to Atlanta, and short (day) trips from DC to NYC. My kids LOVE it, and I find it helps when vacation is over and it's time to go home -- riding the train makes it like the vacation is still going, it's an adventure for everyone.

- cotterpinx

Auto Train to the World Nov. 2!!!! woooo!

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Authored by: ErwinM on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 10:13 AM CDT

Len, next time you're on the train and need to get work done, fire up your phone's hotspot. (Bring a power strip, too.) On our last couple of trips to WDW on the Auto Train, I've had to log on to work because I didn't have quite enough leave hours for the whole trip. Except for a short segment between Fredericksburg and the VA-NC line, coverage was good enough that I could work through my remote gateway with decent performance. And, on our last trip down in May, there was a considerable overnight delay...so instead of waking up in Jacksonville like we normally do, we were still in South Carolina at 7 AM. I logged on to work and had good enough cell coverage from mid-SC all the way to Sanford.

Even on the trains with wifi, there's a lot of competition for the bandwidth, so you probably wouldn't want to use it for anything other than checking in to social media and maybe email. Traveling from Philly to BWI (which I had to do earlier this year after a flight cancellation coming home from a business trip), I tried using the train's wifi but had no luck. My own hotspot worked fine, though (and, judging from how many choices showed up on my wireless utility, a lot of other people had come to that conclusion too).

And by the way...it's Newell's fault that we're big fans of Amtrak now. We had been thinking about using it two years ago for our first trip with our infant daughter, but Newell's review sealed the deal for us. Reunion this year will mark our 5th trip on the Auto Train!

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Authored by: obafgkm on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 04:12 PM CDT

Glad to see you do another show on taking the train Walt Disney World. My first WDW Today was 669, when I was figuring out a trip with my (then) five-year-old daughter and mother on the Pennsylvanian and the Silver Meteor from Harrisburg to Philadelphia to Orlando (a roomette and a bedroom). I used Amtrak Guest Rewards points, so the trip was "free".

We had a blast. When I got back I sent a response to the Unofficial Guide recommending that there be some mention on Amtrak as a possible mode of transport to Orlando. (At least in the (2011) edition I had, there was only information about driving or flying to Walt Disney World). I hope with Len's "discovery" of the joy's of the railroad that going forward there will be more information about this in the Guide -- the best way to travel!

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Authored by: patrickandlydia on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 04:59 PM CDT

Len, did.you price out enterprise rental car? Or, did you look at a local option rental place somewhere between the train station and the airport?

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Authored by: mab75501 on Friday, October 05 2012 @ 09:09 PM CDT

in the summer of 2000 my wife and i decided to visit the world for the first time for our honeymoon. we deiced, to take Amtrak to Orlando from our home in Houston, and fly back. we arrived to check in to find the train was going to be 4 hours late! we waited and were very happy to board when the train arrived. while waiting i saw that a storm was forming in the gulf of mexico and might intensify and give us some rain on our trip. when we got on board, we had a sleeper and our porter took out bags and sent us to the dining car for a late lunch. it was great! as the train rumble along we were told that they were concerned about the weather ahead and would update us as needed. we enjoyed the ride, my wife wanted to take a nap ( she had worked all night ) and the porter made up the upper bunk and i was able to sit below and go to the club car as she rested. at dinner we were informed that the little storm in the gulf was now a tropical storm and was going to hit gulfport mississippi. they stopped the train in new Orleans and at midnight we had to detrain and enter the station. we were told they were going to put us up in a hotel and bus us around the storm. they could not run the train until the track were inspected. we waited an hour for them to locate a bus to take us to the hotel... which was 6 blocks from the train station. we got checked in and went to our rooms at 2 AM and told to come down in the morning and we would have breakfast and board a bus to continue our trip. at noon the bus still had not arrived. we were due to arrive in orlando at 5:00 PM and i knew we would be hours late. the wife and i caught a cab to the airport and flew to orlando on southwest and arrived at 3 PM.

the worst part of the ordeal was i took over 6 months to get a refund on our ticket!

BUT that said, i would love to travel amtrak again sometime... the portion on the train was GREAT!

michael.

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