Intrigued by Amtrak San Diego to Anaheim

[bjscheel]

Well that's interesting. Since I didn't find an email for the hotel on the website, I went through the Facebook page for that specific Fairfield Inn.


Fairfield Inn & Suites San Diego Old Town 12:41pm Jul 19
Hi Beth,

Thank you for your interest in our hotel. If you are flying into the San Diego area, we do have a complimentary shuttle to/from the airport that runs daily from 5am-11pm. We also have the shuttle to/from the Amtrak Station if you are arriving by train.

Our Sea World Shuttle runs at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

At Your Service,

The Fairfield Inn & Suties San Diego Old Town

Fairfield Inn & Suites San Diego Old Town 2:24pm Jul 19
The Zoo shuttle runs at 10 am and 6pm (these times are all subject the change). The Amtrak shuttle is also complimentary.

At Your Service,

The Fairfield Inn & Suites San Diego Old Town


Also Tripadvisor has reviews as recent as June 11th that mention taking the free shuttles to various sites. Several reviews also mention Joseph being the manager...and a Joseph the shuttle driver. Maybe Joseph misunderstood whatever Marriott asked him?

Maybe calling the hotel direct would clear it up.

 

[skiingfast]

I don't know about this particular hotel the Old town FFI. I do some Old Town locations do offer Seaworld and Zoo Shuttles as well as airport shuttles. Old Town is fairly central to those three areas.

Old Town is fairly long so it may be a 10 minut walk from the far end to the north end where the Trolley and Coaster and bus stations are placed.

 

[woody73]

I just want to point something out to avoid confusion.

There is a Trolley and then there is the Trolley.

Good point.

We've never had any problem distinguishing the two, but I can see how it can be very confusing.

Woody

 

[bjscheel]

Need some of the people who were doing SD without a car this summer to report how it went!

 

[nancy drew]

Need some of the people who were doing SD without a car this summer to report how it went!

Overall I'm glad we did this, but there were some unexpected hurdles.

In San Diego we stayed within walking distance of the Amtrak station, which was good. We saved on cab fare and that helped a lot. Upon arriving at the station, I purchased our tickets. Easy, painless, no problems. SD is the first stop on the line, so there is no real rush initially.

However, you are on the clock as soon as they allow boarding. Passengers must ALL sit upstairs, unless you are elderly or disabled. And they specifically said that traveling with kids does not make you elderly or disabled. So unless you check luggage (DO NOT DO THIS!!! I know someone who lost all of their luggage on Amtrak) you have to haul everything upstairs. I was one adult with 2 young kids, so this sucked. I was lucky that someone offered to help me carry a bag because otherwise I'd have had to leave it and risk theft. They also announced that the 4 seaters were for large parties, but they did nothing to make a single woman leave the group of seats I wanted. So we were on the boring side of the train. Not a huge deal, just annoying. She ended up being nice, and she let DS sit by her to see the Army training, and we talked a bit, but we didn't have much to look at on our side.

The train was WAY more wobbly than I expected. If you have motion sickness this might be a problem. I really didn't like wobbling like that. I get nauseated easily, and this really triggered it.

The biggest stress for me was the stops. When they stop at a station, you have 2 minutes to get on or off the train. That's it. So we had 2 minutes to get our luggage downstairs and off the train. And it was a FAST 2 minutes. I was nervous, but it was fine. We just went downstairs after the stop right before Anaheim.

We found the taxi stand and it was easy to get to our hotel.

Overall I would do it again, I just wish I had known what to expect. The kids loved it and thought it was cool.

Other little things:

*There are a lot of people walking up and down the aisles to go to the snack car. A lot. Many of them are buying alcohol, even at 9am. Then they go back for more, and more. It can get annoying.

*I think I was expecting it to be similar to airline travel, and it wasn't. It was definitely a downgrade. Again, I just didn't know what to expect.

 

[cornhead]

Thanks for the update.

 

[woody73]

. . . *I think I was expecting it to be similar to airline travel, and it wasn't. It was definitely a downgrade. Again, I just didn't know what to expect.

For yet another downgrade, try Greyhound.

Woody

 

[nancy drew]

For yet another downgrade, try Greyhound.

Woody

 

[bjscheel]

We have ridden Amtrak from Iowa to Colorado before, so I think we can handle the short ride to Anaheim. Nancy Drew, how did you get along with getting to attractions in San Diego? Where did you stay and how did you get to the places you went?

Thanks!