All about the Autotrain

bdcp · May 19, 2015

Andy D. said:
I accidentally posted a new thread last night without checking out this one. Whoops!
Hi y'all! I am new to these forums! Y'all seem like super nice people.
I have some questions about the Amtrak auto train.
1. Is it feasible for someone to sleep well in coach seats? It is literally 1000 more expensive for the five of us in those cool roomettes, so I spec we'll be taking the coach. However, we're still considering the sleeper car. Is it worth it? Its $1000 roundtrip for 3 adults and 2 kids, $500 less than flying and rental car. It is the same price as flying if we only do the sleeper car one leg of the journey. Its $500 more than flying with both kegs with the sleeper car.
2. How is the food onboard?
3. Does this have an airplane feel, or is it better (besides the comfort of the seat).

Any help is greatly appreciated!

1. Well, it's feasible, but most people only sleep a few broken hours total. Although kids do seem to sleep a lot better than adults. We do roomettes all the time now, but in the past have done room going to FL and coach coming back because we live 45 min from Lorton so we can just drive home and take a nap with no long drive ahead of us.
2. Food is better than airline food. Dinner is decent and breakfast is hard to screw up since it's corn muffins, bagels (cream cheese, jelly), cereal, milk, banana, oj,
3. Seats are better than airline seats. Most like first class airline seats as they are decently wide and recline and have footrests. We've done 6 round trips since 2005 and find the seats perfectly comfortable.

klo1335 · May 19, 2015

Andy D. said:
Is it feasible for someone to sleep well in coach seats?

The last time I took the autotrain was in 1994 and we traveled coach seats. I was only 13 at the time so I don't remember too much. I remember not sleeping very well and being very tired by the time we got to our hotel at Disney. We are a family of 4 and have reserved one bedroom and one roomette. We are only going down via the train and will be driving home.

bdcp · May 19, 2015

These are the official rules:
Private stock
You may bring aboard your own private stock of alcoholic beverages subject to the following limitations:

You may consume private stock alcoholic beverages only in Sleeping Car accommodations for which you have a valid ticket.
You may not consume private stock alcoholic beverages in any public areas.

But, as I said, we've never had an issue in Coach. When we have been in coach we have been in cars with adults (mostly retirees) and sometimes older children (over 12 or so). They normally have cars designated for families with younger kids.

The link to the food/beverage rule: http://www.amtrak.com/personal-food-beverages-medication

Tink's Pixieduster · Jun 16, 2015

Giving this thread a bump since it was buried on page 10 of the Transportation Board.

lindap1 · Jun 16, 2015

We are not going to Disney this year, but we are going to Florida. My daughter is Little Miss Ohio State 2015 and Nationals is in Orlando this year. We had planned on driving but now we are taking the auto train and I'm very happy about it. I was NOT looking forward to a 16+ drive. What has changed since 2013 (our last trip on the train)?

Tink's Pixieduster · Jun 16, 2015

lindap1 said:
We are not going to Disney this year, but we are going to Florida. My daughter is Little Miss Ohio State 2015 and Nationals is in Orlando this year. We had planned on driving but now we are taking the auto train and I'm very happy about it. I was NOT looking forward to a 16+ drive. What has changed since 2013 (our last trip on the train)?

There were a few changes made in early spring of 2014, mostly affecting sleeper car passengers:

* The sleeper lounge car was eliminated and there is now a single lounge car for all passengers.
* With the sleeper lounge car gone, they no longer offer wine or snacks for sleeper passengers before the train pulls away to begin the trip.
* Sleeper car passengers get the same dinner selections as coach passengers.
* Paper tableclothes and disposable plates and cutlery was reported in both sleeper and coach dining cars (some sleeper car passengers recently said they still had cloth tableclothes with the Corelle-type plates and metal tableware, but that was not my experience last fall).
* No free wine at dinner for sleeper car passengers
* USA Today paper is no longer provided for sleeper cars.

lindap1 · Jun 16, 2015

I knew about the wine and snack, but that isn't a big deal since we never did that anyways. Thanks for the info.

RustManFan · Jun 23, 2015

We always get coach seats and bring our own pillow and do get plenty of rest. I wouldn't necessarily call it sleep but it is restful. We never plan a park on arrival day so this is fine with us...

lindap1 · Jun 27, 2015

Anyone know if wifi is available on the train yet? I know that it is in the stations, but wasn't sure about the train itself.

GrnMtnMan · Jun 27, 2015

lindap1 said:
Anyone know if wifi is available on the train yet? I know that it is in the stations, but wasn't sure about the train itself.

Don't know the specific answer, but even on trains that have wifi, it's pretty slow and basically useless for anything other than slowly retrieving email.

bdcp · Jun 28, 2015

lindap1 said:
Anyone know if wifi is available on the train yet? I know that it is in the stations, but wasn't sure about the train itself.

There is wifi in the lounge car until late evening (when it is shut off). I've never used it as I use my phone to check email and other updates on. It is available in the station which we use with our laptops when we are waiting to board. We've used the wifi onboard when we go to NYC and it's okay, but hardly fast.

I'm not sure why they haven't installed it except that it would require multiple routers and repeaters to work well and the cost could be the holdup.

Kobey · Jun 29, 2015

Taking my first trip on the auto train at the end of July. I was going to try and save money by driving all the way but with a 10 year old who's never been on a long road trip, I changed my mind. I decided that if I leave home around midnight, he can sleep most of the way and I'll be in Lorton around 9am. Now I just have to find ways to kill time. Anyone ever gone to the mini golf course in Woodbridge? I think it's called Lake Ridge Park Golf Course. It's less than 20 minutes from the station, so it sounds like a good way to pass a couple of hours. Any other entertaining things in the area?

So glad I decided to take the train. With a sleeper car, I can be fully refreshed when we get to Florida without having to deal with driver fatigue on our first day.

Katelly · Jun 29, 2015

We're taking our first trip on the auto train mid July (two weeks to be exact). We've always flown to Disney but decided to try the auto train just for the experience. I booked a sleeper car (bedroom) and we're really looking forward to it. We plan on driving to Lorton the day before from NY and staying at a hotel near Lorton. I'm too worried about the NY/NJ/DC traffic to drive down the same day our train departs.

This thread has been a big help in planning our auto train trip!

SingingMom · Jul 6, 2015

Katelly said:
We're taking our first trip on the auto train mid July (two weeks to be exact). We've always flown to Disney but decided to try the auto train just for the experience. I booked a sleeper car (bedroom) and we're really looking forward to it. We plan on driving to Lorton the day before from NY and staying at a hotel near Lorton. I'm too worried about the NY/NJ/DC traffic to drive down the same day our train departs.

This thread has been a big help in planning our auto train trip!

We are leaving the same day from NJ to Lorton. I wonder what time we should leave? We always fly, but DD is starting the DCP and wants to have her car during the internship, especially if she is hired afterwards. Not looking forward to the tight quarters of the sleeper with three adults, but we'll live. Lol

monorailsilver · Jul 7, 2015

Katelly said:
We're taking our first trip on the auto train mid July (two weeks to be exact). We've always flown to Disney but decided to try the auto train just for the experience. I booked a sleeper car (bedroom) and we're really looking forward to it. We plan on driving to Lorton the day before from NY and staying at a hotel near Lorton. I'm too worried about the NY/NJ/DC traffic to drive down the same day our train departs.

This thread has been a big help in planning our auto train trip!

SingingMom said:
We are leaving the same day from NJ to Lorton. I wonder what time we should leave? We always fly, but DD is starting the DCP and wants to have her car during the internship, especially if she is hired afterwards. Not looking forward to the tight quarters of the sleeper with three adults, but we'll live. Lol

We left on the morning of our train. We live in CT. I left from my moms in southern CT which is about 30 miles from the NY border (Westchester) vs my house which is probably a little over an hour or so from the border.

We left on a Friday at 6am and we were in NJ by 7am passing the first rest stop asking my kids if they had to go to the bathroom..all no's until we passed the entrance and then got the "I have to P...." from my ds.

We arrived Lorton at about 11-11:15 with no traffic issues. I went and checked in and then we drove around for a bit and headed back to the line up at around 1ish. Yep we were bored but at least there was wifi in the station. Then at 3 we went and walked the train and looked for our home for the night.

We had a sleeper and a roomette one way and a family bedroom on the return. There are 5 of us. DH and ds did the roomette and myself and the girls did the bedroom. I slept with my then 7 yo on the bottom and we had plenty of room. Before we had the beds put down, we had plenty of room for all 5 of us to hang out.

On the return in the family bedroom that was another story! My dh and I shared the bottom bed, I swear it was smaller then the bedroom. So we slept feet to face although I slept partially on my sons bed which was the smaller bottom bunk. Not fun!

Katelly · Jul 7, 2015

SingingMom said:
We are leaving the same day from NJ to Lorton. I wonder what time we should leave? We always fly, but DD is starting the DCP and wants to have her car during the internship, especially if she is hired afterwards. Not looking forward to the tight quarters of the sleeper with three adults, but we'll live. Lol

I would leave as early as possible! I would rather be in Lorton hours ahead of time than stuck in traffic and stressing about getting to the train on time. If I were driving down the same day I would leave my home on Long Island no later than 5am.

Two years ago we drove to Virginia for a family vacation and what should have been a six hour drive took ten hours due to massive traffic jams/construction/accidents. I don't want a repeat of that so that's why we're leaving the day before.

Good luck to your daughter!

RustManFan · Jul 8, 2015

we have gone the day before and stayed overnight in an inexpensive motel in the Alexandria, Virginia area. This is the most stress free approach but we have also left between 5 and 6 am from central NJ about half the time. (used auto train over 6 times)

Vickie1016 · Jul 8, 2015

We have done both - first trip in 2009 we drove down the day before & stayed overnight. In 2010, that was our plan, but we arrived in Lorton by 1:00 & there was space on the train so we switched days. Since then we leave Westchester County by 6:30 am the latest and make it to Lorton in plenty of time. We would check in, but keep our truck with us, grab lunch somewhere then head back to the station.

Each time we traveled we booked a sleeper car (the bedroom with the bathroom in it). It was fine when DD was little. Last year she was 8 & sleeping was tight. But it was fun.

This year we are driving all the way - we were not happy with the changes made over the last two years to the food as well as the other items not offered anymore (but the price still increases).

Happy vacation everyone!!

Mommytink · Jul 8, 2015

We are taking our first auto train trip in late August. We have 2 adults and 4 children and are sitting in coach. Is it really cold in the train? Are there outlets at every set of seats? Any good places to see pictures?

RustManFan · Jul 9, 2015

Mommytink, we always take our own pillows and a couple blankets since both Amtrak ones are the really small kind (and used by strangers). We never were sorry to be in coach...

All about the Autotrain

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