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!
I only have 1 experience on the AT from April 2014
1. There are 5 of us in my family, dh and I and our 3 kids who were 12, 10 & 8 at the time of travel. On the way down we had a roomette and a bedroom. Dh and my son (10yo) had the roomette. Myself and the girls had the bedroom. My oldest slept on top and my youngest slept in the bed with me a and we had plenty of room.
We were all able to hang out in the bedroom too and were comfy.
When we arrived in Lorton, we knew we didn't sleep well and were up most of the night-dh, my 12yo and my self, whereas the other 2 slept! But when we got off the train and saw the people coming off coach we knew we had the better night sleep. They looked just exhausted!
On our return we tried a family bedroom just to be all in one room. It was tight, more cramped feeling then the bedroom. Sleeping was not fun! The girls took the top bunk, my ds took the smaller bottom bunk and dh and I tried to squeeze in the bed next to each other. I said forget it and was ready to sleep in the floor. We ended up with our heads on opposite sides and I was partially in the smaller bed that my ds was in.
We still didn't sleep that well. But better then coach!
We said if we ever take it again we will do the bedroom and get connecting rooms.
RT for the 5 of us and our car was around $1800. I booked the first day I could. We flew this April and our rental was $500 and our flights were about $1250. But we didn't have our beach umbrella, beach cart, beach chairs, sand toys, etc....granted we used my sisters since we were at her house. Also we were upgraded in our rental car from a minivan to a traverse. It was more comfy but there was a lot less space for beach stuff and we were updated because each minivan they went to give us that had the no smoking sticker in it reeked of smoke.
2. Well since we only experienced the AT once I have nothing to compair it too. I got the steak meal and thought it was good. Real glasses, silverware, China doesn't phase me. I get where people are coming from since train travel back in the day was a luxury.
On the way there we were split at 2 tables next to each other. 3 at one and 2 at another. On the return the 5 of us squeezed into a 4 person table which was not fun! I think we did that for breakfast too. On the return for breakfast since I was up and showered, I went and got 5 things of OJ, cereal, muffins, etc....to bring back to the room vs making them all schlep to the dining room.
3. It didn't feel like an airplane, it was nice to be able to stand at will, even walk around. I mean if I wanted to stretch my legs out in the couch I could (I can't tell you about coach). I'd say it was more like a boat with the swaying, lurching and switching of the tracks. We didn't leave our rooms much and were content in that decision.
At this point I would not do the train again because of the feeling like we were going to tip over which I blame on the tracks. If the tracks were fixed to run smoothly, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
We must of looked like fools on our way down. We had a small suitcase for the 5 of us that had our clothes and toiletries and a cooler because my son has food allergies so I needed food for him as a back up, plus we had cold drinks (non alcoholic). The kids each had s blanket and we had 5 pillows And 5 bags, aka back packs. On the return we left the blankets in the car and condensed some of the kids back pack stuff plus we were on the bottom floor so it wasn't as bad for bringing the crap in.
We had the laptop and portable DVD players for the kids and some games as well.
We did the early dinner seating so we pretty much got on and ate, had our beds turned down at about 8 and were pretty much tuckered out since we left CT that am at 6 to avoid traffic which we did. that was a good thing since you couldn't see anything at night.
I would of loved to have more daylight hours on the train to see the sights but that's not how it works. There was a lot of stop and go as well.
