All about the Autotrain

[Kitcat]

We will be taking the AT from Lorton Va. at the end of this month. What Hotels do you recommend in the area. The only one I see close by is the Comfort Inn in Lorton anyone stay here? If so how was it. If not any other hotel suggestions with close enough distance to train station would really be appreciated. Thanks

 

[christinou]

There are no family bedrooms upstairs, only dowstairs, as they take the entire width of the train, and upstairs you can walk from train to train.

 

[cherylp3]

The comfort inn is fine. We only once had a problem with a late checkin that they gave our room to miitary that were deploying. They did have a room available just not what I had requested.

Cheryl

 

[Henlady]

Here are two sites that I have found to be very useful and informative with regard to sleeping accommodations on the AutoTrain. The first are pictures of the different types of accommodations. Click on the round picture and it will bring up a larger pic that you can manuver around.

http://www.360360.com/trains/slsleep.html


This next site gives a detailed description of the accommodations and what is available.

http://www.trainweb.com/cgi-bin/top/tw_do.cgi?accommod/s2_sleep.htm

Kris

42 days till we leave for our 30th Anniversary Tour - 4 nights on the Wonder and a few days at PO-R

 

[Kitcat]

I will be travelling w/ds4 and ds19mos. Obviously they do not have high chairs do they have any seating accomodations for a toddler or will he have to sit/stand in the booth in the dining car?

 

[newtowdw1]

I've read most of this thread and I don't think I remember answers to the following:

How far out do I need to book? Is six months enough time to get the lower rates? I want to travel in July.

If I book at 6 months, and other discounts become available, can they be applied to my reservation?

Does the Orlandmagicard usually offer the 20% discount that was offered this year?

Thanks, I really hope you guys can help me!

 

[cherylp3]

How far out do I need to book? Is six months enough time to get the lower rates? I want to travel in July.

*** Book as far out as you can.

If I book at 6 months, and other discounts become available, can they be applied to my reservation?

I think so.

Does the Orlandmagicard usually offer the 20% discount that was offered this year?

usually the only discounts are AAA and NARP.

Cheryl

 

[Henlady]

Newtowdw1:
With regard to applying discounts to your train ticket if they come out after your purchase:

From what I was told by AMTRAK, once you buy the ticket, that is it. No further discounts or price decreases can be applied.

I purchased our AutoTrain tickets for late October the first week of Feb '05.
2 weeks later, the rate was down about $45. I called to see if the new rate could be applied to my existing tickets. I was told I had to cancel my existing tickets, with a penalty deducted for the cancellation and then repurchase new tickets. The refund amount for the first tickets minus the penalty would be sent to me in several weeks. Needless to say, I kept my original tickets. I would have ended up paying more in the penalty than I would have saved.

Kris

36 days till we leave for our 30th Anniversary Tour - 4 nights on the Wonder and a few days at PO-R

 

[Windjammer]

What Henlady says is correct, but, some fares are fully refundable and there may be no penalty, so if the fare goes down you can cancel and rebook. We did this in July of this year for an August trip. We had booked with a AAA discount and then Amtrak started the kids travel free promotion. We saved about $100. Just be sure that your first reservation is fully refundable with no penalty.

Steve

 

[AnnetteF]

Kitcat: We're just back - we traveled on the Auto Train on September 3. My DD is 18 months. There are no boosters or anything for seating toddlers. It never became an issue for us because we took the early dinner seating at 5:30 and my daughter was taking a late afternoon nap that day and wound up sleeping in my arms through the whole dinner. You will either need to hold your baby on your lap or sit him in the seat and keep an arm on him at all times.
A word of warning to you - children under 2 don't require a ticket but that also means that they are not entitled to a dinner. I hadn't considered this and tried to order her the chicken fingers and mac & cheese dinner that they have for children and was told no ticket, no meal nor was it possible to purchase it. The waitress told me we could check and see if any was leftover after dinner . It didn't turn out to be a disaster because I packed a couple of Gerber toddler meals just in case but what if I hadn't? I suppose the policy makes perfect sense in that we didn't pay for her but I think they should bring that to your attention when making the reservation. We wound up having a very rough night with her - I think she was just waiting to get off the train and get home to sleep. Our train also wound up being 5 hours late and then our car was one of the last off the train ( I know someone's has to be but it just came at the worst time). DD was just miserable for most of the trip and therefore, so were we. On our return trip, we decided to cancel our Auto Train reservation and drive. I still like this train but it just didn't work out well for us with our baby. I hope you have a better experience than we did. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. Have a great vacation and let us know how it turns out.

 

[judoha]

We won't ever take AutoTrain again and highly dissuade others from using it unless absolutely necessary.

Amtrak employees clamped down our car too tightly for transportation and ended up destroying all of the wheel and hub bearings on the front end of our car and cracked the front axle. We were unable to use our car at all for our entire vacation. We continue to have front end problems with the car.

Amtrak refused to reimburse us in full for the auto repairs, the rental car we had to get to replace our own car or the miscellaneous expenses involved (which included an extra round trip drive from Miami to Sanford to deal with the car). In addition, we lost three complete days of our vacation because we were either getting our car into the shop, driving back and forth to Sanford an extra time and spending the day on the phone with Amtrak "customer service representatives" in Washington DC.

To add insult to injury, our return trip was delayed by more than 15 hours. Add a toddler into the mix and it made for a pretty lousy experience.

 

[Kitcat]

Thanks for the info about the dinner for infants. I never thought of that too . I will make sure I have lots of cheerios!!! My son is already a picky eater. I did remember reading awhile back about some autos being damaged in transit. Judoha I'm so sorry. Do they take pictures of your vehicle before its loaded onto the train? I'm curious to know if they do damage the exterior of your vehicle are you compensated. Also Judoha how did you know your vehicle was damaged and why did Amtrak refuse to pay for the damage? Anything I should check for before leaving station with my van? Thanks for all the useful information.

 

[bdcp]

We won't ever take AutoTrain again and highly dissuade others from using it unless absolutely necessary.

Amtrak employees clamped down our car too tightly for transportation and ended up destroying all of the wheel and hub bearings on the front end of our car and cracked the front axle. We were unable to use our car at all for our entire vacation. We continue to have front end problems with the car.

Amtrak refused to reimburse us in full for the auto repairs, the rental car we had to get to replace our own car or the miscellaneous expenses involved (which included an extra round trip drive from Miami to Sanford to deal with the car). In addition, we lost three complete days of our vacation because we were either getting our car into the shop, driving back and forth to Sanford an extra time and spending the day on the phone with Amtrak "customer service representatives" in Washington DC.

To add insult to injury, our return trip was delayed by more than 15 hours. Add a toddler into the mix and it made for a pretty lousy experience.

From what I've read they do take pictures before you're loaded so you cant' claim body damage that was preexisting. There's no way to photograph everything. From what I've seen posted, this is a very rare event that a car is not stored properly. A lot of snowbirds take it year after year. But, it can happen in a variety of ways. My parents van wasn't strapped down tightly enough in a cross country move in a moving van and it damaged the front end because it was rocking forward and back more than it should have. We're taking my van round trip in Nov that has 112k miles on it, so I'm not as concerned and it's just DH and I, no children. I dont' think I'd take a new vehicle on the autotrain. I also think I've read this poster on another site, but maybe it was someone else with the exact same story.

 

[AnnetteF]

Kitcat: As soon as you are getting out of your car, they have someone with a video camera going all around it to record the condition of the car. We have a white 2002 Nissan Maxima and it came off without a scratch on it. We've also taken the Auto Train about 5 times before, also with newer cars, and never had a problem. I'm sure there have been incidents but I wouldn't let that stop me from taking it.

 

[HugsForEeyore]

Got to say, unfortunately I had a similiar experience as Judoha. Back in January 2002, I had a trip to Disney where I drove down from NJ, and took the AutoTrain home. When I got the car off the train, I noticed an odd rumbling sound that was not there before. The car was felt OK to drive, so I drove back to NJ (5 hour ride). A few days later, I had the car looked at, since the sound did not go away, and it didn't sound "right". It turns out I had a cracked ball bering on one of my front wheels. It cost about $350 to fix.

I wrote to Amtrak and called them, explaining what happened. It took some calls and some time, but to my happiness, they refunded me the $350, which as it turns out was almost exactly what my ticket cost. Fortunately for me, I had new tires put on my car two weeks before the trip, so my car dealer could vouch for me that no wheel bearings were broken then.

So Amtrak came through for me, and I have ridden them about six times since then with no problems. I am still a big fan of the Amtrak AutoTrain, and even the damage didn't deter me. I also must say my car is 11 years old and has close to 200,000 miles on it, so I feel it's worth the risk. I guess I have taken a car on the AutoTrain about 14 times, and this damage only happened that once. I do admit, when I get my car off nowadays, I listen for odd noises and look it over for damage, but all's been well on recent trips! I got tickets to ride again in October, and looking forwards to it!

 

[Henlady]

HugsforEeyore:
I see you are at Disney Oct 22 thru 28. Are you traveling by AutoTrain on Oct 21-22? That's when we are traveling. We "broke down" and reserved a roomette for this trip. Have always travelled coach before. Can't wait. We'll be heading to PO-R on the 27th following our Wonder cruise.

Kris

34 days till we leave for our 30th Anniversary Tour - 4 nights on the Wonder and 3 nights at PO-R

 

[judoha]

Judoha I'm so sorry. Do they take pictures of your vehicle before its loaded onto the train? I'm curious to know if they do damage the exterior of your vehicle are you compensated. Also Judoha how did you know your vehicle was damaged and why did Amtrak refuse to pay for the damage? Anything I should check for before leaving station with my van? Thanks for all the useful information.

They do take video of the car as it is loaded but our problem was hidden damage instead of obvious physical damage to the car such as dents or scratches.

We realized the vehicle was damaged within 5 minutes of leaving the station - unfortunately, it is the type of damage where you can't know about it unless you drive the car. By leaving the station, which we did because we assumed our car was fine since there were no dents of scratches, Amtrak cited their policy that they aren't liable for any damages reported after leaving the station. It took over two hours on the phone with the DC office to get them to agree to pay for at least some of the damages (over $1000 in repairs alone without the rental car expenses or other stuff we had to cover).

We knew there was something wrong with the car because of a loud rumbling sound and it was listing and pulling a bit to one side. We had new tires put on about three weeks prior with no previous problems. I thought maybe we had a flat or picked up a nail in a tire or something but the tires were clean.

We returned to the station where we were told that we should take it to a nearby dealership so that's what we did. The service manager told me that he sees multiple cars with similar problems from AutoTrain every month.

May your luck be better than mine but it's just as much the lack of customer service from Amtrak that dissuades me from ever taking the train again as the damge to my car and the wasted vacation time.

 

[bdcp]

When you say multiple cars, did he say how many? If it only moves 100 cars/day, that's 3,000 cars per month. Multiple could be 4 or 10, either way, that's a small percentage of the monthly number of cars Amtrak Auto Train moves. I've talked to several people at work who've used it and no one had any problems at all and really enjoyed their trips. It would take more than a 3-5% problem to dissuade me. Especially since a percentage of those would be coincidental to happening on the trip. Especially with older cars, bearings are a wear and tear issue and can happen at any time. You have to understand they have to investigate every claim because not everyone is honest. Just because you know you are doesn't mean they do.

 

[HugsForEeyore]

HugsforEeyore:
I see you are at Disney Oct 22 thru 28. Are you traveling by AutoTrain on Oct 21-22? That's when we are traveling. We "broke down" and reserved a roomette for this trip. Have always travelled coach before. Can't wait. We'll be heading to PO-R on the 27th following our Wonder cruise.
Kris

I love the AutoTrain, as it is part of the adventure! Right now we are booked going North only over the Oct 30th weekend, but I may add a couple of days to the trip if my work closes for renovations and I am not needed back so soon! I would love to take the AutoTrain in both directions, but going south was too expensive for me! The train going south will be filled with snowbirds, so always more $$$. So I am only taking it North from Sanford to Lorton, which is a good deal! I also sprang for a roomette, as many of my recent trips were coach, but this time I felt like "going in style" on this trip.

On the train, I just love hanging out in the lounge, reading a good book, watching the scenery go by .........!

 

[newtowdw1]

Newtowdw1:
With regard to applying discounts to your train ticket if they come out after your purchase:

From what I was told by AMTRAK, once you buy the ticket, that is it. No further discounts or price decreases can be applied.

I purchased our AutoTrain tickets for late October the first week of Feb '05.
2 weeks later, the rate was down about $45. I called to see if the new rate could be applied to my existing tickets. I was told I had to cancel my existing tickets, with a penalty deducted for the cancellation and then repurchase new tickets. The refund amount for the first tickets minus the penalty would be sent to me in several weeks. Needless to say, I kept my original tickets. I would have ended up paying more in the penalty than I would have saved.

Kris

36 days till we leave for our 30th Anniversary Tour - 4 nights on the Wonder and a few days at PO-R

Thanks!!