All about the Autotrain

[MsMulan]

I am shooting for next December. I want to buy my tickets early to avoid price hike. Just me and DD (14) going. I am super excited about the Amtrak Guest Rewards, I joined back in 2006. I am really angry that I did not really pay attention on how to rack up points. I could have had several trips in the bag by now. I guess I will have to step up my shopping to make it there by Xmas.

I am calling tomorrow to retrieve my number again! Hope it works.

 

[PEANUT1]

We just booked the autotrain for November My husband is really excited about it..I am excited too.but nervous also. We were supposed to do it last Jan but we ended up driving instead. Now our girls will be 4 and almost 7 and I think they will really enjoy it. We got 2 adults and 2 kids for 800$. We always rent a car anyway when we go to disney so this is a good deal for us

 

[MsMulan]

We just booked the autotrain for November My husband is really excited about it..I am excited too.but nervous also. We were supposed to do it last Jan but we ended up driving instead. Now our girls will be 4 and almost 7 and I think they will really enjoy it. We got 2 adults and 2 kids for 800$. We always rent a car anyway when we go to disney so this is a good deal for us

Did you get sleeping accomondations for this trip?

 

[PEANUT1]

Did you get sleeping accomondations for this trip?

No..the rooms wer soooo expensive!!! We are going to try to add a room when we get to the station. We were told that if the rooms aren't sold out that you can get one pretty cheap at check in..here's hoping

 

[Henlady]

Just a little FYI - we have traveled on the Auto Train more times than I can count. A couple of times we waited till we got to the station to get a roomette. Each time, we were quoted a price for the room that was the same as what was on their website - no discount. I've read here once or twice about someone getting a discount, but it seems to be very seldom.
I would count on paying the full rate for a room and if you get a discount that
would be a pleasant surprise. I don't know if waiting till you're actually on the train and then talking to the conductor and seeing if any rooms are available would get you a discount or not.

 

[MinnieGi]

I'll be reading this thread a bunch now too as we just booked the Autotrain for our Christmas 2010 trip to Disney!!! We are very excited about taking the train. Our kids 9 & 5 are looking forward to it a bunch too. They've ridden the train to NYC and always thought that was very cool so they were excited about this overnight train ride. We usually fly and rent a car so this will be different. I'm looking forward to bypassing the hassle of the airport!!!

 

[jeanylaser]

this will be our first time going by train to Disney on December 2010! does Disney building a train station! and can I rent a dvd player!

 

[chanken3]

I went way back thru the thread and early posts mentioned the bumps and swaying motion while riding the AT as being quite uncomfortable. More recent posts have not mentioned the movements. Is that because track conditions have improved or just that the topic has changed? We have one way tix (coach) for VA to FL in mid April for 4 adults and a grand caravan which came out to just over $500 (AAA).
What about wireless internet connectivity in coach? Any info?

Getting excited for this trip!!!!

 

[Poohbear5]

We had our first trip in May and didn't find the bumps or sways bothersome. We did hit a few bumps on the way down in the night that woke us up, it didn't seem as bumpy on the way back.

 

[chartle]

What about wireless internet connectivity in coach? Any info?

Getting excited for this trip!!!!

Didn't have it anywhere 18 months ago. I think that would be listed on the auto train site.

 

[alf]

We had our first trip in May and didn't find the bumps or sways bothersome. We did hit a few bumps on the way down in the night that woke us up, it didn't seem as bumpy on the way back.

We found the experience the same - there was a stretch in the middle of the night that really banged - but didn't seem as bad on the way home.

 

[mwehttam]

I remember reading that with the kids free promotion you can't combine offers so you would have to pay full price for the adults. Not sure if it would work out cheaper that way or not....

You can combine as long as you don't use the AAA discount for the kid. Last year I was able to make a ressie using the AAA discount for DW and I. I left DS alone and was able to apply the code. Later I needed to call Amtrak to modify the ressie and add a bedroom. To do this they had to cancel my existing ressie and redo it with the room. The Amtrak rep applied the discounts the same way: AAA for DW and I and the $19 for DS.

Does anyone remember when they came out with this discount last year?

-Matt

 

[LisaNJ25]

You can combine as long as you don't use the AAA discount for the kid. Last year I was able to make a ressie using the AAA discount for DW and I. I left DS alone and was able to apply the code. Later I needed to call Amtrak to modify the ressie and add a bedroom. To do this they had to cancel my existing ressie and redo it with the room. The Amtrak rep applied the discounts the same way: AAA for DW and I and the $19 for DS.

Does anyone remember when they came out with this discount last year?

-Matt

Its usually May..


I am debating if I should book now and than call to apply the discount or wait till it comes outs.

 

[karice2]

I booked my auto train trip for my sort of last minute WDW trip. I will be staying off resort so it was really important for me to have a car. I live and work fairly close to Lorton (about 30 minutes) so I will still be able to go to work part of the day and still make it to the train.

Once I did the off resort math, it was just cheaper for me to do the auto train. I am traveling alone and I managed to book the lower level on the way down. I have read everyone's suggestions and will bring my snuggie and my own pillow.

As far as electronics, I will have my Kindle, baby laptop (netbook) and Ipod to keep me busy. I will be doing the whole tylenol PM thing to help me sleep but being a vet, I can sleep anywhere.

Will update everyone once I finish my voyage.

 

[chanken3]

In the train station in Lorton waiting to board Will be at WDW tomorrow!!

 

[MommyTaraLee]

Thanks, everyone, for all of the great information! We just decided yesterday to book a train for our trip in October.

Through all of my previous train trips for work, I had almost enough Guest Rewards points to cover a bedroom round trip for DH, DD(4) & I. We needed 40,000, I had 29,000, but Amtrak was running a special where you could buy points and get a a % free.... so for $233, I booked the round trip for the 3 of us from Philly to Orlando!

I can't wait to catch up on all of the information in the thread! We are looking at the train part of the trip as our next Great Adventure!

 

[NJGirl]

That's exactly what I did...cashed in my rewards points for a Bedroom reward for my Mom and I. We leave on Wednesday. It will be my first time in a bedroom! I'll let you know how it is!

 

[spima3]

For a bried period, we considered flying, but it is actually more expensive than the autotrain, so we are back to our original plan.

I am looking at around $870 for 2 A's and 2 kids, plus regular car. It has gone up since March when I first started looking into travel plans.

If I book it, are there full refunds? From reading here, we can get them IF we use station pick up and not have them mailed to us?

We will be travelling from the Scranton area, should we go the night before and get a room nearby, or do people actually travel the same day? I won't have DH w/ me this time, only the 3 kids, 10 to 15yrs, so I am most nervous about this leg. Last time we travelled same day, but we got there super early, and it was a long wait until boarding.

Also, when we went last, the train only travelled on Sat, that is different now? Are there better days to travel than a Sat, which is what I planned on, as I have to take the kids out of school.

What is the best route to take from NEPA? I think the last time we got something from AAA, but DH didn't use that route. It was nice, went through horse country.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[chartle]

For a bried period, we considered flying, but it is actually more expensive than the autotrain, so we are back to our original plan.

I am looking at around $870 for 2 A's and 2 kids, plus regular car. It has gone up since March when I first started looking into travel plans.

If I book it, are there full refunds? From reading here, we can get them IF we use station pick up and not have them mailed to us?

We will be travelling from the Scranton area, should we go the night before and get a room nearby, or do people actually travel the same day? I won't have DH w/ me this time, only the 3 kids, 10 to 15yrs, so I am most nervous about this leg. Last time we travelled same day, but we got there super early, and it was a long wait until boarding.

Also, when we went last, the train only travelled on Sat, that is different now? Are there better days to travel than a Sat, which is what I planned on, as I have to take the kids out of school.

What is the best route to take from NEPA? I think the last time we got something from AAA, but DH didn't use that route. It was nice, went through horse country.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

First the longer you wait the higher the price. Also the autotrain runs 7 days a week 365 a year. Some days are cheaper than others and for some reason the trip back costs more than the trip down.

We drove from Pittsburgh the day the train was leaving. The plan was to get to the station at 1:30, check in and eat the lunch we packed. This would give us a good hour and a half of buffer time. I was afraid if we planned to eat on the way, that if we were late we would have to skip lunch.

We left a little late but we were only 4 minutes late.

The reason for getting there at 1:30 is that the check in booth starts to get backed up. After we checked in our car (no wait) and then checked-in in the station we had a leisurely lunch out at the playground. We looked back at the car check-in line and it was backed up quite a bit.

We had my laptop running a gps program and at kept a running tab on when we should arrive and it was spot on.

One big tip is to have everything that you need for the train in bags that you can easily grab and go. After you check-in your car you pull up into a lane to turn over your keys. They give you as much time as you need but it just seems rushed. You can't get back into your car after this point and you don't want to forget anything.

ETA: in looks like you are only about 5 hours away by this route.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...163,-75.311279&spn=5.585491,11.634521&t=h&z=7

So I would think of leaving that morning. The biggest issue I thought I would have is traffic around DC, but it was only bad for about 2 miles right before we exited to go south on 95 and the amtrak station is only a few minutes from there.

 

[PEANUT1]

Yes you can get a full refund up to the day of the trip...this to us is great. We were supposed to travel by autotrain last year and changed our minds last minute. We are booked for Nov 13-21st...hopefully we will do it this time. If crazy cheap airfare comes up we will switch but I doubt it.