All about the Autotrain

[Marshay]

FYI -- I just posted on my TR about our Autotrain Day, this time we got a Family Bedroom. It's entitled "Worst. Bed. Ever" and starts on page 14, Post #203.

I also include pics of the lounge car, dining car, hallways and doors.

See the link in my siggie below for the November trip if you would like to hear/see more.

 

[christinou]

How is the station in Sanford, is it finished yet?

 

[cm8]

FYI -- I just posted on my TR about our Autotrain Day, this time we got a Family Bedroom. It's entitled "Worst. Bed. Ever" and starts on page 14, Post #203.

I also include pics of the lounge car, dining car, hallways and doors.

See the link in my siggie below for the November trip if you would like to hear/see more.

Thanks for the heads up, over to read it now

 

[Marshay]

How is the station in Sanford, is it finished yet?

Well, we didn't have to wait in the tents this time but as we were running late, I honestly didn't pay attention. Silly me!!

After we checked in they told us to go straight out the doors and board the train. So I wasn't paying attention to anything else. I do remember going through a different door (actual building and not the tent) but I'm so sorry, I don't recall anything else.

Thanks for the heads up, over to read it now

Cool!

 

[bdcp]

Actually I've read a trip report on another board (about trains) that says,yes, Sanford is done and it's all building, no tent anymore.

 

[nono]

Actually I've read a trip report on another board (about trains) that says,yes, Sanford is done and it's all building, no tent anymore.

Yes, and the fixed seating arrangement is such that two carts basically block the center aisle, making it impossible to pass. No problem, park them in the seating aisle. Nope, totally blocks the row. The elderly were going ballistic about it when we were there in Dec. waiting for our car number to be called.

They need to make the center aisle a bit wider so carts can stay out there and forego a few of the seats. Or someone is going to have a coronary...

 

[shadowryter]

Hi all, we've just recently returned from our Disney trip which included 4 nites on the Wonder...4 nites at Disney and 3 at Universal. The trip began and ended with the Auto Train. This was our first experience with any train at all. We arrived early around 12:45 at the Lorton station, got our 7 pm dinner ressie and boarded at 2:30. I was afraid of getting motion sickness but it never happened.Everything we experienced was great except for our sleeping arrangements. We had a bedroom and there was three of us. I'm 5'9", DH is 6'3" and DD is 5'10". All 3 of us fit rather comfortably in the bedroom but I must say that the bed was just awful. Not that I expected the Ritz...let's say that we barely slept. But I'm kind of like the Princess and the Pea. I can't stand any lumps, wrinkles, etc. You get the idea.
All three of us had the crab cakes for dinner and they were really good. We did the wine and cheese and snacks and that was great.
On the way home, I guess I was so exhausted from our vacation that I did manage to sleep but not without complications. At around 6:10 pm the train rocked violently and came to a sudden stop. We learned mintues later that we had struck an automobile in the crossing in Jacksonville. We were horrified but soon learned that the 24 year old man escaped without injury. His truck not so well. There was an investigation and we were set back 2 1/2 hours. They kept shutting off the power, something to do with damage to the engine and it gets really hot when the air is down. Dinner was a repeat of crab cakes for DH and DD. I tried the Tournedoes of beef....Excellent!!!
We made up time during the night only to loose it when a CSX train was stopped on the tracks due to an emergency. We got back to Lorton at around 1:30. What a scene as cars were parked to go and we had just arrived.
Will I do this trip again??? Probably not and not becasue of the issues. The Auto train was an adventure and I really enjoyed it but as much as I am afraid to, I promised DH I would pray for 3 hours and fly to Oralndo next time. Especially since he wants to do another Disney cruise.Thanks to everyone who gave me so much info, and don't let my experience deter you in any way. Everyone should do the Auto Train at least once.

 

[Marshay]

Yes, and the fixed seating arrangement is such that two carts basically block the center aisle, making it impossible to pass. No problem, park them in the seating aisle. Nope, totally blocks the row. The elderly were going ballistic about it when we were there in Dec. waiting for our car number to be called.

They need to make the center aisle a bit wider so carts can stay out there and forego a few of the seats. Or someone is going to have a coronary...

Oh, this is not good. As I said earlier, we were so rushed we didn't pay much attention but from what I remember, the "new station" isn't that big. That's why I was thinking that it may not be finished and what we saw was just a holding area yet.

Hi all, we've just recently returned from our Disney trip which included 4 nites on the Wonder...4 nites at Disney and 3 at Universal. The trip began and ended with the Auto Train. This was our first experience with any train at all. We arrived early around 12:45 at the Lorton station, got our 7 pm dinner ressie and boarded at 2:30. I was afraid of getting motion sickness but it never happened.Everything we experienced was great except for our sleeping arrangements. We had a bedroom and there was three of us. I'm 5'9", DH is 6'3" and DD is 5'10". All 3 of us fit rather comfortably in the bedroom but I must say that the bed was just awful. Not that I expected the Ritz...let's say that we barely slept. But I'm kind of like the Princess and the Pea. I can't stand any lumps, wrinkles, etc. You get the idea.
All three of us had the crab cakes for dinner and they were really good. We did the wine and cheese and snacks and that was great.
On the way home, I guess I was so exhausted from our vacation that I did manage to sleep but not without complications. At around 6:10 pm the train rocked violently and came to a sudden stop. We learned mintues later that we had struck an automobile in the crossing in Jacksonville. We were horrified but soon learned that the 24 year old man escaped without injury. His truck not so well. There was an investigation and we were set back 2 1/2 hours. They kept shutting off the power, something to do with damage to the engine and it gets really hot when the air is down. Dinner was a repeat of crab cakes for DH and DD. I tried the Tournedoes of beef....Excellent!!!
We made up time during the night only to loose it when a CSX train was stopped on the tracks due to an emergency. We got back to Lorton at around 1:30. What a scene as cars were parked to go and we had just arrived.
Will I do this trip again??? Probably not and not becasue of the issues. The Auto train was an adventure and I really enjoyed it but as much as I am afraid to, I promised DH I would pray for 3 hours and fly to Oralndo next time. Especially since he wants to do another Disney cruise.Thanks to everyone who gave me so much info, and don't let my experience deter you in any way. Everyone should do the Auto Train at least once.

Wow -- what an adventure! I guess just like planes get delayed due to faulty parts or bad weather or too much plane conjestion, so do the trains. But actually having someone in the train tracks while the train is coming -- wow!

I was wondering about those crab cakes! I asked them how much filler they had in them (I greatly prefer lump crab cakes, only) and got the, "Um, well there's some filler in there." so I decided to go for the beef instead for fear that the crab cakes were more bread than crab.

Sorry you all didn't really enjoy the train ... but with those circumstances, I can see why. But at least you got to pack whatever you wanted, were able to walk around and stretch out and didn't get man-handled by TSA

 

[Sadie22]

I tried the crab cakes. Being from Maryland, I know what a crab cake should taste like and thought I had eaten good ones in Virginia previously. I did not think these were good.

 

[Marshay]

I tried the crab cakes. Being from Maryland, I know what a crab cake should taste like and thought I had eaten good ones in Virginia previously. I did not think these were good.

Got it! Yeah, although I'm not from MD, but VA, I'm familiar enough with crab cakes to always ask about fillers to see how the servers reply. I'm a lump crab cake kind of gal!

 

[DanBoris]

Wow -- what an adventure! I guess just like planes get delayed due to faulty parts or bad weather or too much plane conjestion, so do the trains. But actually having someone in the train tracks while the train is coming -- wow!

Trains often get delayed going to Florida because once you get below Washington DC, Amtrak is using the tracks owned by the freight companies, so the freight trains get the right of way. Fortunetly they can often make up the time. On our last trip home the train was an hour late getting into Orlando, but we still arrived in Philadelphia right on time.

Dan

 

[bdcp]

Trains often get delayed going to Florida because once you get below Washington DC, Amtrak is using the tracks owned by the freight companies, so the freight trains get the right of way. Fortunetly they can often make up the time. On our last trip home the train was an hour late getting into Orlando, but we still arrived in Philadelphia right on time.

Dan

In our three trips, the most we've been late arriving is around 2 hours and that was due to a freight train break down that blocked the tracks temporarily. We're going again next Oct. Our other trips have had us arriving within 1/2 hour of the stated time. We love riding the train, but the beds do stink because the mattresses are all of 2 inches thick. We've slept better in coach than we did in the roomette(way too small anyway).

 

[shadowryter]

We were just so thankful that the young man was not hurt. I was horrified to hear that we struck someone but so releived to hear that he was ok. Still not sure what happened...something about him being caught in the rear of his truck.
My DD loved the crab cakes. They were not lump but had very lttle filler. She said the spicey remoulade sauce really made the meal and opted to have it again on our return trip.

 

[Disney Commando]

We have done the Autotrain many times, the one thing I can say if the guy talking on the PA has a heavy actcent, you will arrive early The engineer on that train makes great time usulally around 1 1/2 hours early and sometimes you get there before the crew is in the station Our last trip a couple weeks ago we got to Stanford at 7:45 arrived at All Star Movies by 10am, on the way back we were at Lorton 15mins before crew even got there.

A couple of years ago we left Lorton almost 2hrs late and still got to Fla 1/2 hour early. I've been on both sides of the coin, but I love hearing the guy with the actcent on the PA Bounus time

 

[MinnieGi]

Just got home a few hours ago from our first AutoTrain experience and we enjoyed it quite a bit and have plans to do it again!

There were four of us in a family bedroom - DH and I and out kids 10yo DD and 6yo DS. We were impressed at how efficient the check-in process is: pull your car up, take out belongings you want on the train, your car gets boarded onto the train car and we go in to check into the desk which was also so painless and hardly a line. We are used to flying from Philly where there is a long line for EVERYTHING and our travel day seems to be one large headache. The AutoTrain in contrast was so EASY and STRESSFREE!

We didn't realize how much we'd be fed on the train from the wine & cheese, to dinner to cookie snacks later plus breakfast, I didn't need any of the snacks I had brought for the kids. I knew about dinner and breakfast but not the wine & cheese snacks and cookie snacks later plus complimentary water.

Dinner was decent. The beef was probably the best dish, but the others stuffed manicotti, crab cakes, pasta and meatballs and choo choo chewies were all decent enough. Our family enjoyed the dining and lounge cars quite a bit. The social aspect of the train was also something our family enjoyed. It was fun meeting and chatting with other passengers and for the most part everyone was very friendly and social. The employees of the train were also friendly and helpful.

On our trip down we arrived in Sanford an hour ahead of schedule and we got a bonus in our van being one of the first off so we were literally checked into our resort and at the parks by 10:00 AM!!!!! That was an unexpected bonus day of parks for us!!

Oh the only thing that didn't work so well for us was the bed arrangements for the family bedroom. I didn't realize just how short the "child" beds were. While it was fine for our six year old, our ten year old did not properly fit on the bed. She is of average height too, so anyone with kids over 8, I'd say the beds might be iffy for them. She did manage to sleep curled up, but it wasn't the greatest night sleep. Although I know she did sleep b/c I had a very hard time sleeping on the way down, however on the way back I DID sleep and felt refreshed in the morning.

On the way back our train was right on schedule and arrived in Lorton right at 9:30, however this time we were one of the last cars pulled off. We were out of the station by 10:45 with our car.

Another great thing we found about the AutoTrain is having our van packed up and no charge for extra luggage! We went over Christmas and were bringing all the presents with us as we left on the 20th. It was so awesome that we had boxes of presents plus all our luggage and packed it all up at home and never had to unpack until we got to our resort. And just having the van was a pleasure, we didn't have to rent or wait in any car rental line.

To sum it up for us: although the train took longer to get to FL, it was way more pleasurable and stressfree than the airport and plane. To me the air travel and the airport itself is very stressful and taxing and I'm usually exhausted by the time we get to WDW with the train I was relaxed, recharged and ready to go!!

 

[lpizzuro123]

Glad to hear you had such a good experience. We have been doing the Autotrain for years and love it. We are always hearing from some people about how silly it is to take the train when flying is so much faster. We do not like to fly, we love the train, we love having our car when we get to Florida and love that our car is all packed and ready to go when we arrive. They are always tgrying to talk us out of taking the train. We figure it is part of our vacation, my DH and I get some great time to talk, we sometimes watch movies on our portable DVD player and we always meet great people on the train and have fun in the lounge.

All in all a great time. We did a sleeper once and while we liked it for the two of us I'd rather save the money and just go coach. If we had kids though I think the sleeper would be perfect.

Linda

 

[pwdebbie]

My husband just told me to go ahead and look into AutoTrain for our April 2012 trip.

Questions:

Dh gets claustrophobic. Roomette is definitely out for us so I am thinking about the rooms w/a toilet area. How are those rooms for someone that doesn't like confined spaces?

Can we be assured of being on the lower level? Dh also has motion issues so doing the stairs would probably be an issue for him. (I'm hoping that the movement of the train isn't too much for him. He had major issues with Soarin'.)

How difficult is it to walk from train car to train car? Dh has never been on a train whereas I used to ride trains all the time as a kid (mom would decide she wanted to shop in NYC for a day and off we would go from Baltimore to NYC; also lots of school trips by train). I always thought it exciting to see the ground rushing by as we went from car to car but dh would probably not handle that well at all.

My last train trip was Amtrak, destination Kissimmee, FL, in 1972 (our only family vacation to WDW, I started college the following year). That trip was so horrible that my mother refused to get back on the train, cancelled the return tickets and we flew home. (In case you want to know what was so bad -- roaches, followed by insecticide, followed by getting sick from the insecticide followed by being moved to a smoking car without enough seats for everyone so then they had to remove the roach car and replace it with another one but it was filthy; as well as hit someone on the tracks and train missed a station and had to back up for 30 minutes. Yep, it was not a great trip.)

 

[NJBILL]

My husband just told me to go ahead and look into AutoTrain for our April 2012 trip.

Questions:

Dh gets claustrophobic. Roomette is definitely out for us so I am thinking about the rooms w/a toilet area. How are those rooms for someone that doesn't like confined spaces?

Can we be assured of being on the lower level? Dh also has motion issues so doing the stairs would probably be an issue for him. (I'm hoping that the movement of the train isn't too much for him. He had major issues with Soarin'.)

How difficult is it to walk from train car to train car? Dh has never been on a train whereas I used to ride trains all the time as a kid (mom would decide she wanted to shop in NYC for a day and off we would go from Baltimore to NYC; also lots of school trips by train). I always thought it exciting to see the ground rushing by as we went from car to car but dh would probably not handle that well at all.

My last train trip was Amtrak, destination Kissimmee, FL, in 1972 (our only family vacation to WDW, I started college the following year). That trip was so horrible that my mother refused to get back on the train, cancelled the return tickets and we flew home. (In case you want to know what was so bad -- roaches, followed by insecticide, followed by getting sick from the insecticide followed by being moved to a smoking car without enough seats for everyone so then they had to remove the roach car and replace it with another one but it was filthy; as well as hit someone on the tracks and train missed a station and had to back up for 30 minutes. Yep, it was not a great trip.)

We have made the trip 8 or 9 times in sleepers and in coach. The roomettes are a tight fit, but manageble. If someone has real space issues, it could be a problem. A one bedroom car car may be more manageble. Coach is also ok except you share the bathroom. I personally have had no issues with a shared bathroom, but having your own is nice. Walking on the train is not that bad, as you can hold onto the seats to balance yourself. If you have a sleeper, your attendant will get your meals and things for you if you like. Upon booking your room/roomette your area will be assigned if you do it over the phone. Good luck and enjoy your trip. Here is a great link on the auto-train..
http://travelweather.weebly.com/auto-train.html

 

[MinnieGi]

My husband just told me to go ahead and look into AutoTrain for our April 2012 trip.

Questions:

Dh gets claustrophobic. Roomette is definitely out for us so I am thinking about the rooms w/a toilet area. How are those rooms for someone that doesn't like confined spaces?

Can we be assured of being on the lower level? Dh also has motion issues so doing the stairs would probably be an issue for him. (I'm hoping that the movement of the train isn't too much for him. He had major issues with Soarin'.)

How difficult is it to walk from train car to train car? Dh has never been on a train whereas I used to ride trains all the time as a kid (mom would decide she wanted to shop in NYC for a day and off we would go from Baltimore to NYC; also lots of school trips by train). I always thought it exciting to see the ground rushing by as we went from car to car but dh would probably not handle that well at all.

My last train trip was Amtrak, destination Kissimmee, FL, in 1972 (our only family vacation to WDW, I started college the following year). That trip was so horrible that my mother refused to get back on the train, cancelled the return tickets and we flew home. (In case you want to know what was so bad -- roaches, followed by insecticide, followed by getting sick from the insecticide followed by being moved to a smoking car without enough seats for everyone so then they had to remove the roach car and replace it with another one but it was filthy; as well as hit someone on the tracks and train missed a station and had to back up for 30 minutes. Yep, it was not a great trip.)

We were on the AutoTrain for the first time this past Dec. and have already scheduled trips for June and Nov. on AutoTrain.

We had a "family" room that was more spacious than a roomette. It was also on the lower floor. However we shared toilets with others. But there were three on the floor plus a shower/changing room so not a problem for us.

The only room on the lower floor with an in room toilet is the HA room. It sleeps two and has a curtained off area for toilet and sink.

The other rooms with a toilet/sink in room are all on upper level.

All dining and cafe cars are also on upper level with a spiral sort of stairway leading up from the lower level. If you are unable to make the walk, the room attendant for your car will bring you all your meals.

While our family didn't have any problems walking around the train can certainly bump a bunch and sometimes you find yourself brushed up against a hallway wall while walking!!

We liked the train a bunch and talked my parents into taking it down in June. My father had a stroke two years ago and has movement issues. They have booked the HA room on lower level and will have room attendant bring meals for them. Although I'm sure my mom will walk around the train and check out the cafe car.

I certainly do not like closed in spaces and I think what I liked about the train is that I COULD get up and move around!!

 

[dsnycrzy]

Were there any sales posted for this summer for the auto train? Im mapping out my trip for next august since I'm expecting a new disney fan this august.