All about the Autotrain

[lindap1]

Glad you enjoyed it. When we came back we had changed to a sleeper room in the middle of the car (less motion) and it was much more relaxing!

 

[Marshay]

We did..it may have been our best ever. The train ride home was so relaxing and enjoyable and I actually slept. We got in early at 8am.

Yeah! Glad you loved it! What did you like the best about your trip and the train? We'd love to hear more!

 

[bdcp]

We loved the bedroom going down on 10/6. We slept well and we got in at 8:30 to Sanford. We got back to Lorton today at 12:30. Two different freight trains broke down. One just outside Sanford and one in VA. Returning we had coach, but I wish we'd spent the $292 for the bedroom. Noisy train mates. I understand having to check on someone who has health problems, but Please, use your inside voice. We still had a great trip.

 

[PEANUT1]

Yeah! Glad you loved it! What did you like the best about your trip and the train? We'd love to hear more!

It was just really relaxing and nice way to start and end our trip. It was way less stressful than driving or packing up to get on a flight. It was a great way to wind down our trip because we had essentially an extra day of vacation. As soon as we boarded we headed up for the wine and cheese reception so that we could get a table in the lounge car. We played cards, the girls did their homework and we just chilled.

We didn't like the movie choices so the girls watched a movie and unwound in the room. I don't think I would have liked to be in coach. It was really nice to have a place to go that was private and quiet.

The ride home had half of the people on the train as going. When we got to the station in Lorton, lots of snowbirds were headed to florida. We arrived "late" at around 1pm and the only meal time that was left was 9pm I was like there is no way my kids can wait that long (they were alseep at 9pm) the lovely woman checking us in gave us 5pm dinners because she felt bad for us Coming home (going northbound) there was no problem getting the meal time because our train was only half full.

 

[chartle]

The ride home had half of the people on the train as going. When we got to the station in Lorton, lots of snowbirds were headed to florida. We arrived "late" at around 1pm and the only meal time that was left was 9pm I was like there is no way my kids can wait that long (they were alseep at 9pm) the lovely woman checking us in gave us 5pm dinners because she felt bad for us Coming home (going northbound) there was no problem getting the meal time because our train was only half full.

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That's odd, we arrived "later" at 1:30 with totally full train and had our pick of meals. Maybe it was the time of year, late Aug.

 

[bdcp]

Tells you how tired I was, only one time did we stop for a broken down freight train. The first stop was just outside Sanford and was for one of our two engines. They were getting some kind of warning. Turned out to be a bad sensor, but we had to sit on the tracks less than 10 miles from Sanford for 70 minutes. Second stop south of Richmond was a disabled/broken down freight train and that was about an hour. We were running late and so was the southbound train. We pulled into Florence at 2:20 am (tells you how late we were) and the southbound train was sitting there. They left a couple of minutes before we did. Yes, I was awake. I checked the status this am and they were 1.5 hours late getting into Sanford.

 

[Marshay]

We loved the bedroom going down on 10/6. We slept well and we got in at 8:30 to Sanford. We got back to Lorton today at 12:30. Two different freight trains broke down. One just outside Sanford and one in VA. Returning we had coach, but I wish we'd spent the $292 for the bedroom. Noisy train mates. I understand having to check on someone who has health problems, but Please, use your inside voice. We still had a great trip.

yeah, we did coach once and then upgraded to family room ever since. I know we could save a lot by going back to coach but I just love the privacy of our family room. Maybe when our kids are older we'll try again.

Sorry you had noisy train mates --that would bug me, too!

It was just really relaxing and nice way to start and end our trip. It was way less stressful than driving or packing up to get on a flight. It was a great way to wind down our trip because we had essentially an extra day of vacation. As soon as we boarded we headed up for the wine and cheese reception so that we could get a table in the lounge car. We played cards, the girls did their homework and we just chilled.

We didn't like the movie choices so the girls watched a movie and unwound in the room. I don't think I would have liked to be in coach. It was really nice to have a place to go that was private and quiet.

The ride home had half of the people on the train as going. When we got to the station in Lorton, lots of snowbirds were headed to florida. We arrived "late" at around 1pm and the only meal time that was left was 9pm I was like there is no way my kids can wait that long (they were alseep at 9pm) the lovely woman checking us in gave us 5pm dinners because she felt bad for us Coming home (going northbound) there was no problem getting the meal time because our train was only half full.

Wow!! That is good to know about the 9pm seating for dinner. We usually arrive "late", too (1-1:30pm) and with 2 kids the later seatings just don't work. We did 7pm dinner on the southbound and the girls were tired and cranky. On the way back we switched to the 5pm service and it worked out great.

That's odd, we arrived "later" at 1:30 with totally full train and had our pick of meals. Maybe it was the time of year, late Aug.

yeah, probably too early for the snow birds. We are going in late January so I'm hoping that's also a non-active period for the snow birds -- too late to be traveling down south and too early for them to return north!

Tells you how tired I was, only one time did we stop for a broken down freight train. The first stop was just outside Sanford and was for one of our two engines. They were getting some kind of warning. Turned out to be a bad sensor, but we had to sit on the tracks less than 10 miles from Sanford for 70 minutes. Second stop south of Richmond was a disabled/broken down freight train and that was about an hour. We were running late and so was the southbound train. We pulled into Florence at 2:20 am (tells you how late we were) and the southbound train was sitting there. They left a couple of minutes before we did. Yes, I was awake. I checked the status this am and they were 1.5 hours late getting into Sanford.

bummer on the delays and also that you couldn't sleep. Hopefully, next time will be better.

We are running 75% for on-time or early arrivals for our train trips and then only 1 hour late. They made up time over night -- man was that train moving!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Just got back yesterday from our roundtrip on the Autotrain and we loved it! DH, myself, DD (3) and DD (3 months) had a family bedroom. From reading this thread I got the idea to open the Continental Airlines credit card and go the trip for free (I opened one card and got the bonus miles for the trip down and DH opened a card as well and got the miles for the return trip home).
We boarded the train at 2:30 and DH went to the lounge car for the complimentary wine, cheese and crackers and brought some back to share. While he was gone, I got DD settled with her Tinkerbell blanket and she watched Sleeping Beauty.

Wine, cheese and crackers "to go"

The southbound trip was fully booked and we left the station at about 3:25 but we kept stopping. By our 5pm dinner I knew we were in trouble and would not get into Sanford on time. At one point during dinner I looked out our window and there was a kid on a bike on a parallel road that was going faster than we were! We really enjoyed dinner, DH and I both had the beef, I had the chocolate torte for dessert which was very good. I think DH had the cheesecake? and DD had the choo-choo chewies (chicken nuggets) and ice cream with strawberry sauce.

Here are a few pictures from dinner

We found out from our waiter that there were signal problems throughout the southeast corridor and it was effecting rail traffic from Georgia to Virginia. We had to get clearance to go through "dark territory". Unfortunately we didn't hear any of the announcements made on the train updating us about the problem because the speaker was broken in our room.

Relaxing in the room after dinner

Our family bedroom was more spacious than I thought it would be. We used the top bunk above the window as a storage space. DD (3) slept in the bottom short bunk and DH and I slept in the bottom longer bunk. DD (3 months) slept in a moses basket that we brought along and we kept that on the floor. We didn't open up the top bunk because with the bassinet we wouldn't have room for the ladder. DH and the girls slept well through the night but I kept waking up every time we stopped, which felt like it was often. We found out the next morning that we wouldn't get into Sanford until 11:30am. Breakfast was delayed and didn't start until 7 and went until 9am. I can't eat any dairy and so there wasn't much for me to have at the continental breakfast other than a bagel with jelly.

Waking up- at home I lay DD (3 months) in bed to wake up DD (3). It makes DD (3) wake up in a much better mood! It worked on the train as well.

After breakfast we had some time to kill, so DD played with playdoh and then we gave her a surprise- a Cinderella dress and necklace.

Just our luck, our car was one of the last ones off the train at about 12:30, but we didn't let that dampen our mood. It took us about 45 minutes to get to Fort Wilderness and since I had done online checkin we were in the Magic Kingdom by 2pm.

On our train heading northbound we had the same dinner, I slept much more soundly and we were in the station by about 8:45am and one of the first cars off the train. We are definitely looking into taking the autotrain on our next trip. I lurked on this thread for quite some time and learned lots of great tips for the Autotrain!

 

[labdogs42]

Wait a second, how does this Continental Airlines thing work?

 

[pwdebbie]

GinnyBear's Mom -- How did two of you fit on the bottom bed? I thought there was only room for one. There's no way I want to do the top bunk and the other bottom bunk would be a bit short for me, but it never occurred to me that there would be enough room for the two of us to fit in the bigger bottom bed.

 

[Marshay]

So glad to hear you all had a good time, even if the train was late.

your children are adorable! THanks for posting pics!

 

[Marshay]

GinnyBear's Mom -- How did two of you fit on the bottom bed? I thought there was only room for one. There's no way I want to do the top bunk and the other bottom bunk would be a bit short for me, but it never occurred to me that there would be enough room for the two of us to fit in the bigger bottom bed.

My DH is 6'6" and I am 6' (not skinny but not too plump either) ... and we both have slept together on the lower bunk. For us, it's helpful if one of us sleeps on their side. If we both do, we have plenty of room. To both lay side by side is 'tight' for us.

We usually start out together for a while on the lower bunk just b/c we like to snuggle and then at some point in the night, one of us wakes up and then we spread out to the upper and lower bunks.

 

[PEANUT1]

Wait a second, how does this Continental Airlines thing work?

You can transfer continental miles to amtrak and use the miles for the trip. I think it was 60k r/t for a family bedroom and the car for us. Sometimes they have deals for miles if you open a credit card.

 

[kittylady1972]

Love reading more great Autotrain reports. Really looking forward to booking our upcoming November trip...hopefully just one month away from being able to book it! I know the trip back we can't point on Rewards points because it is a blackout period (weekend after Thanksgiving) but hopefully we can book the trip down on points.

I do believe it's 15K for a Roomette or 20K for a Bedroom and 10K points fora vehicle...that's each way. Now I was told we could use points for the car and bedroom but we COULD pay cash for a second room. We just can't pay cash for the car or the first room or roomette.

I did open a Continental Credit Card and have about 30K points so I should be able to book our room and vehicle on the way down. As for the way back, seriously considering saving money and trying coach, since we'll be coming home ANYWAY and can catch up on sleep in our own beds after the hour drive back home. We will see though.

Just wondering how we'll make the room arrangements with 7 of us. Technically we could get two family bedrooms and have one kid sleep in the room with my in-laws...and they would be good with that. We could do like before and book ourselves in a Bedroom and a Roomette (they will allow 2 children and one adult in a Bedroom) as my DH did enjoy having his own private bathroom while DS11 and I slept in the roomette a few steps away from them. I think my in-laws would at least need to get a Bedroom though...don't think they would like the roomette. So we have another month or so I guess to make our decision so I can book it as soon as possible!

 

[famouschinesec]

I would think there would be plenty of room in the northbound autotrain next November, that if you booked coach you would be able to really spread out. We rode the autotrain northbound on Monday night, and there was at least one entire coach car that was empty.

 

[kittylady1972]

I would think there would be plenty of room in the northbound autotrain next November, that if you booked coach you would be able to really spread out. We rode the autotrain northbound on Monday night, and there was at least one entire coach car that was empty.

Hmmm...but was this Thanksgiving weekend...one of the most popular travel times?? Worse case we could always just drive back home and save our money but we'd love to try to do the train BOTH ways this trip if we can of course!

 

[Marshay]

We went on the northbound train on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (arriving in Lorton on Thanksgiving) in 2010 and it was EMPTY!!!! It was almost like a ghost town.

I think there were only like 50 people on the train. It was actually great for us -- we got to check out the roomettes and other bedrooms to see if we liked them better than our family room.

There were only 5 families in the lounge car for the movie. It was actually pretty eerie.

In fact, another family purchased their family room only a few days prior for $300 LESS than what I paid at several months out.

Now who knows what's going to happen this year or next, but last year was S-L-O-W.

 

[kittylady1972]

We went on the northbound train on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (arriving in Lorton on Thanksgiving) in 2010 and it was EMPTY!!!! It was almost like a ghost town.

I think there were only like 50 people on the train. It was actually great for us -- we got to check out the roomettes and other bedrooms to see if we liked them better than our family room.

There were only 5 families in the lounge car for the movie. It was actually pretty eerie.

In fact, another family purchased their family room only a few days prior for $300 LESS than what I paid at several months out.

Now who knows what's going to happen this year or next, but last year was S-L-O-W.

Hmmm...very interesting thanks for the information! I plan on booking our dates as soon as possible next month to make sure I get the lowest rates...but I know I'll be checking them pretty regularly for price drops, even a few weeks to a few days before our trip. I booked our last train trip (our first one) at least THREE different times as different discounts became available!

 

[Marshay]

Hmmm...very interesting thanks for the information! I plan on booking our dates as soon as possible next month to make sure I get the lowest rates...but I know I'll be checking them pretty regularly for price drops, even a few weeks to a few days before our trip. I booked our last train trip (our first one) at least THREE different times as different discounts became available!

Yep -- that's the best idea.

I was foolish b/c I didn't check prices in the last few weeks and days before our trip. It seemed like everyone on this thread said that prices always increase as it gets closer to your trip. But this was one time that the prices actually decreased.

Definitely my fault for not checking ... who would have thought that the most busy travel time would find the train practically empty?!

Lesson learned!

 

[lindap1]

I had purchased auto train coach seats during the summer for September and it was I believe $800+, but a little later they were having a special so I was able to get trip a little cheaper. When we arrived in Lorton, hubby decided to upgrade to a deluxe room which cost another $600+ and on the return trip he upgraded again and it was an extra $500+ ( a little better). Now I see that a trip next November would be $1280 for a family room for 3 people! So, if I book a trip for next year it will be the same price as what we paid for just a room on our last trip Crazy!