Am I insane for even considering...

[kmk160]

Hello all! Live here in NE PA but can only catch those great flight deals in Aug. if we cut our trip short by a full day (not an option )
We need to buy tix for 4, 2 adults and 2 children. Yes, I am buying a seat for my 1 year old based on experience.
Anyway, its not that much more $$ for us to take the autotrain when we add our rental car to the cost of airline tix.
For those who have done it, how is it, especially with two little ones, ds will be 4 and dd will be 18 mos.
Any insight would help us alot!!!
Thanks!

 

[helenk]

I can not help you out with the autotrain, but keep in mind you are adding a lot of travelling time if you go that route and with young children, if it were me I'd rather pay to fly.
You should be able to get some good rates with Southwest from Phila to Orlando. I was able to book flights at 117.00 roundtrip for the 3 of us. I think Airtran was running the same sale.

 

[kmk160]

Thanks. They were running a great sale, but like I mentioned, I'd have to cut the trip short to get that great rate on the return flight.
I guess I'm considering this with the thought that my 4yo son might enjoy a train for once instead of flying.
Just an idea.
If anyone has any input, I'd love to hear!!

 

[tlinus]

You would have to drive to Lorton, VA and even then I think the train leaves at 4PM? You have to think if you would be purchasing a sleeping car or in coach.....if in coach do the kids sleep through the night?? We had to EXTEND our vacation by a day to get a better departure time out of Orlando - could you add a day to the beginning of the trip? late afternoon out of PHL?

Just throwing some ideas your way!! Hope this helps!

Oh, and we always used to drive to Orlando - its getting too dangerous on I-95 and we decided to fly this time(kids first time in a plane). If you saw what we saw on the drive home in October on 95, ugh, you would never want drive it either.

 

[dopeyfanatic]

Just wanted to chime in with the thought that since the auto train takes so much longer, you are probably cutting a day off your trip anyways. I would rather fly and cut a day off than be stuck in a train for a long time losing a day. Have you done as the above said and tried adding a day on to the beginning or end?

 

[jodifla]

I've taken the autotrain twice with my son, who is a huge train fan. We had a BLAST! He was in HEAVEN on the train.

We got a pullman sleeper. I didn't sleep all that well, but he was out like a light.

It's definitely an adventure....

 

[zurgswife]

The auto train is know for extened times... It should take about 17 hrs but some people have had it take 24+ hrs at really bad times. The autotrain has to stop for other trains the way I understand it and it sometimes stops for hours. There is no guaranteed you won't extend your trip and then you have a 6 hr drive home.

So, you will spend 2 extra days just traveling by auto train.

The cost for the 4 of you in seats is about $450 plus $280 minimum for your car (vans are more) $780 total in Aug. If you added a bedroom it would be $1722 total. You would be scheduled to get into your destination at 830am each way. So, in my estimation it takes a 1.5 days each way minimum.

Flying southwest.You could purchase a flight on Sat night at 530 departure Phl....for $237 for all 4 of you. I would then just wait until they release the next set of dates and book your return trip. You might not get $49 one way but even if it was $135 per person one way home it wouldn't cost you any more then the train but it would save you a minumim of 40 hrs travel time (including the drive time to Lorton from Philly).

 

[zdad]

Hello all! Live here in NE PA but can only catch those great flight deals in Aug. if we cut our trip short by a full day (not an option )
We need to buy tix for 4, 2 adults and 2 children. Yes, I am buying a seat for my 1 year old based on experience.
Anyway, its not that much more $$ for us to take the autotrain when we add our rental car to the cost of airline tix.
For those who have done it, how is it, especially with two little ones, ds will be 4 and dd will be 18 mos.
Any insight would help us alot!!!
Thanks!

Instead of cutting it a day shorter, can yo may it a day longer ? We decidedto fly in the night before, because of cheaper rates. Even with an additional night of hotel (we are staying at Pop that night, then transferring to WL the next morning) we saved some change. For a family of 4, you might save a bunch !

 

[zurgswife]

Just to point out again as it may have gotten lost in my post. YOu don't need to cut your vacation short. Just book your flight down now and when SW opens up the later portion of Aug. Book your return flight. No need to shorten your vacation at all...

 

[torinsmom]

I would drive before I took the train, at least if you are not getting a sleeper car. We took the Amtrak from NC last March and it was not a good experience. In coach, you cannot control the noise or anything else. People are going up and down the aisles, talking, kids crying, etc. It was supposed to take 13 hours, it took closer to 16 each way. The train just completely stopped several times for either 30 minutes to an hour to wait for freight trains to pass. It was cold and the bathrooms were dirty. And the biggest thing for me was that our bags were not checked and neither were we! I didn't feel safe and I surely didn't sleep, even though we were on the train all night both ways. I am sure with a sleeper car, things could go better, but then it is almost as expensive as flying.

Can you drive? In September, we left NC at 4pm and drove straight through(stopped for bathroom and fast food) and arrived at Pop Century at 1am. I know you are coming from PA, so you could always stop for the night. Your kids may sleep most of the way if you time it right. I didn't find the traffic to be bad at all, because we were driving into Orlando at non-peak times.

Marsha

 

[MEK]

Forget the train, do what Zurg swifesaid. Book your outbound flight now and then book your return flight when they post that schedule. Heck - I was planning to leave PHL on 8/25, but I snagged an evening flight on 8/24 for $49. I will book my return flight separately. If they posted $49 flights for all of summer, then we are bound to get a decent return flight price. Plus, you can always rebook SWA for credit.

I price the autotrain almost every year. It is never cheaper than flying. Last year it was fairly reasonable - 2 adults and 4 kids for $515. But that was a special offer where two kids traveled free per paying adult. Usually it is equivalent to flying for $179 RT for 4 people at the AAA rate. It just doesn't seem worth it to me.

 

[robin09]

Hello all! Live here in NE PA but can only catch those great flight deals in Aug. if we cut our trip short by a full day (not an option )
We need to buy tix for 4, 2 adults and 2 children. Yes, I am buying a seat for my 1 year old based on experience.
Anyway, its not that much more $$ for us to take the autotrain when we add our rental car to the cost of airline tix.
For those who have done it, how is it, especially with two little ones, ds will be 4 and dd will be 18 mos.
Any insight would help us alot!!!
Thanks!

I thought Autotrain would be a relief to all the driving from Upstate New York to Orolando.. just did it this week in fact.. I think I would say NOOOOO if asked to take the train again. We drove to florida, stopping one night in North Carolina. On the way back we took the autotrain....

They were pleasant enough, very nice workers... BUT THEY LIE! we arrived in Sanford Florida at noon.. check in was at 2.. they handed us a paper to read.. it said train is delayed... Went to check in to get our tickets,, they were prepaid months ago! They told us the trains were to be 2 hours late due to bad weather.. and that they would be 2 seatings for dinner.. one at about 6:30... the other at 7:30... I figured fine we'll do seating at the 2nd time.. so that we can settle our dd8 down. We didn't get on the train till 6:30... was supposed to be 4:00. ok, 2 1/2 hours not too bad, i've waited for planes before.. i can handle this..... Conductor apologized for train being late and then told us the times that we will be eating. Said he was sorry, but the people at the counter will say anything to get you on.. but dinner will be very late.. and again he's sorry... We weren't called till 10:30 at night... DD8 was not happy, extremely tired and autistic. I felt awful, she fell asleep at the table.... Carried her back to the chairs. Guy next to us was on a bender and kept drinking, getting louder till he passed out... his kids had a dvd player on loud. We had to get an atendant to ask her to lower it. Was supposed to get into Virginia by 8:30.... got in after noon. By the time the car was unloaded it was after 2. No way to drive to upstate New York before dark. We ended up driving to Pennsylvania and getting a room there... No way did we save money or time (and I truly thought I would ). My daughter loved the fact of being on the train, but after so many hours, it wasn't pretty.

 

[torinsmom]

his kids had a dvd player on loud. We had to get an atendant to ask her to lower it.

You were lucky that your attendant would ask them to lower it. We had two kids with those dang BOPIT things behind us! They played those things until 10:30pm and then started again at 5am! Several of us asked the attendant to speak to the family, but they wouldn't. THey wouldn't lt us move to the next car up either, even though it was nearly empty. I told me son I want to bop THOSE PARENTS for letting their kids disrupt the whole car!

Oh, another thing we found was that they don't have reserved seating. It is similar to general admission at a concert. We were unlucky enough to be at the wrong door when it was time to load and my son and I almost didn't get seats together, even though we had purchased tickets months before.

Marsha

 

[robin09]

Oh, another thing we found was that they don't have reserved seating. It is similar to general admission at a concert. We were unlucky enough to be at the wrong door when it was time to load and my son and I almost didn't get seats together, even though we had purchased tickets months before.

Marsha

When we went up to the counter to get our tickets (ours had been purchased online) we were given seat numbers and the car to sit in. . At least that wasn't stressful for us.

 

[torinsmom]

When we went up to the counter to get our tickets (ours had been purchased online) we were given seat numbers and the car to sit in. . At least that wasn't stressful for us.

MIne were purchase online and mailed to me. It was still general seating for us, at least in coach. Maybe its different at different stations.

Marsha