We've done both, have road coach the whole way and slept in a seat. Not too bad for one night but wouldn't want to do it for 2 days. We now do the reserved coach seats on first leg of our trip, Alliance Ohio 3 am to Washington DC 3:30 pm and catch the south bound train around 4:30pm, we have been getting a roomette, for 2 people only, very small but has a toilet and upper/lower bunk. We use our Reward points to up grade and the roomette comes with all meals included. Its nice to actually lay down and sleep but either way we like the train only if it would stay on schedule. Always arrives late into Kissimmee. Something about getting on the train in DC and getting into your roomette and getting settled, then its dinner time and off to the dining car, porter makes your room up for sleeping while you're gone. Meals aren't half bad, included but otherwise very pricey. We linger over dinner, dessert and all then return to our roomette and settle in for the night. In the morning, paper is delivered to our "rrom" and off to breakfast we go. Room is made up for day travel, bunks are stored and if we're running late, we can snag lunch on Amtrak too. Seems to run 1-2 hours late going down most of the time but fun.
