Amtrak to Los Angeles

[phins_jazy]

I posted this on the transportation board but thought I'd post here too since this is where all the Disneyland action is.

I've never taken Amtrak before but just priced tickets for DH, DD and myself and I was shocked at the price. For the 3 of us it is $252.50 Round trip!! The cheapest I can get even on southwest catching a good sale (92.09 one way) is $687.00 including tax and surcharges!!! That's a saving of $434.50 That could buy a lot of mickey bars!!! What I need are opinions on Amtrak....the good, the bad and the ugly. We wouldn't be in a sleeper car, just a reserved coach seat on a long haul train. The only down side is that we'll have to drive 3.5 hours (Albuquerque) to catch Amtrak and we'd either have to find long term parking for our car or rent a car each way. Haven't quite worked out all the details yet. Need suggestions. Our trip isn't until Dec so we've got time.

 

[hookedup]

If you want some good info on Amtrak I suggest you visit my friends at amtraktrains.com. I took the train RT from LA to Orlando this summer and spent a week at WDW so I know A LOT about taking the train.

Here are my thoughts -
Not sure where you are coming from but if you are having to drive 3.5 hrs to get to get on the train have you considered driving the 10-12 more hours all the way to LA? Then you would have a car when you were there too.

Okay are my thoughts about your plans...
If you are taking the train from ABQ then you are on the "Southwest Chief" when you get to LA you will then need to get on the "Pacific Surfliner" to Anaheim. It is a pain to change trains but at least the Pac Surfliner runs several times a day so if your train is late (happens quite a bit) then you have other trains that you can catch a later one to Anaheim. The Union Station in LA is kinda seedy and not in a great part of town so minimize your time there. Anaheim station does not have baggage serivce so you wont check your bags from LA to Anaheim. The Anaheim Station is not huge and easy to deal with. When you get to Anaheim you can catch a cab to the hotels by DL. It is a quick trip and costs about $15.00 each way. Allow plenty of connection time in LA on your return trip home.

Traveling coach on Amtrak is okay - we had a sleeper on our trip but we were on the train for 3 nights and there is no way I could imagine doing it in coach for that lenght of time.

Since you are coming from TX can you catch the "Sunset Limited" and take that to LA or is is shorter to drive to catch it in New Mexico?

Let me know if you you have any more question.

 

[phins_jazy]

Thanks for all the great info! We're in Amarillo, TX. We had considered going to Dallas but that will be backtracking and would add an extra 16 hours (there and back) onto the trip. Not to mention that we'd have to go all the way to San Antonio! ABQ is about a 3.5 hour drive west. So that seemed more doable. We're used to driving long distances. All of our family is in ND and it's 1000+ miles about an 18 hour trip one way. We've got a rather small car (Ford Focus) and although we COULD drive, we'd rather have someone else drive and have the ability to get up and move around a little bit. From what I understand, the coach section is alot like a greyhound bus is that correct? We'll just have to take the train to the LAX station since we'll have relatives there picking us up. So we really don't need a car once we get there. And thanks for that website. I'm gonna check it out!!

 

[hookedup]

The coach section being like a bus trip is a pretty good analogy - at least you can get up and walk around, and the sightseeing car and dining car are available for your use as well.
Amtraktrains.com has a good message board and the folks there are EXPERTS at giving great advice on the Amtrak - what I learned there (and help from the experts here at DIS on WDW) made our trip this summer so much better due to some good advance planning. If you post there tell 'em radsmom sent ya - that's my username there.
Also feel free to ask me anything else if you need more help. I am also a DL annual passholder so I can answer most questions about DL too.
Happy planning!
radsmom, C.J.

 

[tink2dw]

We live north of DL in Oregon,the problem we found was that the train took forever,and flying we could be there in 2 hours rather than 3 DAYS there and back!! We only had 7 days for DL.....??

I haven't found Southwest to be that cheap. Do a Google search for your nearest airport's website, they usually list all the airlines that fly out,then check those for Deals. Also where you land can be a better deal. Try Onterio,CA,or Long Beach,CA,Burbank,CA or Orange County (SNA), these are all closer to Anaheim than LAX.

 

[suzannen]

I love the idea of traveling by trains, so last year I took Amtrak from New York to Chicago with two friends who were also into trains. We had sleeper seats, not sleeper cars because they were $500 more. We were on the train for about 20 hours each way. The seats were okay for the day, but not very comfortable for sleeping. Since the trains were crowded, other passengers were getting up out of their seats and bumping our seats as they went by throughout the night. We also had a crying baby for about 6 hours. We all agreed we were glad we had done it once, but we would have been very uncomfortable if we had needed to be on another day. So, I think it all depends on exactly how long you would be on the train.