Amtrak train info w/pics!All Aboard-Choo-choo!UPDATED

[GetGlowing]

Just returned from our WDW Amtrak trip yesterday! We always travel to/from the Kissimmee station. It's much quieter than Orlando (plus our friend who chauffeurs us works just a couple blocks away).

Our inbound train was unfortunately delayed about four hours by a train vs. pedestrian fatality on the tracks just before we boarded. So it took a while for the investigation to conclude before the train was released to continue on to pick us up. It was one of those things where it was going to be just an hour late, then two hours, then three ... so we really couldn't go anywhere while we waited it out. Considering the situation everyone waiting with us took it in stride. When we got on the train, the crew was fresh, and again, they were very accommodating with everyone and tried their best to help passengers make connections further down the line, and gave their best guess for our arrival. When we got to Orlando, they deboarded everyone for Tampa and Lakeland and sent those passengers to their destination by bus to try and get the train back on schedule for the southern Florida portion of the route.

Our trip back was completely uneventful (hooray) and everything ran perfectly on time. Hubby and I treated ourselves to a date night in the dining car, and after a $60 dinner for two, decided the upgrade to sleeper wouldn't be so bad since it includes meals. But since our return trip picks up at 6:40 in KIS and drops us off at 4am, we are only able to take advantage of one meal on the way back anyway.

The Dining Car

Chicken dinner

Ribs dinner - half rack

 

[NJRRK]

I've always found the meals on Amtrak, in the east, quite good. Thanks you for sharing pictures, and your experience.

 

[labfan]

Great pics of the food and dining car. It's nice to see actual pics of the food. Glad you enjoyed it.

 

[GetGlowing]

The meals were huge -- we could easily have split the plates. The family across from us did. But we slept well afterwards!

 

[Kara315]

My mother(labfan) and I will be leaving tomorrow morning!!! We are so excited, We have a bedroom and will be taking tons of pictures.

 

[Teacher03]

My husband and I will be boarding a little after 2 AM in Alliance, OH for our trip to Disney. We are both so excited, it has been an exhausting year for both of us, and we are ready for some relaxation and fun. We have a roomette, so we plan on catching up on our sleep on the trip. He is flying back in a week, but my daughters will be joining me for the following week, and then my youngest DD and I will be taking Amtrak home. I will give a report when we return

 

[pepe of ohio]

My husband and I will be boarding a little after 2 AM in Alliance, OH for our trip to Disney. We are both so excited, it has been an exhausting year for both of us, and we are ready for some relaxation and fun. We have a roomette, so we plan on catching up on our sleep on the trip. He is flying back in a week, but my daughters will be joining me for the following week, and then my youngest DD and I will be taking Amtrak home. I will give a report when we return

Please report back, we are avid Amtrak users, better yet , were.... Last 4 trips we have driven down and back... First 2 were with son in law and granddaughters ( 9 months and 3 months).... Needed all the baby stuff...

Second 2 trips, the wife and I decided to drive to get there early... Train comes in too late for us, especially if running late which is the norm.....that layover on DC is what gets me and they won't let you book the earlier train out of DC....8 hours in DC is ridiculous ...

We just returned from trip 48, we kinda drove straight thru, did a 3 hour nap at the welcome station on Florida's border.... Drove right thru Jacksonville and Orlando and arrived at our resort at 5:30 am..... Fantastic... Checked in ( room not ready) had breakfast in the food court and was at EPCOTs gate 30 minutes before opening ... Was the last day of the flower garden show... We felt like we gained a whole extra day getting in at 5:30 over the trains usual 2 pm time frame....

Hope you have a great time and the train runs on schedule ...and be safe !

 

[labfan]

Recently returned from our trip. Had a great time. Daughter and I took the train from Albany NY to NYC Penn Station via coach seats and then switched to the bedroom for the trip to Orlando. So nice and relaxing. The car attendants were great. They brought our meals to us in the bedroom as we didn't feel like going to the dining car.
Our train was on time going to Orlando but coming back to Penn Station it was a little over an hour late. This wasn't a problem though since we still had time before we got the second train home to Albany.
We will definitely do this again.

 

[GetGlowing]

I've just booked my parents on Amtrak to Miami for their DCL cruise in November. They will have a HA bedroom. My dad will have his ECV with him. I know there is space for them in coach in the HA seating area. But he is concerned about there being space in the HA bedroom for it. The room description only says there is room for a collapsible wheelchair. Anyone know?

Thanks!

 

[Kara315]

Wanted to finally share some pics we took from our trip, which we really enjoyed and will now take the Amtrak each time.

Some pics of our bedroom









Should of put the seat down before taking the pic lol.

 

[Kara315]

Some with the beds all set down before we headed to bed.



The top bunk doesn't look big in the picture, but I had plenty of room on the way down. We switched and I got the bottom on the way home. But the top bunk wasn't as bad as I was worried about it being. I felt really secure up there and had plenty of room.



Just a random picture of a skyline, can't remember which city, as we were stopped for a little bit, before we called it a night.

 

[Kara315]

We had no complaints what so ever on any of the food. They have really great food on the Amtrak.

On the way down, our lunch.
I had the Chipotle black bean and corn veggie burger.
"A spiced, full flavored veggie burger, served
with or without cheddar or Swiss cheese on a
corn-dusted kaiser roll with lettuce, tomato,
red onion, dill pickle and kettle chips"
Not a good picture, why I didn't show the actual patty i'm not sure lol but....This was hands down, the best veggie burger I've ever had. I loved the spice and the black beans and corn in it.


My mother had the Specialty Sandwich
"Griddled gruyere and smoked cheddar cheeses
with sliced tomatoes and whole grain mustard
on multigrain bread. Served with lettuce, tomato,
dill pickle and kettle chips."
This was very good as well, the cheese was melted nice and the two kinds together was really nice. I took a bite and we both really liked it.




For dessert, I got the Sorbet which was blood orange, while my mom got the cheesecake, which came with blueberries to put on top. Both were very yummy.



For dinner, in which you get a salad and warm rolls with


I had the Vegetarian Shell Pasta, no complaints, really liked this.
"Amtrak Culinary Advisory Team chef, restaurateur and
author Sara Jenkins, inspired this recipe of shell pasta
with corn, leeks & parmesan cream, topped with griddled
tomatoes and served with a vegetable medley"

And my mother had the Herb Roasted Half Chicken
"Herb roasted half chicken, served with three grain rice
pilaf and vegetable medley"

For dessert I had he vanilla ice cream and my mother got the chocolate brownie, they were out of the sorbet. The chocolate brownie was good but my least favorite of the desserts, but it wasn't bad.

And breakfast.....we both shared the Chef's good morning special
"Southwest quiche with a savory egg custard,
roasted green chiles, garlic sautéed onions,
corn and three cheeses wrapped in a pastry crust.
Served with roasted potatoes or grits and breakfast
bread selection."
We weren't hungry enough to get our own breakfast, all the meals are a good size and really fill you up.



On the way home, I didn't take pics......I got the same thing's for each meal that I had on the way down, I really liked them! My mom got the continental breakfast, for lunch she had the angus burger and dinner she got the Chef's evening marketplace special
"Amtrak Culinary Advisory Team chef, restaurateur
and author Roberto Santibanez inspired this recipe
for a red chile braised beef short-rib. The short-rib is
slow cooked in a pasilla-chipotle sauce then garnished
with lime marinated red onions, served with garlic
mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley"

No complaints about the food. Everything was so good!

 

[MAYNARDS99]

Kara315 - That random city skyline is Raleigh, North Carolina.

In September 2012 we took a roomette from Kissimmee to Cary, North Carolina. Dinner was included and it was quite good. The top bunk bed was fairly comfortable, and I'm 6'2".

We used a Budget rental car from DTD, since the Kissimmee location will drop you off at the Amtrak station. Much less busy than Orlando.

We dropped off our car at the Cary train station the day before our trip down. Free secure parking!

I enjoyed the experience, but I've been told that we probably will not be doing it again. Flights are so much easier.

 

[Teacher03]

We just got back from our Amtrak trip to Disney. My DH and I boarded in Alliance, OH about 3:00, just a little late. Our roomette was ready for us and we went right to sleep. We woke up around 8:30 and had breakfast, omelets, which were quite good. My husband actually took a shower on the train, but I just washed up. We arrived in DC right on time. We usually visit with my DD who lives there, but she was already in Florida so we had A LOT of time to kill. We ate lunch, went to a couple of museums, and spent the rest of the time in the lounge waiting on the train to Kissimmee. Train boarded and left the station right on time. We had another roomette and decided to have dinner in our room. Our attendant was very good, and brought our food promptly. We both had the steak which was also quite good. We slept well and had breakfast on the train in the morning. My DH was getting antsy at this point, and just wanted to be there (it is a total of 27 hours), but I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. There was an elderly couple in the roomette across from us that needed help and it literally took them 40 minutes to get them off the train in Orlando. The gentleman wandered off and they couldn't find him, and he wasn't very mobile when they did! Anyways, we were about two hours late getting into Kissimmee. A taxi was waiting there, $37 to Bonnet Creek. Spent a total of ten nights, had such a good time. My DH flew home (he had to go back to work) so my DD and I took the train home. We left ten minutes late, but were actually three hours late into DC. We went to the dining car for breakfast and the only thing available was the continental breakfast (cereal), which was fine for us....some passengers, however, were not happy!
The trip home to Alliance was uneventful, but wanted to mention we had the ribs for dinner, which were delicious! We arrived home about 25 minutes late.

All in all, it was a good trip, and I enjoyed the extra time with my hubby and my daughter. We will definitely be taking Amtrak again. Thank goodness for the Amtrak credit card and reward points, which we used to pay for our trip; saved us a huge amount of money.

 

[lisa-upnorth]

Got back on June 2nd from another wonderful Disney vaca! I promise to post some pics soon-I see someone has posted the bedroom for you already

 

[labfan]

My daughter (kara315) and I both enjoyed the Amtrak ride from Albany NY down to Orlando and back.
We are already planning to go back in 2015 and will do the Amtrak again.
My son and his girlfriend drove down but are thinking of doing the Amtrak with us next time.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Teacher03@.... Was waiting for your report... Glad you had a great trip... We sort of miss train travel (maybe in the near future) but that layover in DC gets me, that's a third of the trip sitting in a station and not moving. I've tried to get around it but haven't found a way... Maybe booking trip in separate tickets to catch the earlier train out of DC... We did get in DC from Alliance once early and asked about boarding the earlier train... Was 100.00 more so we took it... Fantastic not sitting in DC and arriving in Kissimmee early...

We're headed back down October, by car.... it was so great getting in WDW at 5:30am... Like an extra whole day to the vacation... Drive was pleasant and we found stopping cat the Florida Welcome Center for a couple of hours, great rejuvenator to carry on and arrive that early...

 

[js]

Hi.
My mother and I will be taking Amtrak down to Florida next year and meet my dh/ds later in the trip.
Anyway, for those that have done both a Roomette and Bedroom, which would you prefer (I did a roomette last year on my own) if your options were as follows:

*Two Roomettes. (Privacy for bathroom but my mother is concerned sleeping by herself in the roomette, so at night, we would probably have one made up for both of us to sleep. I would have our roomettes where we were across the hall from each other if we wanted a little bit of space. Really, the bathroom I believe is the only reason thinking of the bedroom (unless you can feel the difference in the space).

*One bedroom (has the bathroom in it's own "room"). Does it feel any bigger than the roomettes or is the bathroom taking up the extra square footage.

Price isn't the determining factor, comfort is the main factor. Right now we just have the one roomette but thinking we may need more space.

Thank you.

 

[Miffy]

Hi.
My mother and I will be taking Amtrak down to Florida next year and meet my dh/ds later in the trip.
Anyway, for those that have done both a Roomette and Bedroom, which would you prefer (I did a roomette last year on my own) if your options were as follows:

*Two Roomettes. (Privacy for bathroom but my mother is concerned sleeping by herself in the roomette, so at night, we would probably have one made up for both of us to sleep. I would have our roomettes where we were across the hall from each other if we wanted a little bit of space. Really, the bathroom I believe is the only reason thinking of the bedroom (unless you can feel the difference in the space).

*One bedroom (has the bathroom in it's own "room"). Does it feel any bigger than the roomettes or is the bathroom taking up the extra square footage.

Price isn't the determining factor, comfort is the main factor. Right now we just have the one roomette but thinking we may need more space.

Thank you.

Although I've never traveled in a room, I've been in one and it's significantly larger than the roomette. Also, it has its own shower. If you're looking for space and comfort, do the room.

 

[Kara315]

Hi.
My mother and I will be taking Amtrak down to Florida next year and meet my dh/ds later in the trip.
Anyway, for those that have done both a Roomette and Bedroom, which would you prefer (I did a roomette last year on my own) if your options were as follows:

*Two Roomettes. (Privacy for bathroom but my mother is concerned sleeping by herself in the roomette, so at night, we would probably have one made up for both of us to sleep. I would have our roomettes where we were across the hall from each other if we wanted a little bit of space. Really, the bathroom I believe is the only reason thinking of the bedroom (unless you can feel the difference in the space).

*One bedroom (has the bathroom in it's own "room"). Does it feel any bigger than the roomettes or is the bathroom taking up the extra square footage.

Price isn't the determining factor, comfort is the main factor. Right now we just have the one roomette but thinking we may need more space.

Thank you.

If price isn't an issue, I would go with the bedroom. It defiantly has more space. I liked having a long "couch" which folds out into the lower bed. Even with the bathroom, you get a lot more room then just a roomette. My mother and I really enjoyed the bedroom.