Anyone have any AMTRAK experience (not necessarily to FL)?

[pumpkinfish]

Ooooo...thanks so much Lisa. I will check it out for our next trip!

 

[TandyR]

the worst experience of my life,trains are never on time the food is horrible and it is a bumpy ride.I took the train from Philadelphia to Orlando,it should have been an 18hr ride 36hrs later we arraived in Orlando.Never again. To make things worse the ride home took 26hrs.If you like to drive instead of flying do it that way you can make that part of your trip stopping at different sites along the way,and eating at better restaurants to.

In researching train trips for the last serveral years I have found it a bit funny that people with one trip automatically write off trains, but when a plane or car trip takes longer or doesn't go as planned they do write it off.

My husband has been delayed more time with airlines both pre and post 9/11 then we can coun....all different airlinest. (He flys more then I do.) He hasn't ruled out flying.

I know for a fact that all our car trips (we used to drive down to Pittsburgh from Maine often), that we have incountered accidents and traffic back up so badly that we had to stay an unplanned night at a hotel which of course added many many hours to our trip.

Some people love taking the trains because they view it as the start of their vacation and they can just sit back and watch the view. If you look at it as way to get from one place to another you might be dissapointed, because yes trains run behind scedual often and unlike airlines they don't pad their sceduals.

As for the food....it is no 5* resturant....I think it is more on the lines of a Friendly's or Eat'n'Park or something like that. It is better then airline food by a long mile....but airlines don't feed you any more so that isn't hard.

 

[Ozymoe]

The last time I had a sleeper (which meant that all the meals were included) I was AMAZED at the quality of the food!

I'm from Iowa...and the steaks were excellent, the breakfasts everything we are used to here and all around I'd have to give them an A if not an A+.

These experiences were on the train from Mount Pleasant, Iowa to Las Vegas and back.

 

[hookedup]

As I mentioned above I love to travel by train. I have done a bunch of big trips on Amtrak. Believe me Amtrak is not luxury travel! However if you like trains then it is a cool way to see the country. I compare overnighting on Amtrak to "camping on the train". It is always an adventure. If you understand going in to it what to expect (or not to expect) and prepare accordingly it makes the experience much more fun. The major Amtrak routes can be found on their website - or you can request a vacation planner and timetable for easy reading. There is different "equipment" used in different parts of the US. Mainly either "viewliner" or "superliner". Every train is different and due to Amtrak's less than stellar financial situation they have to juggle equipment around a lot to keep the trains rolling.
One other issue: Amtrak is at the mercy of the frieght trains. Amtrak does not own the railroad tracks it travels on so the frieght trains get priority. Different regions are run by different companies - i.e, Union Pacific, CSX, etc. Some parts of the US are a lot more user friendly for Amtrak and Amtrak has less delays, etc.
I have only gone via sleeper accomodations on any trip longer than 12 hours. We have found the food to be quite decent - with a few exceptions. And when you purchase sleeping accomodations your meals are included (just not alchohol) and you can have whatever you want from the menu and as much of it as you want too (which is not a good idea since you don't get a lot of exercise on the train - LOL)
AAA members get 10% discount and unlike many of the promotional fares the tickets are much less restricted. When you purchase a ticket from Amtrak there is two parts to it: the rail fare and the accomdations (if you are booking a sleeper) the pricing is very weird and unless you are familiar with yield management it won't make too much sense.

One way to save a lot of money on accomodations is to just buy a regular ticket and upgrade onboard. I don't recommend this during peak travel times as the sleepers tend to sell out.

If you want to see some pictures of the Amtrak experience you can visit my photos:
Our Amtrak Photos

 

[pjlla]

Thanks so much to all who are responding to my initial question. I am fascinated that so many people prefer rail travel. I always thought that it was limited to people who were afraid to fly or who needed to bring their car along! I will continue to look into this for my trip to Missouri, however, as it appears that it will not only be more expensive but probably take longer, we probably will not be "riding the rails". We are trying to make this a short trip on a limited budget (so that I can convince DH that we still have $$ for a trip to WDW that year!). But I am certainly keeping all options open at this time....................P