Auto Train Riders, Please Chime In

[Hopefully]

Hello All,
DH and I are planning our October 2011 trip, (Which I can book through DVC on Tuesday ) We are contemplating the Auto Train for our trip. We are looking at this as another Adventure, not just in a financial sense - althought that does play into it as well.
We will be coming from the Boston area. We would drive to Lorton to board the Auto Train on a Saturday afternoon. We would arrive at Sanford on Sunday morning and spend 5 nights at WDW for the F&W Fest. Then we are planning on driving to Vero Beach for 5 nights before returning home on Wednesday. If we fly, we would need to rent a car for the Vero portion of the trip.
I have reviewed the Amtrak Auto Train web site, as well as reading the 10 page thread here.
I am thinking that we would book a bedroom sleeper on the way down and a roomette on the trip home. I would like the bedroom for the shower the day we arrive in Orlando. I am not so worried about that for the drive from VA to MA and that was why I was thinking just a roomette on the way home.
I am looking for any and all stories and experiences of anyone who has done this.
How did you enjoy your trip? Is it worth the extra time (2 extra vacation days for me - most of my years allotment.)
How is the food? When/How do you make dinner reservations? Was there ever any problem getting a reservation?
What is the Lounge Car like? Is the roomette really small?
What do you bring on board for 2 adults only?
What else should I be thinking about?
Thanks in Advance

 

[chartle]

I have used the Autotrain before but never in a sleeper.

Two things I can think of right now is book as early as you can, the rates only go up as its gets closer to your trip. And just so you know, if you are picking the bedroom over roomette just because of the shower. I'm pretty sure there are shower stalls available to the roomette passengers.

If you didn't pick this up in your 10 pages of reading, here is a great site for Autotrain tips. http://www.on-track-on-line.com/autotrain-tips.shtml

 

[Smile&Nod]

My daughter and I have done the auto train about 5 years in a row - going again in January. We get the deluxe bedroom or even sometimes if it is cheaper the family bedroom (lower level). The shower is SMALL! I'd actually prefer to use the one that is avaialble to the roomettes - it has a dressing area and a slightly larger shower area. We've never gotten the roomette - with the upper bunk folded down you really have no room to even stand (unless you are a small person) with the door closed - it is just too tight for the two of us. I would get it if it were just me traveling - would be fine for one person - one idea is to go ahead and book the way you are thinking of, look at the roomette on the way down and see what you think - if there are rooms available you can sometimes upgrade the day you travel. Dinner you can pick your seating when you check in - they have 3 or sometimes 2 times depending on how full the train is - lounge car has free wine and cheese/veggies at 4:00 - 5:00 - we usually dump our stuff in the room and then pick out our seat and play cards or something until dinner. DD21 usually brings her own diet coke - they serve pepsi products! Food is pretty good for a train - breakfast is more of a continental breakfast but has muffins/bagels, bananas, oj, coffee and cereal. They also usually have snacks of some kind out in the lounge car and coffee is always availabe. Long post I know but we love the train and it is part of the vacation - we do it for that reason, not because it saves us money!

 

[Smile&Nod]

one other note - you can book the auto train at 11 months out - however, if you want to book a roundtrip (supposedly there is a slight discount for doing so) you have to wait until 11 months from your return trip - this past trip i just did two one way trips and got great prices at exactly 11 months!

 

[Hopefully]

Thanks chartle for the link, I had not seen that site. It is great
Is it hard to sleep on the train?
Keep the reviews coming
Thanks everyone

 

[kjasmin]

So we are thinking about taking the auto train also. There is 5 of us. Should we try to get the sleeper? Do you know how long it took to load and unload the cars?

 

[PEANUT1]

We are taking the autotrain in 2 days We have a deluxe bedroom one way and a family bedroom the other. We paid 0$ for this as we used airline miles from Continental that we transfered over.

I agree about booking early..the earlier you book, the cheaper it is. Also, there are not that many bedrooms and they tend to sell out quickly. We booked about 9 months ago and the price has gone up quite a bit when I last checked. Also, there were no more family bedrooms on our way to florida, that is why we got a regular bedroom...we have 2 little ones so even though it says it will sleep 3, they said we would be fine. We changed our ressie to the bedrooms with miles a few weeks ago. .It was 60K miles for the 4 of us round trip I am going to do a live report from the autotrain on Saturday...I can't wait.

 

[Hopefully]

Great Peanut!!!
I will be watching for your report.
Is there WIFI available on the train?

 

[chartle]

Great Peanut!!!
I will be watching for your report.
Is there WIFI available on the train?

No, but they are working to add it to their fleet.

 

[PEANUT1]

I read that there is phone service on the train...spotty at times, but I am hoping I can DIS while on the train.

 

[PIERCEDRN]

Great Peanut!!!
I will be watching for your report.
Is there WIFI available on the train?

There was a rumor I saw somewhere that in Oct. they were testing WIFI in a lounge in coach. Hopefully that means that they leapt headlong into the 21st century and immediately installed it on the train I will be on with my Beautiful Wife, Peanut in 3 days!
I assume that is not the case so I will be tethering my phone to my laptop to watch my slingbox on this trip.

BOB

 

[chartle]

AmtrakConnect Wi-Fi

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Content_C&pagename=am/Layout&cid=1246044325520

 

[dromio42]

If you buy in advance, be sure to pick up the tickets at the station, if you have them mailed to you they are no longer refundable. If you leave them for pick up, they can be refunded.

 

[Hopefully]

If you buy in advance, be sure to pick up the tickets at the station, if you have them mailed to you they are no longer refundable. If you leave them for pick up, they can be refunded.

Thanks for that tip, I was wondering about that.
Do you pay for your ticket in full when you order it?
If you need to cancel and you have not picked up your ticket, can you just call to do and they will issue a refund?
Thanks

 

[Hopefully]

If you buy in advance, be sure to pick up the tickets at the station, if you have them mailed to you they are no longer refundable. If you leave them for pick up, they can be refunded.

Thanks for that tip, I was wondering about that.
Do you pay for your ticket in full when you order it?
If you need to cancel and you have not picked up your ticket, can you just call to do and they will issue a refund?
Thanks

 

[PEANUT1]

Thanks for that tip, I was wondering about that.
Do you pay for your ticket in full when you order it?
If you need to cancel and you have not picked up your ticket, can you just call to do and they will issue a refund?
Thanks

yes you pay in full when you book the trip. If you need to cancel, you just call. Your card is refunded within a few days. We were supposed to autotrain in Jan 08 but we decided to drive so we cancelled. It was a very easy process.
We are leaving tomorrow on the train...my hubby got the girls train engineer hats at target from the clearance halloween stuff

 

[cjbear]

We have done this trip 3 times now with 2 adults and 2 children in a family bedroom. The showers are tiny and not a separate enclosure - everything in the bathroom (toilet, sink, floor, etc.) gets wet.

The only time we've had trouble getting reservations is in the late spring when snowbirds are returning to New England from winter in Florida. Dinner reservations are always easy; you choose the time when you check in at the station. The food is better than a plane but not great. All three trips (in a span of 4 years) the food choices have been identical. It is a fun experience though to eat there.

The lounges show movies at night but we have found that it is usually too loud (people talking, playing cards, etc.) to hear the movie. We usually just watch a dvd on a laptop.

Waiting for your car to be unloaded from the train at the end is the worst part. It's totally hit or miss you could wait a few minutes you could wait over an hour. In VA there is much more room to wait and the station is pleasant, in Florida it is not very nice and quite crowded.

It's quite a fun trip looking out at the very varied scenery (especially Georgia and Florida) if you're from New England. We wouldn't go any other way.

 

[chartle]

Waiting for your car to be unloaded from the train at the end is the worst part. It's totally hit or miss you could wait a few minutes you could wait over an hour. In VA there is much more room to wait and the station is pleasant, in Florida it is not very nice and quite crowded.

I think they just finished remodeling the Sanford station.

And yes unloading the cars is completely random. Even if you are the first car on it doesn't mean that you will be the first car off. It has to do with how the cars are loaded in VA and how they get unloaded in FL. The automobile carriers kind of get shuffled in the process of putting together and taking apart the train.

 

[PEANUT1]

we are on the train now...and here is a link to my report so far
.http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=38936497&posted=1#post38936497

 

[lisa-upnorth]

I am eager to hear about your trip! I was wondering why you don't just hop on the train in boston and rent a car or use ME when you are down there?? Did you compare price difference? Gas and travel to VA? I have made the train trip from New England 4 times and would like to maybe try to autotrain but would need to see a big price difference between getting on at home and renting a car vs driving to the auto train and getting on there I hope to try it out someday though!