Live from the autotrain to disney

[PEANUT1]

I am attempting my first live trip report. My famiily and I are travelling by autotrain to disney today. We are on the train right now

My family consists of
Me-Andrea, 35 and lover of all things Disney. I am a nurse at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia

My hubby, Bob, 38, also a nurse and Disney lover.

Daughter Belle, 6 1/2, my shy girl who is the sweetest child you have ever met.
Daughter, Abigail, 4, who is my crazy,wild child and keeps my life interesting.

We will be in Disney from Sunday Nov 14-Nov21st. We are staying at the Boardwalk Villas til Friday and then checking in to Animal Kingdom Friday to Sunday.

I am starting this off quickly while I have a connection on the train. More to follow with pics!

 

[PEANUT1]

Well...since the internet is still working, I figured, I would continue.

Firstly, we have been to Disney many many times. This is the 7th trip for my 6 year old and the 5th trip for my 4 year old. I have no idea how many times I have been.

Normally when we go to Disney, we fly. We have driven once in January 2008 and that was actually a pretty nice experience. The kids were amazing and we will definitly try driving again.
We decide to do the autotrain for this trip. We booked 4 coach seats and r/t the cost was 960$ including our car. A few weeks ago we transfered airline miles to amtrack and ended up using 60k miles and switched to bedrooms each way..this brought our out of pocket cost to 0!!! nada, nothing, nilch We were very excited to say the least.

Here are some photos of my family

Here is my and my hubby on our 10th anniversary trip in Hawaii last October

here are my beautiful girls Belle and Abby

 

[PEANUT1]

So we left our last at about 815 this morning and arrived in Lorton, VA for the autotain at around 1145. We stopped at a Japanese place across the street from the train station. My girls are very good eaters and love sushi....I know..how cool is that

We arrived at the Train station at around 115. We checked in and hung outside until we boarded. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the kids had a great time playing on the little play choo choo train outside.

We had booked a deluxe bedroom which only sleeps 2-3 people because there wasn't a family bedroom available..when we checked in, we inquired about changing to a family bedroom which sleeps 4. The guy at check in told us, he would't know until closer to check in time.
Here are some photos of the train station.

so..did we get the bigger family bedroom...and why oh why are we completely stopped on the train tracks at 430pm...can somebody call an ambulence please
​

 

[Pumba's Truth]

Hope y'all are enjoying the train ride down. We hope to give it a shot some time when we aren't swinging though ATL.

Looking forward to hearing more about the trip ... Cheers.


Ummmm why do you need an ambulance?

BTW - the cabin looks good, nice and comfy for the ride down ....

 

[shinysparklybubbles]

Joining you!! I am taking a break from packing!!

Are you staying at AKL or AKV? We are at AKV kidani Fri-Sun Savanah view!

 

[nono]

Well, your photo gives away which room you ended up getting...

I won't spoil it. Hope the ambulance issue wasn't serious.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

I SHOULD be back packing but once I saw you were writing this I had to peek. Hope you are having a great time, and are OK!!!

 

[PEANUT1]

So it is 8am on the train. We have already been up and had breakfast.
Back to yesterday
So...at 245pm yesterday our name was called on the loudspeaker at the train terminal and we were changed to a family bedroom We were very happy!! My husband is convinced that we got our room change because the train agent made a reference to "the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" that my husband understood The reference was...42 is the answer to life the universe and everything. I had no idea what they were talking about but it seemed like they were at a Trekkie convention. After seeing how small the deluxe bedrooms are, I am very glad we made the switch...as it is, this room is very small. They say you can bring 2 suitcases... but the closet is so small, you can't fit anything besides a toiletry bag.

They have complimentary wine, cheese and crackers in the lounge car from 3-4pm which was really nice...they also have on hand, coffee, hot cocoa and water.
So we took off from Lorton a little ahead of schedule at like 340pm...but then at around 430pm the train stopped for about 15 minutes we were wondering what was going on..turned out that someone got "sick" and had to be taken out by EMS..not sure what happened but my husband made a good point and said that when you are travelling with a lot of old people...emergencies are bound to happen About 15 mintues later we left...then made another stop a little while later for an "emergency"...are you sensing a trend here????


We had the first meal time at 5pm and the food was really good. My hubby and I got the beef filets, Belle got the choo choo chewies which is chx fingers and Abby got the pasta with meatballs...the dinner was great and dessesrt was yummy too. We were thinking about doing the 715 movie but they were showing "Letters to Juliet"...I didn't think that was too fun for the girls so we headed back to our room for the night.

Our cabin attendant Marlon made up our beds at 7pm and the girl got in their bunks and were asleep about 30 minutes later Bob and I decided to stay up and watch a movie. We watched "The Sorcerers Apprentice"..we both really liked it After that, we settled into bed. Bob was snoring in no time. I felt like I didn't even sleep at all..Bob says I did... funny how he knows I was sleeping while he was snoring

The girls slept like logs and were up at 6am. We headed to breakfast at a little before 7am. They had cereal, bananas, muffins, bagels, juice and cofee.We were all happily fed, headed back to our room to chill til the train arrived in Sanford, Fl....somehow the train made up time from the delay yesterday and we are scheduled to arrive early at 830am.

 

[ThreeKMom]

I joining in too!

I'm from NJ also and I'm very interested in your adventures on the train, this is something we have considered also but we always end up flying (I just can't wait more than 2 1/2 hours to get to the best place on earth!).

Your family is beautiful!

I also wanted to say thank you - I noticed that you are a nurse at CHOP. My middle DD has epilepsey and we had to take her to CHOP several years ago for some tests. Everyone there was wonderful. You must be a special person to work there! BTW because of her experiences at CHOP my DD has decided to become a nurse!

Have a wonderful trip - you deserve it!

 

[car55]

I take Amtrak from Connecticut to Orlando every time I go to WDW. I'm so happy you seem to be enjoying the trip. I also sleep well on the train in my little roomette. The rooms are a little different on the Auto Train than the passenger train. I found the food to be good ,and enjoy meeting other passengers. I meet quite a few people who are going to WDW, and sometime run into them in the parks. As for the emergencies. That sometimes happens as there are alot of elderly that take the train to Florida, especially this time of year. Amtrak seems to be able to make up lost time very well. They are using tracks owned by CSX Railroad (freight) so they don't get priority as freight trains do. CSX works well with them though as Amtrak pays to use the tracks. Sometime a freight will stall out or take priority and Amtrak will have to wait to let it pass. Well you should be getting your car soon so have a great time and magical trip with your family.

 

[Hopefully]

Thanks for the update from the train Peanut1.
Why do you feel as if you didn't sleep? Was it uncomfortable or noisy?
Have a wonderful stay at WDW

 

[Berrie]

Great to hear how things went for you. So glad you got a family bedroom

 

[alexensmom]

Im so excited to read your D(during)TR. My mom has ridden the train to NYC a couple times and loves it. I feel your pain with a snorer! Our typical conversation goes about like yours..."Why did you kick me?" "I didnt kick you, I just touched you to get you to stop snoring." "I couldnt have been snoring, I was wide awake." "Well, stop snoring on purpose please." Cant wait to hear about your first day in the Mouse House!!!

 

[Native NYer]

Joining in!
Yay on getting the family bedroom!

 

[CADisneyMom]

I was looking into taking the train to MCO BUT it takes like 4 days just to get there from CA. I don't understand why you have to go up (I live near SF) and across through Chicago to get there when I would just as happily fly to LAX and get on a train there and go across the southern parts of the country (which I guess isn't an option), just makes no sense to me. And the fact that it would cost me the same to train it then to fly (if I actually purchased tickets-I fly for free). I have a hard enough time on a plane for 5+ hours, let alone a train for 4 days.

Glad you had fun though.

 

[nono]

They say you can bring 2 suitcases... but the closet is so small, you can't fit anything besides a toiletry bag.

I hope Marion showed you where to stow your luggage -- there's room underneath the seat/bed. The closet is really for a garment bag, I think (you know, all the formal wear you packed for the trip! )

Have fun!

 

[lisa-upnorth]

Happy trails on the rails!!!!
Great -thanks for posting

 

[cm8]

Subscribing as well!! The pictures are very nice and you all seem to be enjoying yourselves!

 

[phred52]

Thanks for sharing. Looks like your girls were having fun!

 

[chartle]

I was looking into taking the train to MCO BUT it takes like 4 days just to get there from CA. I don't understand why you have to go up (I live near SF) and across through Chicago to get there when I would just as happily fly to LAX and get on a train there and go across the southern parts of the country (which I guess isn't an option), just makes no sense to me. And the fact that it would cost me the same to train it then to fly (if I actually purchased tickets-I fly for free). I have a hard enough time on a plane for 5+ hours, let alone a train for 4 days.

Glad you had fun though.

Its pretty simple, no one rides the train anymore. Amtrak services the entire lower 48 with something like 32 routes. The only way they can provide any kind of service is to use Chicago as a hub.

Here is a quote "train travel, it take 4 times longer and costs twice as much".