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

[TandyR]

We have taken the train from Boston to Orlando three times so far. We normally don't leave Penn Station if we have an hour or less just in case something happens. We have had longer layovers which we have gone out and wandered around. We have also had friends in NYC drop in to Penn Station to visit us during the layover.

As for smoking I don't know much about that except they announce some stations as places you can get off and smoke. I know the DC station is one because there is a long layover there because they change engines there. My family normally gets out and stretch our legs there. So you will just have to listen to the announcements carefully and they will tell you when you can get off to smoke. I have seen some people ask the conductor which stops can be smoking stops so they could plan ahead.

 

[WolfpackFan]

Just purchased our tickets for our Dec. trip - Cary, NC to Kissimmee and return. My question - when we get to Kissimmee are taxi's readily available or do I need to arrange transportation to WDW ahead of time. We're staying at Wilderness Lodge. Also, on the return taxi, how much time should we allow to go from the Wilderness Lodge back to the Kissimmee train station. Having said all that would we be better off taking a town car instead of a taxi?

 

[pepe of ohio]

When we train to WDW, we also use the Kissimmee station... Cabs are usually there waiting... We've done a cab once....years ago and cost us like 40.00 one way...

We then looked into car services... back then around 90.00 round trip with a 30 minute grocery stop... We never went with just a cab again...

The grocery stop itself was worth the extra... And we asked for a Publix with a liquor store nearby...we've done over 10 trips now, always a car service ( hated the smoke smelling dirty taxis) enjoy the personalized service...

As for return trip to train station... Our car service always picked us up 2 hours before scheduled train time.... Sometimes a lot of Kissimmee traffic but I rather sit and wait on the train than be late..

 

[bocaj1431]

Just purchased our tickets for our Dec. trip - Cary, NC to Kissimmee and return. My question - when we get to Kissimmee are taxi's readily available or do I need to arrange transportation to WDW ahead of time. We're staying at Wilderness Lodge. Also, on the return taxi, how much time should we allow to go from the Wilderness Lodge back to the Kissimmee train station. Having said all that would we be better off taking a town car instead of a taxi?

We are also arriving in Kissimmee and going to Wilderness Lodge. Cant wait!

We too were wondering the same thing. After reading other posts we decided on a car service. The car service recommended on the DIS unfortunately does not pick up at the kissimmee train station. We ended up going with Happy Limousine based on the recommendations of Mousesavers. Mousesavers also gives a discount code for booking with Happy Limousine. For round trip it cost us $126 with a 15min stop at Publix. I also read that you can use Mears too. Not sure if one is better than the other.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ali]

Right now we are scheduled to leave from the Orlando Amtrak station for a trip to DC and then we'll be coming back to orlando and I'm wondering if it is safe to leave my car there for 10 days? I tried to do a one way car rental through Hertz but I couldn't get it to work. Any tips?

also, is there a suggested list of things to bring for the sleeper cars? What would be helpful?

I also don't understand the baggage thing, if you are at a small station. How do they know to get the bags off?

 

[pepe of ohio]

Right now we are scheduled to leave from the Orlando Amtrak station for a trip to DC and then we'll be coming back to orlando and I'm wondering if it is safe to leave my car there for 10 days? I tried to do a one way car rental through Hertz but I couldn't get it to work. Any tips? also, is there a suggested list of things to bring for the sleeper cars? What would be helpful? I also don't understand the baggage thing, if you are at a small station. How do they know to get the bags off?

I'll give you what I know and experienced...

We board at an unmanned station... No baggage car access for us, what we haul we tote to the train, we board and put our luggage in the space below provided and take our carry ons with us to our seats... as we board, we are given our seat numbers and then go look for them... if someone's in our seats, we tell them to move and get the conductor to assist...

We stop at DC, end of that train line and we switch to the south bound and put our luggage in the baggage car... again carry ons go with us....getting off in Kissimmee, we wait show our baggage stubs and are away real quick...

Going home is the opposite... board in Kissimmee, check our bags.... arrive in DC and collect our bags and seek out a Red Cap... He'll keep our luggage on his cart and come get us when train west is in station.... Since our home station has no one there, we must haul our stuff to train car ( hence the use of the Red Caps) and they get you and your stuff to the right car, stow your bags all for a tip and when we hit our home station, we must lug our stuff off and to our car...

Not that difficult, but keep bags to a minimum, easy for one rolling duffel and one carry on... Not to exceed 50 pounds...size restriction also..

 

[GetGlowing]

Ear plugs are always useful whether you are in coach or a sleeper. Sometimes you are near the engine hear the horn. It never bothers me, but a I know a lot of people can't block it out. The sleepers are pretty quiet once you close the door and curtains.

Bring your PJs of course.

 

[Teacher03]

We just booked our Amtrak trip to Disney, June 2015. It will be our 4th Amtrak trip to Disney, but the first time in a bedroom. We previously traveled coach (not for us) and twice in a roomette. We are taking a roomette home....all for free using our Guest Reward points. We leave from Alliance, Ohio and get off at Kissimmee (thanks for this advice Pepe of Ohio. ) Now to just make it through another Ohio winter!

 

[lisa-upnorth]

nothing beats free travel
PS-you will LOVE the bedroom

 

[js]

Leaving Friday from Newark Penn in NJ. Yuck but its a lot closer than NYC.

Staying in a roomette but will see if there are any bedrooms available and what the upgrade would be. There will be two of us.

Last time got at Orlando station and had car service pick us up. Doing same this week and we will fly home.

Cant wait!

 

[Liz Z]

Hi Everyone,

Well here we go again We just made our reservations on Amtrak for our trip down to Disney coming up in December. We can't wait for our roomette!! We had so much fun last time. My daughter and i really bonded
This time though i think we might have our meals in the room. It was a little awkward sitting across from people who didn't even look up or say hi and just ignored us. Thankfully, they left pretty quickly
So it's really the luck of the draw who you're placed to sit with in the dining car.

We are soo excited and love the Acela lounge in Penn station. Such a nice convenience. Included when booking a roomette or bedroom. There are big comfy couches tv's complimentary snacks, coffee, tea and soda. When it's time to board your train there will be a guide that escorts you to your train.

If anyone has questions i'd be happy to help

Liz

 

[js]

Hi Everyone,

Well here we go again We just made our reservations on Amtrak for our trip down to Disney coming up in December. We can't wait for our roomette!! We had so much fun last time. My daughter and i really bonded
This time though i think we might have our meals in the room. It was a little awkward sitting across from people who didn't even look up or say hi and just ignored us. Thankfully, they left pretty quickly
So it's really the luck of the draw who you're placed to sit with in the dining car.

We are soo excited and love the Acela lounge in Penn station. Such a nice convenience. Included when booking a roomette or bedroom. There are big comfy couches tv's complimentary snacks, coffee, tea and soda. When it's time to board your train there will be a guide that escorts you to your train.

If anyone has questions i'd be happy to help

Liz

Hi Liz.
Last time I traveled in a roomette, I had all my meals in the room.
I was very happy to have the time to myself and actually enjoyed eating a little at a time and relaxing. I ate all three meals there and actually never really left the room except to walk up/down the aisle once in a while LOL

Can anyone please let me know if you can bring your own alcohol into the meal car? I am traveling with my mom and we plan on brining a bottle of wine and hoped to have at dinner. We can open on our own LOL
Last time, I had my own alcohol but never left the roomette.

Thank you for anyone that can help me.

 

[choppee]

Train was awesome!

I did a trip report that mentions the last time we went to WDW and we used the train to scuttle down. If you are interested, check out my trip report and you can see pix of the train. Hope this helps; got great information on this thread which encouraged me to use the train. Will do it again, sometime!

 

[choppee]

Train was awesome!

I did a trip report that mentions the last time we went to WDW and we used the train to scuttle down. If you are interested, check out my trip report and you can see pix of the train. Hope this helps; got great information on this thread which encouraged me to use the train. Will do it again, sometime!

Whoops! Forgot to mention it's the Terrific Ten report--link is in my signature

 

[Miffy]

Whoops! Forgot to mention it's the Terrific Ten report--link is in my signature

Your family's beautiful! Loved your pix!!!

 

[jwboucher]

Which is better the silver star or silver meteor? I am thinking about skipping the 7 hr drive to the auto train and taking the train the whole way and only having a half hr drive to the train.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Which is better the silver star or silver meteor? I am thinking about skipping the 7 hr drive to the auto train and taking the train the whole way and only having a half hr drive to the train.

Do to connection problems, we're only allowed to book the meteor... coming from Ohio, Capitol Limited is always late , we could rarely make a Star connection so we have to layover for 8 hours to make a round trip selection...

As far as the Auto Train... Done it once 35 years ago... Didn't know better... drove 9 hours to get to Lorton and afterwards found put you didn't need a car to vacation in WDW...

To this day, I'm amazed at the amount of people who pay to take their car with them when you can take a regular Amtrak train, usually closer to home , and cheaper and then rent a car in Sanford...do I want to trust my car to the railroad... No thanks, rather scratch and dent a rental..!

 

[Miffy]

Which is better the silver star or silver meteor? I am thinking about skipping the 7 hr drive to the auto train and taking the train the whole way and only having a half hr drive to the train.

I think it just depends on when you'd like to arrive in (or depart from) Orlando. Really, it's up to you. The trains, to me, seem the same. We often base our choice on what's cheaper for the dates we're traveling.

Enjoy the train ride!

 

[aprilgail2]

This time though i think we might have our meals in the room. It was a little awkward sitting across from people who didn't even look up or say hi and just ignored us. Thankfully, they left pretty quickly
So it's really the luck of the draw who you're placed to sit with in the dining car.

We are soo excited and love the Acela lounge in Penn station. Such a nice convenience. Included when booking a roomette or bedroom. There are big comfy couches tv's complimentary snacks, coffee, tea and soda. When it's time to board your train there will be a guide that escorts you to your train.

If anyone has questions i'd be happy to help

Liz

The Acela lounge was a great perk! just the bathroom in there alone made it worth it LOL-not having to use the public penn station ones!
We also ate in our Roomette after the first meal, we sat across from a couple and they were sort of tipsy to begin with but then had about 4 more drinks while we were there and didn't talk to us at all and it made me very uncomfortable so after that we ate in our room and loved it!

 

[Jedana]

If anyone is expecting to pick up someone traveling on the Silver Meteor, they are going to be a bit late. (Miami to NY route)

http://www.news4jax.com/news/amtrak-train-hits-pickup-truck-driver-unhurt/28338198