Background: My family (me, wife, two boys under age 6) will be traveling from Milwaukee to Fort Lauderdale and back early next year for a vacation.
Trying to fly with kids is just horrible, and both of my boys love trains, so we’re considering taking Amtrak for the journey. The trip seems to break down into Milwaukee- Chicago - Washington DC - Fort Lauderdale.
For the Chicago-DC and DC-FL legs there are different compartments available, either getting two “Roomettes” or a “Bedroom Suite”, or even a “Family Bedroom”.
So a few questions, has anyone had experience with the different types of sleeping cars? More importantly, am I insane for considering cooping two young boys into a train for ~44 hours?
For my graduation present, Ivylad booked us an Alaskan cruise, followed by a train trip from Seattle to Napa Valley, an overnight train trip.
Ivylad is in a wheelchair, so we got a “suite” with its own bathroom.
Because he couldn’t get up the stairs to the dining car, the meals were served in our “suite.”
The seats faced each other, and when folded out to make the bed, were about the width of two Greyhound bus seats and about as comfortable.
The other passengers had to share the bathroom in the hall, and the water was turned off before we pulled into the station.
It looked good on paper, but we won’t be doing it again. If you want to do it for one leg of your trip you can try it, but overnight? I wouldn’t recommend it.
The first leg of our honeymoon was from New Orleans to NYC on Amtrak. We booked a Roomette, because the Bedroom was about $700.00 more. It was too small, really. And the toilet was right there in the midst of it all. Shortly after boarding we noticed an empty bedroom and called to ask about upgrades, but they still wanted $300 more so we stuck with what we had. It was a 30 hour trip and we didn’t mind the close quarters as much because it was a honeymoon. Any other sort of trip, it would be too cramped I think. If I had it to do over, I’d spring for the Bedroom or Family Bedroom if I could afford it. Everything else about the experience was awesome.
Each train has different characteristics, and you can look up many of the train names online and find where people have posted little video tours of their rooms. There are also lots of pictures and descriptions on the Amtrak site.
I’ve been in a roomette by myself with a bathroom on the trip from LA to Chicago. For one person, I thought there was plenty of room, but I wasn’t thinking about how well it might work for multiple folks in the same compartment. I definitely appreciated having my own bathroom, and I thought the porter service was wonderful. I liked having the option of socializing in the dining car, or having meals brought to me.
My only complaints were the lack of internet connection for the 45-hour trip, and the fact that I found it hard to sleep with the train’s motion. It was a bit jerkier than I preferred, and I just never felt like I slept soundly over the two nights.
You’ll likely be on the Capitol Limited for this leg. An observation car should be included; if the train is a Superliner, it’s an observation car on the top and a café car below. Superliner observation cars have a TV screen on one end, which may or may not be used to show a movie.
I took three of my kids on Amtrak from Seattle to MSP many years ago. We just rode in the seats. Kids can sleep almost anywhere and they were fine sleeping in the chairs, but man that’s a long haul; of course nowadays they have computers, smart phones, gaming devices and the like to amuse them. All mine had were books and music.
My wife and I had a bedroom (with en suite bathroom) on our trip from Portland to MSP a few years ago. You end up with single bunk beds. Neither of us are exactly small, but managed to cope with the cramped space. It’s not easy to sleep on a train; track noise, bad track that bounces you around, swaying motion, etc. I had to jam a piece of cardboard into parts that squeaked. The meals were good, and people with rooms get priority in the dining car. A person comes and makes up your room every day, and sets it up for sleeping at night.
I’ve traveled from NY to SF by train and I found the Roomettes to be compact but just about tolerable for two people. No way would I have wanted to travel as a family in in one of the larger bedrooms though, even though you would have more room. Shame your kids aren’t a little older because I would bet they would enjoy their own Roomette but I don’t know how feasible that would be really.
I found the trip enjoyable though a little boring at times, mostly though whilst crossing the desert it has to be said. The food was pretty good and it was nice to chill out at the end of the day in the viewing car. With Kids though, well I think my train mad younger self would have loved it personally but if they don’t then you are a bit stuck for 40+ hours. Not fun.
No kids, but I took coach cross-country years ago. I had a lot of fun. I actually love sleeping on trains- the swaying and noise puts me right to sleep.
The kids would surely not spend most of the trip cooped up in the room, you would be taking them to the lounge car. The lounge car can be a lot of fun, on one trip their was a young woman who got on in MSP and sat in the lounge car playing Irish folk songs on her violin all the way to her stop in Whitefish, with others taking part, such as they could. If one of you takes the kids to the lounge car to relax, have fun, meet people and/or enjoy the view, the other could stay in the room and catch a nap, read, or just enjoy some me-time.
Amtrak’s page on the Family Bedroom. I’d definitely suggest it over two roomettes, unless you planned on having one adult and one child in each roomette. That said, there are some things to be aware of:[ul]
[li]You’re on the lower level, which makes for more train noise (though less swaying).[/li][li]While you have windows on both sides, they’re quite small.[/li][li]There’s no toilet in the room.[/li][/ul]Another option, though quite spendy, would be to book adjacent bedrooms and create a suite. You do have a rich uncle or know a deposed bank official in Nigeria, don’t you?
Caveats. I did Chicago to SF with my kids in a bedroom a few years ago. My daughter loved it. My son was miserable (he was 6 at the time). He’s very active and there’s just not that much to do if you want to run around. Which he did.
If you think your kids will be happy checking out the sights, reading, watching movies, playing cards, etc, then take the train. Otherwise, it’s a hell ride.
With that itinerary, you’ll have two overnights: one on the Chicago to DC trip, the other on the DC to Florida trip.
We’ve traveled on the Auto Train (just south of DC, to near Orlando) several times. We’ve gotten the smaller / cheaper bedrooms (roomette) which have the seats facing each other, and the bathroom down the hall. For an adult and a kid, those are comfortable enough. For two adults, it might be a bit cramped. Also the upper bunk has little headroom. So you and your wife might want to share with a kid apiece if you do so.
I’d go for the Family Bedroom if available and affordable. The kid beds are shorter than the adult beds, so that wouldn’t work well for teenagers.
I think the kids will have a blast. I first got to ride a train when I was about 9, and I’ve loved it ever since. The kids can go all the length of the train to burn off energy, there are lounge cars, and sights to see outside the windows. It’s fun to go down to the dining car and eat on the train.
The stopover in Union Station could be fun - it’s a beautiful station (has been turned into a shopping arcade with a HUGE food court). Hopefully your stopover ls long enough to explore that a bit.
Do bring along plenty of stuff to entertain the kids. Laptop / tablet with a few of their favorite movies, small toys to surprise them with, and so on.
Depending on schedule and cost, you might consider a fly and ride option - fly one way, train the other.
As a not-relevant-to-you funny aside: My son, “Dweezil”, has been obsessed with trains since he was old enough to say “twain”. When he was almost 9, we planned a trip to Florida to visit the grandparents. Because we knew we’d hear NOTHING ELSE BUT TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN from him for months, we did not tell the kids we were planning on taking the train. Instead, we said we were driving. Dad’s car (a Honda Civic) instead of mine (a minivan) because of better gas mileage. So on departure day, we got the car loaded up, then called the kids into the kitchen and told them “we’ve decided not to drive to Florida after all”.
Kids were getting worried (we only let them worry about 5 seconds, honest) so I pointed to the train tickets we’d put on the table before making this pronouncement.
To say that Dweezil was beside himself with joy would be the understatement of the year. They were thrilled. Oh, and the Civic versus minivan was because the Auto Train charged a LOT more for minivans back then (I think they quit that).