We’ve been planning a trip to New York City, and, as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, are thinking of going by train. We’d be going en prince, as it were, in what they call the deluxe compartment/bedroom. The price quoted for these accommodations, over and above the very modest basic rail fare, is about $2000 for the two of us, private bath and meals included.
Has anyone here done this? Did you think the money was well spent, or did you say to yourself you should have been sensible and flown? Were the trains reasonably on time, or did you find that small delays here and there across the country added up to costing you over a day at your destination?
I think it’s a wonderful idea (make sure to have the photogs snap you perched on your Louis Vuitton luggage before you leave Grand Central!).
I’ve taken an overnighter to Charleston, and if I ever get a vacation again (unlikely, for the next few years . . .) I want to visit my best friend in New Orleans, and take a weekender.
Maybe you’ll be lucky and step on Rudy Vallee’s face while climbing into your upper berth!
One much-appreciated aspect is that this would eliminate the hassle of travelling from the airport to the city. In fact, the hotel would probably be in walking distance, but I have no desire to appear so obviously from out of town as to walk down the street with luggage.
I’ve gone from Denver to Miami, and Denver to Albany (and back) on Amtrak in a sleeper, and I thought it was wonderful! I didn’t get a deluxe, so it was a smaller room, but it was fine. The trains were either on time or very close to it, and some slack is built into the schedule anyway - you’ll find yourself with some time to kill where ever you change trains.
I thought the money was well worth spending. I hate flying, and I’m a bit old-fashioned in some respects. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It’d be my wife’s face that I’d step on, though I’ll certainly try to avoid that. As noted, we’ll have the private room, but there’s still the upper and lower berth arrangement.
Of course you’re probably aware that the old-style Pullman cars aren’t used anymore. It’s too bad, because they would be a lot less expensive for travellers. On the other hand, though, I can see how the prospect of trying to sleep in a car full of snoring fellow passengers, separated only by curtains, might put people off. As indeed it must have done, contributing to the demise of the Pullman after air travel became widespread.
In Chicago, of course, you not only change trains, but change stations as well. I’m hoping we’ll have time to do the Art Institute and perhaps lunch at the Berghof. I think there’ll also be a change of train for us in Rensellaer, NY.
Nope, you’d take the 20th Century Limited from track 25 at Grand Central, then transfer to the Super Chief in Chicago, which would take you to Los Angeles, where the press flacks from MGM would be waiting for you (unless you’re already famous and want to avoid the press, in which case you get off at Pasadena and sneak into town, heavily veiled).
I did the LA to Chicago trip in the winter, and got married as a result. Flash back to January 1977. I flew to visit my parents with my pet hamster Newton. When I changed planes in St. Louis, the TWA people there had a fit. They were convinced my hamster would bend the bars of his cage, escape, chew the wires, and make the plane crash. So I had to buy a dog cage, fit for a bulldog, to put the hamster in, and pay an incredible amount of money to transport this poor little thing.
On the return, my parents suggested I take the train. No problem, Amtrak said. He’d have to go in the baggage car, and I could visit him with food and water on stops. So I got a roomette (recommended) and sat in the observation car to look at the Western scenery (very lovely) and had really good meals in the dining car.
Everything was fine until we hit the blizzard in Kansas. The train slowed to a crawl, since going fast cause some valves to freeze. The toilets in several of the rooms overflowed (not mine, at least.) The train was so late it ran out of food. To top it off, when we reached Union Station, I discovered that they had left the doors open in Dodge City, and they handed me a flash-frozen hamster. So hamstericle and I took the train to Champaign which was in the middle of another blizzard - happily I lived only a few blocks from the station. Amtrak did give me $25 for the hamster after I yelled.
Oh - how did this lead to me getting married? I couldn’t think of anyone to tell the story of this odyssey to except my old girlfriend, who was at Dartmouth, who I hadn’t spoken to in months. We started speaking again and got engaged six months later.
At second thought, you might be better off hitchhiking.
This is correct, nowadays, according to the Amtrak schedules. The principal long-distance line between New York and Chicago, the Lakeshore Limited, goes quite a bit out of the way through upstate New York, but it’ll be a good chance to see that. I’ve always heard it’s worth a look.
My folks have done it and then some: the Crescent from Georgia up the east coast, onwards into Canada (switch to the Canadian equiv) across to Vancouver, down the west coast, then back across the southern stretch to Georgia.
Unfortunately they said the least luxurious and pretty portion of the trip was California-to-Georgia. Even so, if you’ve never done it, go for it.
Expect it to get better after New Orleans. The Crescent is nice.
I’ve only gone the northern route with goes Seattle <–> Chicago. Some of it was so long ago, all I remember that the sleeper cab was neat, and we were somewhere in… er… Minnesota.
My most recent trip (several years ago) was Seattle <–> Minot, ND, in winter. 'Twas pretty going through the Rockies in winter: watching the snow fall as we drifted along, being glad that we weren’t driving through that mess…
Not too many people on the train, mostly people like us heading somewhere for the holidays who didn’t want to put up with Northwest Airlines to get where we wanted to go. (NW is basically your only choice if you’re trying to fly into North Dakota.)
We were a bit late coming into Minot, and a bit late coming back into Seattle, but that was more because of the weather than anything else, and it wasn’t anything major. 30 minutes, 45 mintues tops.
Overall, it was a nice trip and I’d like to take Amtrak again, but unfortunately it hasn’t worked out timing wise.
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Of four train trips I’m aware of, two were very late. Anecdotal evidence is no good, see if they will tell you their % on-time, especially with long (cross-country) trips.
I’m taking my son to Lake Charles La. to go see his Grandparents for thanksgiving. I was going to drive up there but now I think I’ll take the Amtrak! And after visiting their website the fare will be dirt cheap to boot.
This is great! My boy’s gonna shit a brick when he finds out we’re taking the train. He LOVES trains.
I’m not sure if you have a choice in the compartments, but if you do, get it on the left heading North (or right heading South) from NYC and Albany. It has a lovely view of the Hudson. By the way, the station there is always referred to as Albany, even though the official name is Rensselaer, unless you meant some other Rensselaer.
Hell, I did the cross-country thing (NYC to San Francisco) by Greyhound. Considerably less comfort than what you’re planning (a hell of a lot cheaper too, of course ;)), and still one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. Go for it.
I’ve done the cross-country Amtrak trip a few times; mainly San Francisco Bay Area to Washington DC via Denver, but also the northern and southern routes. Never in the deluxe compartment, however . I can thoroughly recommend it in whichever accomodation you can afford!
You might want to re-check your itinerary. AFAIK all Amtrak trains in Chicago arrive at or leave from Union Station, so although you’ll have to change trains, you won’t have to schlep your bags anywhere. I had lunch at the Berghoff a couple of times while waiting for connecting trains, and can heartily recommend it (unless it’s gone downhill in recent years). It’s a bit of a “tourist experience”, but there’s nothing wrong with that when you are, in fact, a tourist. The Art Institute is, of course, a must if you have time.
I’m almost certain that you wouldn’t need to change trains in Albany/Rensselaer – there are through coaches from Chicago all the way to New York City on the Lake Shore Limited. Who told you that you’d need to change there?
General tips: don’t stay in your luxury suite all the time! You’ll get better views from, and perhaps meet interesting people in, the Lounge Car. As Pigs in Space says, make sure that you get a right-side window seat going from Albany to New York City, since you’ll be going straight down the Hudson River (along the eastern bank) and the views are just wonderful. Stake your seat out early! West of Chicago, the Lounge Car is also the place to be since there are wrap-around windows on the upper level, so you get a really good sense of the wide-open spaces.
In terms of punctuality, the trains will occasionally arrive a few hours late, but rarely more than four. If you miss your connection in Chicago, Amtrak has to pay for a hotel, and they don’t like doing that for whole trainloads of people. They’ll try to get you in on time, but since they don’t own the track - or control the dispatching - outside of the NorthEast Corridor, their hands are somewhat tied.
I think the latest I ever arrived going coast-to-coast on Amtrak was five hours, but that was because someone had set fire to a trestle near Tucson and they had to take us by bus from Tucson to Los Angeles!
According to their website, they don’t have sleepers on the NYC-Albany run, but they do have reserved coach seats so I’ll keep that in mind. Similarly, I would like to be on the lakeside (Erie and Ontario) for the runs between NYC and Chicago, although here I think you don’t really have a choice: if memory serves, a compartment takes up most of the width of a railcar, and the corridor is between the compartments and the outer wall on one side. But that shouldn’t matter anyway; one can always hang out in the view car during the day.
I’ve plenty of time to get the details squared away as I won’t be booking until February. As for the Berghof, it looks like a no-go since the layover should be roughly 3:30 PM to 8:30. The Berghof appeals to me more as a lunch place. I’m considering the Hancock tower for dinner, unless they’d be serving on a train that leaves as late as 8:30.
. I can thoroughly recommend it in whichever accomodation you can afford!