$500/night for an Amtrac sleeper car, can that be right?

[Redmic]

We always fly to Orlando, but want to take my brother and sister-in-law next year and they are chickens. I pulled up the Amtrac website and plugged in 2 adults, 2 children, AAA rate for a sleeper car (NY to Orlando) and the rate was $500 (each way) in addition to our tickets! Holy cow, am I doing something wrong? I could stay at the GF and eat at Victoria and Albert's for that!

Since this was so much higher than flying I can't imagine why anyone would want to do it. Since I am not familliar with Amtrac, I wondered if anyone with more experience could tell me if this was a typical price. Are there ever sales that would bring that down? Thanks for any comments.

 

[figment95]

I am no train expert but I have travelled Amtrak and I have looked into the autotrain. (I am a big chicken when it comes to airplanes). It is my understanding that you pay for your ticket and then pay a premium for the sleeper car. When I was looking last year it was $480 for a family bedroom. I was also shocked at the price. There are very few sleeper cars on each train so I don't think they offer discounts.

 

[kaitlynangel]

Re: Amtrak

Since I am not flying I have been doing alot of research on different railroad discussion boards (similar to these Disney boards) and I have to tell you what I have learned. First the Auto Train is probably your best bet. Yes you have to drive to Lorton VA, but from Long Island NY that is about 5 hours. You can get your car (not a SUV or truck for this price) on the train and Myself, my husband and my 2 year old, in a standard sleep car with the AAA discount of $1035 roundtrip total. This includes your meals and beverages. Although I have been told by an inside source that on Jan 2 Amtrak is going to start a promotion called Winter Companion Fares, allowing the second traveler to go free on Tickets purchased starting January 2 for travel from Jan.2 to Feb 28. There is some black out dates but sale is good for sleeper and business class tickets. Now this information has not been confirmed, as I got it from a Amtrak discussion board, but since my dates of travel are in Jan-Feb this promotion would bring my total to about $850, for this same trip. So if you can hold off until Jan 2 you might be pleasantly surprised. At least I am hopeful that the information I heard is correct. Don't bother to contact Amtrak as the source stated in his post that the reservation people will not know of this promotion until the system is up dated on Jan.2. I hope this helps.

 

[sandyneck]

yes, the price is correct and let me tell you, we took the train three years ago and it cured my husbands fear of flying like a charm!! If they think a few hours in a plane is bad, try sleeping all night and feeling like you will derail any minute because the train jerks back and forth like a rattlesnake in a bad mood. Try to get them on a plane.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We've used Amtrak for years in between flying and we would take the train over flying any day. It seems you people have the negative feeling about trains when they bump left and right that they will unrail, in a plane when they do that you're coming down. Relaxing,freedom to move about, dining in the dining car, a quick sandwich in the cafe car is a feeling of freedom. As for prices, we took Amtrak from Ohio to Kissimmee for 235.00 each round trip and have always booked reserved coarc. The seat is like a barkolounger, tips back, foot rest up and the clickety clack down the tracks. Its only for an eight hour sleep and the reassurance of arriving rather than crashing is enough for me to take the train over flying.

 

[Chuck S]

Yes, compartments on Amtrak ARE that expensive. We took Amtrak once from San Antonio to WDW, didn't get a compartment. It was OK, wouldn't mind doing it again sometime, but overall I really like flying much better. For the price of a train compartment, you may as well drive. BTW I understand the trains on the east coast lines are much more comfortable than the East-West routes.

 

[lookingforward]

We took the auto train in a Family sleeper and loved it. Yes the ride was shaky(I LOVED the rattlesnake description!) but not that bad that we could not sleep. The beds were comfortable and the cabin steward turned down the beds for us and even offered to bring us breakfast in our cabin. The dining service was nice and you get dinner and a full breakfast included. They had a lounge car (although it was kind of smoky) and everyone was really nice. The steward even gave our boys some games to play. I would do it again in a minute.

We also took the silver star regular Amtrak service from Raleigh NC in reserved coach. Don't let the "coach" make you think of airline coach. Train "coach" is more like airline first class. The seats were wide and reclined comfortably. My kids made friends with a great little boy from Venezula and we enjoyed a nice breakfast in the dining car. (self pay, about $40 for four) I would do that again as well, but maybe in a sleeper car. From NC it was great, you board at 10:30 p.m. and arrive in Orlando about 11 a.m. And enterprise met us at the train station in a van and took us to their car rental facility.

 

[DC7800]

Originally posted by kaitlynangel
I have been told by an inside source that on Jan 2 Amtrak is going to start a promotion called Winter Companion Fares, allowing the second traveler to go free on Tickets purchased starting January 2 for travel from Jan.2 to Feb 28.

This promotion is now confirmed. However, it is not valid on Auto-Train, and the Amtrak ticket agents will apparently not offer the special, you have to know to ask for it. It is valid on the other Central Florida trains: Silver Star, Silver Palm, Silver Meteor, and Sunset Limited.

 

[DC7800]

Originally posted by Redmic
We always fly to Orlando, but want to take my brother and sister-in-law next year and they are chickens. I pulled up the Amtrac website and plugged in 2 adults, 2 children, AAA rate for a sleeper car (NY to Orlando) and the rate was $500 (each way) in addition to our tickets! Holy cow, am I doing something wrong? I could stay at the GF and eat at Victoria and Albert's for that!

Since this was so much higher than flying I can't imagine why anyone would want to do it. Since I am not familliar with Amtrac, I wondered if anyone with more experience could tell me if this was a typical price. Are there ever sales that would bring that down?

There are a few things you can try. They may or may not bring the price down, however. Amtrak has various fare levels, depending on how far in advance you make reservations, your travel dates, or even which train you travel on. Amtrak reservation agents will quote you the lowest price available at the time you make the request. First, experiment with the fare finder on the Amtrak website (http://www.amtrak.com) by plugging in varied combinations of travel dates, train numbers, and types of accomodations (coach, economy vs. deluxe sleeper, etc.), probing for a better fare. Remember also, sleeper (first-class) includes meals in the diner, and opposed to driving to Orlando you also save the cost of a motel to/from WDW. This helps reduce the cost difference somewhat.

Also, you might cut costs somewhat by not going all the way in the sleeper. In addition to the four Florida trains (from the Northeast), the Carolinian follows the same route as far south as Rocky Mount, NC. Check the (Railsale if available) fare for coach on the Carolinian from NY to some point between D.C. and Rocky Mount/Raleigh N.C. (depending on which train you transfer to), then Silver Service sleeper on to Orlando (note the Kissimmee station is technically closer to Disney). The Florida trains never show up on Amtrak's RailSale (on their website - sort of a "fire sale" type prices), but The Carolinian does (occasionally) - and that's how to save money by changing trains. I suggest this primarily because the economy sleeper rooms acomodate only two people, hence you would need two rooms. The deluxe rooms accomodate only two persons as well, but they are larger, and you might squeeze in two small children.

Hope this helps. PM if you have any more questions, I'll try to help.