Learn Me: Amtrak

We live in Wisconsin, and my wife has family in Montana. We have a baby and a toddler that will turn 1 and 3 years old at Thanksgiving time. We are looking into going to visit her family in the next couple weeks. Driving out there is at a minimum of 1,000 miles one way. We've driven it before the second kiddo. I've looked into RV rentals. I've looked into flights. But I think we want the adventure of a train ride!

Anyone ever get a Family Bedroom on the Empire Builder train (or any Amtrak train)?

Anyone have any Amtrak experiences to share?

Anyone have any coupon codes to share?

When you go to the bathroom, don't try to pee standing up.

Seriously, it didn't go well.  I have only taken short trips, so that is all I have for you.

We've sent the kids back & forth between IL & NOLA a few times on Amtrak. It was just coach though, since it's only a 12-13 hour ride. 

I remember they said it has free wifi, and they never had any problems on the trips. 

I've done the autotrain between Virginia and Florida a couple of times, with my dad and with a girlfriend in a two bed sleeper. It Was clean and reasonably comfortable, meals and wifi included. Not bad at all, but the views were nothing to write home about. I think Wisconsin to Montana would be pretty cool! It was definitely cheaper than gas plus a night of hotel would've been. I saw the family bedroom units, and they were more than big enough for mom, dad and a couple of younger kids. Edit: We also didn't arrive exhausted after a long drive, and with my kids anyway we'd have to stop a BUNCH of times on a drive that long. 

I'm glad to hear that it was clean.

I've only taken a trip once, but here are some of the things I've noted:

1. Look at the timetables before trying to book a trip; Amtrak's online booking uses one of the most amusing artificial stupidity algorithms I've seen. If you book something on the wrong day, the site will take you halfway around the country, while you'd get there sooner if you booked for the very next day.

2. The seats in coach class are significantly more comfortable than coach class on an airplane. But don't try sleeping in them; they don't go far back enough, and you'll be constantly interrupted when the train stops. I haven't tried a sleeping compartment, but I suspect they're the way to go if you're traveling through the night.

3. Dining car food is at least as terrible as airplane food.

4. At least overall cleanliness is also on a par with airlines as well.

5. This one was pretty late and kept getting later the further it went.

1. Book soon - the pricing is the same principle as the airlines - the closer it gets to your date the higher the price. 

2. Book now -Thanksgiving fills up with lots of travelers.  

3. Expect delays.  When fracking was busy in Williston, ND they would be late on the run to Glacier due to running the same line the owner, BNSF does.   Now it's better but expect delays.   

4. You might surprised at the coach seat vs. family room price.   It's a significant jump.   

My brother took his family on the Empire Builder a couple times from Minneapolis west, but I believe they just went with coach seats and didn't get a sleeper.  They enjoyed the trips as far as I know, although sleeping in the coach seats isn't a lot of fun.  As mentioned, schedule delays are common.

Personally, I'd save the coin on the family room, book coach seats, sit in the dining car the whole trip (they have those tables like a diner booth) and play games, surf the web, read, etc, and order a beer every few hours.  If the trip is too long, do it in two days, and book a hotel room somewhere halfway.  It'll be cheaper, and likely more comfortable, than sleeping on the train.  

Sleeper car looks costly for that many people.  I agree with volvoclearninghouse.  Dining car is pretty cool, the basic economy isn't bad either, kind of like an airplane but with a lot more space.  I really like the idea of going about half way there, taking a cab from the station to a hotel to sleep somewhere decent for one night, and completing the trip on a second day.  Two long days but with normal beds in the middle sounds better than the sleeper car.

I've ridden Amtrak with the family for relatively short trips of a few hours.  Obviously, the schedule is not often convenient, and delays as noted above, are common.  That said, I really don't have anything bad to say about it.  It's a bit like flying--yes, you're in a big, old, rattly bus-like vehicle, but at least it stays on the ground.   And you have a lot more freedom to move around, hang out in the snack car.  Not cheap.  Try it!  See if you like it.

Most of MN and ND on that trip, at least one direction, is overnight. I'd get the room myself.

If you don't have AAA, it's probably worth signing up for the discount. Good news is kids under 2 ride for free, so just the two adult fares.

oldopelguy said:

Most of MN and ND on that trip, at least one direction, is overnight. I'd get the room myself.

That's kind of an advantage when going west on the Empire Builder - you can sleep through the boring part of the trip, and then the next day after the sun comes up you're finally approaching the scenic part.    I don't know when the train departs from Chicago, but I think it leaves St. Paul around 10pm.

I did NY to Florida a couple times in a coach seat and it was a nice ride.  I've never done a room but would like to at some point.

I want to do a long train trip at some point. When my sister moved back east she took the train. Tucson to Syracuse with a night in Chicago. That was with a family of 5, kids 6, 3, and 8 months. 

I use Amtrak a good bit getting from Harrisburg to NYC and Cape Cod.  I used it several times in college to go to florida for spring break.  I also took a lovely ride from L.A. to Seattle in February.  Those evergreen forests are lovely in a foot of snow.

Pay close attention to travel times.  It doesn't take too many stops to make it a LOOONG trip.  The train I took from L.A. to Seattle was about 50 hours, but that was the whole point of my trip.  I wanted to take a train trip.  I didn't care if it was going to Seattle or Salt Lake City.

Don't count on Amtrak wifi.  Its free, and worth exactly what you pay.  I have never (and I mean never... ever) been on an Amtrak train that the wifi actually worked.  Like any wifi router/switch, there are a maximum number of connections it can handle.  That number seems to be about 10% of the train's capacity. (exaggerating)  Even on a relatively empty leg, you might physically connect to wifi, but the 200 other people are all streaming Game of Thrones at the same time and you're lucky if you can load an email.  They use a gyro-based satellite wifi, but given the shaking of the train it loses alignment A LOT as well.

I've never had a room, always coach, but the long distance routes have roomy cars.  Like imagine a plane or a bus with every other row removed.  Lots of room.

My buddy just did this as a bucket list item. Took a train from LA to Seattle. 36 hours, had his own cabin. Said it was horribly boring, and three times as expensive as flying. But now he knows and can cross it off the list.

If you can sleep on a plane, go coach.  Otherwise, you'll want a sleeper.  We've done the auto train twice from DC to FL.  Both times in coach.  Last time we cancelled our return trip before we arrived in FL because we didn't sleep the whole ride down.  We can't sleep on planes either.

Tim and I took the Auto Train a few years ago; Here's the short article I wrote.

Overall, it was really fun--and how many times can you say that about overnight travel? The top bunk in the Roomette was a bit claustrophobic (there wasn't enough room to sit upright, so I had to do a weird wormy contortion to get to the end of the bunk and retrieve my blanket in the middle of the night), but once I adjusted it was comfy and I slept like a log.

If you are trying to decide berth vs. coach, be advised that on the Auto Train, at least, there's a pretty rigid class divide between the two, with dining room and club car space either wholly belonging to those in the sleeper cars or at least available to them first, and everyone else on a space available basis (and there's not enough space left).

 Beyond that, Tim and I stayed up late in said club car drinking with a couple of off-duty Amtrak employees, and learned that the Auto Train, as Amtrak's only profitable route, runs to a higher standard than the rest of the line--and is rarely late, while the rest of the line sucks hind tit (as my father-in-law used to say) to the freight lines that now own the tracks.

A trip out West via RR is still on my bucket list, so of course I'm gonna say Do it.

Margie

Aaannnnd we're back!

(Warning: There are gratuitous pictures of my adorable children.)

I thought a quick recap of our Amtrak trip might be useful to others. In our particular trip, the plane ticket to Billings, Montana from Wisconsin (Appleton, Green Bay, Milwaukee and even O'Hare all would have had layovers through MSP) would have costed us the same ($1,300) as the train tickets with the family bedroom. The cheapest RV rental from an actual RV rental place would have been the same too (not including fuel costs). So we opted for the train as we were excited for a train ride.

So last Thursday, we went to work and the kids went to daycare, a mostly normal day except we all left a couple hours early to make it 1.5 hours away by 4:30ish PM in Columbus, Wisconsin.

At this station there actually was someone working and we could have check baggage but we just dragged everything along with us since we had the biggest room on the train, the "Family Bedroom". There are stated size limits of quantity, weight, and sizes of luggage but it didn't seem to matter for us probably because we had our own room.

Not shown here was the baby's car carrier and my wife's purse/shoulder bag. No small amount that's for sure. We did luck out since a friend we were going to visit in Montana knew someone in the small town of Wolf Point that had a car seat for our toddler just a block away from the train station there.

Here we are waiting for the train!

The train arrived on time, and one of the train workers (are they called conductors?) asked us if we were 'the family in the sleeper?'

'Yup' and we were helped up into the train and pointed to the end of the car where our sleeper was located. The train was probably only stopped for 2 or 3 minutes before 'puffing along the tracks' as my son called it.

Here's a panorama of the Family Bedroom. The door to the center hallway is ... in the center of the room. The room is the whole end of the car, and has two small windows, one on each side and a small table in front of each window. I'm relaxing taking the photo at the two chairs that face each other. The fam is on the 'bench' seat. The seats can partially recline on their way down to transforming into 'berths' or train parlance for bed.

Here is a picture looking back the other way. On the way home we had this berth in the down position so we could nap or just lounge around. Both berths (the small one and the larger bench one) have an upper deck that flips down, as seen in the above in the up position. They had two thin mattresses on both uppers, one for the upper and one to move to the lower after they've been converted. Pillows, sheets, blanks were included and were pretty clean and fresh feeling.

The main bench berth was some where between a twin and full size. At 6'-1' and 180 lbs I had no problem sleeping on it with our toddler and probably would have been fine with my wife.  The bottom berths were definitely more comfortable since you had both the seat cushions and the mattress, whereas the uppers just had the small thin mattress on a metal shelf. 

The shorter berths aren't really meant for adults, even 5'-3" ones. Here my wife is pretending to still be asleep with our daughter. As you can see she is still scrunched to fit there.

Most of the train cars had two levels, but ours was the only one we were on both levels as we had to go up a level to move to the next car. The checked baggage might have below some of the other sleep cars, but I'm not sure about that. Some of the other sleepers just had the two chairs that face each other but converted into a normal length bed with another flip down bed above that. We had two toilet rooms on our lower level of our car and also one or two shower rooms. Since were got on around dinner time and were getting off around lunch the next day on both legs of the trip, we didn't use the showers. The toilets were pretty close to an airplane toilet and were kept a bit cleaner probably. I think the only people using them were others on our floor. The upper level people might have had their own. A couple other sleeper rooms actually have their own toilet, but the Family one only had a tiny closet for hanging two or three coats (the double doors in the panorama photo back a couple pictures).

We were on the Empire Builder train, and each train has slightly different amenities. (Check local listing.) When we boarded, the conductor handed us a dinner reservation. The dining car was one car away and my son loved pushing the open button on the doors.

Here we are eating lunch on the way home. The meals are included with any sleeper and were a bit expensive so if you're waffling a sleeper throw in at least $25 per person for dinner and slightly less for breakfast and lunch. The food was actually pretty good, albeit limited in selection. The menu didn't change between our ride out and return leg. Breakfast and lunch were first come first served and the wait staff were very nice and accommodating. The dining car was only open during the three meals and didn't really offer snacks. They did have over priced alcohol but since you can bring your own it's not a big deal. I did share a $7.50 Sierra Nevada with the wife on the way home.

The coach car was the next car and the seats looked around business or first class sized from an airplane. Most of the people there used both seats (two on each side of the aisle) as beds or just to relax, as the car only looked half full or so. We only walked through the coach car briefly on the way to the lounge car.
 

The lounge car had the upper windows with half of the car with booths for four people and the back half had swivel chairs with a few people sitting with their feet up on the window sill. We only waited briefly in the lounge car as there was a bit of a wait for breakfast since we had a late start.

Most station stops were only a few minutes and since the announcement speaker in the family bedroom was inop, we barely noticed the short stops. The infant is only a few weeks into walking and could easily walk around, and drinks never really tipped over due to the train's movement, but there were some 'turbulence'. Pulling out of stations was always super smooth, but stopping had a bit of a jolt right at the end. I can sleep on airplanes and apparently my whole family can sleep on a train given a berth or three.

Speaking of sleeping, here was one oddity: a pack and play will just barely fit on the smaller lower berth. I don't think you could have gotten her out of there with the upper berth lowered down, and we did have to lodge luggage under the one corner to make it stable.

This is when we got off in Wolf Point, Montana. We barely had time for the picture, and the train was leaving. There are a few 'breaks' for smokers or to stretch your legs on the platform, but don't expect to much more than that. They do announcements to let you know and it was only for about 10 minutes. The major stations (ie Minneapolis/St Paul) were longer stops, however.

One thing I didn't fully understand before the trip was that the freight train companies actually own the tracks and have the right of way. It didn't affect us on the way out to Montana, but the return trip was about an hour late. I'm not sure where we made up the time but we arrived on time back in Wisconsin. We talked to some people and they had stories of pulling over for 20 minutes to let freight trains go by and can be a bit frustrating but we didn't experience that, at least we didn't notice it if we did.

That was the extent of our Amtrak 'Empire Builder' train trip. We've already decided we will do another trip in the future, possibly to Glacier National Park. I think we will wait for our daughter to be a year or two older at least to lower the stress levels associated with traveling with two young kids and waiting for dinner in a restaurant wit two hungry mouths! We really enjoyed it the train and the people. There are lots of opportunities to chit chat with other riders. Lots of fun!

Wolf Point doesn't have any typical car rental places but they did have a very nice dealership right across from the Amtrak Station. High Plains Motors! Can't say enough about their service! As soon as the train pulled into the station the gentleman from the dealership had the car in the station lot to pick us up. We loaded up and pulled across the road for my wife to run in and sign and we were off. Very slick service! Wolf Point is bit of a rough town and the dealership will also hold your car in their facilities if you happen to depart from the local station.

The other portion of our journey was in a Buick Enclave. The SUV that thought it was a minivan, or vice versa.

Three rows of seating, middle row captain chairs and a flip down DVD player. The difference from a minivan are no sliding doors and a center console/arm rest that made it difficult for my wife to crawl back and tend to screaming children. We are now actually thinking of trading in for something that has similar room as the Enclave and with the rear DVD player. We are thinking maybe the Durango (a stretched version of the Grand Cherokee we already have), CX-9, and a couple other ones. The Enclave had fairly vague steering/dynamics and didn't get that great of fuel economy (~17 mpg at 80 mph cruise at 2700' elevation, some up and down but a lot of flat). 

Thanks for reading along.

Questions/Comments?

Thanks for the update!  I was wondering how things went.

Sounds like a good trip. 

In reply to RossD :

Woot, very nice recap Ross and adorable family! We roll out Wednesday doing Chicago to Seattle on the Empire Builder with a pregnant wife, my parents, and a sleeper car. Don't know why I didn't find this thread a bit ago but oh well. Was slightly worried the recent accident would set us back but everything appears to be operating as scheduled.

Beyond the views, tempted to buy a bottle of Malört and pay people a quarter to drink it to entertain the evening since it gets dark so early.