Porter20
Train Attendant
I am embarrassed how long it took for me to post this report - but after reading so many reports on here, I wanted to post one two.
In March of this year, we decided to spend half a week in Washington, DC & then the other half of the week at the Delaware beaches. Orginially, we were going to take the Auto Train up and then drive back. But we got a great deal on return flight tickets, so then we had to figure out how to get up there. After talking with my 7 year old daughter, she was disappointed to learn that we were not going to take the train - so her and I decided to take the train; while my wife chose to fly up. I am formerly a seasoned airline traveler - I have collected in the neighborhood of 750K frequent flyer miles - but admittedly got burned out from the travel and now dread going to an airport.
We dropped off Mom at the airport in the morning (she went to school in DC so was going in early to see some friends) and then we took a cab to the train station. We were there about an hour early, scanned our printout, got tickets and waited. The train was about 35 mins late. When it showed up, we boarded car 9812; roomette 001. Our SCA was Jim. After we got settled, Jim stopped by and recommended that we go eat lunch. I was impressed with how roomy the little roomette was. We fit comfortably with two rollerbags, two backpacks & small cooler. As the train left the station, my daughter and I had a great time pointing out the familiar sights as we rolled downed the tracks. We lived about 3 blocks from the tracks, so we saw our favorite ice cream parlor, taco stand, local park we play in, downtown buildings. She was amazed and couldn't take pictures fast enough.
When we finally made it to the dining car for lunch, we were paired with a couple from South Florida who were on their way to Boston and wanted a different way to travel. We had a pleasant conversation and most of revolved around my daughter and what were going to see in DC. For lunch I had the soup & salad and Ansley had the kids pizza. The soup was surprising good (spicey corn & shrimp chowder) and the salad was lettuce. The pizza look okay; my little girl devoured it anyway - cause it's pizza. We then went back to the car, played some card games, did some reading and just general chatting until dinner time.
At dinner, we were paired with a couple who were from Lakeland and headed to Canada for the week. This was their third train trip and they really loved to travel this way. For dinner, my daughter had the Steak and I had crabcakes. Growing up on crabcakes I was hesitant but the Crabcakes had Tom Douglas's name attached to them and he is one of my more favorite chefs; so I rolled the dice. I was extremely impressed. Were they the best I have ever had - no; but they were far from the worst and I would gladly order them again. My daughter's steak was cooked perfectly and had great flavor. I barely had finished cutting it up before she finished it off. I had the half bottle of wine (which was Coppola) and it was excellent as well.
We went back to the room and visited until about 8 and then Jim turned it into sleeping quarters - although I left my seats up. My daughter loved the upper bunk. She watched a movie on her ipad and I had a beer or 3 from our cooler, read a little bit & toyed around with scanner (that I had from going to Nascar races). There wasn't too much interesting to listen to on that - although I am not sure quite what I expected to hear anyway. She passed out about 10 p.m. and easily slept throught the night. I went to sleep about 11 and woke once or twice - we were swaying a bit around 2 am and the whistle woke me up a couple times; but overall it was very comfortable.
I set the alarm for 6:45 so we would have time to be packed up before arriving at 7:21 and assumed we would just skip breakfast although we were about 1.5 hours behind schedule. When we woke up at 7ish, we were stopped somewhere south of Fredricksburg, VA. They had horrible storms and tornados (June 30 - I'm sure people remember) that had gone through the night before and there were down powerlines, limbs and debris all over the track. So we went back to sleep for an hour and then headed to the diner for breakfast. We were paired with the same couple that we shared dinner with which was great. They were very excited to hear about how my daughter was enjoying her trip. She had pancakes & I had the special - corned beef hash & scrambled eggs. I was impressed with was real corned beef and not something out of a can. Afterwards we headed back to our car and the waiting began. We didn't for move for about 3 hours. Then they moved us only up to a station so people get off and stretch their legs. The problem was it was still 100 degrees outside and that was just uncomfortable. Needless to say, the scanner was now a hotbed of activity - chatting with clearing crews, talking to other freight trains etc. We just chilled in our room. Ansley wanted to be in the top bunk & watched another movie and I watched the opening stage of the Tour De France. Needless to say, we were both making the best of it.
Around 12:30, we got the call for lunch. By this time they only had a handful of things left to offer. It was a hodge podge of breakfast, lunch & dinner items. We were once again paired with our same couple (unplanned but nice regardless). I had the soup (they were out of salad, my daughter had the mac & cheese and the other couple had burger and the kids mac & cheese. At first they weren't going to serve him the mac & cheese because of limited kids meals on the train - but in the end the waitress decided this was special circumstances and she would make the exception. None of us were really hungry; but bored so we went to eat because it was something to do. Most of the conversation had to do with their alternate plans, they were going to spend the night in NYC and take the train tomorrow since they missed their connection anyway. You could tell people this was wearing on people. Several people asked to get off at random stops & the conductors accommodated them. One girl was visably upset - she was going to miss a wedding; although I would think you wouldn't want to cut your travel that close. I-95 was a parking lot of traffic (according to the news) so I am not sure what they were going to gain. Of course, all the trains from Philly to DC that day were not running anyway so there was a lot of figuring out what to do. I was just happy we were getting off at DC and since they had canceled the golf tournament we were going to go to that day; it didn't really matter to us. At 1:00 p.m. we started to move - about 5 mile sections at a time and finally cleared the debris about 2:45 somewhere around Quantico. We arrived in DC at 3:45 p.m. slightly later than intended.
Overall, even though we were extremely late - my daugther and I had an amazing trip! Several general observations - 1) I loved, LOVED being able to just walk onto the train and sit down. No TSA, no getting their 3 hours early, etc. My vacation began the minute that train pulled into Orlando & stress immediately began to leave me. Recently, I have noticed when flying - it takes me several hours after I left my arriving airport to get calmed down from the stress of travel (arrive early, look for parking, TSA - we have very long lines in Orlando, crappy airport food, small seats, etc.). 2) the Food was really enjoyable. It was not Ruth Chris or the Palm; but I enjoyed it very much. 3) it was great getting to spend some quality time with my little girl and finally, 4) the bathroom in the room was a little weird. But we did a good job of stepping in the hallway when the other person needed to use it. 5) my daughter loved the experience. In fact, she talked about it so much - we have changed our Thanksgiving travel plans and now the whole family (wife included) is taking the train North for Thanksgiving. My daughter also cornered my brother (who lives in NYC) and told him that next summer, we (her & I) are taking the train to NYC to see him and the big city. I am very happy my 7 year old pushed for us to try this and in doing so we both had a great time and may have found a special future thing to do together!
In March of this year, we decided to spend half a week in Washington, DC & then the other half of the week at the Delaware beaches. Orginially, we were going to take the Auto Train up and then drive back. But we got a great deal on return flight tickets, so then we had to figure out how to get up there. After talking with my 7 year old daughter, she was disappointed to learn that we were not going to take the train - so her and I decided to take the train; while my wife chose to fly up. I am formerly a seasoned airline traveler - I have collected in the neighborhood of 750K frequent flyer miles - but admittedly got burned out from the travel and now dread going to an airport.
We dropped off Mom at the airport in the morning (she went to school in DC so was going in early to see some friends) and then we took a cab to the train station. We were there about an hour early, scanned our printout, got tickets and waited. The train was about 35 mins late. When it showed up, we boarded car 9812; roomette 001. Our SCA was Jim. After we got settled, Jim stopped by and recommended that we go eat lunch. I was impressed with how roomy the little roomette was. We fit comfortably with two rollerbags, two backpacks & small cooler. As the train left the station, my daughter and I had a great time pointing out the familiar sights as we rolled downed the tracks. We lived about 3 blocks from the tracks, so we saw our favorite ice cream parlor, taco stand, local park we play in, downtown buildings. She was amazed and couldn't take pictures fast enough.
When we finally made it to the dining car for lunch, we were paired with a couple from South Florida who were on their way to Boston and wanted a different way to travel. We had a pleasant conversation and most of revolved around my daughter and what were going to see in DC. For lunch I had the soup & salad and Ansley had the kids pizza. The soup was surprising good (spicey corn & shrimp chowder) and the salad was lettuce. The pizza look okay; my little girl devoured it anyway - cause it's pizza. We then went back to the car, played some card games, did some reading and just general chatting until dinner time.
At dinner, we were paired with a couple who were from Lakeland and headed to Canada for the week. This was their third train trip and they really loved to travel this way. For dinner, my daughter had the Steak and I had crabcakes. Growing up on crabcakes I was hesitant but the Crabcakes had Tom Douglas's name attached to them and he is one of my more favorite chefs; so I rolled the dice. I was extremely impressed. Were they the best I have ever had - no; but they were far from the worst and I would gladly order them again. My daughter's steak was cooked perfectly and had great flavor. I barely had finished cutting it up before she finished it off. I had the half bottle of wine (which was Coppola) and it was excellent as well.
We went back to the room and visited until about 8 and then Jim turned it into sleeping quarters - although I left my seats up. My daughter loved the upper bunk. She watched a movie on her ipad and I had a beer or 3 from our cooler, read a little bit & toyed around with scanner (that I had from going to Nascar races). There wasn't too much interesting to listen to on that - although I am not sure quite what I expected to hear anyway. She passed out about 10 p.m. and easily slept throught the night. I went to sleep about 11 and woke once or twice - we were swaying a bit around 2 am and the whistle woke me up a couple times; but overall it was very comfortable.
I set the alarm for 6:45 so we would have time to be packed up before arriving at 7:21 and assumed we would just skip breakfast although we were about 1.5 hours behind schedule. When we woke up at 7ish, we were stopped somewhere south of Fredricksburg, VA. They had horrible storms and tornados (June 30 - I'm sure people remember) that had gone through the night before and there were down powerlines, limbs and debris all over the track. So we went back to sleep for an hour and then headed to the diner for breakfast. We were paired with the same couple that we shared dinner with which was great. They were very excited to hear about how my daughter was enjoying her trip. She had pancakes & I had the special - corned beef hash & scrambled eggs. I was impressed with was real corned beef and not something out of a can. Afterwards we headed back to our car and the waiting began. We didn't for move for about 3 hours. Then they moved us only up to a station so people get off and stretch their legs. The problem was it was still 100 degrees outside and that was just uncomfortable. Needless to say, the scanner was now a hotbed of activity - chatting with clearing crews, talking to other freight trains etc. We just chilled in our room. Ansley wanted to be in the top bunk & watched another movie and I watched the opening stage of the Tour De France. Needless to say, we were both making the best of it.
Around 12:30, we got the call for lunch. By this time they only had a handful of things left to offer. It was a hodge podge of breakfast, lunch & dinner items. We were once again paired with our same couple (unplanned but nice regardless). I had the soup (they were out of salad, my daughter had the mac & cheese and the other couple had burger and the kids mac & cheese. At first they weren't going to serve him the mac & cheese because of limited kids meals on the train - but in the end the waitress decided this was special circumstances and she would make the exception. None of us were really hungry; but bored so we went to eat because it was something to do. Most of the conversation had to do with their alternate plans, they were going to spend the night in NYC and take the train tomorrow since they missed their connection anyway. You could tell people this was wearing on people. Several people asked to get off at random stops & the conductors accommodated them. One girl was visably upset - she was going to miss a wedding; although I would think you wouldn't want to cut your travel that close. I-95 was a parking lot of traffic (according to the news) so I am not sure what they were going to gain. Of course, all the trains from Philly to DC that day were not running anyway so there was a lot of figuring out what to do. I was just happy we were getting off at DC and since they had canceled the golf tournament we were going to go to that day; it didn't really matter to us. At 1:00 p.m. we started to move - about 5 mile sections at a time and finally cleared the debris about 2:45 somewhere around Quantico. We arrived in DC at 3:45 p.m. slightly later than intended.
Overall, even though we were extremely late - my daugther and I had an amazing trip! Several general observations - 1) I loved, LOVED being able to just walk onto the train and sit down. No TSA, no getting their 3 hours early, etc. My vacation began the minute that train pulled into Orlando & stress immediately began to leave me. Recently, I have noticed when flying - it takes me several hours after I left my arriving airport to get calmed down from the stress of travel (arrive early, look for parking, TSA - we have very long lines in Orlando, crappy airport food, small seats, etc.). 2) the Food was really enjoyable. It was not Ruth Chris or the Palm; but I enjoyed it very much. 3) it was great getting to spend some quality time with my little girl and finally, 4) the bathroom in the room was a little weird. But we did a good job of stepping in the hallway when the other person needed to use it. 5) my daughter loved the experience. In fact, she talked about it so much - we have changed our Thanksgiving travel plans and now the whole family (wife included) is taking the train North for Thanksgiving. My daughter also cornered my brother (who lives in NYC) and told him that next summer, we (her & I) are taking the train to NYC to see him and the big city. I am very happy my 7 year old pushed for us to try this and in doing so we both had a great time and may have found a special future thing to do together!
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