Around the World on Amtrak, KLM, and HAL

Thank you. First time Panama Canal? Enjoy!!

 

Roy

Yes! Bucket list item; can't wait!

Just woke up in Richmond VA. Computer ate part of my post so final update will be rather delayed. Just one more state to go.

Roy

Just woke up in Richmond VA. Computer ate part of my post so final update will be rather delayed. Just one more state to go.

 

Roy

Oh uggh on losing your update Roy. Sorry to hear it :(

At least you appear to have wifi though.

Not long to go and you will be home. :)

Hope the train trip is enjoyable.

Thanks for taking us along on your great trip, enjoyed reading about it.

Allan

Just woke up in Richmond VA. Computer ate part of my post so final update will be rather delayed. Just one more state to go.

 

Roy

Roy,

Luckily you are on today's #98, yesterday's [Nov 19 departure] had all kinds of delays between Winter Park and Deland - arriving in Richmond the next morning about 09:30.

You even pick the right train day, ;p

I have enjoyed this whole trip. Thank you

Carole

Thanks all. I'll have more later but the bottom line is I walked in my door about 10AM.

Day Pplus2, Monday, November 20, 2017, Board Silver Meteor, Miami

The Oosterdam is in Aruba. The Amsterdam is at sea from Cairns to Brisbane. The Prinsendam is at sea from Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas, USVI.

It was very dark at 5AM. I did some last minute computer work and final packing for the last stage of my trip and then headed down for a quick breakfast soon after service started at 6. Since I expected breakfast to be served on the train all I got was a little bacon and took a carton of milk along. I left the room about 6:40 and had the bellman call a cab. There is a bus but the service is only once an hour and I didn’t want to risk a missed connection. The ride is about 15 minutes and I arrived at the station soon after it’s 7AM opening. The station may have actually opened before that as there was already quite a crowd.

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When I returned from my walk they had started boarding passengers who needed assistance. Next up was sleeping car passengers and I was the first in line. In previous years the sleeping cars have been at the front of the train and a golf cart was used to ferry us there. Today we are at the rear with just the baggage car behind us and I just stepped aboard. I was onboard about 7:55 for an 8:10 departure. It had been a very cloudy morning and it started to drizzle as we left.

We passed Port Everglades about 8:45. My view was better from the top deck of the Tri-Rail train but I THINK I got a momentary glance at the docked Crystal Serenity; I’ll board her there in 46 days. The dining car had opened as soon as we left the station but I waited until after Ft. Lauderdale to go up. Most of my meals came from the kids menu, for breakfast they are the same as the main menu but smaller portions; even so I skipped most of the breads. My first breakfast was a scrambled egg with sausage and potatoes.

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The route through Florida is not really scenic. It’s a mix of swamp land, agricultural land and an occasional lake. Lunch came approaching Winter Haven; the kids macaroni and cheese, no match for the Prinsendam’s. My failing memory of Florida caused me to miss one of the sights I was expecting, Bok Tower Gardens. I remembered Lake Wales as being north of Winter Haven but in reality it was south and it was gone before I started thinking about it. From about West Palm Beach north the skys were mostly sunny.

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We stopped for construction near Kissimmee; it looked like commuter platforms, probably extending from Orlando. My mother spent most of her last 20 years at a retirement village near Kissimmee; I got a brief glimpse of the complex through the trees as we passed. We left Kissimmee later than our scheduled time to leave Orlando, over 45 minutes behind schedule.

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Rather than making up time in Orlando we got further behind. I did get to walk almost to the front of the train.

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I did get sort of a view of the sunset near Jacksonville. We made a little bit of time at that service stop but we were over an hour behind at Savannah (and still are Tuesday morning).

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For dinner I skipped the kids menu and ordered the signature steak. Meals are less course by course than on cruise ships so my collage includes breakfast and lunch. I turned off the lights about 10,

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Today’s parting shot will border on a rant. Amtrak has a new station in Miami, well not so new, it was completed about 2015. It’s in the multimodal complex, a 5 minute walk from the Sheraton, but it just sits there. Due to miscommunication between the city and Amtrak, the platform is just a little bit too short. It’s actually fine for most trains but in peak season a few trains are just a couple of cars too long and front of the train would block 25th street. Several solutions have been proposed and even partly implemented but then complications developed and work that had begun was undone. The latest official word (early this year) was that the station would be open late in 2017, but there seem to be no viable plans to make it happen. If the station were there I could have easily walked across the street from the hotel. Let’s get this done.

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Roy

Day Pplus3, Tuesday, November 21, 2017, Return home

The Oosterdam is at sea from Aruba to the Panama Canal. The Amsterdam is at sea from Cairns to Brisbane. The Prinsendam is in St. Thomas, USVI.

I woke up about 5:30 in Richmond VA. We should have left there at 4:30. It appears that the Silver Meteor has wifi in the café car but not in the train as a whole. I had some laptop issues and was not quite ready to post when I was in the lounge and didn’t post the first day’s report until after I was home.

I was early in the diner just after 6:30 for a pancake breakfast. Soon after I entered a rising sun started whizzing through the trees.

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We had the usual stop in Washington to change from diesel to electric power, leaving Washington after we should have arrived in Baltimore. There was a bit of a chill in the air but it was not bad.

The last leg of the trip went very quickly with speeds at times of over 100 mph, while on diesel power we never exceeded 80. We pulled into Baltimore Penn Station at 9:15 and my checked bag arrived 10 minutes later. The airport shuttle had not been outside the train station when I first arrived but was waiting for me when I went out with the checked bag.

I walked in my door just about 10 AM to an empty fridge but a very full mailbox, both in front of the house and my primary mail spot at the UPS store. I guess my parting shot is the trip is great but the aftermath can be a bit daunting.

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Roy.

Must be nice to finally be home. As much as we enjoy travelling it's always nice to be back home. If you're not in a hurry travelling by train is a great way to get around.

Allan

Glad to hear you are safely home! I have really enjoyed following your journey. Can you say a little more about your next cruise on Crystal? Where do you embark and how long is your trip? It must take some time to sort through all the mail! I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving. While I wish I could travel like you I know I have much to be thankful for!

Why do you prefer taking the train rather than flying? What are the Amtrack pros and cons based upon your extensive experience?

Love Wegmans.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Welcome home Roy! I am a big fan of Amtrak too. Did a cross-continent trek in 1999 (San Diego->LA->San Fran (Oakland)->Chicago->DC) which was a lot of fun (another bucket list item for me) and most recently took it home from Boston from my Veendam cruise in May. Very convenient for me because the train stops five minutes from my mom's place in CT and here Union Station in DC is convenient enough for me.

Thanks again for your reportage and enjoy some downtime while you prepare for the world cruise!

Welcome home Roy:D

You're right. When you've been away for a while, what awaits you can be quite daunting. Just take one bite out of the elephant at a time ;)

Thanks for your wonderful thread. It has been so much fun travelling vicariously through you. :)

Glad you have arrived home safely.

Enjoyed reading about your train adventure getting home.

Loved the pictures.

Loved reading about your trip, Roy. I have done a bit of travelling on Amtrak - it's the easiest way now to get from Vancouver, BC to Eugene, Oregon, where my brother and his family live. I also did the Vancouver to San Diego trip on Amtrak - it was great doing the overnight in the sleeper car. Looking forward to your trip report on Crystal.

Why do you prefer taking the train rather than flying? What are the Amtrack pros and cons based upon your extensive experience?

I find Amtrak a very pleasant way to travel with ample room, decent meals in the dining car and a lot more interesting and relaxing compared to being confined to a tiny seat in an airplane. The vacation starts the moment I step on the train while I find almost all flights an ordeal to be endured.

The downsides of the train is that it does take extra time and there are fewer choices of departure times and routes.

Roy

Glad to hear you are safely home! I have really enjoyed following your journey. Can you say a little more about your next cruise on Crystal? Where do you embark and how long is your trip? It must take some time to sort through all the mail! I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving. While I wish I could travel like you I know I have much to be thankful for!

Crystal is doing something a little different next year. They have both ships doing world cruises, and when the ships meet in Sydney February 17 we have the option of continuing the cruise on the opposite ship.

Crystal Symphony's cruise is Cape town to Ft. Lauderdale, while Serenity's is Los Angeles to Rome.

I'm switching ships in Sydney, so my option is Los Angeles to Ft. Lauderdale going across via Hawaii to Sydney, and then around New Zealand and through Tahiti to Valparaiso, then up the South American west coast to the Panama Canal and Ft. Lauderdale. I've added the Serenity's prior voyage, Ft. Lauderdale to Los Angeles before hand, making it a 115-day round trip out of Ft. Lauderdale.

Ironically, my cruise ends just a couple days after the HAL World Cruise, and the Symphony goes back through the Panama Canal to California. Since the Amsterdam goes into drydock after the WC, several people on the HAL WC will get on the Symphony as I get off and continue on their way home. I think it will be a big year for World Cruise blogs.

Roy

Thank you for all the other comments I can't find it (missing CC's search function) but I think somebody asked about languages. Sadly, I don't speak other languages. I can get by reasonably well in places where at least the character set is familiar, but make my way very gingerly in places like Japan or even Russia.

Roy

I don't think Wordpress likes me (maybe it knows I use blogspot;p). I left two comments that never appeared on your blog.:confused: I can't remember what the first one was but the second was asking if you planned on taking the train for your world cruise in January.

I don't think Wordpress likes me (maybe it knows I use blogspot;p). I left two comments that never appeared on your blog.:confused: I can't remember what the first one was but the second was asking if you planned on taking the train for your world cruise in January.

Kathi, did you give 2 different email addresses on various comments. The way wordpress works is that when a new person comments it is held back until I approve it, then subsequent comments from that person appear automatically. I see several of your comments (attached to an aol email address) appeared in the blog. I remember getting the comment about the train but can't see it now. Is it possible that you used a different email when making that comment and that I got distracted by something else as I was about to approve it? Otherwise, I'm having trouble imagining what would have allowed some comments to get through and not others.

I should add that I am flying both to and from the World Cruise. With a 4-month cruise I decided that I needed a few days before hand for Fire Department Tax stuff and needed to be back ASAP for a cancer treatment. Southwest has about a dozen flights a day from Baltimore while there are only 2 trains, so that makes the connection a bit more flexible in case of bad weather.

Roy

No they were all from the AOL account. When the first one disappeared I thought maybe I had typed it but forgot to click on "Post Comment" so when I wrote the one about the train, I made sure I posted it correctly. I remembered that the first one I posted that disappeared was on the day that you posted the cabin pictures on that site.

Very strange!

Oops! I found the missing comments in the spam folder. I must have gotten one of your comments the same day as a spam comment and marked the wrong one, and then wordpress would have delivered any more of your comments to spam. Can't believe I did that.

Roy

Sounds like you have another very busy itinerary ahead. Looking forward to following along again. Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

Allan

As a fellow solo traveler, I have several times taken advantage of your experience and good advice. My next cruise is the 2018 Grand Asia. Can you tell me about ac/heat on the Amsterdam? Are the cabin thermostats fairly responsive? I have read of pax needing fans in their cabins in warmer latitudes. Also, are the public spaces frigid? Thanks for any info.

PS: Great to know that I am not the only traveler who rises at 5:00 AM every day and looks forward to catching the sunrise at sea.

I enjoyed following your posts Roy. Thank you for your time and efforts. I look forward to your next trip. Welcome home!