Taking Amtrak

[Sprucetree]

Has anyone else taken, or planning to take Amtrak from their home location to the NCL port city? I'm planning to do this and would like to know of your experience.

[ColinIllinois]

Has anyone else taken, or planning to take Amtrak from their home location to the NCL port city? I'm planning to do this and would like to know of your experience.

 

 

I looked into taking the train from St Louis to Miami but quickly changed my mind when I saw it would take me about two days of travel.

[LAWTONCRUISE]

I looked into taking the train from St Louis to Miami but quickly changed my mind when I saw it would take me about two days of travel.

We are taking AMTRAK from Virginia to Orlando in Jan 2012. We will overnight each way in a Viewliner Roomette. You can schedule a shuttle pickup to and from the station just like the airport. We're looking forward to not having to hassle with the airlines, security, etc.

[swedish weave]

A few years ago, our TA booked us on Amtrak from Los Angeles to Orlando for a cruise back through Panama to Los Angeles. The four days on the train were wonderful !! Relaxing and the service was excellent. We met several of our fellow cruisers who had the same pakage, and had a great time !!!

[ecclectic-eccentric]

We've not taken the train to a cruise, but have incorporated it into long distance travel/vacation a couple of times and have absolutely loved it! The best part for me is that on a longish trip, you can take a ridiculous amount of baggage along at no extra expense. (For example, we were traveling to New Orleans and had read that our hotel's balconies didn't have any furniture on them, so I actually packed a couple of the little golf folding chairs in a great big suitcase, along with a lot of other non-essential, but nice to have items.) You can also pack as many liquids as you want in your carry-on in whatever amount as you wish. In fact, if you're traveling in a sleeper compartment, you can even take your own adult beverages as long as you consume them in the privacy of your own compartment.

 

Fair warning, if you think cruise ship cabins are tiny, be prepared for the most incredibly small spaces you can imagine in an Amtrak sleeper compartment. There is not an inch of space wasted! The "roomettes" have two seats that face each other, and DH and I had to angle our legs along side of each other the seats were so close. We still loved it though, and there are lots of public spaces like the lounge car where you can have a little more leg room. The bedrooms with en suite toilet/shower are roomier, but also more expensive. One nice perk of sleeper compartments is that your meals in the dining car are included, and I've usually found them to be really pretty good. If you'll be spending a night or two on the train, be sure to pack a small bag with your essentials for that time as there's not room for your full baggage in your compartment.

 

ee

[PFV]

We live in Connecticut and have done the Amtrak route about 6 times. The latest being this past May. We like the train and smile as we pass the traffic jams on I-95! We then get a cab to the pier. Fare with tip will cost you about $20.00. Planning on it again next May.

 

Paul

[swedish weave]

We use Amtrak when sailing out of San Diego. The old Santa Fe station is where Amtrak stops and is about two blocks from the cruise ship docks. Really handy and a nice ride from the Los Angeles area.

[Sam The Cat]

I take Amtrak from Buffalo to NYP for my cruises. I spend the night in

Albany and catch an early train to NYP arriving around 1030a. As far as the return trip if not to expensive I take the 3pm train from NYP with a sleeper to Buffalo which is about a 8 hour trip but I can relex and have a "free dinner" on the train

[momoftwinteens]

We are planning on taking the AMTRAK from Albany, NY to NYC for our cruise in November. Even though I live 3 hours from Albany, the train from my home would be 9 hours with an overnight in NYC. So, we decided to overnight in Albany instead and take the early train the next morning. Much less expensive plus, AMTRAK offers an AAA discount and NCL also offers an AMTRAK discount. When our cruise is over, we plan on hanging around NYC for the day before taking a later train home.

[Kristi Williamson]

We plan to take the Amtrak from Columbia, SC to Miami in Mar. of 2012. Can't wait!

 

Someone said NCL had discounts for this? If so, what are they and how do we get them?

 

Thanks!

[Husney]

We actually take the commuter rail to North Station then the T-subway to South Station and then there is a great shuttle bus that takes you right to the ship. If you take Amtrak into South Station this is very convenient. The shuttle takes all of 10-15 minutes.

[gma_pat]

We are booked to take Amtrak from NYC to Tampa for our April 2012 repo. The discount codes currently available will not work for tickets for travel next year. The new discount codes usually come out in Oct (per Amtrak CS), however the prices of the tickets have already increased by 100 dollars from when the originally posted (May) so I booked without waiting for the code. The price was about the same as one way air travel when booking a sleeper however the travel time .... 26 hours.... whew :confused:... DH is excited as he loves train travel... me however - not to sure but am giving it a try. Thanks for the reveiws for those who have done this previously - makes me feel a little better :D

[garycarla]

Has anyone else taken, or planning to take Amtrak from their home location to the NCL port city? I'm planning to do this and would like to know of your experience.

 

It would sure make a difference, possibly a VERY MAJOR difference if you were to include the city pairs that you are looking at.

[bonvoyagie]

On our very first cruise (2002) we took Amtrak from Portland (OR) to Seattle - it takes the same amount of time as driving I5 but without the chance of hitting a traffic jam. DW does not like to get up early so we went up a day early and stayed in a Hotel. BTW the Seattle station (King Street) is close to the docks and where the Seahawks and Mariners play. We enjoyed the scenery and the relaxed travel. At that time the downtown area had a flat rate on taxi service - $15.00 anywhere in the downtown area. So we spent $30.00 getting to the hotel and then to the ship.

 

Our second AK cruise we took the kids and drove I5 on the same day as the ship left - mistake. We got caught in a traffic jam in South Seattle - thanks to some good map work from my DW we were able to get off the freeway and take surface streets to the docks.

 

We are planning our third AK cruise next summer and will probably take the train and hotel it again - got some more credit card points to use.

 

Also here on the west coast it is not uncommon for long distance trains to run several hours late so that is another reason to plan on leaving a day early. It is also possible that due to weather conditions (like this spring/summer) that certain trains are not running at all - the Empire Builder is just now running again. There were several slides that blocked the tracks between Portland and Seattle this spring. I know that Amtrak uses busses for getting around these problems (when it can) but that takes the enjoyment out of travel as they have to fight the same traffic.

 

With so many options on the East Coast for train travel I suspect that it would be much easier to reach a port city of say Boston or New York - even Miami. The biggest problem I see with Amtrak service is that 99% of the time you have to go through Chicago to go from coast to coast.

[HelliCap]

How do you guys do that? I just looked at Amtrak.com, from my home in Texas to Miami FL, is over $1000 and I have to go to Chicago, change trains, go to Washington and change trains again. It dosen't sound fun or cheap.

[Cruise_More_Often]

We just took the Amtrak Cascades train from Vancouver to Seattle, and it was wonderful. We're planning it again for next May.

 

Flying out of Vancouver is almost twice as expensive as flying out of Seattle, so we really appreciated the savings.

 

If I were retired (or had more time off), I would definitely be traveling longer distances by train.

[flowers44]

My husband and I took Amtrak from Rochester, NY to NYC for a 7 day Bermuda cruise from Manhatten. We traveled the day before cruise departure because Amtrak is known for it's late arrivals. We stayed at the Pennsylvanian Hotel across from Grand Central. On the day we sailed, we took a cab to the pier. It cost about $15 and boarded the ship. On the day we returned, we left Grand Central about 1 PM and were home by early evening. We have gone across country 3 times by train and love the relaxed trip. When you buy the sleeping room, your meals are included in the trip. It is a great way to travel and allows you to relax even before your vacation begins. No traffic jams. No parking worries. Great way to start a cruise. I always like to be in place the day before the ship sails just because I am a worry wort about missing the ship.

[Mrs. Chernabog]

We took Amtrak from Raleigh to Orlando last April. It was $160 total for 3 adults and 3 children down and $198 back. We got a one-way rental with Hertz which has a counter right in the Amtrak station. They matched the quote from Budget for $67 for a minivan, GPS included.

[cruisingiwish]

In May 2010 we took Amtrak from Toledo, Ohio to NYP. We enjoyed the trip and would do it again--we had a roomette. The train left Toledo around 2 a.m. and arrived New York around 6 p.m. Meals were included in roomette price. The cost was less than what airline tickets would have been when we took parking and luggage fees into consideration. Parking was free at the train station. We found we had a lot less stress than air travel these days. We'd do it again in an instant providing the price was comparable to air travel and we had the time. On return we were delayed about 4 hours due to an accident on the tracks so we arrived back in Toledo at 10 am rather than 6 am. Not a problem, we got to sleep in a bit and have breakfast before we arrived home.

[OgtMimi]

Has anyone else taken, or planning to take Amtrak from their home location to the NCL port city? I'm planning to do this and would like to know of your experience.

We took the Amtrak Downeaster from Wells, Maine to Boston for our May 27th Boston/Bermuda cruise on the Dawn. We took a taxi from North Station to the Black Falcon Terminal. It was all very painless and stress free. The train left Wells at 8:39 and we were on the Dawn well before noon. (It was the first cruise after drydock, so there wasn't the issue of passengers needing to get off of the ship.)

[scrinchy]

A few years ago we took Amtrak from Philadelphia to Ft Lauderdale. We traveled with two other couples and we had a great time. The only problem we had was getting a cab in Ft Lauderdale. We finally paid a school bus to drive us to our hotel. Memories:D

[buckirj1]

Most of my recent cruises have been from NY, so I've been taking Amtrak from BWI to NYP. From Penn Station, it's just a quick cab ride the pier. The Northeast Corridor is Amtrak's bread and butter, so that route is almost always on time. I like coming into NY the day of the cruise.

[garycarla]

Editorial Comment:

 

I find it amusing that folks are answering a question without answering the question. After all, the only thing that is of any value is going from the one city the Original Poster wants to leave from and going to the ONE CITY the original poster is headed to.

 

All the rest makes for nice reading, but has no impact until the OP tells us more.

 

Does anybody else get a chuckle out of this?

 

Based on some other postings, I am taking a WILD INACCURATE guess that the OP is going from Chicago to Miami. But who knows?

[sharonny]

I take Amtrak from Buffalo to NYP for my cruises. I spend the night in

Albany and catch an early train to NYP arriving around 1030a. As far as the return trip if not to expensive I take the 3pm train from NYP with a sleeper to Buffalo which is about a 8 hour trip but I can relex and have a "free dinner" on the train

 

 

 

We just started talking about this today. We may fly in and train home or Amtrak roundtrip. Coming home on Easter Sunday leaves the flying fares quite high, Amtrak is much less. $386 RT for 4. Cheaper if I thought we could get the 10 am train. Which Buffalo station do you go out/in to? Was looking at Depew. Is there anywhere safe to leave a car for a week?

[Sam The Cat]

We just started talking about this today. We may fly in and train home or Amtrak roundtrip. Coming home on Easter Sunday leaves the flying fares quite high, Amtrak is much less. $386 RT for 4. Cheaper if I thought we could get the 10 am train. Which Buffalo station do you go out/in to? Was looking at Depew. Is there anywhere safe to leave a car for a week?

 

 

I leave my car at Depew which is first Buffalo stop near the airport and about 15 miles from downtown. I have left my car there of the week end and several times for a week with no problems. The station is open about 20 hours a day 7 days a week If on time the last train departs Depew around 1230am and the first train arrives 4:45am There is free parking there I never had a problem except some times parking is hard in the winter due to the amount snow which spaces are lost.

 

Downtown station is a one man station which open around 6am and closes around 4pm and is only open Monday-Friday. Parking is very limited and not in the real good section of town at least when it gets dark