Train from NYC to Miami

[logcabin]

My wife and I are from NJ and cruise out of NYC. Neither one of us will fly anymore. We have been on the Dawn 7 day cruise (Great cruise and ship), Nordic Empress to Bermuda (Great cruise), and Carnival Triumph to Canada (won't do Carnival again).

 

The question is that we are kind of running out of cruise choices out of NY. We may try the VOS out of NJ next summer, but not thrilled with the itinerary. Can anyone give me info on taking the train from NY/NJ down to Florida. Things such as "is there one"?, costs, Pros and cons, etc. Or, anyone have a web site I can go to for more info.

 

We can only cruise in the summer since my wife is a teacher. Private school, so she gets out about 2 weeks before other schools. So, we tend to cruise as soon as she gets out to avoid lots of children.

 

Thanks for your help.

[Guest cruzr44]

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage

 

I was just checking that myself this past week.

[CarolGS]

Yes, you can take an Amtrak train http://www.amtrak.com which will take you a day and a half each way. Fares are around $400 pp rt before discounts for seniors, AAA members and other promotions. (It will be more expensive if you get a sleeper.) Have you also considered cruises out of Bayonne, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Norfolk? They would be a relatively easy day drive from the NY area.

[DannyS]

Yes, it can be done, but it is a very long trip. I did it once, and I'll never do it again.

 

Keep in mind that the train can experience very long delays. Don't be surprised to get there 4 hours after the published time. I looked at the trains from this past week here: http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak ( You want trains 91 or 97 from NYC to MIA) and they were all late between 1 and 4 hours.

 

Also, there isn't much by way of facilities on the train. Food is comparable to airline food - not very good. (And an additional cost, unless you pay for space in a sleeper car) Some of the sleeper cars might have facilities to shower, but then you start talking about adding a lot to the cost.

 

A regular seat is about the same as a first class seat on an airplane, it is wide with decent legroom, but it doesn't recline very far, so sleeping is uncomfortable. (Plus, the train stops aboout once an hour even during the overnight segments - so you may be awakened by new passengers boarding.)

 

A regular seat also costs about as much as an airplane ticket (probably more, since there are very cheap fares between the NYC area and Florida) so you won't save much money either.

 

I'd face whatever issues I had with flying before even thinking about the train.

[TWELVEOHONE]

This past summer I took teh Auto Train from Lauton VA to Stantford FL.

Virginia station is about 10 minutes out of DC and Stantfort is just northest of Orlando. Train leaves about 4:00pm and you are in Floriday by 8:30am next morning.

 

My train was about 6-hours late due to track problems so you better allow for this possibility. I believe that Miami is about three and a half hours drive from Orlando.