All about the Autotrain

[MikeF;NJ]

Thanks for the input! I always hesitate to commit, but we really want a superliner bedroom so I probably should do it sooner rather than later. If they do end up price adjusting if it drops then bonus. It's just it's around $500 more than we spent last year, with something like $70 of the difference being due to the higher priority offloading and auto fee so that amount is to be expected.

I rode this past july. I was unable to get priority offloading the day I went, but I thought the fee was $50, but it might have been $30. Now it's $60. I checked my receipt, and the fare for the car was $198. This summer, it's $202. As far as the fare for the bedroom, have you checked alternate days? You might find a cheaper rate on a close date. (FYI, I rode business class. Fare this summer is unchanged at $61 above coach fare. In business, each person got their own two-seat row, and the opposite side was not occupied. There was a family of eight, I think, in the front of the car all with alternating rows for seating. Dining was with the sleeper car passengers.)

 

[ninafeliz]

Looking to book roundtrip in June, and the prices for a superliner bedroom are somewhat higher than what we paid last August, which we did book a lot closer to the trip. What are the prices likely to do? Do they just go up from here, so I should book as soon as we are ready to commit, or will they fluctuate and it might drop if I wait and watch. If they do drop considerably, will they price adjust if you call (I kind of doubt it, but thought I would ask)? I also noticed that the auto price and the priority offloading price had apparently gone up since august.

Quoting myself just to give an update. Around a week ago I checked and noticed that the fares had dropped to about the same (assuming my memory is accurate!) as they were last August. The price for taking our vehicle dropped around $50 and the total price for 2 adults, 2 kids (and 2 free infants) in a superliner bedroom with priority offloading round trip in June dropped around $500. The price of priority offloading did go up $10 each way from last August. Also, the cancellation policy changed and is now much worse. Last year we could get all but $100 back if we cancelled something like at least 15 days out. Now we can only get 75% of the fare back if we cancel greater than 15 days prior, and you get 75% of the fare in vouchers if you cancel less than 15 days out. So now we lose around $625 if something happens. I'm thinking about looking into trip insurance which we usually don't do.

 

[princessfionasmom]

We are taking the auto train for the first time on April 14th. I called to ask about disability rooms because my husband is on oxygen and we need to bring his bi-pap as well. The person on the phone said we wouldn't fit because there is 3 of us which is fine but I was very pleasantly surprised when she gave me a price for a bedroom what was a whole lot cheaper than what I found on the website. The website makes me book two room for the 3 of us, DD is 14 but the woman on the phone just booked us one room. I certainly didn't think calling would save me money lol.

Does anyone know where I can find map of the bedrooms and their layout? Since we have the car number an room, I was hoping to find some pics online.

 

[RedSox68]

We are taking the auto train for the first time on April 14th. I called to ask about disability rooms because my husband is on oxygen and we need to bring his bi-pap as well. The person on the phone said we wouldn't fit because there is 3 of us which is fine but I was very pleasantly surprised when she gave me a price for a bedroom what was a whole lot cheaper than what I found on the website. The website makes me book two room for the 3 of us, DD is 14 but the woman on the phone just booked us one room. I certainly didn't think calling would save me money lol.

Does anyone know where I can find map of the bedrooms and their layout? Since we have the car number an room, I was hoping to find some pics online.

You will be much happier with the bedroom. The handicap room is over the axle and we had a very rough and miserable ride in that room. Very odd planning.

Sleeping accommodations: https://www.amtrak.com/onboard.html

 

[GrnMtnMan]

July and August room and vehicle prices are down. I see above that Ninafeliz saw this a few days ago. My northbound trip is in Mid-August and it hadn't come down until yesterday (or at least my date hadn't come down). I checked several dates and saw a wide range of prices for rooms - southbound looks to be more expensive. Vehicles all seem to be $202, but as of today Roomettes are as low as $253, bedrooms at $443, and I saw a couple dates with a family bedroom at $379, but most dates were $514. These are all including the AAA discount.

 

[princessfionasmom]

Are any of the romettes near bedrooms? We need to add a roomette for DS17 for our trip in April, it would be nice if he can be close to us.

ETA: If he's in a roomette does that mean he can come visit our room? When I called and booked the rest of us I wasn't sure if he was coming so I asked about adding a seat later for him if he does decide to go. The person on the phone mentioned that if he's is a seat he can't come visit our room.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

Are any of the romettes near bedrooms? We need to add a roomette for DS17 for our trip in April, it would be nice if he can be close to us.

ETA: If he's in a roomette does that mean he can come visit our room? When I called and booked the rest of us I wasn't sure if he was coming so I asked about adding a seat later for him if he does decide to go. The person on the phone mentioned that if he's is a seat he can't come visit our room.

There’s signage that says something to the effect of ‘sleeper passengers only beyond this point’ but there’s nobody checking. I’ve walked the train before when I was in a sleeper, to check out coach and the the other dining car and lounge, so he probably could walk to you.

And yes, there are roomettes near bedrooms. Here’s the floor plan of a typical sleeper:

 

[Andythefox]

All roomettes are in the sleeper section so you will have no problem visiting each other.

 

[WDWLODGE]

I apologize because I know it has probably been discussed on this thread somewhere, but I don't have time to go through all 187 pages, lol! I just booked the northbound Auto Train for our trip in September at a pretty decent rate. I decided to book lower level coach seats. My DW is concerned about the smell from the bathrooms. Is it really that bad? How noticeable is it? She has a pretty good sense of smell.

 

[Andythefox]

We have rode the lower level several times and never experienced any smell from the bathrooms. There is a door between the compartment and the bathroom area anyway. Also, you may get lucky and have the entire lower level section to yourselves.

 

[ninafeliz]

I have been periodically watching the prices for December because we are considering a trip then. When I checked today I saw that the AAA child and adult rates have been removed. I did a quick google search, and it looks like Amtrak eliminated the AAA discount. I'm not actually sure how much we saved on the superliner bedroom with AAA, but I sure hate to see my only discount option go away.

In addition, for December (over Christmas), the superliner bedroom is around $1000 more each way than we have paid in summer, but the family bedroom is just slightly more. Does anyone have any info on whether that should drop, or are they always a lot more over the holidays and the family bedrooom will likely follow suit and go that high as well? I don't think it went up because the rooms sold, because I was waiting for the dates to open up and looked very shortly after they became available to book, and the prices were already like that.

 

[Minniemouse07]

I have been periodically watching the prices for December because we are considering a trip then. When I checked today I saw that the AAA child and adult rates have been removed. I did a quick google search, and it looks like Amtrak eliminated the AAA discount. I'm not actually sure how much we saved on the superliner bedroom with AAA, but I sure hate to see my only discount option go away.

We are traveling on the AT in July and was able to use our AAA discount when I booked in January. I just went in and checked for the same dates and the AAA discount option was not available.

FWIW, we have always traveled on the AT in the regular seats and found them comfortable. When we opt for these, it keeps the costs down to less than airplane tickets!!!

 

[princessfionasmom]

On the train heading south! The train departed 10 mins early, nice treat. We almost missed the train. We got here at 2:25pm and I thought for sure we were not going to get on because I’ve read they’ve cut people off at 2pm. I was so happy to be created by some really nice gentlemen who assured me we were on time and could get on the train. We left south of Boston. This am at 4am and I seriously thought I had enough time but boy was I wrong. The traffic was an absolute nightmare. Next time we’ll either drive down the night before or leave by midnight. The stress was unbearable. We checked in and boarded immediately as the sleeper cars had already started boarding. We’re in car 5441 room D. It is such a nice treat to have a room and our own toilet. A note on the toilet it is so small, I am not a small girl usually wear a size 14 and it’s tight. DH is 6” and skinny and it’s tight for him too. But it’s better than not having one. I’ll post some pics of our room. Our train is not full, we got the 5pm diner time when we checked in and we were probably one of the last people check in. Maybe the later one is more popular but both were available for my family of 4. I don’t think I could do this again and not do the room, it’s so nice to have our own space and it’s quiet. Our cabin attendant is Jim, super nice guy and very informative.

 

[Andythefox]

We took that train back in the opposite direction on Saturday. Every seat booked with snowbirds returning home. Got in to Lorton around 7:30am Sunday morning and hat to wait until 8:15 to deboard. Other than the crew change in Florence, I do not recall the train ever stopping.

 

[kittylady1972]

After a long hiatus, we are considering an AutoTrain trip for our July vacation to WDW. I think we're going to attempt to go 'steerage' (lower level at least) to save some money. Kinda looking forward to the train again!

 

[Minniemouse07]

After a long hiatus, we are considering an AutoTrain trip for our July vacation to WDW. I think we're going to attempt to go 'steerage' (lower level at least) to save some money. Kinda looking forward to the train again!

I purchased our July AT tickets back in January, they are probably significantly higher now. :-(

We sit in the regular seats every trip. I prefer the upper level though.

 

[DJFan88]

I purchased our July AT tickets back in January, they are probably significantly higher now. :-(

We sit in the regular seats every trip. I prefer the upper level though.

We purchased then as well and we leave the last week of June returning later the first week in July. The cost is about $100 higher now than we paid,, but it is due to the June date, the July one was still the same. We sit in the regular seats as well, the prices on the other room options were significantly higher than booking those, like now for about $500 extra for the roomette (both ways) - that's significant! We also ride the upper level, it's really not that big of a deal to ride those seats, they stretch back pretty good. $500 is much better spent in my opinion, exp. since a roomette is "not roomy", lol.

 

[kittylady1972]

I purchased our July AT tickets back in January, they are probably significantly higher now. :-(

We sit in the regular seats every trip. I prefer the upper level though.

We purchased then as well and we leave the last week of June returning later the first week in July. The cost is about $100 higher now than we paid,, but it is due to the June date, the July one was still the same. We sit in the regular seats as well, the prices on the other room options were significantly higher than booking those, like now for about $500 extra for the roomette (both ways) - that's significant! We also ride the upper level, it's really not that big of a deal to ride those seats, they stretch back pretty good. $500 is much better spent in my opinion, exp. since a roomette is "not roomy", lol.

I think they are about $115 each now (North to South only) for the seats, vehicle about $200. This was last minute...so to avoid driving with July 4th traffic it will be worth it for us. There are 6 of us in the travel party. We liked lower level since people didn't walk through and we felt like we had our own little room, shared with just a few others at most. We've done roomettes and bedrooms before as well and liked them, but not willing to fork over the extra money for them this trip. So as my husband likes to call it "steerage" it will be for us!

 

[ninafeliz]

Does anyone know of a hotel that will legitimately sleep 6 people that is either at the same exit as the autotrain (like the comfort inn that we used last time), or, alternatively, if that doesn't exist, is close enough that there is an easy back way to get there that avoids getting back on the highway? We will get there the night before (very late) to make absolutely sure we don't run into traffic issues, so we want to be as close as possible to the station just to avoid any traffic issues at all the day we leave. We would use the comfort inn again, it isn't nice but it was sufficient, but since our twins are 14 months now I don't know if they would allow us to stay in one room like they did last year, and we would prefer not to have to pay for 2 since we wouldn't use the second room anyway, it would likely sit empty and we would all stay in 1.

 

[MikeF;NJ]

I don't know how helpful this is, but the closest I could find that would actually accept 6 is a Comfort Suites in Woodbridge VA, about 7 miles from the Lorton exit (near the Potomac Mills mall). (I stayed at a Best Western at that exit when I rode the auto train.) The room is a suite with 2 double beds and a sofa bed which sleeps 2. When I stayed for my trip, I went back up 95 to get the train, but if you really want to avoid it, according to the map, US 1 (Jefferson Davis Highway) is easy to get to and runs up to the end of Lorton Road. No idea what traffic on that would be like, though.