AutoTrain, WDW Resort, and Travel Insurance About This Page:

[jillb]

Jean,

This past August we traveled round-trip on the AutoTrain and stayed at the BWI - I made all of the arrangements myself. We couldn't get travel insurance that covered the entire trip.

If we use your services, can you sell us travel insurance that will cover both the transportation tickets and the hotel accommodations? Also, are you familiar with all of the room types offerred on the AutoTrain?

Thank you! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Jean]

I have to be honest and say I have never done autotrain for a client. The only insurance that I can/would do is directly connected with WDW or any cruise line. Private travel insurance is something I do not get involved in. Most of my clients book room only with 5 day cancellation policy and they book their own air, which insurance could not be bought for or even needed in that case.

[kadterp]

I can help with the Auto Train! [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img] I have taken it the last three years down and was planning to do it again but the prices were a bit high (of course now they are lower AFTER I got the plane tickets!). Watcha need to know?

[jillb]

Kim,
Thanks for your offer - I've actually just returned from an AutoTrain trip. I wanted to know if Jean had any experience with the AutoTrain and what accommodations are available before we decided if we'd ask her to book our next trip.

We loved the AutoTrain and plan to take it home on our next trip! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[kadterp]

How did you get home? I mean duh the Auto Train, but did you stay in a bedroom or not? There are three kinds of bedrooms, Standard (which are small and fit 2 adults), Family (which fit a family of 4 comfy, nice and big) or a Deluxe (which has a shower and potty in it, the others you have to share with the other people with you on the bottom half of the train, which really isnt that bad).
We have only done the family bedroom and I highly recommend it to anyone who has kids and wants to do the Auto Train. The room takes the whole width of the train and there are kids beds and two adult beds. DH and I slept on the bottom while DD slept on the top for the kids beds were a bit too small for her. I love the Auto Train!

[jillb]

We took the AutoTrain down and back.

Our rooms were on the top half of the train (I’ve been told that the noise from the tracks is much louder on the lower level.) We slept in two Deluxe Bedrooms ‘Ensuite’ which means that the wall between the two rooms was folded away creating one open room with four beds, two potty/shower chambers (yes, I showered on the train), two sinks, and two lounge chairs. We have 5 small children (8,7,5,3,18mo) so this arrangement worked wonderfully for us. DS 8 and DD 5 slept in the top bunks, DS 7 and DH slept in one lower bunk and DD3, DD 18mo, and I slept in the other lower bunk (the lower bunk is much larger than the top bunk, so this wasn’t too bad). On our next trip, we won’t all fit in two rooms so we’ll probably arrange a third room in the same car.

The meals were delicious and the waitstaff was very accommodating. We watched Spiderman in the club car after dinner while our beds were being prepared. Everyone slept well on the way down, but on the way back DD 18mo was a bit of a terror [img]graemlins/dizzy.gif[/img] (too much fun in WDW, perhaps?). We were grateful that we were in our own room and not in the general seating area disturbing the other passengers.

The train was 4 hours late going down and 3 hours late coming home (normal arrival time is 8:30 am). On the way down, the tracks were too hot, so the train had to travel at slower than normal speeds. Heading north, the train hit a car that two morons left on the track - it took 2 hours to clear the tracks and file the necessary reports (no one was hurt and the 2 dopes were found and arrested). While the delays did put a bit of a wrench in our plans, it was great to relax in the privacy of our room. Several of our kids even took naps so that they were ready to go when we arrived at the station.

We thoroughly enjoyed our AutoTrain experience! We were grateful that we could leave all of our luggage (clothes for 11 days for 7 people [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] ) packed in our car and just take a couple carry-ons with us. Another great advantage (of any train, not just the AutoTrain) is that it forced us to take a breath and RELAX [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] as our vacation began. We arrived at our destination refreshed and ready to have some fun, not frazzled and exhausted. On the way home, we were happy to leave the driving to someone else – we were wiped out from having fun at WDW.

(I plan to post a brief AutoTrain trip report later today.)