Amtrak Mistakes & Tips | Amtrak Vacation Advice

hey guys welcome back to the channel today we are sharing with you some amtrak mistakes to avoid [Music] the first and biggest mistake that is made all the time we see it on almost every train is timing issues and that would be that you've booked something that you need to get to at the end of your amtrak trip and amtrak trains are pretty notoriously late they're just plan on them being late and you'll save yourself a lot of trouble so you should not be booking anything within a minimum of four to i would say more like eight hours would be safer we generally plan things for the next day so we've made this mistake ourselves we booked a rental car because if you're coming from seattle to chicago you come into downtown chicago and we were going to rent a car when we got there and drive away we rented our car for uh 5 30 which was the last slot they had to get a car and the train got in at six so we had to take an uber to o'hare and then re-rent the car which was more to get from the airport it was a whole thing we lost the whole day going somewhere so we've done it but if you want to save yourself a lot of stress and you know the problem with that is the last two to three hours you're on that train you're checking the time you're contingency plan and you're not enjoying the ride at all so yeah we don't do that anymore we don't book other flights we don't book other trains on the same day we get in we just wait till the next day we enjoy the ride and then if your train gets in a little bit late it's like free time on the train right and you can just enjoy it because they exactly especially if you're in a sleeper car they will give you extra meals right and they'll be you know free meals so now when the train is late we're like oh cool the train's late more time so totally different experience it is it is it takes the stress out of it um i mean even one of the um uh one of our attendants one time said don't ever book you know don't ever have like work or a wedding or a funeral to go to if you're you know you're going on a train and actually he was telling us that someone was on the train was trying to figure out what they were going to do because they were supposed to be in court um after the train ride and it was going to be late and they were kind of freaking out so it's really important that you just kind of keep that in mind knowing that there are issues with the tracks and things like that so um just don't plan things so close to your arrival time because that does change especially in summer because in the summer there will be heat restrictions on a lot of the tracks especially if you're out west and there's absolutely no way they can get there on time because they have to go slower uh so the question you may have then well what if i do that will amtrak help me will they fix the situation and the bottom line is they're pretty helpful as far as that goes uh especially if you've booked everything through them they will definitely do it but if you miss a flight because of it there's nothing they can do on that uh that's just like we didn't get any help for our rental car because we just had right we did that on earth we did that we made that mistake but if you're trying to get to another amtrak train they will figure that out and get you uh totally taken care of so that is just probably the biggest issue you see the biggest kind of rookie mistake uh that people make when they're is tight don't make it too tight yeah um the next one is waiting to buy tickets waiting too long um because the fact of the matter is is a lot of times we think to ourselves well if i wait till it's closer they're gonna put those last few seats up like for sale because they'll want to sell those and and you know sell the train out that is in fact the complete opposite as a matter of fact the closer you get to your departure date the higher the price goes so as the train fills up the price goes up as well so as soon as you know you want to go somewhere you want to go ahead and book that because you're going to get your best price the further out you book your trip yeah they are not gonna be any any last-minute deals on these so uh don't wait to buy them uh even if you're waiting for a sale you're probably gonna get a better deal just booking it well ahead of time so our recommendation is as soon as you know that you want to go book your tickets get them locked in and and that's going to be the best price that you can get another mistake people make if they're traveling on a sleeper car is not knowing which level their room is on and so you know we had this we didn't even know our first time we went on amtrak that there were different levels so if you're on a viewliner there are not different levels there's just one level one but if you're on a super liner and you're in a room at the bedrooms are all on one level the roomettes are the only thing that could be on two levels so you need to be upper level or lower level and we definitely think that the upper level is better uh so you'll get a room number and you'll see that on your ticket and you can kind of check and see what your number is and basically the lower numbers are on the upper level correct and the higher numbers are under 10 above 10 is below under 10 is above and on us on the super liner the only rooms you'll find down there is you'll find four rounds down there 11 12 13 14 and then you'll find the family bedroom on the end and on the other end is the accessible room and then the extra bathrooms and shower are in between so that's all that's down there so one of the reasons why we don't care for being on the bottom is it's a little bit noisier down there because people are coming and going that's where the doors are they're not very far from those rooms so people entering the car and exiting the car are going to be making noise coming in and out just normal noise the luggage rack is there also sometimes people store their luggage on in the car in the sleeper cars and sometimes people want to go get stuff out of their bags for whatever reason and so there's noise from that and then of course people you know using the the restrooms down there too so the the only recommendation we would have is you want one on the lower floor if you have mobility issues then you'll you can avoid the stairs because you can have your meals brought to you and then you won't have to worry about the stairs so if you have mobility issues that's a great place for you try to get one downstairs that's going to be the best space for you but if you don't have mobility issues and you want it to be a little bit quieter upstairs is going to be your best bet yeah another reason it's quieter is for some reason the roommates that are next to the family bedroom there is not a lot of some proofing between those so you can hear it's like you're all in the same room today you can hear everything going on in the family bedroom if you're in the room at that's next to the family bedroom so that's just our least favorite and you're on the lower level so a lot of the times you're not going to be able to see over the tree line or you just have a worse view so all things considered unless you need to be down there for the uh mobility issue you should be on the upper level so the question then is well what do you do about it uh you get your ticket and you get like you're like well now what i'm stuck on the bottom but i don't want to be down there room 14 is what they show you um you can call and you can get that switch so call the the 1-800 number and and get that switched they'll be happy to do it for you i'm just asking for something on the upper level and they can take care of that right that's right now if you have a bedroom or you're in a view liner uh or you have an accessible or a family bedroom you have no choice you're just we're gonna be where you're gonna be you'll be downstairs roomette is the only thing you can bother going upwards so the next mistake people have is not knowing the difference between the rooms and which one you should get so all the rooms only sleep two people except for the family bedroom which can sleep for we see all the time i have three people can i fit in the room at you couldn't even fit in there if you wanted to but they don't allow you to do that anyway so you're gonna need uh two rounds or a family bedroom if you have three people but the family bedroom is really best for uh two adults and one or two children because those other two beds are really easy they're small yeah really there are four children uh or if you mean you'd have to be probably about four feet tall yeah really to fit to be able to sleep comfortably in the two extra beds on the side in the family room you would and then on the uh the rumets the thing to know is that there is a viewliner room at and a super liner mat and you don't mix those in the trains so your train is either view liner or super liner it won't be both and and you can look and see when you sign up for your room if it's view line or super liner the viewliner rooms are going to be taller you're going to have more space and the super liner ones are going to be much shorter now on a viewliner you might get a toilet in your room at and you might not so we have a video in here that shows the difference between the viewliner one the viewinglander2 you don't get a choice as the interesting thing you don't get to choose the one or the two um you just it's a surprise when you get on it is a surprise because it is we don't know until the train pulls up in front of us and as soon as we walk on if we see the wood paneling on the walls we know that's a view liner too if we don't and we see the carpeting and the metal then we're dealing with a viewliner one so whatever you need to do you may have a bathroom a toilet in your room you may have it in the hallway be prepared for either because there is literally no way to know until you get on the train yeah which one you're getting uh another mistake people make is amtrak guest rewards not being in it right huge huge mistake if you're going to be riding amtrak a few you know rides 100 sign up for the guest rewards because you are going to earn free you know free rides on there for sure and a lot of different types of perks from uh discounts in the cafe to access to the metropolitan lounges just lots of different things so be sure to sign up for the guest rewards and we have a full breakdown of all of the information about the guest rewards program and using the points on our website groundedlifetravel.com we've broken that all down for you and we also give you some insight into if you want to sign up for the guest rewards uh mastercard as well because that's another great way to get points and get free trips we've actually gotten so many free trips it's not even funny um just you do using the points we've written in a round many times for free because we've used our points and you also get special coupons like either 10 percent off or you get a free companion coupon as well so it's kind of like having the buy one get one free yeah i'll i'll break a little bit down because people are going to want to know they're going to ask in the comments how many did you book so what we did this year was we we had the master card because it was we thought a good deal for 20 000 free points you would get that's kind of the normal deal so we had signed up for that and then this year we saw for the 50th anniversary they did the mastercard for the 50 000 points if you sign up you got 50 000 free points so we were like well okay let's we'll get that one so we each have one and we got the 50 000 free points and then we had a few points already in our account and with that card though you get coupons for like uh you get companion coupons which basically takes about 200 off a round so we just booked seven rounds for this year we booked out our all of our trips we booked seven rounds and we only paid for three of them and each of those three we only we got 200 off so we got four free roommates and basically another one free through the cost so basically got about five free roommates through doing guest rewards and yeah so we're going to have a lot more videos coming up yeah so definitely be on the lookout it is it is really worth it it really is especially if you're trying to do like rounds especially on the longer cross-country trips as well because those can get pretty pricey and if you can do that for points and not have to pay anything like zero no tax no nothing just free you're done you really can't get much better than that a free ride not going to complain about that you get everything just like normal your checked bags your food your everything so um we're pretty excited about this summer's trips yeah so if you see us uh this summer if you're gonna be riding this summer and you see us make sure you say hello we want to say hi to you so i hear about how your trip is going next thing is planning out your route so you need to know when you're going on a trip we we do talk to a lot of people because if we're in a room at we definitely go to the metropolitan lounge beforehand and sometimes when we're in there we see people that have seen the channel and we're talking to them and you know find out where they're going and what they're doing and like to see what other people are doing and sometimes they say that they're doing something and it's like oh that is the worst possible thing you could be doing but it's too late yeah they've already purchased their tickets so you don't you want to make sure like people here like the california zephyr is the prettiest route and it is it is but there's one section of it that's the pretty part it's not the entire one not the entire house so it's the part from denver to california that you want to be on so you know sometimes you'll hear someone's going chicago to denver and they're getting off in denver and it's like well you know you're on the zephyr but you're not really on the zephyr because you're missing the canyons of colorado which is really the whole reason for going on so you want to make sure that you are you know we have videos of basically all the routes the long ones on the channel go ahead and look at that there's footage out the window what you're going to see and we'll tell you where you're at when you see that so that you are are doing the best parts of route or just do the whole route because uh then you're not going to miss anything but that is one of the biggest mistakes you can make is um you know another one is going on the co-star light and just going from san francisco and north to seattle because the prettiest part is san francisco south to l.a so knowing what's what's out there is is definitely really important and we do have all this information on our website again groundlifetravel.com just type in the search bar what you're looking for or which route you're looking at and we'll give you all the information there as well as obviously lots of videos here on the channel okay food you can make a lot of mistakes with food what do you think about food you have to know your options um and one of the first things that you need to know is that you can bring your own food on the train not a problem i've seen people with coolers come on the train bring your their own food and they don't have to worry about purchasing anything if they don't want it especially if you're in coach class in the sleeper cars i've seen people bring coolers with food if they have uh you know some very strict dietary restrictions that they need to adhere to then they'll you know bring their own food so that's something to know and just kind of know that if you're going to be on a longer train ride you're going to get sick of that cafe food especially if you're in coach you're just going to be like uh i don't want to eat a hamburger a hot dog a pizza macaroni and cheese again because you're eating your lunch and dinner there and that's the same options for lunch and dinner so um just kind of keep in mind that and then also snacks right um you maybe want to have some snacks like protein bar or you know some candy or whatever um just have that that kind of that stuff with you so that's important to keep that in mind and we've seen people order pizzas to the train yes they met us at one of the train station and you see this group of boy scouts going by with their pizzas that they had delivered to the station it was ottumwa tamwa iowa i remember that specifically because i thought we were what was it domino's or papa john's i don't remember this isn't an ad for either of them but um one of them it was i can't remember which one uh they brought it it is a little risky if you you have to get the timing right mm-hmm but uh they did they got the timing right we were kind of a little bit jealous when it went past us and you could smell it it was amazing yeah and uh so you can you can do that you can bring food you can just know your options for that and make a plan beforehand because otherwise you you'll you'll run out of options kind of quickly uh another mistake people make is picking a bad meal time and this generally is for sleeper car because yes if you're in a sleeper car they're gonna come by they're gonna say what time do you wanna eat you're gonna say 5 30 or six or whatever you want and then that's just when you're gonna go eat well what if you uh have a fresh air break during that meal break and it was the only one for the night and you wanted to go out and you missed it either stretch your legs or you wanted to smoke or whatever it is you wanted to do you would have to leave your meal than to go out and get it so one thing we do before we pick our meal time is we check when the the station stops are going to be the big ones and we don't usually do a meal time during a big station stop because we also like to see the scenery going by while reading it's kind of cool and one reason for that is if you're in us in a room at uh you're you're on one side of the train when you go to the dining car you could get the other side and you could see right so you can use that strategically too like if you're on the wrong side and you want to see something cool on the other side you can pick the time you're going to be going by there go to that side and get it exactly you kind of got to plan that out a little bit though it's just not not by by the seat of your pants because otherwise you won't know right where you're going yes there was one time we got stuck with a dinner time because all the other sloths were basically full and we were trying to avoid um eating our meal when the train stopped for the fresh air break in albany and we ended up eating having to eat our meal during that time so we just started our meal and then when the train stopped we just said we're gonna come back to this that we just put the covers back on and went out and came back in because it was basically the only option we had but it wasn't you know the most desirable because then of course our food is sitting there getting cold while we're trying to stretch our legs because it was the last one that we had for that night so if you check in the app while you're on the train you can put in uh you're the station that's coming up put in the train number and hit uh you know search and it'll tell you what time you're expected to get there even update it if you're late so right yes that's how that's how we check it yes because generally you fall behind scheduled you're going so yeah and you can't always ask your attendant or an attendant on the train and they'll let you know uh another mistake is people that are not using or getting to the observation car early enough to get a seat at a good time right so right yes and you know it's especially if you're doing like the co starlight or the california zephyr and specifically if you're either on the wrong side of the train or you're in coach and on the wrong side of the train you're going to want to you're going to want to get to that observation car pretty quickly um this happened on one of the trains we were on the california zephyr and everybody just kind of made a beeline they actually ended up rotating people out in and out of the observation car because it was pretty pretty busy the entire time um that we were riding that we didn't need to concern ourselves because we actually had a room on the correct side and so we had the views and we didn't have to worry about it but i remember hearing the announcements constantly of them saying you know you can't just keep these seats we're going to keep rotating people out and they were in there rotating people around so if you want to see it kind of time it so that you know when you can get in there and when you want to see those views and what side and you can um get in there very quickly generally that's only the zephyr in the summer that they're going to rotate people yes any other train any other time of year it's not not going to happen and just to give you a quick uh taste of it because i know people will want to know this uh on the co-star light you want to be on the west side of the train on the zephyr you want to be on the south side uh and on the empire builder you generally want to be on the north side so that's kind of our quick and dirty guide to which side you want to be on so if you're not on those sides and when you're assigned seat just plan on when the one that gets to be good scenery get to the observation car as quickly as you can yeah next one is bringing too much stuff with you yeah um there's you know limited amount of places where you can put your things and those spaces can fill up pretty quickly if a lot of people are bringing a lot of things so just make sure that you're not bringing too much stuff and you've got somewhere to store those things really if you're in in a sleeper car you're going to have a little bit less space to store stuff you'll have a little bit more in coach but the fewer things you bring the easier it is less things to keep track of yeah and if you're in a super liner room at there is less space than in a view laner if you had a view liner you actually have room for one big suitcase and overhead super liner room at you don't have room for any suitcase just the only place you have for storage in a super liner room at is under the two seats yeah so uh just make sure you don't overload your room then you won't have anywhere another one that we see and that has happened to us is finding out if your station is manned or unmanned yes uh there are unmanned stations which is kind of crazy there are actually quite a few yeah and an unmanned station so one where this happened us was burbank california it's we didn't we were staying north of lax and we didn't want to have to take it felt like weird to take the train down to union station just to take it right back up so we decided we would just get on the co-star light at burbank and but that's an unmanned station it's just a platform that's all in it there's just a small parking lot and a platform and you walk up the platform and honestly you don't even know which way the train's coming in there's two train tracks there's two platforms the signs were very confusing and if you you know get on the wrong side of the train it's going to be weird and these stations the train only stops for like three minutes so quick and actually on this particular one the the car attendant didn't notice we were even getting on so they didn't even get off to get us on so had we been on the wrong side they may have just missed us all together that's not normally the case no but if you're at an unmanned station the point is you need to be prepared for that train when it comes in and be ready and if if it feels like it's coming in and you aren't sure what to do you need to get someone's attention right away because once they see your you're struggling they'll get you to where you need to go but if you don't say anything and they don't realize that you're trying to get on they could just take off in fact we saw that happen in uh kissimmee florida yes we were waiting for a train that was two trains away train came in and there was a girl and she was just kind of standing back and the train came in she didn't get on the train took off and she came back in and she was like i just missed my train and the lady was like why'd you miss it and they said they never told me to get on mm-hmm and she said you just gotta get on and she was literally just standing right there when it came she was waiting for them to come get her yeah she didn't ask or anything she just was standing there you have to kind of be proactive if you're in an unmanned station yeah and that was a man's station yeah that was um you you just need to be proactive now at the bigger stations it's a little easier there's signs there's a no there's tons of people getting on and they're gonna stay there for 15-20 minutes right but if you're a smaller station that's a three-minute stop and if you're not on in three minutes you're not on that's right and the next train is probably tomorrow yeah so that's a that's a mistake we've seen and it can really that can really ruin things absolutely so knowing how to board knowing the protocols of that is important um and then another thing with those stations is know what the parking situation is yes before you get there because yes the parking situation at a lot of the amsterdam stations is i think bleak yes it's yes it's just it's very challenging i remember one like in charlottesville uh trying to get a parking spot in that parking lot or like burbank it's very very limited parking i mean we're talking about like 15 20 cars at the most that can park there now the airport is nearby so you can park at the airport and walk across but you need to know if you have a place to park or not or if you have to pay and different things like that so make sure that you look ahead of time on what the parking situation is because it can be challenging at some of these things we were showing up to an early morning train uh and we were driving there and if there was no open parking there we were probably gonna miss it yes uh it would say figure that out before you go and in our home station in atlanta it's pretty bad it's tough yeah that's a pretty tough one to park at so a lot of times we'll just take an uber and that just saves you all the trouble because you don't have to worry about if you can get a spot or if the parking lot's big enough if you just take an uber they'll drop you off no parking issues whatsoever and that saves you uh saves you that mistake so hopefully these will help you guys out to avoid any of these mistakes and get you a better experience on your amtrak uh trip that you're planning guys we have as rob said booked quite a few train trips for this summer that we're hoping to run into lots of you guys as we're traveling this summer so keep an eye out come say hi if you see us and guys don't forget to subscribe to the channel share the video and give this one a like we'll see you guys on the rails

Channel: Grounded Life Travel

Views: 58,263

Keywords: amtrak, amtrak vacations, amtrak vacation, amtrak train vacation, amtrak family vacation, amtrak vacations reviews, amtrak vacation packages, amtrak trains, amtrak mistakes, amtrak mistakes to avoid, amtrak tips and tricks, amtrak tips, amtrak safety, amtrak comfort, amtrak station, amtrak trip, onboard amtrak, amtrak coach, riding amtrak, amatrak vacations, amtrak vacation advice, mistakes on amtrak, amtrak faq, amtrak guide, amtrak planning, amtrak how to ride

Id: vxsb7vpJ1mI

Length: 29min 11sec (1751 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 01 2022