Top 10 Amtrak Tips For First Time Riders

all right guys stay tuned here for the top 10 tips for first time amtrak riders [Music] the first tip is that the observation car on these cross-country routes is for super car passengers and coach passengers a lot of times first time riders don't know that they are able to go up to the observation car with their ticket and hang out there and and eat there see the sights and just enjoy that space as well exactly it's amazing to me how um often times coach class passengers don't know that they have access to the observation lounge and they just sit at their seat the whole time um so just feel free to you know hop up and head over there i know when we were on the sunset limited we had the the observation car to ourselves several times and then every once in a while someone would come in from the sleeper car side and sit on the other end but for the most part we had it nearly to ourselves because almost no one no well no one but us from the coach car was coming into the observation yeah you'll see it go unused a lot unless you're in a really scenic area but it can be a lot of fun just to go up there and sit and see the small towns countryside go by so uh that is definitely something you need to do as a first-time rider go up and check out that observation car if there is one on your train so as soon as you get on check and see uh you know it's not going to be busy go up there and check it out right away right um and the nice thing i think about the observation car is that you've got not just the tables that you can sit in which is nice you do have a tray table at your seat if you're in coach or you do have the tray table in your room if you're in a round but you've got the table and like four of you could sit around a table and you know play games or if you wanted to set up your two computers and work on something or watch movies or whatever it gives you a lot more space and a nice big table and then you have those nice chairs that are actually facing out towards the window instead of the direction of travel tip two is that you can and should bring your own food on the train even if you're in a sleeper car but definitely if you're in the coaches yes uh and there's lots of reasons for this one of the reasons is we did have one train ride where the cafe car was not working so they were not able well the cafe car was working but they weren't able to charge anybody so they couldn't sell anything so we were unable to for for several hours we were until they got it fixed we were unable to purchase anything um in the cafe car which was a real problem um for us and we unfortunately was the one trip where we didn't bring any food or snacks with us so that made it even more challenging um and so that's one of the reasons other reason is like even if you're in sleeper cars go ahead and bring something with you because there this the dining car closes and the cafe car closes at a certain time um so you want to have access to something if you need it or if you have a dietary need or whatever go ahead and bring that stuff because you'll you'll want to have access to it yeah if you've eaten dinner like at six o'clock and you want to have a little snack at 10 10 30 or something there won't likely be anything open right so you'll need to have something with you at that time unless you've stashed away a couple of brownies from from dinner the uh the third tip here is for first time riders trains tend to be late more often than you would think so generally on the cross country routes they're almost always late and on the east coast routes they tend to be on time a little bit more but still plan on it being a little bit late and so we see a lot of times people making a really tight connection like i've got a flight they got to get to or another train or a cruise some important meeting you don't want to do that because you're going to be stressed out the entire ride hoping that you're going to make it and you're probably not so yeah so that's something i would i would definitely advise don't stress make any type of connections yeah and we have found that people will say like it's two hours enough um time between connections no it's not i know it seems like it is plenty of time it just isn't because especially if you're on a cross-country route the likelihood of it being more than two hours late is pretty high yeah so i would not schedule anything close to it usually we give ourselves an extra day like we don't usually book our transition until the next day just to be as safe as possible because we have that margin of time but definitely make sure that you're you're giving yourself a lot of space on that and if you go into it knowing you're likely going to be late it's okay you have that built-in time you can just enjoy the extra time they will feed you they will take care of you the whole time if you're late so just consider it free time on the train bonus but if you have a tight connection you're just going to be stressed so don't do that fourth tip is learn about the stops ahead of time so that you know how long they are where you're going to be stopping and what you can do at each one because there's three different types of stops on a train there is the real quick stop where they're only going to be there for three minutes usually and they don't let anybody off so you're not going to be able to go smoke or get fresh air or anything like that just for boarding just for boarding and onboarding and if there's no one getting on and off they're barely even there so that's one stop the next stop is a fresh air brake which is gonna be anywhere from seven to fifteen minutes depending on how late they are they do if the train is late they do try to cut those down so they make up time but if you're on time they're gonna take the full time so you'll have more time right and then there are crew change stops where it's going to be even longer because they have to change out all the crew except for your their your dining car attendance and your room attendance will stay the same but it's the engineers and the conductors that will be changing out so they have to get them on and off and a lot you do also stop longer at bigger stations just so that there's more passengers getting on there right accommodate that yeah that will definitely make a big difference if there's a lot more people getting on they will always announce what type of stuff you're going to have so make sure that you can hear that don't put you know earbuds into both ears you won't be able to hear any of the announcements and know what's happening so make sure that you're always listening for them and you know if if you have missed it or you're in the bathroom and didn't hear it or whatever make sure you ask a conductor or a staff person and they will let you know what type of stop it's going to be so you'll know yeah one thing i like to do on the app is if you take out your app when you're on the train and you type in the uh the status of your train you can put your own status in put in the next stop so like if you're you know in denver and you're going towards you know another stop put that stop in and your train number it'll tell you when you're supposed to arrive when you're supposed to leave so we'll give you an estimated idea of how long the next stop is going to be right and then the other thing um the last thing to keep track of at stops is that you're going to get that all aboard to get on so in order to hear that that's only going to be someone actually yelling it with just their voice so you need to be near the train which means you need to stay near the trained platform again if you do have time to go someplace else they will tell you um and make sure that you you know stay within that because they will leave without you yeah you usually don't have time to going around very rarely tip five is to sign up for the guest rewards program before you take your first trip because you're gonna get a lot of points you're gonna get a lot of free trips and a lot of rewards right yes and the great thing is depending on the different tiers that you're in you'll get coupons so like free companion rides so you'll get to bring someone with you for free you get discounts you'll get discounts um you know for for different types of things you can also get access to metropolitan lounge um without paying the fee even if you're not in in a first class or in a sleeper car lots of different uh amenities and options that you get added in with all of the different tiers as you work your way up so it's definitely great plus on top of that you get to use the points to ride for free so that's pretty good can't beat that next one is going to be if you're on a long trip especially right when you get on i like to recommend go find all the available bathrooms and locate where they are and check them out because a lot of people don't know that the bathrooms can be very different so the closest one to you might be really small and one car down there might be an enormous bathroom uh and you know maybe there's one that maybe not a lot of people are using so you want to check those out the amtrak cars are not all uniform and even on the same train they'll mix and match old cars new cars and they're gonna vary quite greatly in the amenities of each car so don't just think that what is right next to you is what the whole train is go on a little scouting mission and see what the best thing to do is for you when you want to use the bathroom yes because if you're so if you're a coach car passenger you don't you're not restricted to only using whatever bathroom is closest to you you can use the bathroom in another coach car the only bathrooms you don't have access to are the ones in the sleeper car now sleeper car passengers have access to all the bathrooms they have access to theirs and of course they could use the coach cars but what you know doesn't make any sense to go down there but for the most part that's that those are the the access levels that you have on the train for the bathrooms yeah the next tip is don't bring too much because you'll need to keep track of it on the train and even if you're in a sleeper car you don't want to bring too much because there's just not a lot of storage in there right and you're going to have to keep track of that uh you know your space so you may be putting it down below in a luggage hold but definitely on the uh if you're in the coaches we like to say we'd like to check our bag if we have a big bag and then have one bag that has all of our valuables in it electronics that kind of thing and a backpack and we just keep that with us the whole time then we normally have a snack bag or something like that that we just leave at the seat right figuring anybody wants a snack i guess they can have us free snacks uh yeah that is just something that we leave there but make a plan and separate out all your stuff by what you're gonna do check it keep it with you leave at the seat you should have a plan for it for all that thing and the thing is not just keep track of it but you also have to drag it around with you um and sometimes it can be a little cumbersome sometimes you can um be moving up the you know going up steps on the train or uh different things like that so you might have to climb with a bunch of stuff and sometimes there's someone there to help you sometimes there's not so make sure you don't bring too much stuff it's really a challenge okay next tip is uh for sleeper car passengers make sure that you don't forget that you have use of the metropolitan lunges yeah both you know in in any big city that you're going to be in so if you're in new york chicago or l.a or any of these cities with a big metropolitan lodge portland boston boston you have use of that lounge and it's included with your ticket so go sit in there beforehand they all do differ in amenities uh the best ones are definitely new york city is the best one uh and chicago and la are probably the next two so especially if you're in one of those three cities uh i would definitely check out the metropolitan lounge before you get on your train ride mm-hmm yes uh tip nine is going to be that the amtrak stations are not near airports almost always yes and accordingly yes um so there's lots of different things that you can do sometimes you can go ahead and book a thruway bus with amtrak itself so make sure that you take care of that ahead of time and book it and pay for it and then you'll be all set know if you can get an uber from that location or not or a taxi or just have your ride to pick you up there or schedule some type of other type of transportation to get you from there and tip 10 is going to be about special needs if you if you have special needs let amtrak know ahead of time and let them know anything you need to know need help with while you're on the train because they are some of the most accommodating people in the travel industry and they will help you so make sure that you speak up let people know what you need and i think that's going to get taken care of for you yes and the further ahead that you could tell them the better so don't wait till you get to the station to say hey i need you know information about accessibility for for this need let them know when you book the ticket call them there is also if you book online a way to also put in special needs when you book your ticket as well so make sure that you pay attention to that or just call them and let them know if you need to but then also i would do it when i get to the station as well yeah exactly let them know and they will definitely take care of you we've seen them do above and beyond for a lot of needs that people have so don't hesitate to say that absolutely well guys we hope you guys uh are garnering from all these tips these top 10 tips for first time writers we hope you enjoy your trip and hopefully these will help you out to have a better trip than you had already planned guys don't forget we have tons of videos um here on the channel as well as lots of blogs on our website groundedlifetravel.com give us a like on this video and we'll catch you guys on the rails

Channel: Grounded Life Travel

Views: 41,313

Keywords: amtrak tips, amtrak hacks, amtrak coach, amtrak, coach on amtrak, amtrak train, amtrak review, amtrak tips and tricks, amtrak travel tips, amtrak station, train travel, riding amtrak, amtrak guide, train travel usa, amtrak trip, amtrak trains, amtrak train ride, travel tips, amtrak coach class, amtrak roomettes, amtrak roomette, amtrak vacation, amtrak tickets, amtrak discount, amtrak mistakes

Id: f92YZ4mSA9Y

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021