Has anyone taken the autotrain when going to WDW?

[HIU8]

DH and I are thinking of looking into this. We will need a car in Orlando as we will be staying on park property and have a wedding in Orlando at a different location. Plus we will be driving to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my mother. We were thinking having our own car and carseats would just be that much easier (and we could pack what we need rather than trying to pack for a flight). Just looking for opinions. DS will be 5 and DD will be 2.5. The trip will be about 12 hours for us.

[HIU8]

:innocent:anyone?

[egoldber]

We've thought about it. :) But for us it's more expensive than flying and takes longer than driving.

[HIU8]

I did it as a teenager with my parents to WDW. You pick it up in Lorton and it goes to right outside of Orlando (with one stop overnight I believe). I have to check the prices, but I think it would be comparable to flying plus the cost of a rental plus the cost of a travel carseat for DD and the ride safer vest for DS. I'm looking at ways to make our lives easier for a trip that will include a wedding, WDW and a visit to my mother 4 hours further south in FL.

[Momof3Labs]

Factor in, too, that trains are as notorious for delays as flights, especially in January, but the delays seem to run a lot longer. I don't think that I'd want to be stuck on a train that long with two young children - if I were you, I'd just consider driving down. It will be much cheaper and probably faster, too.

[HIU8]

The drive is 19 hours straight through (from DC to Ft. Lauderdale--so 15ish hours to Orlando). If we do it with stops it is more like 2 days (DH is not a driver--I am, but I don't honestly know if the kids could handle it yet). I would drive in a heartbeat. That is my preferred way to travel. I just did a cursory price compare and between the airplane, car rental etal vs. the autotrain the price difference was about $100. We are not making any decisions yet since the trip is a year away--so keeping all of our options open now.

[JTsMom]

I've never done a train before, but I'd have the same concerns as pp's. Honestly, I think I'd choose driving or flying over the train, but that's just me, and we have a minivan, so that helps. I like being able to have privacy/do my own thing, so being stuck with strangers for 12+ hours sounds like a nightmare to me, unless you have a private car or something- don't know how it works. Is there a place for the kids to sleep?

I've done the drive from Atlanta to Pittsburgh and back with DS right before he turned 3, and we just drove from Atlanta to Disney in December. Both trips were about 100X easier than I thought they'd be. The key was lots of movies for the DVD player, and periodic stops for chocolate milk. ;)

[egoldber]

I've never done a train before, but I'd have the same concerns as pp's. Honestly, I think I'd choose driving or flying over the train, but that's just me, and we have a minivan, so that helps. I like being able to have privacy/do my own thing, so being stuck with strangers for 12+ hours sounds like a nightmare to me, unless you have a private car or something- don't know how it works. Is there a place for the kids to sleep?

The auto train is different. :) You do get a sleeper car and you have your own vehicle when you are there.

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Route/Vertical_Route_Page&c=am2Route&cid=1081256321200&ssid=136

[JTsMom]

Ok, so I checked out that link, and it seems like you can get a private room/seat, OR get a regular seat, right? OP, which did you figure in your calculations? If the room is about the same, I could see making that work. The regular seat, not so much. I think it also probably depends on the kids. Even in the family room, there's not that much space, so a kid like DS would probably have a hard time not being able to run and jump periodically. When we drive, we take several breaks for him to get some energy out.

[HIU8]

We would get the family room. I think the kids would do ok with that honestly. The cost difference between the autotrain with the family bedroom and the price for hauling the car vs. 4 rt airfares, a rental for 10 days and two travel carseats was about $100. I really don't think the kids could handle the drive and it would eat 4 days out of our trip.

[JTsMom]

I'd say go for it then! Sounds ideal for your situation.

[HIU8]

I think I might lose my mind. When I showed DH the cost of flying and the autotrain, the man who HATES TO DRIVE said why don't we look into driving down! OYE! If we stop every 3 hours or so maybe we could do it. Of course, it will be in January and we are going south, so no real snow to worry about. We can have our own car and the cost goes down considerably. Something to think about....

[JTsMom]

:ROTFLMAO: DS used to be the world's worst car rider, so I totally understand your fear, but it really may not be as bad as you think. Definitely stop and give the kids time to play here and there. If you're ok with movies, bring plenty of those. We also did little "Tinkerbell" presents on the drive down. Boredom sets in? "Look! Tinkerbell left you new Mickey crayons and a coloring book!" "Wow! New Mickey sunglasses?!?!" We also decorated the van with a bunch of Disney window clings. Oh yeah, we were that family all right! LOL Everyone stayed so excited that the drive there went really quickly.

The drive home was not as fun, but still not bad. Can you drive part of the time while the kids are sleeping? Like get on the road at 5 or something, let them sleep for a few hours?