(This picture was on our first train from Milwaukee to Chicago, it's a much smaller train and the space is set up different than the longer train from Chicago to Kansas City)
What made you decide to take the train? We compared a lot of
different factors, price, time, ease of travel being the top priorities. It was
cheapest to drive, however that also means wear and tear on my vehicle and
being the only adult in a car with 3 kids, one being a crazy toddler. The other
asking “How manutes?” (aka how many minutes) every 30 seconds on just trips
around town. That made me panic just thinking about it. Plus pit stops for gas,
potential breakdowns (you NEVER know!), safety... Honestly I just didn’t think
I could mentally handle it and I thought I would get frustrated driving so long
without some help. So I nixed that right away. Flight was WAY out of our price
range and taking our 2 year old on an airplane no matter how short, did not
sound like fun. He’s a mover and I know it wouldn’t have went well. Factor in
security, cost of food, getting food, being stuck in a small space for a few
hours and potentially changing places… um not so much. So in came the train… It
was just double the cost of driving. No security checkpoints that were mandated
(call me crazy but that didn’t freak me out at all), being able to walk around
the train, take as much food or drinks on as you wanted, sitting together, free
wifi, the same time length as driving, the safety of not driving alone in the
middle of nowhere…. It all easily pulled me towards that option.
Price in comparison to other travel? We weighed a lot of
different things when we were deciding how to get to KC this time around. One
of them being price. The airfare for myself and 3 kids was almost $2000. Not in
our price range at all! By car, we spend about $200 for gas, not to mention pit
stops for food and what not. On the Amtrak, the kids traveled for half price with one full price adult. Since there
was only one adult, only one child could go half price. I called Amtrak, they
told me to book another child at the adult rate and then another child could go
half price, which ended up being cheaper than buying two more fares for the
full price child rate. There’s also a AAA discount that we were able to utilize
for all of us. The price ended up to be just under $500 round trip.
Wait so you didn’t get a sleeping car? No we didn’t. The
reason being is because if we did do that, the price would be the same exact
price as flying. I couldn’t justify that.
How long was the trip? It was about 12 hours, give or take. Yes
we sat in coach the entire time. The space is GIANT. You can recline the seats
much further than if you were on a flight.
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