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I simply spent over 23 hours aboard an Amtrak educate from Florida to New York at the Silver Megastar. As a result of I don’t fly, I board an Amtrak in a single day educate from Florida to New York to get nearly any place within the U.S.
For this text, there’s the whole lot you want to grasp to take an Amtrak educate from Florida to New York. Or New York to Florida!
Shuttle at the side of me, a long-time Amtrak enthusiast, to look what it’s in point of fact like to stick and sleep in a 23-square-foot roomette aboard Amtrak Silver Megastar from Florida to New York.
Amtrak In a single day Educate From Florida to New York
I used to be on my strategy to Chicago for my highschool reunion so the Amtrak Silver Megastar agenda was once easiest.
For the reason that Amtrak Silver Megastar arrives into New York Town within the night, I deliberate an in a single day keep at Fairfield Inn and Suites.
In step with Google Maps, this lodge is true around the boulevard from the brand new Moynihan Educate Corridor.
I’d have a number of time day after today to take a excursion and discover the development prior to my subsequent educate to Chicago.
Right here’s What It’s Love to Spend 23 Hours on Amtrak
6:00 PM – I arrived early on the small however busy Amtrak station within the middle of downtown Iciness Park, Florida. I’ve attempted the Orlando and Kissimmee educate stations and like the only in Iciness Park.
My in a single day educate was once scheduled to reach into Iciness Park on time at 7:41pm. I checked-in with the station agent and passed her my massive suitcase for checked luggage.
With my small wheeled carry-on bag in tow, I walked around the boulevard to Park Street for a espresso, eye at the clock.
READ NEXT: Aboard Amtrak Silver Megastar with out the eating automobile
7:15 PM – I checked the Amtrak app each 10 mins for the Educate Standing. Getting anxious in case the educate arrived early, I headed again to the station.
It’s a bit horrifying as a result of if the educate arrived early, there could be no strategy to pass the educate tracks to board the educate.
7:30 PM – The Amtrak station agent introduced the coming of our educate. All of the ready passengers scattered to their designated boarding issues alongside the platform, cautious to not get too just about the yellow line.
Trainer passengers, sure for quite a lot of locations, stood at other puts alongside the platform. Slumbering automobile passengers, like me, had our personal space to congregate.
There have been handiest 4 people in comparison to no less than twenty-five trainer passengers.
Amtrak makes twenty-four station stops alongside the way in which from Florida to New York Town. It was once somebody’s wager who was once going the place.
7:41 PM – Amtrak’s Silver Megastar made its rumbling method into Iciness Park. From the primary blast of the educate whistle to the sluggish grinding halt, everybody at the platform felt the power.
Everyone seems to be at all times excited to get on a educate. I will have to know…I’m one in every of them!
RELATED: My Absolute best Recommendation for Amtrak Slumbering Automobile Passengers
7:50 PM – My educate automobile attendant checked my price tag, hoisted my small in a single day suitcase onto the educate and carried it into my roomette. I well set it the place it at all times is going; on a ledge subsequent to the outsized seat.
As you’ll be able to see beneath, the brand new Viewliner II roomette is somewhat other. There’s nonetheless a sink however no rest room within the room. You must use probably the most public bogs for your automobile.
Tucked away into my little compartment, I stated a quiet good-bye to Iciness Park. Inside a couple of mins we traveled from bustling city sprawl to pastoral rural Florida.
Any other Amtrak in a single day educate journey from Florida was once below means.
Dinner within the Eating Automobile? Now not This Travel
A few years prior to the pandemic, in 2018, Amtrak’s president (from Delta Airways no much less) made up our minds {that a} right kind meal on Amtrak was once a waste of cash, so inside weeks, the eating vehicles on each Florida trains had been long gone.
In this educate from Florida, whether or not in trainer or a sleeper, had been caught with a slim number of microwaved foods or snacks from just one café automobile.
Consider only one café automobile for 3 sleeper vehicles and no less than 4 trainer vehicles. A number of hundred other people wanting foods and drinks. The queues had been a one hour lengthy wait. What an idiotic concept. That idea didn’t final very lengthy.
Silver Megastar Eating In spite of everything Resumes…Type Of
Amtrak’s Conventional Eating with foods cooked within the galley and tablecloths, plates and silverware have returned. However handiest on westbound Amtrak trains.
Then again, the 2 Amtrak trains to Florida and New York (Silver Megastar and Silver Meteor) have what’s known as, “Versatile Eating.”
What’s Amtrak “Versatile Eating”?
Versatile Eating is Amtrak’s present method to advanced eating. With the brand new Versatile Eating menu, there are two choices for the place you’ll be able to consume your meal.
You’ll be able to make a choice to have your foods for your comfortable room or sit down in a sales space within the bare-bones eating automobile the place foods will also be ordered and eaten.
Versatile Eating Just for Slumbering Automobile Passengers
Complimentary for Slumbering Automobile consumers, Amtrak provides their versatile eating provider on a number of trains. This comprises:
- A menu with sizzling, ready-to-serve possible choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- A number of wine, beer and spirits (the primary one is complimentary),
- Limitless cushy beverages all the way through the adventure
- Versatile eating instances with out the desire for reservations
In the event you reserved a trainer seat, there’s a full-service Café Automobile to be had for all passengers to buy foods, snacks and drinks.
Amtrak Versatile Eating Menu
8:00 PM – I knew that our slumbering automobile attendant was once busy operating from side to side to the galley to our automobile, so I used to be affected person for my dinner. I will be able to glance out the window for hours, day or evening.
In spite of everything, I heard the knock on my door signaling that the attendant had my dinner. My little pop-up desk was once waiting for motion.
I used to be hungry so all of the elements to my meal had been preferred. Together with the complimentary bottle of wine.
That is the Atlantic Salmon and Shrimp with Brown Rice and veg. An aspect salad, dinner roll with butter and a Manifesto Blonde Brownie rounded out my dinner.
Entrées are ready in ovens and delivered with tin foil covers, remarkably nonetheless sizzling.
As a result of I watch my sodium consumption, I kind of scraped off one of the sauce and ate about 2/3 of the dinner. However that was once tremendous. I like Manifesto brownies in order that made dinner a whole luck.
Was once it eating place high quality? No. But it surely was once eons higher than the ones microwaved foods from 2018.
9:30 PM – First Contemporary Air Wreck – Jacksonville
In Jacksonville, there’s a couple of 20-minute layover. A large number of other people depart the educate and somewhat a couple of board right here.
People who smoke can step off the educate and do their factor.
Despite the fact that the educate is operating past due, I at all times attempt to stroll the period of the educate from side to side a number of instances.
I’ve counted 35 steps in keeping with period of the educate automobile. If there are 10 vehicles, the period walked every means is set 350 steps and so forth.
In the event you’re going to be most commonly sitting at the educate, in case you don’t have mobility problems, it’s at all times excellent to get out of doors and stroll a little.
9:50 PM – The conductor yells, “‘Board” and everybody scrambles to their respective automobile door to hop onboard. The educate doesn’t watch for stragglers.
When my automobile attendant requested what time I would love my mattress became down, I requested for once we depart Jacksonville.
In a single day in an Amtrak Roomette
Promptly at 10 PM, Charles knocked on my door. I stepped out into the hallway so he would have enough room to fold out my mattress.
The 2 chairs slid out from the ground to fulfill and convert to a virtually twin-sized mattress. What a thrill it was once (it in point of fact was once!) to look new linens, really feel new thicker pillows and particularly to have a real cushy blanket.
Only a twinkling of an eye in the past Amtrak had darkish blue blankets had been just about Military-issue high quality. In iciness, I’d have to invite for 2 of them.
Now not anymore. That is indisputably a big growth; new thicker mattresses, cushy blankets, easy linens and at ease pillows.
I love that the blankets are for my part wrapped. A number of years in the past that you simply by no means knew in case your army-issue blue blanket was once blank or no longer.
My mattress became down, an additional pillow added (at my request), sun shades closed and the tiny studying mild above my mattress lent a welcoming glow to the room.
Trusty Kindle in hand, I learn for some time, and at all times peeked out from at the back of the sun shades to look the place we had stopped. Because the passengers stepped off the educate, hugs had been the norm as households and pals had been reunited.
Sun shades closed once more, I went to sleep someplace round nighttime.
The movement of the educate doesn’t trouble me in any respect. I’ve heard other people say that they go to sleep on an plane prior to it takes to the air. I will be able to do this at the educate.
Excellent Morning From…
7:00 AM – Southern Pines, North Carolina. It was once a quiet journey alongside the tracks, and I slept nice. Even if the educate makes stops all through the evening, I didn’t understand it.
8:00 AM – Time to consume once more. For trainer passengers, it’s both pay-as-you-go within the Café care or brown bag it with meals from house.
For slumbering automobile passengers, the Versatile Eating breakfast variety is minimum, however covers all of the bases.
It were 2 lengthy pandemic years since I final rode Amtrak and I seemed ahead to what has at all times been known as, “Railroad French Toast.”
Such a lot in order that I introduced a small bottle of actual maple syrup from house only for this particular breakfast. As with dinner, I’d consume in my roomette quite than within the bare-bones eating automobile.
As at all times, there’s the piping sizzling “educate” espresso. Years in the past, Amtrak espresso was once so robust it didn’t even desire a cup. Now it’s mellowed a little and your cup doesn’t keep empty for too lengthy.
I additionally pack a number of Starbuck’s By way of Decaf packs. If I’m on caffeine overload, I simply ask for warm water.
Seems, those are the similar ones that Amtrak now serves in case you ask for decaf.
9:30 AM – By the point I returned to my room from choosing up my pre-ordered breakfast, we had been nearly out of North Carolina. Edging into southern Virginia and handiest ten hours to New York.
Within the quick span of time that I walked to and from the eating automobile, my room was once already made up. The mattress was once stowed into the wall and chairs popped again up.
I ate all of my oven-heated Railroad French Toast!
Can You Take a Bathe on Amtrak?
In case anyone feels the wish to bathe, there’s a public bathe room in every sleeper automobile. No person ever turns out to make use of it they usually’re alway blank.
On in point of fact long-haul journeys, I’ll clutch my shampoo and conditioner and head over to the bathe room. It’s difficult to take a bath on a educate going 80 mph, however amusing to check out.
Each and every roomette has two electrical shops, so after your bathe, you’ll be able to use your hair dryer and rate your telephone on the similar time. Ooh. The straightforward issues in lifestyles.
Amtrak Eating and Meal Time Once more
Sooner than I knew it, the Eating Leader introduced but some other meal; it was once time for lunch. I closed up my computer, put it away, slipped my sneakers again on and made the “lengthy” stroll again to the eating automobile. Didn’t I simply do that a couple of mins in the past?
I will have to point out that, not like in a single day lodging on trains in Europe, Amtrak rooms don’t lock from the out of doors. In fact you’ll be able to lock your self in at evening.
Whilst I’ve by no means had the rest stolen after I’ve left my roomette or bed room, it’s a good suggestion to not depart your laptop or electronics out in undeniable sight.
I additionally at all times shut my curtains that open to the corridor in order that no person can see in if I’m away.
1:00 PM – Fairly than repeat what I wrote in regards to the final two foods, I’ll briefly word that lunch was once somewhat excellent. There’s a number of cold and warm foods and sandwiches, a chef’s salad, soup and naturally, dessert.
3:30 PM – By way of mid-afternoon we had been smartly into Virginia. It’s superb how shut the educate is to such a lot of stunning previous properties in smaller cities.
Every so often I attempt to believe what it will be love to are living in such a old fashioned properties and watch the trains move by way of ’round-the-clock.
The following main forestall the place lets depart the educate to stretch could be Washington, D.C. One among my favourite longer stops.
Regardless that each Amtrak trains from Florida takes 19- to 23-hours, the day at all times turns out to briefly move.
Quickly we had been in Washington, D.C. En direction, the educate raced thru Richmond,VA in addition to a few college cities.
It’s fascinating surroundings, so I most probably spent as a lot time having a look out of my window as I did looking to write my notes for this tale.
Amtrak Silver Megastar Path
The Amtrak Silver Megastar educate direction from Florida to New York is picturesque. It’s much more stunning in iciness. A dusting of snow and cities appear to be one thing in a delicately shaken snow globe.
In any season, the educate rolls previous what seems like Norman Rockwell village scenes. Singularly lit little properties and colourful storefronts are so shut you’d suppose you’ll want to contact them.
It’s nearly such as you had been all at once transported to the center of a sparsely assembled toy educate set. It’s all too old fashioned.
6:00 PM – We had been now operating about 3 hours at the back of agenda. Our 3:04 PM arrival into Washington, D.C. supposed attending to New York round 10 PM or so.
No less than my lodge was once proper around the boulevard from the brand new educate station.
The attention-grabbing factor about arriving into Washington is that the educate engines are swapped. From Florida to Washington, the engine runs on diesel.
However from Washington to New York, Amtrak engines run on electrical energy. So it’s off with the diesel and on with the electrical engine.
The process is difficult however those guys have all of it found out. I at all times watch the de-coupling of the diesel engine and watch in awe because the engineer ever so slowly backs the brand new engine to reconnect with the educate.
Mechanics soar down to trace degree and protected the fittings. I will have to know the technical phrases in the end those years, however I don’t.
6:30 P.M. or thereabouts – The bellowing of ‘Board’ by way of the conductor and it was once once more a mad scramble to get onto the educate.
Washington is easiest for a excellent walkabout at the platform however once the brand new engine is hooked up, off you cross!
At the means once more, and the coming into New York getting even later. The unique 7:00 P.M.-ish arrival into NYC was once now nearer to 11 P.M. Ugh.
A brand new and unfamiliar educate station, discovering the baggage carousel and the right kind go out door for the lodge had me a bit on edge.
The excellent news was once that there would nonetheless be time for an early dinner. In most cases in this Florida to New York educate, there isn’t dinner provider on account of the 7:10 PM arrival.
However as a result of we had been past due, the café automobile could be open for early dinner meal purchases. Additionally, I used to be hoping to get my “particular” dinner that overlooked the educate in Florida.
In this travel, I sought after to check out the kosher foods. Whilst I don’t stay kosher, after doing a little due diligence with Amtrak Meals Details, I discovered that the kosher foods have the least quantity of sodium!
Can You Get Kosher Foods on Amtrak?
The solution is sure…however it’s difficult. You must order a kosher meal no less than 72-hours prior to departure day. Then hope that anyone in Amtrak’s commissary (in main towns) recollects to load the kosher meal onto the educate.
Sadly, since so few other people know Amtrak provides kosher foods, somewhat steadily those ready dinners don’t seem to be loaded at the educate.
This was once the case from this educate’s Miami departure. After I requested the conductor in Iciness Park if my kosher meal was once onboard, he requested the Eating Supervisor. The solution was once, “No..,they forgot.”
I used to be advised that during Washington, D.C., they’d be sure that a kosher meal was once delivered at the side of the remainder of the provides.
And it labored! My kosher meal was once certainly onboard for this final 5-hour section to New York.
The kosher foods are two separate applications. Your room attendant and/or the galley chef won’t have ever observed Amtrak’s kosher meal applications. However there are two; one is chilly with salad, roll, butter, and dessert. The second one bundle is your primary sizzling meal.
I used to be satisfied to have dinner. An 11:00 PM arrival into New York supposed that it will be too past due to get any meals.
In a position to Arrive into New York
10:00 PM – In spite of everything, the Silver Megastar was once nearing New York. Florida gave the impression of eons in the past.
It was once time to prepare and close up my in a single day tools. Over time, I’ve discovered to pack particularly for the educate so repacking isn’t too tough.
Stowing all my digital stuff slows me down. Cords, chargers, telephone, digital camera, batteries…all need to be put away.
In the event you’re questioning why I’ve my digital camera unpacked, it’s as a result of I stay it on the waiting to take footage from the educate. My digital camera and my iPhone are at all times shut to hand.
Take Footage From an Amtrak Educate
I like taking footage and movies from the educate. And it’s taken me a couple of years to get it executed with luck. It additionally is helping to grasp the direction, the place explicit landmarks are and be waiting to get the picture.
In case you are remotely serious about how to do that, just be sure you be waiting to shoot. Going 70 mph, it’s important to body and shoot lovely rapid. Lighting fixtures may be a subject matter as is the evident mirrored image within the window.
I to find it is helping to take a seat within the chair that faces ahead, (there are two chairs in a roomette). Whilst you spot one thing bobbing up forward, you briefly soar to the opposite chair that makes you sit down backwards.
The attitude of having a look again on the glass window diminishes the glare or mirrored image so you’ll be able to get a gorgeous excellent shot. That’s how I used to be in a position to get this shot of the Jefferson Memorial. I used to be additionally going from Florida to New York.
You will have to take a look at for dust spots at the window. I convey a small spray bottle of windex, (sure I do!) only for cleansing the glass.
It’s essential to bear in mind to show off the lighting fixtures for your roomette. You’ll be able to additionally put the window curtain at the back of you, identical to old-time photographers used to do.
Silver Megastar Arrives New York
10:45 PM – Our educate started its descent below the Hudson River. This takes about 3-4 mins within the one-way tunnel (in-built 1910.)
The ascent starts, your ears pop and the educate slows to a halt. My room attendant had already taken my suitcase to the go out door.
All I had to do was once a last-minute room take a look at, clutch my in a single day pack and stroll to the go out. For the ones with extra baggage or wanted help, Amtrak’s Purple Cap provider was once presented.
It is a loose provider the place you and your baggage are on small golfing cart sort conveyances, that transports you to the upstairs Educate Corridor.
Because the educate slowly got here to a halt, the transom opened, the steps opened up and a longer arm from the attendant helped all people alight from the educate. Now to seek out my means upstairs to the brand new Moynihan Educate Corridor.
To get your bearings, Moynihan Educate Corridor is at once around the boulevard from the unique Penn Station. It opened for provider on January 1, 2021.
For one evening, I booked a room at Fairfield Inn and Suites, at once throughout from the brand new educate station.
The following afternoon, I’d board the Lake Shore Restricted for Chicago.
Value of an Amtrak Price tag with Roomette From Florida to New York
For my Amtrak price tag from Florida to New York, I paid $546 plus a $20 tip for my room attendant. This incorporated my roomette, bottled water and 4 foods.
The deluxe bed room was once double the cost of a roomette. For a one-night travel, a roomette for me was once tremendous.
Backside Line
Is Amtrak definitely worth the money and time? I’d have to provide a convincing “Sure!” Even if I don’t fly, I like to look all of the puts within the U.S. that you simply can’t see on a highway travel. And indisputably no longer from 40,000′ within the air.
I at all times inform those that for me, my holiday starts the minute I set foot on a educate. Sure, it’s a slower tempo and now and then irritating whilst you arrive past due.
However airways cancel flights at all times. Additionally they arrive past due. And except you’ve paid for Industry or First Elegance, you’re filled in like farm animals in a pen.
RELATED AMTRAK READING FROM CRUISE MAVEN
Sherry Laskin
I’m the editor and author of CruiseMaven.com, a solo traveler cruising the arena on waves and wheels, accumulating recipes alongside the way in which. I am hoping my articles and footage entertain, advise and encourage you to go back and forth the arena with out flying. Take a breath…forestall for a neighborhood meal and a pitcher of wine alongside the way in which.
