Choo Choo Chewies

From A:

As mentioned a while back, we took the Amtrak Auto Train to relocate from Florida to Virginia.  And here's the long-awaited recap of our experience!

When we drove into the Amtrak station in Orlando, staff members took each of our cars to the loading area where they were driven onto the auto carriers (I'm pretty sure the drivers arm wrestle each other to see who gets to drive the luxury vehicles - such as the new Corvette we saw).  We weren't able to watch the loading process, but we watched the cars as they were unloaded in Virginia.  In the photo below you can see the front of the first car about to be driven out of the carrier and down the ramp:

I don't know why the drivers wear hard hats.  Unless they're afraid of people like us to pack so much stuff into their cars that a quick stop might mean flying household goods.  Anyway, the slickest part of the vehicle loading / unloading process is the 360 degree camera that documents the condition of each vehicle when it's pulled into the station.  If a damage claim is filed once a car is returned, the vehicle condition is compared to the video taken prior to loading.  Good thinking, Amtrak.

Now to our accommodations.  We reserved a sleeping room for 2 people.  There are also larger sleeping rooms that can accommodate 4 people.  Our room had two chairs that faced each other, along with a fold-out table:

J decided the table was for taking out contacts - which he did like a pro!  No lost lenses or inadvertent eyeball stabbing:

Each sleeping car has its own attendant who helps with whatever the passengers need.  Our attendant was named Kenny - and I forgot to get a photo with him.  Let's just pretend that Kenny looked like this guy:

Anyway, Kenny asked us what time we would like to have our beds made in the evening, as well as what time we'd like to have our wake-up call and our beds put away in the morning.  We decided to have our beds made while we were at dinner (since only the latest dining time was still available when we checked in) and then have them put away while we were at breakfast.

And this is the really cool part - the two chairs in the sleeping room slide together to form the bottom bed, and the angled ceiling in the room pulls down to form the top bed:

Before - the top bunk is pushed all the way up to allow for more head room.

After - the bed is folded down to form the top bunk.

So while our beds were being made, we had dinner.  It was surprisingly good!  There was a menu with about 8 different entree options, plus about 5 different dessert options.  The kids menu includes "Choo Choo Chewies" which are chicken tenders - pretty cute.  J had steak with a baked potato, and I had chicken with rice.  And we both had hot fudge sundaes for dessert - yum!

The train had wine tasting and snacks in the evening, as well as a showing of Gnomeo and Juliet.  There was also a continental breakfast in the morning.

And 17 hours after we had loaded the train in Florida we were unloading in Virginia - amazing!