ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I mentioned in the “Blow That Dough!” thread that we planned an Amtrak Chicago to Grand Canyon vacation pack, and a few people asked for an update, so I thought I'd detail a bit about the trip here. To cut to the chase (or the “tl/dr” version as they say these days), it was very enjoyable, some minor glitches, we liked it enough that we will be looking into doing something similar again soon.
For some background, I've mentioned that DW hates flying, just won't do it at this point, I get antsy and tired behind the wheel for more than about 3 hours, so I thought we should try a train trip. The negatives I've read about here and other places were not too concerning to us. Mostly crabbing about the schedule delays, but since everything was booked through Amtrak, we figured they'd adapt, and that turned out to be OK.
We travel infrequently, so I was willing to upgrade what we could, though some upgrades would need to be planned further ahead (El Tovar hotel might need to be booked a year ahead). We got the 'Bedroom' on the train, which is a lower/upper bunk at night that fold out to a couch for day, with a chair and your own toilet/shower (like an RV).
The Southwest Chief leaves CHI daily @ 2:50 PM, you sleep on the train that night and get into Flagstaff, AZ ~ 8:30 PM the next evening (so ~ 30 hours travel total) . A shuttle bus takes you ~ 40 minutes to the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams, AZ which was very nice and roomy - much better than I expected for a tourist area and an Amtrak affiliate. Next morning, the Grand Canyon Railroad picks you up at the hotel for a 2 hour ride to the South Rim Village. We upgraded to the old restored domed parlor car, and it was elegant just like in the movies. We walked back to outside of the last car for a pretty exciting view as the train zipped through the scenery and turns. There's some entertainment, a narrator/bartender, snacks and a cash bar. Your bags are bused up to your hotel in the Village, so that's taken care of for you.
You don't really see the Canyon from the train (they make this clear). You get off the train ~ 11AM and onto a bus tour. That first view of the Grand Canyon is mind boggling. For all you read, all the pictures and documentaries you have seen, you still end up saying something profound like “Oh, Wow!”.
I'm still not sure what is so awe-inspiring about a hole in the ground, but it is!
The bus takes you to a few lookout points, then back to the Village for an included buffet lunch that was, ummmm 'adequate', so you roam around a bit, take in more views, then dinner is on your own. We had a very nice dinner in the Arizona Room, pricey, but for a tourist area not insane. The Maswik Lodge was booked for us (the only choice at that point), a bit down-scale, but the room was large, clean, and comfy so it was OK.
We were scheduled to take the train back to Williams @ 3:15 the next afternoon (so basically ~30 hours in the Canyon). So timing is a little tight (I think there is a 6 day plan also), but I really wanted to take the helicopter tour ( ~ $300 for 50 minutes, and ~ $55 for taxis back/forth about 15 minutes each way), so I booked that before we left for ~ 10 AM. Glad I did, that was awesome, especially as they fly from just above the trees as they approach the steep drop-off of the canyon, and you go from being a few hundred feet above the ground, to having the ground drop to 5000 feet below you! Exhilarating! I was with a family from Holland who were RV'ing across the United States, the Dad, his son and daughter (college aged?), his wife and two other sons were in another helicopter. They were all very nice and fun. I was able to get videos during some of the ride just holding the phone out so as not to get distracted and miss the 'experience'. You've got noise canceling headphones and voice activated mics, so the pilot could talk with us, and we could all talk with each other.
When we got out, I asked the Dad if I could get a little video of him with his family, and asked him to say something in Dutch - like invite us to visit Holland or something. Well, he was hamming it up, and his daughter was laughing pretty hard as he went on, so I'm curious to get a translation of this! At the end, I did pick up “windmills and wooden shoes!” in English, so I'm assuming that was a joke about the Holland cliche's. DW was happy to tour the various museums/shops in the village while I was out.
I mainly took short videos rather than photos. I figure the pro photographers had better shots than I would ever get, and with the video I could add some narration to personalize it, and I think that worked out well.
When you book an Amtrak 'bedroom' or 'roomette', meals are included. The food was actually pretty good, given the limitations of serving on a train, better than I expected. It's pricey if you have to pay out of pocket from coach, like nice restaurant prices for something not quite at that level. All in all, very satisfied with that, nice desserts included at both lunch and dinner, good coffee, a few craft beers were available. The tracks can be pretty rough though, a fair amount of swaying back/forth.
They seat you at tables of 4, and yes, part of the 'fun' is being seated with other travelers. Everyone we sat with was interesting, two times it was a Mother and College-aged son traveling together, a retired truck driver and his young teen son, a Mother-Daughter who were Mennonites from NY, a couple traveling across AZ for a weekend getaway, a man going from his home in AZ back to his 'hometown' in Kansas to visit with family. The locals were able to fill us in on some details of the landscape and such.
The train in Flagstaff (from L.A.) back to Chicago was delayed by 2 hours, and unfortunately it is scheduled to depart at 4 AM, so we were up very early to get there from Williams. So OK, hanging around an Amtrak station at 4 AM means being with some people you just would prefer not to, but others were very nice and interesting - a classical violinist waiting on the train played for us a bit to pass the time.
The 'bedroom' was surprisingly comfortable during the day. We checked one bag on the way there, but did not on the way back. There is room under the couch/bed for two carry-ons, and our other small bags could be on a shelf above or under the seat. It was actually nice having the bags in the room, we end up using them as footrests.
Sleeping on the upper bunk was not so great, I did get a bit claustrophobic, you are close to the ceiling, and you can't really see out a window, so when I woke up in the middle of the night once, I was afraid I'd get 'sea sick' looking at things in the room before I could get back to sleep. But I managed.
It wasn't cheap, just under $5,000 for the two of us, but that included most everything, just a few meals were on us (and we chose to pay for a more upscale breakfast at the El Tovar). And as I said, we just would not have done it otherwise, so we are glad we did. If you wanted to take the time to pick and choose dates and hotels, you could probably do much better, and maybe now with some experience we will do that. Fares are done Uber-style demand pricing. At 'amsnag.net' I found that bedroom-for-two tickets went from a $1,223 low up to $1,916 over the next 20 days, so if you can be flexible with dates, there's some savings. Most of the Amtrak staff were pleasant and reasonably efficient and helpful, I was a bit worried about the DMV government-worker stereotype, but it was fine.
The Canyon Village wasn't near as crowded as I was led to believe. Plenty of people, but it wasn't packed. Some kids start school around this time, so that might have been a factor.
OK, that was a short book, but if there are other questions “FIRE” away!
-ERD50
For some background, I've mentioned that DW hates flying, just won't do it at this point, I get antsy and tired behind the wheel for more than about 3 hours, so I thought we should try a train trip. The negatives I've read about here and other places were not too concerning to us. Mostly crabbing about the schedule delays, but since everything was booked through Amtrak, we figured they'd adapt, and that turned out to be OK.
We travel infrequently, so I was willing to upgrade what we could, though some upgrades would need to be planned further ahead (El Tovar hotel might need to be booked a year ahead). We got the 'Bedroom' on the train, which is a lower/upper bunk at night that fold out to a couch for day, with a chair and your own toilet/shower (like an RV).
The Southwest Chief leaves CHI daily @ 2:50 PM, you sleep on the train that night and get into Flagstaff, AZ ~ 8:30 PM the next evening (so ~ 30 hours travel total) . A shuttle bus takes you ~ 40 minutes to the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams, AZ which was very nice and roomy - much better than I expected for a tourist area and an Amtrak affiliate. Next morning, the Grand Canyon Railroad picks you up at the hotel for a 2 hour ride to the South Rim Village. We upgraded to the old restored domed parlor car, and it was elegant just like in the movies. We walked back to outside of the last car for a pretty exciting view as the train zipped through the scenery and turns. There's some entertainment, a narrator/bartender, snacks and a cash bar. Your bags are bused up to your hotel in the Village, so that's taken care of for you.
You don't really see the Canyon from the train (they make this clear). You get off the train ~ 11AM and onto a bus tour. That first view of the Grand Canyon is mind boggling. For all you read, all the pictures and documentaries you have seen, you still end up saying something profound like “Oh, Wow!”.
I'm still not sure what is so awe-inspiring about a hole in the ground, but it is!The bus takes you to a few lookout points, then back to the Village for an included buffet lunch that was, ummmm 'adequate', so you roam around a bit, take in more views, then dinner is on your own. We had a very nice dinner in the Arizona Room, pricey, but for a tourist area not insane. The Maswik Lodge was booked for us (the only choice at that point), a bit down-scale, but the room was large, clean, and comfy so it was OK.
We were scheduled to take the train back to Williams @ 3:15 the next afternoon (so basically ~30 hours in the Canyon). So timing is a little tight (I think there is a 6 day plan also), but I really wanted to take the helicopter tour ( ~ $300 for 50 minutes, and ~ $55 for taxis back/forth about 15 minutes each way), so I booked that before we left for ~ 10 AM. Glad I did, that was awesome, especially as they fly from just above the trees as they approach the steep drop-off of the canyon, and you go from being a few hundred feet above the ground, to having the ground drop to 5000 feet below you! Exhilarating! I was with a family from Holland who were RV'ing across the United States, the Dad, his son and daughter (college aged?), his wife and two other sons were in another helicopter. They were all very nice and fun. I was able to get videos during some of the ride just holding the phone out so as not to get distracted and miss the 'experience'. You've got noise canceling headphones and voice activated mics, so the pilot could talk with us, and we could all talk with each other.
When we got out, I asked the Dad if I could get a little video of him with his family, and asked him to say something in Dutch - like invite us to visit Holland or something. Well, he was hamming it up, and his daughter was laughing pretty hard as he went on, so I'm curious to get a translation of this! At the end, I did pick up “windmills and wooden shoes!” in English, so I'm assuming that was a joke about the Holland cliche's. DW was happy to tour the various museums/shops in the village while I was out.
I mainly took short videos rather than photos. I figure the pro photographers had better shots than I would ever get, and with the video I could add some narration to personalize it, and I think that worked out well.
When you book an Amtrak 'bedroom' or 'roomette', meals are included. The food was actually pretty good, given the limitations of serving on a train, better than I expected. It's pricey if you have to pay out of pocket from coach, like nice restaurant prices for something not quite at that level. All in all, very satisfied with that, nice desserts included at both lunch and dinner, good coffee, a few craft beers were available. The tracks can be pretty rough though, a fair amount of swaying back/forth.
They seat you at tables of 4, and yes, part of the 'fun' is being seated with other travelers. Everyone we sat with was interesting, two times it was a Mother and College-aged son traveling together, a retired truck driver and his young teen son, a Mother-Daughter who were Mennonites from NY, a couple traveling across AZ for a weekend getaway, a man going from his home in AZ back to his 'hometown' in Kansas to visit with family. The locals were able to fill us in on some details of the landscape and such.
The train in Flagstaff (from L.A.) back to Chicago was delayed by 2 hours, and unfortunately it is scheduled to depart at 4 AM, so we were up very early to get there from Williams. So OK, hanging around an Amtrak station at 4 AM means being with some people you just would prefer not to, but others were very nice and interesting - a classical violinist waiting on the train played for us a bit to pass the time.
The 'bedroom' was surprisingly comfortable during the day. We checked one bag on the way there, but did not on the way back. There is room under the couch/bed for two carry-ons, and our other small bags could be on a shelf above or under the seat. It was actually nice having the bags in the room, we end up using them as footrests.
Sleeping on the upper bunk was not so great, I did get a bit claustrophobic, you are close to the ceiling, and you can't really see out a window, so when I woke up in the middle of the night once, I was afraid I'd get 'sea sick' looking at things in the room before I could get back to sleep. But I managed.
It wasn't cheap, just under $5,000 for the two of us, but that included most everything, just a few meals were on us (and we chose to pay for a more upscale breakfast at the El Tovar). And as I said, we just would not have done it otherwise, so we are glad we did. If you wanted to take the time to pick and choose dates and hotels, you could probably do much better, and maybe now with some experience we will do that. Fares are done Uber-style demand pricing. At 'amsnag.net' I found that bedroom-for-two tickets went from a $1,223 low up to $1,916 over the next 20 days, so if you can be flexible with dates, there's some savings. Most of the Amtrak staff were pleasant and reasonably efficient and helpful, I was a bit worried about the DMV government-worker stereotype, but it was fine.
The Canyon Village wasn't near as crowded as I was led to believe. Plenty of people, but it wasn't packed. Some kids start school around this time, so that might have been a factor.
OK, that was a short book, but if there are other questions “FIRE” away!
-ERD50
