Part 4 Washington DC to Ft Lauderdale

Amtrak Part Four: Washington DC to Fort Lauderdale

It is kinda hard for a train to arrive on time at it's scheduled terminus when it leaves it departure station an hour late – add in scheduled track work and a freight train that had a broken coupling and took up to an hour to fix it is a matter of some pride that we arrived in Fort Lauderdale only 2.5 hours late.

At times it seems like we were never going to get there – our departure was delayed at least an hour because the train left NYC late.

When we finally did board it was straight to the dining car – I did sleep well that night – we are now in view liner cars which unlike the super liners have no upper deck but do come with a small toilet.

As Thursday wore on and after another disappointing breakfast but a good lunch of meatloaf and mashed potatoes we get stuck on the main track some where in Georgia behind a freight train that had one of the couplings that hold the cars together break – fortunately this is not an uncommon occurrence and the freight crew carry extras and can repair them themselves – on the other trains we were getting regular updates from the conductor but no so on this train so I asked our steward Leo – a 25 year employee – about that and he answered that he disabled it in our car because many people don't want to be disturbed but anything important he would verbally tell us.

Finally underway and with no hope of an on time arrival we are further delayed south of Jacksonville – they are building a commuter line and track work and speed reductions slow us up some more – finally after Kissimee we start to make up some time.

Around this time they announced that we would get a supper but it would be a limited menu – chicken, pasta or lamb shank – since I had two of those already I choose the pasta.

Finally around 8:30 PM we arrive at the Fort Lauderdale station and the end of my trip but there was one other challenge that I knew I would face – collecting of my checked luggage – I couldn't find my baggage check – pretty should I wasn't given one in Seattle – well after showing some ID and my itinerary I got my bag – hailed a taxi and $20.00 with tip later arrived at my hotel – the Marriott Renaissance Cruise Port and settled in for a two night stay – hotel was pre-paid through hotels.com and the agent was nice enough to comp my internet for the stay.

I will let you make your own judgement of what you think of Amtrak and it's performance.

Next: My Fort Lauderdale stay.