Category — q. Reviews

THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS AT THE WIZARDING WORLDS OF HARRY POTTER

The Hogwarts Express is a train between the two parts of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley in Universal Orlando’s Universal Studios theme park and Hogsmeade in its Island of Adventure theme park.

Being eligible to ride it requires a more-expensive “Park-to-Park” ticket. The Hogwarts Express has its charms but there’s not a lot to it—except for Harry Potter nuts (you know who you are), who kinda must ride it.

But you can use it and a room in a Universal hotel, which I wildly recommend, to get a somewhat easy day at the Wizarding World’s Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. More on this below.

The Hogwarts Express combines transport between the two Wizarding Worlds at Universal Orlando—Hogsmeade in the back right of Islands of Adventure, and Diagon Alley in the back right of Universal Studios (otherwise a really long walk) with some moderately cool visual and aural effects.

Plus with great visual authenticity it mimics Harry’s journeys from London to Hogsmeade and back, causing true Harry Potter fans to swoon.

There’s stations at each of the Wizarding Worlds.

In Universal Studios, King’s Cross station is just outside Diagon Alley, in the “regular” London area.

After your tickets are checked to make sure you have park-to-park privileges, you enter a queue, and are greeted by Hedwig to the platform.

The Hogwarts Express really looks like that in the films…

…both outside…

…and inside.

Your compartment will seat eight. Most—but not all!!—of the action is at the window. The seats closest to and furthest from the window have the worst views, and those in the middle of the compartment the best.

Stuff happens in the window…and also elsewhere, so don’t focus solely on the window. No more spoilers—just enjoy the journey!

The Hogsmeade station is darker than King’s Cross…

…and of course different outside.

There’s not a lot of capacity to the Hogwarts Express, so lines can quickly get long. On busy days, you may get a “return later” ticket, or may even be allowed only to take it one way.

My suggestions:

• Don’t go on a busy day.
• Stay (even for just a night) in a Universal hotel, so that you get early entry privileges
• Get in line for the Hogwarts Express as soon as you’ve seen one of the headliners rides and done Ollivander’s.

Here’s the details:

BUILDING HOGWARTS EXPRESS INTO A TOURING PLAN OF THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

If you go to Universal one of the weeks I recommend, and stay at a Universal hotel, then your day can flow like this:

1. Be at the turnstiles for whichever park has early open by 45 minutes before early open is expected to start (if both are open early, which will be uncommon my recommended weeks, then pick Universal Studios/Diagon Alley.)
2. At open, get back to the Wizarding World and ride (depending on which park you are in) Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey or Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.
3. See the Wand choosing the Wizard at Ollivanders
4. Get in line for the Hogwarts Express, and ride it to the other park. You’ll get there just about when day guests do. See whichever of Forbidden Journey or Gringotts you missed first thing

Relax, and see all the other wonderful detailing in both Wizarding Worlds.

Note that this assumes only one park is open to Universal hotel guests, and that the Hogwarts Express starts on time.

If both parks are open, divide the two headliners over two early mornings (you get early entry on both the day of check-in and day of check-out, and can check in at 7a) but still get in line for the Hogwarts Express as soon as you are out of Ollivanders.

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(For the first page of this Auto Train review, click here.)

THE LORTON AUTO TRAIN STATION AND EMBARKING

The Auto Train loads and unloads passengers only at two points—Lorton, Virginia and Sanford, Florida.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t stop elsewhere—it stops in Florence, South Carolina for fuelling and a crew change, and will stop at other points on the rail network (mostly CSX, a few miles of Sun Rail) when directed by dispatcher signaling.

But no passengers join or depart except at Lorton and Sanford.

The Lorton station is just south of Washington DC on I-95. The entrance is just to the east of the freeway—I found it badly signed. Or it found me badly attentive.

A fake palm tree greets you at the entry, where you check in and are directed to an unloading area.

Here your car gets magnetic numbers attached (which will be announced over the PA in Sanford so that you know when your car is ready). Grab your carry-ons and head inside—you’ll have no more access to your car until Sanford.

Inside you check in, get assigned a car and seats, and pick your dinner seating from among what’s available. The number (2-4) and time of seatings will vary by how crowded the train is.

A check-in hint: note that the train whistles all night at almost every grade crossing from Virginia to Florida. The locomotive couples onto the coaches for the southern trip, and the sleepers for the northern trip. If the whistle may annoy you, limit noise by asking for a car away from the locomotives…although this will give you more corridor traffic.

The Lorton station has a large waiting room, but not nearly enough seats for all the people the Auto Train will hold. (The train has capacity for more than 700 people and 300 cars.)

Getting a seat in the waiting room is a reason to arrive early. So is getting your pick of dining seatings.

But it is not true—though often written—that the first cars to load in Virginia are the first off in Florida. Loading the auto racks is much more complex than that. The only way to assure your car is one of the first off is to pay an extra $50 which will put you in the first 20 to unload.

So unless your travel plans give you no better way to spend the time, my advice is to arrive later rather than earlier. Amtrak would like you to arrive by 2p, and you must arrive by 2.30p. I’d target between 1 and 1.30 to give you some slack for travel problems.

(When you book, you can also sign up for schedule alerts. Do that—while the Auto Train is on time about 85% of the time, the trainset that departs at 4p is the same one that arrived at 9.30a. So if there’s a problem with the arriving train, you could be quite delayed.)

The Lorton station also has a good sized gift shop where you can get snacks…

…and also souvenirs.

Ceci N’est Pas 32116

If all goes well you’ll be called for boarding around 2.30p. You’ll be called by car number, which will be on the paperwork you get when you check in. In passenger rail tradition, your car number is not what is painted on the car—that would be too simple. Rather, there will be a placard near the car with the car number.

Sleeping car passengers board first, helped by the sleeping car attendants—one to a sleeper.

While consists vary, these days the Auto Train will typically have five to seven sleeping cars (one for the staff), with a diner in the middle for sleeping car passengers, four to six coaches with one or two diners for coach passengers in the middle of them, and a lounge car connecting the coach and sleeper groups, with armed guards keeping the coach riffraff away from the sleeping car passengers. (Not really hah.)

(Three constraints affect the consist. One is overall length, which CSX restricts to a total of 50 passenger cars and auto racks. This is thousands of feet shorter than many freight trains, so I’m guessing this limit is to make more (shorter) sidings available to the Auto Train for dispatcher flexibility. Second is the balance between auto rack and passenger capacity. Each bi-level auto rack can hold eight larger or ten smaller cars, while the passenger cars (averaging coach and sleepers) hold ~60 people each, so you need multiple racks for each filled passenger car. Third is the ability of the typically two GE P42 locomotives to handle the head-end power needs of the passenger cars (lights, heating and cooling, electricity, etc.) which is limited to 16-18 passenger cars. So a max consist will have on the order of 17 passenger cars, 33 auto racks, and two locomotives.)

After boarding, the train is assembled, brakes checked, and it departs. Both of our departures were early. Because everyone has to check in by 90 minutes before departure time, there’s no issue with waiting for last minute arrivals. If the train is ready, and the dispatcher has a place for it on the tracks, off you’ll go!

Opinions on the views from the Auto Train vary. To start with, winter trips will have little daylight anyway. And trains kinda go through everywhere but the nicest parts of town.

(Though see the sunrise over Aquia Creek from my phone on the trip back from Florida.)

I love the views because I find everything fascinating—farms to decayed industries to small towns to military bases to railroad facilities. It is authentic—there’s nothing Disneyfied about the Auto Train routing. But some do find the views uninteresting…

DINING ON THE AUTO TRAIN, THE LOUNGE, WI-FI AND SUCH

Two meals come with your ticket, dinner and a continental breakfast, both served in the dining cars. (Note that the schedule is such that you’ll want to plan something for lunch on your departure day. We brought sandwiches that my sister made (and a lot of snacks) that we mostly ate in the waiting room. The gift shop sells sandwiches and such as well.)

Dining cars are two levels, with the kitchen on the lower level and tables on the upper level.

Tables seat four, and if your party is smaller you may be seated with strangers—fun for extroverts, a pain for introverts.

Sleeping car attendants will get meals for their passengers on request, a boon to those with walking impediments. Don’t forget to tip them… It’s also appropriate to tip the bartenders in the lounge, and the people who take care of you in the dining car.

The menu is now the same in both the sleeper and the coach diners, and all customers now pay for alcohol. (Sorry about the image quality…I’ll get a clearer shot on my April coach trip…) Seatings are announced over the train’s PA system. The announcements can be hard to hear in the sleeping compartments.

We had among us the beef and the salmon, and thought both OK under the circumstances. Not remotely fine dining, not as good as what you’ll get in airline first class, much better than anything offered in domestic airline coach.

Continental breakfast is served as a cold buffet, and eaten at the tables (my sister snuck bananas back to her roomette). It begins at 6a, but is not announced until 7a.

Between the coach section and the sleeper section you’ll find a lounge car (the dedicated sleeper lounge has been discontinued). Here you can get drinks and snacks, and movies are also shown in the evening.

There’s two WIFI access points in the lounge car as well, each of which can take ten devices. In other words…if WIFI is important to your trip, bring your own hotspot.

THE SANFORD AUTO TRAIN STATION AND DISEMBARKING

The Sanford Station is similar to the Lorton station…

…except the gift shop is smaller…

…and because of shorter platforms, there’s a little more complexity to passenger loading and unloading—not all the passenger cars can be on the platform at once.

The train will arrive before you do–it takes a while for everything to be safely switched. Then you grab your gear, get off the train, and wait for your vehicle number to be called. It’s kinda like bingo from hell, as it can take a couple of hours with a full train, and somebody has to be last.

Specifically, on our trip down, ours was the very last car to be unloaded!! After a while the wait became a little comic. We might have been annoyed to have been second-to-last, but last—now, there’s a distinction!!

That’s my sister and dad–anonymized a bit, aren’t you jealous of my image-manipulating skills?–at the end of our lonely wait for our car…

My sister asked—she was told there used to be a prize for the last car, but not any more…

Even before our car was unloaded I had laid out the $50 to be unloaded in the first 20 cars on the way back to Lorton. Whether it’s worth the money to you would depend on how you’d spend the hour or two you might potentially save from this. In our case, once I arrived in Lorton I’d then be driving an hour to drop my dad off, another hour to drop my sister off, and then 6 more hours to get back to Ohio, so it was worth it to me…

From Sanford Disney World is about an hour’s drive. Left, left, three miles, then left again onto I-4 West. But I-4 is about to go into massive construction along almost all of this route, so the longer (and tolled) route via FL-417 may be a wiser choice as this project unfolds.

Heading north from Sanford to Lorton, all the key points–including departure and arrival times–are the same.

AUTO TRAIN ALTERNATIVES

If you want to take the train to avoid flying and I-95, but don’t need your car, consider Amtrak’s Silver Meteor and Silver Star.

These sister trains (route map above; they have a sisterly quarrel over the Carolinas) provide many more places to board than Lorton, drop you off in downtown Orlando rather than Sanford, and don’t charge the vehicle fee.

Because of the extra stops, the elapsed time on the Silvers is longer for an equivalent Auto Train trip—e.g. the Silver Star leaves DC about an hour earlier, and gets into Orlando about an hour later. But since you don’t have to arrive at least two hours early, and don’t have to wait up to two hours for your car, it’s about a wash.

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TRAVELING TO DISNEY WORLD ON THE AUTO TRAIN

Amtrak’s Auto Train is a passenger train that also takes vehicles between Lorton, Virginia, just south of Washington DC, and Sanford, Florida, about an hour east of Disney World.

It’s an alternative to flying or driving the 800+ freeway miles between these two points for those who also wish to bring their own car.

(Amtrak’s Silver Meteor and Silver Star are the rail alternatives for those who don’t want to bring their own car. These two trains also have many more embarkation points–you can board and disembark the Auto Train only in Lorton and Sanford.)

When I was a kid and we lived near Lorton on the Quantico Marine Corps base, my family commonly took the Auto Train to Disney World, and after that traveled in our car down to Fort Lauderdale to visit my grandparents.

More recently, in late January and early February 2015, I took the Auto Train to Disney World with my dad and sister—both of whom live not far from Lorton.

My dad hates airports, and my sister hates airplanes. Each has driven to Disney World many times, but my dad has also taken the Auto Train a few times.

I don’t really remember how we decided to take the Auto Train for this trip instead of driving, and we didn’t even consider the Silver Meteor or Silver Star. My dad and I share a lifelong love of trains (real and model) and my sister likes them too. Maybe that was it.

The basic operations of the Auto Train are as follows (all covered in more detail later in this review):

1. Arrive at the Lorton station sometime between 11.30a and 2.30p, preferably by 2p (You can find lingo on the web–even from Amtrak–that says 3p, but our material said arrive by 2p, no later than 2.30p–see the image)
2. Check in your car, grab your carry-ons (you’ll have no further access to your car until it’s unloaded in Sanford), check in and choose your dinner seating (the earlier arrivals will book up the more popular seating times on busy trips)
3. Board the train when called, likely beginning around 2.30p
4. After the train has been assembled, depart around 4p (we left early)
5. Dine during your assigned seating
6. Visit the lounge car if you wish for drinks or to catch a movie
7. Head back to your seat or your sleeping compartment to sleep.
8. Wake up and have a continental breakfast in the dining car
9. Arrive in Sanford around 9.30a (we arrived early)
10. Wait for your car—which can be up to two hours on busy days—someone has to be last…(you can buy, for $50, the right to be one of the first 20 cars off)
11. Head the three miles to Interstate 4, and drive west about an hour to Disney World

(The return trip has the same departure and arrival times)

If you arrive in Lorton around 1p, and get your car at 10.30a the next morning (which assumes the train is on time—and it is almost 85% of the time, remarkable for Amtrak–and that your car is in the first half of those off-loaded) you cover the eight hundred miles in 21.5 hours, and get to sleep while traveling—plus of course you’ve got your car at the end.

But it really isn’t a time saver, and for most not a money saver.

Most can drive the 800 miles in 12 hours, and the remaining 9.5 hours is plenty for eating and sleeping on the road.

As I write this, the one-way charge for your vehicle is $239, or about 30 cents a mile.

On top of that you’ve gotta pay for accommodations on the train as well.

Accommodations prices will vary by party size, time of the year, which ticket type you select, and which accommodations you book, but a family of four with two kids (2 -12, as Amtrak defines kids) will likely pay at least $300 more (one way) for coach accommodations, more during the more popular times of the year.

Coach is not bad, but a sleeper is the way to go if you can possibly afford it. (The image shows part of a sleeping car “Bedroom.”)

The least expensive sleeper options for this same family–two “Roomettes”–will likely cost at least another $300 (again one way).

So you are at around at least a grand for a coach round trip, $1600 for a round trip with a couple of roomettes. And on busier dates the rates can be much higher.

What the Auto Train really is is an annoyance-avoider coupled with car transport. If you don’t want to fly or to drive the 800+ miles of I-95 and I-4 that the route avoids, you want your car, and you don’t mind paying a little more–perhaps a lot more–then it’s a great choice.

You need to test book a trip on Amtrak’s site (to get rates and availability) and compare the costs to your next best alternative those same dates to fully get the cost implications of the Auto Train.

VEHICLES ACCEPTED ON THE AUTO TRAIN

First, you can’t travel without a vehicle. My sister decided to go after my dad had already booked the two of us a roomette and vehicle, and she needed to piggyback on our reservation’s vehicle to get on.

Those without vehicles but who want to take the train should check out Amtrak’s Silver Star and Silver Meteor.

Vehicles travel in enclosed auto racks, so need to fit.

Standard vehicles that fit Amtrak’s dimensions (and that don’t have dual rear wheels or gull wing doors, both verboten) and motorcycles (motorcycles have to arrive by 2p, as they get special packaging) are straightforward.

Here’s the maximum dimensions for four wheel vehicles:

• Maximum height: 88 inches
• Maximum width: 84 inches
• Ground clearance: at least 4 inches

Note that Amtrak doesn’t specify maximum length in inches here. Rather, for length it says “Standard factory-model (originally manufactured length) automobiles, vans, SUVs and trucks.”

That doesn’t mean you can’t transport your 30-foot stretch Yugo, or even a car and a trailer. Rather, you’ll have to measure it, call 1-877-SKIP-I-95, and figure out together whether it fits, and if so, whether or not you’ll need to buy two vehicle spots.

Rear bike racks (and bikes) are fine though you’ll need to sign a waiver. The only roof racks allowed are those installed by the factory, and they have to be empty—even if with your roof bags you are still under the 88 inch max height.

More is here.

AUTO TRAIN ACCOMMODATIONS: COACH

The basic distinction is between coach and the sleeping cars, with then options among the sleeping car accommodations.

There’s three levels of coach pricing, with varying refundabilty terms. The lower-priced options are not always available.

Prices vary with demand, and, because of snowbirds, may be higher during periods when Disney World itself has lower prices than you might think. Do a test booking to see prices and the refund terms. Kids 2-12 travel for about the half the price of parents, and there may be special pricing available for seniors, active duty military, students, AAA members, space aliens, and such.

If I were more talented I’d write a script that pulls from Amtrak’s website coach price by passenger type, ticket type, discount type, and date and show that in a big graph.

Instead all I have to offer is to suggest you try some test bookings, particularly checking deals you might be eligible for (via the drop down box) and varying your dates a bit.

All the passenger cars on the Auto Train have two levels. You can request upper or lower level coach seats.

The upper levels (at the top of the floor plan) have much better views, more sway, and more people noise, as the corridor between the upper level seats is also the main corridor for traveling back and forth to the restrooms, the dining car and the lounge.

As the doors to other cars open and close, there’s rattle and hum, and also some noise from clumsy bloggers taking photos.

The lower level fits many fewer people and doesn’t connect to other cars, so passengers here have less people noise and less sway, but more track noise and not as good views.

The seats are not at all comparable to what you’d get in coach on a jet.

Rather, they are huge, and with enormous legroom. That’s my sister seated normally…

…and with her legs extended.

A thingy comes up from underneath to support your legs, and you get much more reclining room without bugging the folk behind you than in coach on a jet. That’s me in full recline posing as a dozing coach passenger.

Luggage racks are above both rows of seats.

Amtrak restricts you to a couple of carry-ons–see the sign–but the only luggage you need is much less—only what you wish to have available for the time away from your car. For example

• Change of unmentionables and PJs
• Clothes suited to the destination weather—on the trip down, layering is simplest
• Grooming and makeup gear
• Blankets and pillows
• Motion sickness meds, just in case (rare but it happens…)
• Ear plugs or noise-masking headphones
• Books, magazines, electronic toys (Kindle, iPads, etc.) and chargers
• At least one copy of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit
• A power strip (there’s just one outlet per pair of coach seats)
• Snacks
• A wifi hotspot (more on this later)
• Any valuables you don’t want to leave in the car
• A flask of cheap bourbon to drink in the Carolinas if you have trouble sleeping

Note that the five coach baths in each car are all downstairs. Two are tiny (airplane sized) but three are larger—perfect for changing clothes.

Because of the chair size, legroom, and reclining room, sleeping—if you have something to cut noise—is much more comfortable than on say a red-eye.

It is not nearly as comfortable as having your own space and a flat bed, which is why you should consider sleepers.

AUTO TRAIN ACCOMMODATIONS: SLEEPERS

Sleeping cars (sleepers) provide private compartments, flat beds, pillows and blankets, and in some spaces private baths.

Sleeping car attendants set up and take down the beds and otherwise help out, but most of the additional amenities that used to be offered to Auto Train sleeping car passengers (a different dinner menu than that in coach, a separate lounge, free wine at dinner, complimentary wine and cheese tasting, etc.) are gone.

The typical sleeper has

• Fourteen “Roomettes” (ten on the upper level, four on the lower level, light blue in the floor plan) that hold and sleep two. The lower bunk is 2’ 4” by 6’ 6” and the upper is 2’ by 6’ 2”.
• Five “Bedrooms” on the upper level (orange; some cars have ten bedrooms on the upper level, with five replacing the upper level roomettes) that seat four but are only bookable for the two they sleep. The lower bunk is 3’ 4” by 6’ 3”; the upper is 2’ 4” by 6’ 2”. (Some Amtrak material not specific to the Auto Train suggests that you can book two connecting bedrooms for 6 as a “Bedroom Suite”—intending I guess to put four smaller children in the two wider lower bunks and two adults in the upper bunks, but that’s a tight fit. None of my Auto Train test bookings for 6 offered this as an option—I got instead a family bedroom and a roomette.)
• One “Accessible Bedroom” on the lower level that seats and sleeps two (pink), one with a mobility issue and a companion who can climb into an upper bunk. The lower bunk is 2’ 4” by 6’ 6” and the upper is 2’ by 6’ 2”. This bedroom is optimized for wheelchair use, and has an accessible bath in it.
• One “Family Bedroom” on the lower level that seats four to five and sleeps four–two adults and two much shorter folk (green). The lower larger bunk is 3’ 4” by 6’ 3”; the upper larger bunk is 2’ 4” by 6’ 2”. The lower smaller bunk is 2’ 3” by 4’ 9”; the upper smaller bunk is 2’ by 4’ 7”. Note that Amtrak will book this room for a family of five–see this!

All bedrooms except the lower level family bedroom also have a bath and shower—no roomettes have either.

Prices vary, so as with coach you’ll need to try some test bookings. If more than one space fits your party, you can click the little orange arrows–circled in red above–to see other room types and their prices.

There’s also a fairly cool room-viewer here.

We stayed in both of the most common room types (roomettes and bedrooms) on our trip, so here’s the scoop on them.

Roomettes

Roomettes (light blue on the floor plan) offer two large facing seats with a pull-out table between.

Between the seat and corridor wall on one side is a narrow but long and deep area for stuff—a small soft sided bag or two is shove-able here (you can also stick your bags under the seats, but they will be inaccessible when the beds are down).

The other seat has between it and the corridor wall what appear to be oddly sized shelves but are fact are steps to the upper berth.

There’s plenty of reading lights—for both seats, and also for the upper berth—and coat hooks too. You are isolated from the hallway by walls and a sliding solid door, and have in addition curtains for privacy or darkness or both. There’s one power outlet behind one of the seats.

The seats convert into a lower bunk…

…and an upper bunk folds down from the wall. There’s no window for the upper bunk, and with the small overall space and curve of the roof I found it claustrophobic until I decided to play I was a vampire in my coffin.

These roomettes, at 3’6” by 6’ 6”, are really, really small. That’s less than 23 square feet. I’ve been in showers bigger than this—e.g. in the master bath at the Villas at the Grand Floridian.

Two people in the chairs need to take care of where they put their feet—when one changes feetsie position, the other needs to as well.

And when the beds are down the room becomes essentially unusable for anything but stretching out in the beds, or standing still in front of them.

The clear space in front of the beds—that you would use, for example, while dressing to go to the bath or to the dining car for breakfast—is on the order of 14 inches by 24 inches…

My dad and I in fact were so cramped that we booked a bedroom for the trip back. My sister, who was alone in her roomette, liked hers quite a bit. If I were traveling solo in a roomette, I’d probably have just the upper bunk made up come nighty-night time, so that I retained the option of sitting in the chairs if I woke up before I wished to, or had trouble falling alseep.

Bedrooms

Bedrooms are still cramped with the beds down, but not nearly so much as the roomettes. Bedrooms are 6’ 6” by 7’ 6”—at about 49 square feet a little more than twice as large as roomettes, although the bath takes up about half of the extra space.

One side of the bedroom has a long couch that seats three and converts into a 3’ 4” by 6’ 3” berth—a foot wider than the lower berth in a roomette. When unfurled, this bed makes getting in and out of the room hard. It’s only a couple of inches wider than a twin, and honestly I would rather have seen a narrower bed and better access in and out of the room.

Above it is a bunk that folds down. At 2’ 4” by 6’ 2”, it’s 4 inches wider than the roomette upper berth. Because it, like the lower berth, is transverse, it both shares the window and does not have a curve restricting space above the mattress, so is not quite so claustrophobic as the upper birth in a roomette.

Here’s the lower berth…

…and the upper berth.

Across the couch at the window is this single chair. There’s a pull-out table between this chair and the seat at the window end of the couch. The connecting door, if present, is behind this chair, and the chair folds up to improve access between connecting rooms.

The chair remains present when the beds are made, so one can sit while the other sleeps.

There’s a full set of reading lights, one power point, and, between the couch and the corridor door, a closet.

As in the roomettes, a sliding door closes off the space and there’s also privacy curtains.

At the entry across from the couch is a sink.

Behind the sink is a small private toilet and shower. We didn’t use the shower. On other uses of this space I am silent.

A family of four could book either two roomettes or a roomette and a bedroom. The roomette and bedroom could be much more expensive (yes, you have to test your dates to see exactly how much) but because the bedroom seats four the family will have many more ways to group themselves.

(The family bedroom downstairs (green) has no bath or sink, and sleeps four only if two can fit into beds 4’ 9” and 4’ 7” long—but it is still likely better for most four person families with short kids than two roomettes. Its 49 square feet is all devoted to the seats and the feets, so it seems likely to be less cramped when the beds are set than a regular bedroom.)

Sleeping Car Baths

Six of the 21 sleeping rooms in a standard sleeper have their own baths—the five upstairs bedrooms, and the downstairs accessible bedroom. Those in one of the 14 roomettes or the downstairs family bedroom need to use another bath.

I can see from various comments online that many of the upstairs roomette guests miss that there’s baths downstairs too. There’s one small upstairs bath, but downstairs there’s three more plus a separate shower/changing room. Two of the three downstairs baths are the same small size as upstairs, but the third is larger, and the shower/changing room, is, for a train, quite large.

Other Sleeping Car Amenities

On the upper level near the stairwell there’s a coffee service and nearby ice machine.

Near it are supplies, tea and hot chocolate for the hot water line in the coffee maker, and other stuff—magazines, napkins and such.

Your sleeping car attendant can also provide other services—including even getting your dinner and bringing it back to your room! Don’t forget to tip your attendant…more on tipping later.

Stuff to Bring on an Auto Train Sleeping Car

Items to bring with you are similar to those you’d bring to coach, except you don’t need a pillow or a blanket.

While these spaces are quieter than coach, they aren’t silent, so it can’t hurt to have some kind of noise-reducing gear.

The roomettes are particularly thin on storage space, so bring as a carry-on no more than you really need.

• Change of unmentionables and PJs
• Clothes suited to the destination weather—on the trip down, layering is simplest
• Grooming and makeup gear
• Motion sickness meds, just in case (rare but it happens…)
• Ear plugs or noise-masking headphones
• Books, magazines, electronic toys (Kindle, iPads, etc.) and chargers
• Several copies of The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit
• A power strip (there’s just one outlet in bedrooms and roomettes)
• Snacks
• A wifi hotspot (more on this later)
• Any valuables you don’t want to leave in the car
• Fine wine to drink in Georgia if you have trouble sleeping

THE LORTON AUTO TRAIN STATION AND EMBARKING

This review continues here!!

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Old Key West Resort, see this.)

THE POOLS AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

There’s four pools at Disney’s Old Key West Resort.

The main pool is at the Hospitality House area near the north main entrance, and there’s three smaller ones scattered around the resort.

The main pool has by far the largest set of amenities.

The three smaller ones, on Miller’s Road, South Point Road, and Old Turtle Pond Road, have hot tubs as well as pools.

The Turtle Pond pool has other amenities as well.

THE MAIN POOL AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

The main pool at Disney’s Old Key West Resort features an enormous sand castle with a water slide inside.

Here’s a closer look at the slide.

The pool area also features a hot tub…

…the only sauna at a Disney World pool…

…and a kids pool.

Here’s the main pool from another side.

Beyond the sand castle is an extensive sandy kids play area.

From the other side.

There’s some cute dolphins on one side of this…

…and tennis courts on the other. (There’s another tennis court on Old Turtle Pond Road).

Next to these is a shuffleboard area.

Keep walking along the sand and you’ll find a volleyball court…

…and a firepit.

Strictly speaking, there’s no pool bar, but right outside the pool you’ll find the resort’s simple quick service offering and a small bar right next door.

The main pool is quite a hike from many accommodations buildings at Old Key West. However (double check this before you board!) all buses at Old Key West have their last on-grounds stop at the Hospitality House, and their first at the nearby Peninsular Road stop.

This means you can take the first available bus from your area to the Hospitality House, and the first bus at Peninsular Road back to your area.

THE QUIET POOLS AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

There’s three more “quiet pools” at Old Key West.

One is in the Miller’s Road area.

The barbecue here…

…and the hot tub.

Another pool is back in the South Point Road area.

Here’s its playground.

The broadest set of amenities among the three is at the pool in the Old Turtle Pond Road area.

This pool is kinda hidden in a far corner of the Turtle Pond area, and is in fact more convenient to many accommodation buildings in the western part of South Point Road than it is to eastern Turtle Pond buildings, as there’s a walkway behind building 49.

You’ll find here, besides the pool, a hot tub…

…a playground…

…heavy on sand…

…shuffleboard court…

…barbecue area…

…and, uniquely among the Old Key West quiet pools, a snack bar.

There’s not a lot to the menu here (as always on this site, click the photo to enlarge it), but given the distance of the buildings near here from the Hospitality House, it’s nice to have the option.

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(For the first page of this review of Disney’s Old Key West Resort, see this.)

AMENITIES AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

Disney’s Old Key West Resort is one of many Disney Vacation Club options at Walt Disney World. These resorts are available not only to DVC members, but also to everyone else, just like any other Disney World offering, through the regular Walt Disney World website or resort reservations phone number at 407-939-7675.

Kelly, the long-time travel agent partner of this site, can also book them for you. See the form near the bottom of this page for how to contact her.

They also are sometimes available to the general public at a discount through renting points from a Disney Vacation Club member or point broker.

Because the two sets of options at the Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Saratoga Springs are so different, for review purposes I count thirteen options among the Disney Vacation Club resorts at Walt Disney World.

The overall ranking among them for first time family visitors is as follows:

1. Disney’s Polynesian Villas and Bungalows (studios only)
2. Copper Creek Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
3. Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
4. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Jambo House
5. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Kidani Village
6. Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
7. The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
8. Disney’s Riviera Resort
9. Disney’s Beach Club Villas
10. Disney’s Boardwalk Villas
11. Disney’s Old Key West Resort
12. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, main resort
13. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort, Treehouse Villas

The next DVC offering to open will be Reflections, located on grounds that were formerly part of Fort Wilderness.

Disney’s Old Key West Resort is described on Walt Disney World’s website as “an island hamlet of brilliant green landscapes, pastel-colored Victorian architecture and ornate gingerbread accents…nestled among swaying palm trees, shimmering waterways and… lush golf fairways.”

Its 156 acres include an area called the Hospitality House, near the top and at the right of the map. You’ll find pretty much everything here except your room itself and some quiet pools.

Bus service at Old Key West is convoluted, because of all the dead-end roads.  Currently, all buses have the Hospitality House as their last stop, and another stop a short walk away (near building 28 on Peninsular Road) as their first stop.

This means you can take any bus to the Hospitality house, and walk to the Peninsular Road stop and take any bus back to the stop nearest your room. But ask the bus driver when you get on, as things can change.

The Hospitality House area includes the check-in lobby, where you’ll also find concierge services…

…a comfortable lounging room off the lobby…

…and a well-stocked shop…

…with a nice assortment of groceries…

…which makes sense, given all the kitchens here.

Also in the Hospitality House area you’ll find the table service restaurant, Olivia’s.

Outdoor seating for Olivia’s is available too.

Here’s the review of Olivia’s from our book The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2020:

Outside you’ll find a very small bar…

…and next to it a very small snack bar, which is the only counter-service offering here.

The menu is quite limited (as always on this site, click the image to enlarge it)…

…and there’s no indoor seating for it–just outdoor tables.

There’s another snack offering with an even more limited menu at the far end of the resort near the Turtle Pond quiet pool… understandable, I suppose, given all the kitchens, but awkward for anyone on the dining plan…or in a studio.

Also in this water-side area is the dock where you can catch a ferry to Downtown Disney.

Further down this waterside walkway, past the pool (more on that in a minute)…

…you’ll find this gym.

THE POOLS AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

This review continues here!

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The long-time travel agent partner of this site, Kelly, can book you at Disney’s Old Key West Resort or anywhere else at Disney World.  Contact her using the form below!

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THE BEST OF DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOKS FOR 2015

There’s all kinds of great material about Disney World on the web (especially on this site 🙂 ) but many will prefer to supplement, or even replace, websites with guidebooks about Walt Disney World.

Affordable luxuries, guidebooks let you circle key concepts, fold over pages to insure you return to them, make notes on the inside covers. Kindle versions let you search them incredibly efficiently. Some guidebooks (like mine!) even are backed by a website and give you the Kindle version for free if you buy the paperback, so that you have the best of both worlds!!

Moreover, any great guidebook will almost assuredly be better organized, better edited, and shorter than an equally good website, just given the nature of the two publishing environments.

The core tests of guidebooks are the quality of their material on when to go, where to stay, and how to manage your days.

• When you go drives everything from waits to prices to weather, and is the most important issue.
• Where you stay is the biggest variable in your budgeting, as hotel rooms are available for from less than $100 to four figures, and is traditionally the weakest part of guidebooks, as it is so expensive and time consuming to keep up.
• How to spend your days is partly a question of picking the right parks on the right days, and partly a question of having great plans for that day–which now also means the optimal use of FastPass+

There’s really only five guidebooks worth considering, of which I recommend three*:

RECOMMENDED WALT DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOKS

Dave Shute and Josh Humphrey’s The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit 2015.  

Our book is the shortest, most up-to-date, and most reliable guidebook out there.  (It’s also the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook series on Amazon in history.) Combining my unmatched experience with the resorts with Josh’s world-beating expertise on how to manage your days, it’s also the first guidebook to be written from scratch for FastPass+.

Weaknesses include that it only covers Walt Disney World and has no color pictures (there’s thousands on our sites, of course).

For more on The easy Guide, see this.

Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa’s The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2015.

The Unofficial Guide is the most comprehensive guidebook for an Orlando visit available, with material on not just Disney World but also many other Orlando hotels and attractions.

Weaknesses include enormous length, tiny type, and no color pictures. Its Disney resort material gets better every year, but there’s still more errors/outdated info than I’d like to see.

Julie and Mike Neal’s The Complete Walt Disney World 2015.

The greatest virtue of the Complete Guide is its wonderful color pictures. Midway between The easy Guide and The Unofficial Guide in length, and with a distinctive voice and perspective, it’s an especially good second choice for people buying one or the other of these books.

The main weakness of the Complete Guide is some inaccurate/out of date/misleading resort info.  The type is tiny, and some of the perspective expressed verges on the idiosyncratic. There’s no website backing it up.

WHICH DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOK FOR YOU?

The easy Guide is the best choice for first-timers, and for returning visitors whose main concern is picking a new hotel or using FastPass+…and for those with eyestrain.

The Unofficial Guide is the best choice for those who want to stay outside of Disney World, or visit parks, shopping or restaurants outside of Disney World… and for those who need an upper body workout.

The Complete Guide is the best choice for those who, unwilling to look at photos on the web, must have color photos in their guidebook…and for those off the grid.

*The other two are Birnbaum’s, no better than the Complete Guide, and Passporter’s, whose 2015 edition is not yet out, but whose 2014 edition had too much out-of-date or inaccurate stuff for me to recommend it.)

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