One of our favorite ways to get to Walt Disney World is Amtrak’s Auto Train.  The Auto Train runs between Lorton, VA (outside of Washington, DC and close to our home) and Sanford, FL (very close to Orlando).  The train accommodates passengers and their vehicles to make the trip up or down the I-95 corridor.   So, not only do you get to and from Disney World without having to drive, but your car goes along on the ride as well.  This allows you to load up luggage in your vehicle, keeping only what you need for the overnight trip with you.  One train runs in each direction (one northbound, one southbound) each day.

Booking

The Amtrak website is the best place to book your Auto Train tickets.  To begin booking, go to the website at www.amtrak.com.  You can begin booking by selecting the Buy Tickets halfway down the main page.  Enter the starting location as Lorton, VA and the ending destination as Sanford, FL.  Both locations should indicate that they are for the Auto Train only.  Select your departure date and return date.  Entering the time shouldn’t impact anything, as there is only one train each way per day.

Once you’ve entered your desired dates of travel, you will be promoted to enter in the age of each person in your traveling party.  Tickets for children (ages 2-12) and infants (below 2) are usually cheaper than the adult tickets.

After you’ve entered in the ages for each member of your traveling party, you will have to enter in the fare type for each passenger.  Some of the fare types that will change your ticket price is being a senior traveler, AAA member, a member of the military, or a passenger with a disability.  Once the passenger information has been completely filled out, you can select Find Trains.

After selecting Find Trains, you will have the ability to select your accommodations on both the Departing and Returning Trains.  You have a choice of three fare classes (Saver, Value, and Flexible) for reserved Coach Seats, with the associated price for the class being displayed.  You can also select the Premium fare class, which gives you sleeping accommodations. There are three different type of sleeping accommodations on the Auto Train, which we will describe in a bit.  Once you select the type of fare class you’d like (and any possible sleeping accommodations), you can scroll down to select the Return Train fare class.

You can select the Returning Train Fare class as well.  The cost for the returning train can be different than the departing train.  The cost seems to climb as the train fills up.  The first few bookings for the train seem to be the cheapest.

 

After selecting the Returning Train Fare type (and any associated sleeping accommodations), you can scroll down a bit more to enter your vehicle information.  You must pay for a vehicle (and I suppose have a vehicle to be loaded) in order to ride the Auto Train.   There used to be different prices for large vehicles (SUVs and vans) and smaller vehicles, but it seems Amtrak has limited the options to Vehicles and Motorcycles.  Once you have identified the the number and type of vehicles you have, you can select Next.

Once you have selected your accommodations and vehicle type, you will now need to enter in your passenger information, followed by payment information and a final confirmation screen.

You can print out the final confirmation screen print out to the station and use that for your tickets, since tickets are no longer generated for the Auto Train.  You will be asked for government issued ID before boarding the train.  We have used our driver’s licenses on our previous trips without any problems.

This is the end of part 1.  Check back soon for Part 2, accommodations…

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