CMK10

Background
One of the blessings I'm the most thankful for in my life is my Father. While he may be painfully unfunny and once told me I had “the worst throwing arm he'd ever seen” during a game of catch, he's actually a great guy. Not only that, we're quite close and we enjoy not just spending time together, but traveling together. My Dad is now a semi-retired lawyer with lots of time and money on his hands and one of his favorite way to spend both is on long distance train travel. While I may have far less time and money (for now!) then him, I never pass up a chance to be with my Dad and honestly, there are few better ways to spend time together than on board an Amtrak sleeper. If you've never taken a long distance train trip, I heartily recommend them. You get to see parts of the country you'd never otherwise see and if you're like me and you like to learn, researching the areas you go through provides for wondrous trivia on backwater towns the likes of which you've never seen before and never will see again. Plus, all meals are included AND you can bring alcohol on board. If that isn't a major plus I don't know what is.

We had previous taken three trips on overnight trains though these (the Coast Starlight, Empire Builder and Southwest Chief) were all in the west. This time we decided to try an east coast train and do a little of what my Middle School teachers called compare and contrast. The train that caught our eye was the Crescent, a run from New York Penn Station to New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal. Among its highlights would be a trip through states we had never seen (Alabama for me, AL, MS and LA for him) and of course a post-ride dinner in New Orleans, a city neither of us had seen. Plus, the train goes through more states than any other Amtrak train and if I can say “This does more blah blah blahs then anything else like it” I'm hooked!

After checking the schedules we decided that while the train stopped in nearby Greensboro, it didn't reach there until 12:30 AM. Instead we decided to fly north a little and pick up the train in an area we could still enjoy dinner and some daylight in. Originally we'd thought about DC but RDU-DCA even on weekends costs an absurd amount, often several hundred dollars. We ultimately decided on Baltimore as my brother lives there and could drive us around, it was $80 to fly RDU-BWI and Baltimore Penn Station is a gorgeous building. The final plan was:

Saturday May 19th:
US RDU-PHL-BWI (Y)
Amtrak BAL-NOL (Sleeper)

Monday May 21st
DL MSY-ATL-RDU (Y)

I know Flyertalk is more about, well, flying, but I hope you'll find this trip as fun as I did, it's one of the best I've taken this year and hey, how else would I have found out that Anniston, Alabama contains the largest chair in the United States?

US 1086 RDU-PHL A-319 0700-0836
Originally we had been booked on the 9 AM RDU-PHL flight but after a schedule change cut our connection to under an hour, we took a free change onto the earlier flight. Sure, it meant waking up at 5 AM and spending three hours at PHL but it beat worrying about a misconnect. Also, we could have flown Delta nonstop but it was more expensive and hey, more flights + more miles = more fun, right? Finally, driving to RDU at 5 AM on Saturday was a stress-free affair.



After waltzing through security we hit the RDU US Airways Club which finally opened this year. It is a bit sterile but they have a better selection than the Admirals Club my Dad is a member of. Plus, it was a shorter walk to our gate and I was able to get the agent to move us to the exit row. It used to be you could get a US Airways exit row for free at Midnight Tempe time but it seems they're now held back until 45 minutes before departure, unless you want to pay for them. Ridiculous if you ask me, especially as I'm Star Gold and shouldn't have to pay $15 for an exit row, but such is their thinking.









I love taking a flight that requires flying over my ultimate destination that I promptly connect to fly back to.



The legroom I patiently waited on, I'd say it was worth it.



Today's aircraft was operated by N700UW which is in the Star Alliance livery and actually looks quite sharp. Annoyingly, we left a half hour late after a maintenance issue was discovered, then decided upon as “deferrable” but this still meant more paperwork then applying for a loan. My Dad, much as I love him, is not exactly patient and his line of thinking is always “Charles picked the flights, therefore this is his fault and I shall blame him until we leave”. It was a very long thirty minutes for me, especially as paranoia got the best of me and I started wondering what we'd do if the plane was really broken. But eventually we did leave and all was well.





Ads on tray tables may be the most tacky thing in air travel today, but hey, I GOT A FREE DRINK!



There through the haze is Washington D.C. Which I would later see from the rails.



Making the big left turn over Delaware.



As our plane was continuing on to Aruba we ended up docking at gate A22 in the International Terminal. While this meant a lot of walking, it also meant we could use the A-West US Airways Club, a lounge only recently switched from an Envoy Lounge (Intl. Business Class and Star Golds only) to a true US Club. It was actually quite nice too as you'll soon see.

US 4427 BWI-PHL DH1 1110-1210



When I took this shot my Dad suddenly stopped short and I said “what are you doing?' He replied “I'm sick of seeing my bald spot in all your photos!”. Ha, well put, sir.





As I said, today's Club experience was quite nice. In fact, after a few minutes everyone else left and we had the joint to ourselves. We still followed established Flyertalk guidelines and kept our feet firmly off the furniture. My only knock at the US Club is they don't have enough free booze. It seems most US airlines have moved towards a decent selection of complimentary liquors and all US has is Bud, Bud Light and house wine. None of which was appealing at 9 AM and I'm not the pay $7 for a Baileys kind of guy.



They do have a good coffee selection though. I was pouring this after my Dad, who must miss having an assistant, went “I'm going to the bathroom go pour me another cup of coffee”





After a couple of hours we decided to make our way over to Terminal F-ed, I mean F! There was this awesome Lego Liberty Bell outside. It's still not as great as the Lego airport my brother and I put together when we were 10. Sure, I wasn't old enough to see over a steering wheel yet, but I made sure our Lego airport had its own lounge (the “Yellow Carpet Club”).

CMK10

My Dad was less than enthused about the bus ride but I actually like it. Having a ground's eye view of all the operations is quite fun.



This terminal meanwhile is NOT fun. The construction has only made it worse, more cramped, more people crammed into too small gate areas and fewer places to eat. Also, their air conditioning is not the best.



You know when you see a manual gate board you have fallen quite far.



This was my first time seeing the US Airways boarding lines and as exciting as this was, our Dash boarded with “Special needs, EVERYONE ELSE!”. Still, I'm glad US Airways finally joined the 21st Century. I also gleefully told my Dad if he wasn't nice he had to board on the left as I wouldn't let him join me on the right. He gave me his patented “my son is dumb” frown.



Isn't it beautiful? OK, it's not. But still! It was built in 1989 and originally flown by Hanson and is now operated by Piedmont. My Dad hadn't been on a prop plane in quite some time and he was rather annoyed. At least until he realized we'd be flying at 8,000 feet and would have a very scenic view all the way to Baltimore.



Speaking of my Dad, there he is, he didn't want to sit next to me once there was an open row, but he was quite ok with shouting things at me when inspiration struck him. That makes sense.



A prop plane necessity, ear plugs! Thanks, KLM!



Amazingly, we had no ground delay or flow control delay and we took off about 10 minutes after push back. Very rare for PHL. As I said earlier, the whole flight down to BWI was great. We saw Wilmington, DE and the Baltimore outskirts before gliding on in.



Delaware Memorial Bridge which whisks people up towards New York or down towards Washington.



Warfield (appropriate name) Air National Guard base just north of Baltimore. There are A-10 Thunderbolts on the ground to the left.



Baltimore
We deplaned in what must have been a very busy part of Concourse D when US Airways had their hub here, but is now fairly empty as US is down to flights to only PHL, CLT and PHX. Even LGA, a long time destination, is gone. However, they did have this fun sign:







My brother and his wife live in Easton, MD on the Eastern Shore and they were very kind enough to drive us downtown and even take us to one of their favorite lunch spots.





This restaurant is a couple miles north of the Inner Harbor in an up-and-coming neighborhood and is famous for two dishes: pizza and risotto. I made my own pizza with marinara, feta cheese, shrimp and scallops and trust me, it was amazing. I wish I was eating one right now in fact.

CMK10

Sadly, James and Inna had to leave us soon but first dropped us at gorgeous Baltimore Penn Station.





This statue in front is apparently controversial, I just think it's stupid, but that's just me.



It's funny, if you tell me you have a 100 year old airport terminal, I want nothing to do with it. If you tell me you have a 100 year old train station, I'm all for it! Baltimore Penn was lovingly restored too and I was quite happy to kill time here, even if they don't have an Amtrak lounge like Washington, Philla 30th Street, New York and Boston South Station do.



I was further lucky to find out that one of my best Flyertalk friends Kurt was in Baltimore that day. We met at a nearby sports bar “Turps” for a couple of pints and a few dozen laughs.







Amtrak Train #19 Crescent BAL-NOL 1713-1935 (+1)


Finally the moment had arrived when our train pulled in. As you can see its being powered at this point by an electric engine which would be replaced with a pair of Diesel-Electric engines during a break in DC. It also had a baggage car, two sleepers, one heritage diner, a Cafe car and five coaches.



Here was our room, 1911 B to be exact. Unlike our Western US travels on Superliners where there were over a dozen bedrooms, there were a grand total of six bedrooms on this train. It meant we got very good service from our sleeping car attendant and lesser waits in the dining car.



As Amtrak lets you BYOB, my Dad and I had hit a Baltimore liquor store straight out of “The Wire” (bulletproof glass, a sliding partition to exchange money for booze) ahead of time and sipped quality cocktails in style all the way until dinner. Plus, it saved us money as Amtrak rips you off for lower quality booze.





Any chance I get on the train I hop out at stations for fresh air, leg stretching and photography. Amtrak builds in several “smoke stops” a day and the one in DC was over a half hour to allow the engines to be switched. Also, this seemed to be the stop the most people got on at, our car had been empty in Baltimore but full after D.C.





The ONLY way to travel! Well, not really, but it's my favorite!





Leaving DC meant for some good scenery, we could also see DCA on the other side of the train.



That is the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria. I want to go see it someday as it seems a really impressive building.

CMK10

Well warmed by our respective drinks, we headed to the dining car for dinner. Our traveling companion was a Singaporean banker traveling to Charlottesville to see his daughter graduate from UVA. Apparently his wife had arrived before as they believed flying was extremely dangerous so they never flew the same flight together. When my Dad said they were more likely to die in a car crash, the banker said “that's absolutely not true”. We chose not to argue and instead had a very nice conversation with him. Obviously he knew what he was talking about as he said “SQ is the best airline there is”.





Not a bad menu, I went for the steak as I wanted to get my Dad's money's worth and it was the most expensive.





Any train trip is guaranteed to bring you tons of rail heritage cars and engines by each station, this one was in far better repair than most.



First course. Amtrak seems to have removed cucumbers from their salads which meant after I removed the two tomatoes (blech) I had a delicious bowl of lettuce and lettuce. The wine was actually quite good and reasonably priced at $15.



Amazingly, the steak was really good. Far better than anything I've had on a plane, though the vegetables were as waterlogged as anything I had in my elementary school cafeteria.



Following dessert my Dad decided to call it a night as we had both had a very long day.







Ta-Da it's a bedroom! Guess who got the more spacious bottom bunk? Yeah, it wasn't me! But hey, he who has the gold makes the rules. I stayed up for a few hours watching what I could through the window and relaxing. The worst part of the room is when the beds are down, its very hard to maneuver.







With that it was time for bed so I vaulted into my prison bunk and slept all the way until Gainesville, Georgia the next day.



The net is to keep me from tumbling out.



Showering on the train is something I still hate, though at least you can use the bathroom while you shower in a guilt-free environment, right? I absolutely refuse to shave on board as I'm terrified I'll cut myself when we hit a rough section of track.

CMK10

Ahh breakfast. If those look like the strangest pancakes you've ever seen it's because the menus are never accurate. I've yet to ride a train and dine in the car where there aren't at least two substitutions per meal.





Atlanta was our first long stop of the day and I'd hoped to pick up a Sunday paper for us. Unfortunately, the ATL station is a converted suburban station outside Downtown and they don't even have a functioning vending machine let alone a place to buy the printed word.



Full of food (though not written knowledge) I settled down for the best part of the trip. Lying down like this, watching the world go by is a unique and wonderful experience. I had brought two books but didn't touch them the whole day. We would pass the Amtrak timetable back and forth, talk about the trip and future ones we'd plan and occasionally pull up a passing town on Wikipedia to learn about it. We also told stories, stupid jokes and eagerly awaited our seafood dinner.





The scenery as we passed through the south was also gorgeous. Rolling hills, lakes, swampland and nice looking small towns balanced out all the trailers and Confederate flags we saw.

After a while I took a walk through the train to see how everyone else was getting along.







I have yet to ride an Amtrak train where there aren't at least three items “Sold Out” in the Cafe Car. Also, $2 for a soda? What a rip!





The giant Honda plant in Lincoln, AL where they build the Pilot, Odyssey and Ridgeline.



Birmingham would be our second big stop of the day and from the train, downtown actually looks pretty nice. I rather like their old architecture too, even though we were once again shut out on newspaper procurement.





Soon it was time for lunch. Lunch and dinner appointments are made by reservation in the sleepers with coach being first come first serve while breakfast is first come first serve everywhere.





I've yet to find a better lunch meal than the burger, though our seatmate, an environmental engineer from Fairfax, VA said the special of country fried chicken and potatoes was pretty good. I have to say at this point that service in the diner was not very good. There seems to be a smaller staff than Western US trains and the people working always seemed harried and frustrated. The woman who would bring orders kept going to the wrong people and the man who took orders was impolite and rushed, though it would take him forever to show up. Still, the food was always decent and conversation good. It's nice meeting interesting people at your table and sharing their space for a moment or two.



Besides, can you knock anyplace where dessert with lunch is acceptable? That's also the BEST ice cream flavor there is, hooray!



My favorite view, swampland outside Tuscaloosa, AL

CMK10

Our last long stop on the trip, Meridian, MS, which oddly had the most modern station of anywhere we went through, who knew?



The train had emptied out by now so I popped into one of the Roomettes to get a look at it. I don't think I'd like to travel this way overnight, and certainly not with another person, but it seemed pleasant enough during the day. Also, on the left of the chair you can see is a pop out sink and even more gross, a pop out toilet. I think I'd prefer the Superliner cars which feature a communal bathroom.



Almost there!



My first bayou (or did I mean “bah-o”?)


Lake Pontchartrain amazes me (even though its technically not a lake). It looks like we're cruising along the seashore or the Gulf of Mexico.


Whose brilliant idea was it to give the naming rights to a stadium hosting a blue collar team to Mercedes? Who dat? Don't drive an E-Class!

And with that, we'd made it! 27 hours on the train and we pulled in right on time. The station was kind of run down, but still, we weren't going to be in it for long. They also have a private room for sleeper car passengers which is sadly very rare for Amtrak.
New Orleans

We hailed a cab driven by a delightful old man with Creole blood who I could barely understand but told what I think were great stories about N.O. We had originally planned on dinner at Acme Oyster House in the French Quarter but when we got a load of the line of people waiting to eat there, we simply strolled across the street to Felix's Oyster House who had the exact same menu.

My kind of place, check out the three men whose only job is to shuck oysters at the end of the bar. My only mark against them was they didn't have Glenlivet scotch.

My Dad inhaled that. I can't do oysters, to me they taste like salt water and snot, but I'm glad he was happy.

Dinner for him was red beans and rice, gumbo and Étouffée, the best part of the meal.
The
Meanwhile, I went with the biggest soft shell crab I'd ever had and followed it up with an amazing bread pudding.

Dinner ended up being absolutely amazing and I'm glad we ended up at Felix's as it was a great time. Sadly, our time in Nawlins was now at an end. I had to get back to work and my Dad to our family so we hopped a cab to the Doubletree MSY. It's funny, after our two previous trips to Chicago and one to Portland, OR, a dinner and walk around the city were enough to leave me satisfied but not this time. I NEED to get back to New Orleans and see more of it. I'm definitely adding it to my list for a return visit.


The Doubletree MSY was quite nice and once again we had a fun talk with our cab driver on the way over. He couldn't believe we'd come in on the train just to come in on the train.

CMK10

DL 2124 MSY-ATL 757-200 0730-1011

The next day dawned just like the two previous ones, too early for my blood! We were even leaving too early to grab dinner at the Doubletree but I knew the Skyclub would take care of us. Speaking of the DT, extra points for them having a shuttle to the airport every twenty minutes, that beats every half hour.


Quite the line to clear security this morning, yet again having status saves my life.



Hey look! We're alone in the lounge again! It didn't last long and quite soon a very loud cell phone type came in and started yelling into his phone. Eventually he went “So how are you?” and my Dad yelled back “I'm great! How are you?” causing the man to shoot us a withering glance, but also to quiet himself down.

Ahhh that'll tide me over until ATL. You have to hand it to DL for having the best free food selections of a US lounge. The Club in MSY was nice too, I liked how it felt very legacy Delta.


Another flight, another missed upgrade, though that's the life of a Silver Medallion. Also, the entertainment system wasn't functioning properly and the volume was stuck on high. If you think you hate Richard Anderson's announcement on the best of days, wait until you hear it as loud as the PA will go. Try as the flight attendants did, they couldn't' figure out how to alter the volume. As it was, we ended up with a manual safety demo then no IFE on the flight. But hey, it was 1 hour, 4 minutes so I can survive without watching NBC.

Goodbye, Big Easy! I PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE I'll come back soon!

Oh and when I'm back, I'm driving that causeway!

The best way to start your day! After an easy flight we touched down at ATL and as my Dad and I were in 19DE (the two seat pair at the front of the exit row) we ended up off the plane first, beating out those who got the upgrade. Between that and the legroom, I'm almost glad we were in Y!
DL 1908 ATL-RDU MD-90 1240-1404
We came into B25 which is helpfully, right next to a Skyclub. However, as it was Monday morning, said Skyclub was packed. My Dad is used to the RDU Admirals Club which at most seems to have six people in it so he wasn't prepared for this. Oh did he get angry when he saw there was limited seating space and that the lounge is old and cramped. As I'm the member, I offered him the following options:
Deal with it
Go sit at the gate.
Not surprisingly, he took option one. If he was more into airports I'd have suggested we ride the train to A, C, E, F or T and use a club there, but as our later flight was leaving out of B1, he didn't seem thrilled by that prospect either.


We found space downstairs in a newer part of the lounge and eventually, the lounge cleared out and he calmed down. He was also thrilled by the lunch snacks as his beloved AA leaves much to be desired in what their club members get to snack on. We also stole a few Biscoff but don't tell anyone.



Today's plane previously served with a Swiss LCC called “Hello!” that I'd never heard of before. This meant it had Economy Comfort which ALMOST made me happy I'd missed another upgrade. In fact, we were #24 and 25 for the upgrade on this leg.

You know how good a son I am? I gave my Dad the window even though we were only in 11AB because of my status.


I say it a lot but I'm going to say it again. The fact that DL will serve a drink and peanuts to everyone on a full mainline aircraft on a 50 minute flight is really impressive. It's one of the reasons I don't mind flying coach on them. Right after knocking that back our flight glided down into NC and we were home only a minute late.

CMK10

RDU has the best parking garage by the way, it's truly a highlight of traveling from it.
Conclusion
Our fourth train trip was now in the books and I think it was our best one yet. Sure, the flights weren't the greatest as we flew Y and we didn't stay anywhere really fun like the Checkers Los Angeles as we have before, but a great time was had. And I hope that you don't mind that I knocked my Dad a bit upthread, I really appreciate that he took me along on this trip and that we had so much fun. I hope we can have many more trips like this and that by then, he learns that his puns are really not very funny.
I also hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, please ask me any questions you may have.

Oh and I just realized I can't talk this much about the two of us without showing a picture, here's me and my Dad after our great New Orleans dinner:

Circumknowitall

Me too!

Great report. Thanks for sharing ^

El Cochinito

As a Dad building travel memories with my own son since he was 6 years old (he's now 16) I can appreciate those special moments that you describe. Beautiful trip report.

We traveled the Coast Starlight when he was 10 in a sleeper compartment between Sacramento and Seattle. On our list is a trip on the California Zephyr out to Chicago some day.

gba

It's always nice to read an Amtrak report, thanks for sharing!

francophile

What a heart warming trip report. Very nice photos. Thanks!

apodo77

Great read and as a newbie to Nawlins great choice hitting up Felix's.

One of my favorites.

Seat 2A

Nicely photographed and well written - like all of your other reports a most entertaining and enjoyable read. FlyerTalkers appreciate a quality travel experience and, as you've so nicely described, traveling in a First Class sleeper on Amtrak is a great way to combine both comfortable travel with superb sightseeing. Thanks for another great report!

Love it! ^

N830MH

Wow! What a fabulous TR!! I'm glad you took on train ride from BWI to MSY. You should considering to take on WN or DL from RDU-BWI nonstop. You don't have to stop in PHL. You can't spent in PHL much more times.