Overnight Madrid/Lisbon
 

I am considering taking the Lusitania train from Madrid to Lisbon which is an overnight train, leaving Madrid about 11PM and getting into Lisbon around 8AM. Has anyone taken this train before? There will be two of us and we will get a cabin - not sure which one to get though the 'gran clase' is quite a bit more than the 'preferente' - the difference that I see is the private toilet and shower. Did you book it in advance or wait until you got to Spain? (I will be in Spain about 10 days before the train trip). Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

1. in HIGH season this train often sells out, a few days advance
2. if so, it prob wont sell out at the same for any class, so any pref you have may turn out to be worthless- if thats sold
3. thousands of people have taken this train - if there was nobody, it would not run anymore (that is in fact the case for the erstwhile daytrain - it has ceased)
4. apparently you CAN book online, with patience, via www.renfe.es

I took it both ways last November in Preferente (or whatever the cheapest we could get was). We booked day of or day before in both directions (I think it was day before both times).

It's slow compared to the AVE and other European trains, but it gets you there, and since you're sleeping it isn't that big of a deal. The only thing I didn't like about the trip was the security/condition of the Lisbon train station in the evenings (not quite upstanding people milling about) and the lockers in Lisbon were only 24 hours instead of the 72 you see most other places.