97 Silver Meteor SB dinner in Miami

[MARC Rider]

My wife and I are going to Miami Beach via the Meteor. I know the scheduled 1839 arrival means no dinner in the diner. Our plan is to taxi to the rental car center at the airport (about a 15 minute ride), get our rental car, find a place to eat, an then go to our hotel. I have 2 questions:

1) If we're running late, I mean really late, like 1-2+ hours late, do they serve an Amstew emergency dinner?

2) Any suggestions for good, non-chain places to eat in the vicinity of Miami International Airport?

Oh, and I assume there are taxis at the Miami train station. What sort of fare should I expect to go to the airport rental car center?

A shame Amtrak isn't in the new station yet.

 

[zephyr17]

I can't speak directly to the Silver Meteor, but I know they don't break out the stew on the Empire Builder until it is truly catastrophically late. When we 12 hours late, they did, when we were about 6 hours late they didn't.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

2 years ago my Meteor was about 5 hours late and Dinner was offered to Sleeper pax; I was headed to WPB and enjoyed the nice Bonus Dinner in the Diner. I do not think a Beef Stew Emergency was declared for Coach.

 

[AmtrakLKL]

My wife and I are going to Miami Beach via the Meteor. I know the scheduled 1839 arrival means no dinner in the diner. Our plan is to taxi to the rental car center at the airport (about a 15 minute ride), get our rental car, find a place to eat, an then go to our hotel. I have 2 questions:

1) If we're running late, I mean really late, like 1-2+ hours late, do they serve an Amstew emergency dinner?

2) Any suggestions for good, non-chain places to eat in the vicinity of Miami International Airport?

Oh, and I assume there are taxis at the Miami train station. What sort of fare should I expect to go to the airport rental car center?

A shame Amtrak isn't in the new station yet.

Taxis are available and waiting at the Amtrak station. Uber is also available.

Probably the quickest and cheapest way to the airport rental car facility is via Tri-Rail. Instead of going all the way to Miami, get off in Hollywood. Scheduled arrival is 5:51pm. Tri-Rail operates south to the airport station which is at the rental car facility. Last weekday train departs Hollywood at 10:01pm and on weekends at 10:21pm, so the Meteor would have to be quite late to mis-connect. When you get to the Miami Airport Station, go up the platform elevator next to the train and you'll walk right into the middle of the rental car facility.

 

[MnMotherMary]

We expected to have taxis waiting at the station when we arrived and we could see some waiting. By the time we got out to the front the taxis were all gone. This is not an area you want to be waiting at.

My suggestion would be to have a taxi number ready and call 20 minutes before arrival or do what the previous poster suggested. We split the fare with somebody else who was waiting at the station and I think it was $15.00 each.

We just made sure we ate lunch as late as possible on the departure day in case the train was late.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

2 years ago my Meteor was about 5 hours late and Dinner was offered to Sleeper pax; I was headed to WPB and enjoyed the nice Bonus Dinner in the Diner. I do not think a Beef Stew Emergency was declared for Coach.

From my experience on the Silvers, which includes many, many late trains, they kept offering meals in the Dining Car, at regular times. Though, I assume such would require that the dining car staff knew far enough ahead of time, to prepare the additional meals.

As to food served, it was always what was on the regular menu, minus anything they have already run out of.

There was only one time, that the Dining Car was open only to Sleeper passengers, and that was because of the very limited supplies remaining. I guess the LSA felt they had a great duty to feed sleeper passengers because their fares included meals.

 

[qprsteve]

Restaurant recomendation near MIA is 'Catch of the Day' a Cuban fish place with cold drafts opposite the airport Marriott.

 

[Eric308]

Rincon Criollo is tops! I was just there in June and stopped in before I got my rental car. Cuban cuisine at its best. Not fancy, but very authentic.http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g34438-d4192762-Reviews-Rincon_Criollo-Miami_Florida.html

 

[pennyk]

I was just on a 4+ hour late SB Silver Meteor, train 97. I detrained in Winter Park, but while on the train, I heard that dinner would be served to the sleeping car passengers around Sebring. I got the impression that the dinner served would be whatever was left over from the previous meals (and not amstew).