I am posting this not necessarily because of the train ride since overall it's pretty short and was rather uneventful, but I hope that others wanting to spend a few days in Chicago can benefit from some of the information!
Headed out to CHI on the Lake Shore Limited from ELY. Had actually ticketed from CLE so we could check baggage, which involved a separate car trip there the morning before our departure. Our train was pretty close to on-time, which was a nice change from our last experience. Also, it ended up leaving our station and arriving in Chicago well before the Capitol Limited -- thought that was pretty interesting since the CL is scheduled an hour before the LSL.
The train attendant on the LSL was very friendly and accomodating and we were able to get us 2 seats together on this sold-out train, and the seats were on our preferred side (north). However, we were just 2 rows back from the front of the car, and the car's door was very annoying in that it wouldn't stay shut and it spent alot of time opening, shutting, partially opening and partially shutting throughout the trip. I felt sorry for the people trying to sleep within ear-shot of that annoyance!
Had breakfast in the dining car, scrambled eggs, very tasty potatoes and warm croissant with beverage for only $6, not bad at all.
After arrival into Union Station (only 30 minutes or so late, sort of like being on time!), we stored luggage and carryons in the lockers which was well worth the price as we didn't retrieve anything until later that night! Walked over to Giordano's where the pizza took 45 mins -- I wish the server would have suggested the personal-sized pizzas that others were ordering and receiving in just a few minutes! Pizza was great, of course, and we used the $2 of $10 discount found at www.meetinchicago.com [note about this discount: seems that whenever you use a discount, the cashiers want some permanent evidence so they will try to take the card printout -- make sure you print plenty of those cards!!]
Quickly walked over to the Water Taxi (used 2-for-1 discount) and took it to Wendella's River/Lake cruise (used 2-for-1 discount). All visitors to Chicago must take some sort of river cruise, just unbelievable how interesting/beautiful they are. Word of caution about the cruise we took: seating is first come, first served and if you get stuck in the enclosed area, you will miss most of the tour. I would have complained except that we had to quickly leave for our next attraction: Kooza (Cirque du Soleil) at United Center. Had purchased tickets at a discount from Goldstar and the seats were fine, don't feel like we missed anything by not having higher-end seats. After this great show, we took the bus ($2 per person) back to Union Station and retrieved our luggage from the lockers -- took a taxi to Courtyard Marriott (thanks to a Travelzoo promo!) on E. Ontario and finally checked in! Had a good meal at the Grand Lux Cafe, much nicer than the name implies, I highly recommend it
Next day, checked out of the hotel, but day-checked our luggage. Took the free red trolley just to ride around, our driver shared alot of knowledge about the sights. After making the full trip, we took the free blue trolley to Navy Pier. Ate lunch on the sidewalk patio of an Italian place, Capri's or something like that, had very tasty salads. While at the Pier we walked through the free Stained Glass Museum, I highly recommend that. Then used a 2-for-1 coupon with Seadog for the lake speedboats. Be prepared for messy and/or wet hair when done! Finally made it back to get our luggage, took a cab to Union Station and barely made it to the Metra for our transfer to a suburban hotel.
The Metra certainly opens up a lot of the Chicago suburbs to downtown and it was a nice experience... the locals on the train were friendly and are proud of their city! Only 'issue' we had was that we had to take a fairly long cab ride from the suburban station to our hotel. Had to stay out there for another purpose of our visit, and while out there saw Medieval Times in Schaumburg. Nice show, dinner was good too. And, yes, had half-off admissions
On our final day, after checking out of the hotel and returning to downtown via Metra, we checked our baggage, stored our carryons in lockers and enjoyed walking over to Millenium Park, etc. Eventually got back to the extremely crowded boarding lounge for the CL which we were taking home. Next time we won't check luggage on the return as even on this sold-out train, there was plenty of room on the bottom level for luggage. I was quite amazed at what Amtrak allows passengers to bring on-board, vs. forcing them to check the items!! Our train left on time, the lounge car was an older style than one we had ridden on previously. This one had all sideways facing seats on the upper level, with tables on the bottom where the food was purchased.
Attached to our train was one of those older private cars as seen at www.nyc-3.com so that was kind of interesting. Our conductor said that it costs $15000 minimum to hook up to an Amtrak, for what that's worth...
We purchased dinner in the dining car, I thought the prices were rather high for what people were getting. One guy at our table was clearly disappointed in his $21 or $24 flat iron steak meal! Our salads had about 10 pieces of lettuce in them. I will say, however, that the lasagna portion I got was more than ample!
Noticed that our car on the CL didn't have electrical outlets, but the 2 other cars did. The upstairs of the lounge car didn't appear to have outlets either. I know some passengers were frustrated because of that.
The CL arrived in ELY 6 minutes early, wow! We drove to CLE the next day to retrieve baggage, once again a very friendly station agent was there!
Can hardly wait to ride again, maybe over the holidays!
Headed out to CHI on the Lake Shore Limited from ELY. Had actually ticketed from CLE so we could check baggage, which involved a separate car trip there the morning before our departure. Our train was pretty close to on-time, which was a nice change from our last experience. Also, it ended up leaving our station and arriving in Chicago well before the Capitol Limited -- thought that was pretty interesting since the CL is scheduled an hour before the LSL.
The train attendant on the LSL was very friendly and accomodating and we were able to get us 2 seats together on this sold-out train, and the seats were on our preferred side (north). However, we were just 2 rows back from the front of the car, and the car's door was very annoying in that it wouldn't stay shut and it spent alot of time opening, shutting, partially opening and partially shutting throughout the trip. I felt sorry for the people trying to sleep within ear-shot of that annoyance!
Had breakfast in the dining car, scrambled eggs, very tasty potatoes and warm croissant with beverage for only $6, not bad at all.
After arrival into Union Station (only 30 minutes or so late, sort of like being on time!), we stored luggage and carryons in the lockers which was well worth the price as we didn't retrieve anything until later that night! Walked over to Giordano's where the pizza took 45 mins -- I wish the server would have suggested the personal-sized pizzas that others were ordering and receiving in just a few minutes! Pizza was great, of course, and we used the $2 of $10 discount found at www.meetinchicago.com [note about this discount: seems that whenever you use a discount, the cashiers want some permanent evidence so they will try to take the card printout -- make sure you print plenty of those cards!!]
Quickly walked over to the Water Taxi (used 2-for-1 discount) and took it to Wendella's River/Lake cruise (used 2-for-1 discount). All visitors to Chicago must take some sort of river cruise, just unbelievable how interesting/beautiful they are. Word of caution about the cruise we took: seating is first come, first served and if you get stuck in the enclosed area, you will miss most of the tour. I would have complained except that we had to quickly leave for our next attraction: Kooza (Cirque du Soleil) at United Center. Had purchased tickets at a discount from Goldstar and the seats were fine, don't feel like we missed anything by not having higher-end seats. After this great show, we took the bus ($2 per person) back to Union Station and retrieved our luggage from the lockers -- took a taxi to Courtyard Marriott (thanks to a Travelzoo promo!) on E. Ontario and finally checked in! Had a good meal at the Grand Lux Cafe, much nicer than the name implies, I highly recommend it
Next day, checked out of the hotel, but day-checked our luggage. Took the free red trolley just to ride around, our driver shared alot of knowledge about the sights. After making the full trip, we took the free blue trolley to Navy Pier. Ate lunch on the sidewalk patio of an Italian place, Capri's or something like that, had very tasty salads. While at the Pier we walked through the free Stained Glass Museum, I highly recommend that. Then used a 2-for-1 coupon with Seadog for the lake speedboats. Be prepared for messy and/or wet hair when done! Finally made it back to get our luggage, took a cab to Union Station and barely made it to the Metra for our transfer to a suburban hotel.
The Metra certainly opens up a lot of the Chicago suburbs to downtown and it was a nice experience... the locals on the train were friendly and are proud of their city! Only 'issue' we had was that we had to take a fairly long cab ride from the suburban station to our hotel. Had to stay out there for another purpose of our visit, and while out there saw Medieval Times in Schaumburg. Nice show, dinner was good too. And, yes, had half-off admissions
On our final day, after checking out of the hotel and returning to downtown via Metra, we checked our baggage, stored our carryons in lockers and enjoyed walking over to Millenium Park, etc. Eventually got back to the extremely crowded boarding lounge for the CL which we were taking home. Next time we won't check luggage on the return as even on this sold-out train, there was plenty of room on the bottom level for luggage. I was quite amazed at what Amtrak allows passengers to bring on-board, vs. forcing them to check the items!! Our train left on time, the lounge car was an older style than one we had ridden on previously. This one had all sideways facing seats on the upper level, with tables on the bottom where the food was purchased.
Attached to our train was one of those older private cars as seen at www.nyc-3.com so that was kind of interesting. Our conductor said that it costs $15000 minimum to hook up to an Amtrak, for what that's worth...
We purchased dinner in the dining car, I thought the prices were rather high for what people were getting. One guy at our table was clearly disappointed in his $21 or $24 flat iron steak meal! Our salads had about 10 pieces of lettuce in them. I will say, however, that the lasagna portion I got was more than ample!
Noticed that our car on the CL didn't have electrical outlets, but the 2 other cars did. The upstairs of the lounge car didn't appear to have outlets either. I know some passengers were frustrated because of that.
The CL arrived in ELY 6 minutes early, wow! We drove to CLE the next day to retrieve baggage, once again a very friendly station agent was there!
Can hardly wait to ride again, maybe over the holidays!
