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We are back from our April 14-15, 2012 Cherry Blossom Special train trip to Washington DC with the NCDOT's Transportation Museum. We enjoyed the trip. They had to add a car and a 2nd trip in May and they still have a wait list. It seems demand is high for these kinds of trips! I know when we booked, we got an email one evening and by the next afternoon we were reserving 2 of the 5 seats left! If you're interested, you should get on their email list.
So, this was the first time they have ever done an overnight trip. They did well all things considered, but they have a few kinks to work out. Hopefully, the May trip will be even better! Most of the problems seemed to have to do with the Holiday Inn on Eisenhower in Alexandria. It was set out in the middle of an I-95 cloverleaf and not really equipped to handle 150 or so people at once. Also, we had a bus driver for our green group that was not familiar with his equipment and that cost us time and a small accident with a traffic barrier dragged under the bus. It is not clear why there were troubles the first day with the bus and the new driver. I will just conjecture that since it seemed there were heavy crowds for the Cherry Blossom Parade that day, that maybe there was a shortage of experienced drivers and we just got caught in it. It was awkward and I still feel bad for our poor driver. You would have thought that going at night we would have had the place to ourselves, but NOT! We were not there to see the parade, but I guess we got caught in the crowds anyway. We did not know it was the 100th Anniversary of Japan's gift of cherry trees to America when we booked the trip. But, that made it special even without actually seeing any cherry blossoms or parades!
We were served hot and cold beverages and snacks on board the trip that were complimentary. Since they told us we could preorder lunch or carry small coolers, we packed our own small insulated lunch bags/boxes with cold drinks as well as snacks. Since we weren't expecting them to provide anything with the trip, we were surprised and had more than plenty to eat and drink on the train!
They sold souvenir t-shirts for $20 and Clay got one. I got a Starbucks mug as my souvenir. Thank you Stuart Jones! Stuart Jones built our house in 1990. For the past several years, he has sent us a $10 Starbucks gift card around Valentine's Day. For the first few years, I used the card to buy a bag of coffee. Then, in 2010 I bought a mug in Portland that I love and it was the perfect souvenir especially since the gift card did not go to waste and I didn't have to drink any Starbucks! (Can you tell I am frugal and I don't care for Starbucks coffee?) In 2011, I got a North Carolina mug. In 2012, I got the Cherry Blossom mug and I already love it. So, thanks again to Stuart Jones!
Oh, speaking of special events, Oakwood Cemetery had one while we were gone. Too bad we missed it.
I want to comment on Raleigh's Amtrak Station, there is very little parking. Their website says 60 overnight spots, but that is certainly far from accurate! We got there before 9am for the Carolinian which was expected to depart at 10:25am (actually was after 10:35am) and the parking lot was completely filled. We did not see any spots open up while we were there and we kept checking. The good news is that street parking is free on weekends and that is where we parked without any issues.
The biggest disappointment of the trip was probably that we wound up having only about 45 minutes to get dinner on our own at Union Station. It would have been nicer to have more time to enjoy a meal instead of picking up fast food in the food court. It is still not clear if that was a scheduling issue or it had to do with getting in a bit late on the train, or driving in a circle around Union Station and having our traffic barrier mishap. Perhaps we were always only scheduled to have an hour or less and they expected us to eat at the Union Station food court. If that is the case, it would have been nice if the trip literature had spelled that out specifically so people have proper expectations.
We had to wear name tags the entire weekend. They had our green dot on them, to show which bus we were assigned. They also had our train car on them. It seemed that we had been assigned the Powhatan Arrow and pink. But, loading somewhere before us was a group of 4 that had gotten split up. So, by the time we arrived we got edited name tags to show we had been moved to the Clinchfield car (which is what we thought we were buying originally anyway!) and the green group. That was fine with us.
The highlight of the trip was probably the walking tour of Old Town Alexandria with a guide and a group of 15. That was well done, even though our guide said she normally does a 3-hour minimum tour and she wasn't sure it condensed down well to one hour while avoiding the other groups of 15 each from our 150 or so. It was tricky running into them and avoiding them as well as the sights they were seeing, but it worked out better than the free for all with no guides or guidance last night. Though we enjoyed seeing the monuments at night. But, we were amazed at the large crowds and the lack of information provided as to what we were seeing or should be looking for when we disembarked.
Photos follow! Sorry they aren't better. To limit baggage, Clay only took his old Olympus pocket camera which is notoriously bad in low light!
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