My wife and I celebrated our first anniversary last weekend by taking riding Acela Express First Class to New York and back from Boston.
For both of us, this was our second Acela Express trip and the first in First Class. Club Acela lounge in South Station was very nice and comfortable, but the snack selection left something to be desired. We boarded the train about 5 minutes late, but still left on time. A very helpful RedCap named Joe kept our luggage in order and stowed it very nicely on board.
My wife and I sat at a 1 facing 1 table and took time to enjoy how wide the seats were. They're definitely comparable to airline non-coach seats. The car was about 1/2 full and from remarks the conductor made, the rest of the train was about 1/2 full as well.
Since our train left at 11:15, lunch was served on board and was an unremarkable lobster roll. The attendants (is that what they are called?) were very friendly and affable. They didn't disappear after the meal and patrolled to car to quickly pick up any refuse or refill drinks.
The ride itself was deceptively smooth. As I mentioned the previous time I took the Express, it seemed like we weren't going _that_ fast through CT, but when we paralleled the highway, we were passing 99.9% of the traffic.
Somewhere around New Haven my wife told me that we're never driving to New York again...so I think she's sold. Of course, that just might have been the Dewar's talking.
I don't have the exact time we pulled into Penn station, but we certainly weren't late. We were checked into our hotel on 46th St. (between 6th and 7th) and in our room by 3:45. We then enjoyed the 2 'nips' of scotch (on the rocks) that the car attendent handed to us just before we pulled into Penn.
The return trip on Sunday evening was very similar. ClubAcela in NYP has nothing on it's counterpart in BOS in terms of aesthetics, but it was wonderful to get away from the milling masses waiting for track announcements.
The train departed on time at 4:05 and was a "full manifest". Fortunately, we had no trouble locating seats together and after New Haven it wouldn't have been a problem anyway. The three attendents did a tremendous job keeping everyone fed, watered and happy and even expedited the meals of those travelling only to New Haven. Dinner was very yummy... I had shrimp, scallops and lobster in a cream sauce with rice, side salad and strawberry pound cake.
We arrived in Boston at 7:45pm after a nice ride watching the late afternoon sun on the CT seashore. I even spotted a deer along the ROW!
We'll definitely be going again next year!
For both of us, this was our second Acela Express trip and the first in First Class. Club Acela lounge in South Station was very nice and comfortable, but the snack selection left something to be desired. We boarded the train about 5 minutes late, but still left on time. A very helpful RedCap named Joe kept our luggage in order and stowed it very nicely on board.
My wife and I sat at a 1 facing 1 table and took time to enjoy how wide the seats were. They're definitely comparable to airline non-coach seats. The car was about 1/2 full and from remarks the conductor made, the rest of the train was about 1/2 full as well.
Since our train left at 11:15, lunch was served on board and was an unremarkable lobster roll. The attendants (is that what they are called?) were very friendly and affable. They didn't disappear after the meal and patrolled to car to quickly pick up any refuse or refill drinks.
The ride itself was deceptively smooth. As I mentioned the previous time I took the Express, it seemed like we weren't going _that_ fast through CT, but when we paralleled the highway, we were passing 99.9% of the traffic.
Somewhere around New Haven my wife told me that we're never driving to New York again...so I think she's sold. Of course, that just might have been the Dewar's talking.
I don't have the exact time we pulled into Penn station, but we certainly weren't late. We were checked into our hotel on 46th St. (between 6th and 7th) and in our room by 3:45. We then enjoyed the 2 'nips' of scotch (on the rocks) that the car attendent handed to us just before we pulled into Penn.
The return trip on Sunday evening was very similar. ClubAcela in NYP has nothing on it's counterpart in BOS in terms of aesthetics, but it was wonderful to get away from the milling masses waiting for track announcements.
The train departed on time at 4:05 and was a "full manifest". Fortunately, we had no trouble locating seats together and after New Haven it wouldn't have been a problem anyway. The three attendents did a tremendous job keeping everyone fed, watered and happy and even expedited the meals of those travelling only to New Haven. Dinner was very yummy... I had shrimp, scallops and lobster in a cream sauce with rice, side salad and strawberry pound cake.
We arrived in Boston at 7:45pm after a nice ride watching the late afternoon sun on the CT seashore. I even spotted a deer along the ROW!
We'll definitely be going again next year!
