Intrigued by Amtrak San Diego to Anaheim

[skiingfast]

Originally Posted by bjscheel

Hadn't looked at the trolley prices yet- it's a little expensive!

I just want to point something out to avoid confusion.

There is a Trolley and then there is the Trolley.


bjscheel is referring to this.
http://www.trolleytours.com/san-diego/
It has a few routes and goes to Balboa Pak(location of the SD zoo), downtown, old town, convention center, historic gaslamp district, harbor area, and Cornado and to from hotels in hotel circle. See their map. http://www.trolleytours.com/san-dieg...diego-map.html


San Diego locals call this the Trolley.
http://www.sdmts.com/Trolley/Trolley.asp It goes from Downtown to some of the closer neighborhoods of SD. Also to Qualcomm stadium home of the NFL Chargers, SD state University, and Petco Park home of the MLB Padres.


There is also a commuter train which stops downtown, at the same station Amtrak and the real Trolley use. It stops in Old Town, Carlsbad a short cab ride from Legoland. Also Oceanside where you can transfer to a Metrolink that goes to Anaheim and transfer to a Sprinter Train to Escondido a short cab ride from the SD Safari Park. These commuter trains run often but confined closer to working hours on weekdays.

[Renae De Liz]

I've gone to San Diego Comic Con for many years, which is in the downtown/Gaslamp area, and you can get almost everywhere by trolley, which makes for a unique experience! One year we took the Amtrak up to Anaheim for a DL visit, and it was *awesome*. Very nice train, our luggage was easily taken care of, and we got to sit and relax the whole time as we went by tons of beaches The Anaheim station is only a few miles from DL, and it was an easy taxi ride over to our hotel. I think you can get by without driving for sure

[bjscheel]

skiingfast- thanks for the clarification.

At the moment I am looking at Fairfield Inn Old Town. It was completely renovated from Mission Inn to a Fairfield in just the last year. They have free breakfast, free airport shuttle, free shuttle to SeaWorld and the Zoo. We can take a public bus to the beach. I have emailed them about shuttle times to SW and the Zoo, and whether they shuttle to Amtrak.

It's not ocean view, or even bay view, but you can get a balcony overlooking a neat courtyard. Unless I can find something else that has that much free transportation, and breakfast, this one is top choice for now.

[bjscheel]

In case anyone else is interested I have heard from Fairfield Inn Old Town and confirmed all of the complimentary shuttle services. It does include airport, Amtrak, SW, and Zoo. The SW bus is at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm. The Zoo shuttle is 10 am and 6 pm. Those times are subject to change.

[Sjwillia]

Originally Posted by bjscheel

In case anyone else is interested I have heard from Fairfield Inn Old Town and confirmed all of the complimentary shuttle services. It does include airport, Amtrak, SW, and Zoo. The SW bus is at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm. The Zoo shuttle is 10 am and 6 pm. Those times are subject to change.

That is very interesting. Who did you talk with at the Fairfield? The following is the message I recieved to an inquiry via email.

"Thank you for contacting Marriott Internet Customer Care. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

We are happy to hear of your upcoming visit to the Fairfield Inn & Suites San Diego Old Town.

The maximum number of guest for all rooms at this hotel is four. Unfortunately, this location does not offer any suites that can accommodate more than four.

We spoke to Joseph at the front desk of the hotel in regard to transportation options. He informed us that the hotel does not offer any shuttle service. Joseph did say that you can buy an all day transportation pass for $5.00 children 10 and under a free. The pass is good all day until 12.00 AM and works for the trolly and
city bus. The nearest city stop is about a 10 minute walk from the hotel.

You may wish to contact an associate at the hotel for further details. The contact information for this location is included below:

Fairfield Inn & Suites San Diego Old Town
3900 Old Town Avenue
San Diego, California 92110 USA
Phone: 1-619-299-7400
Fax: 1-619-299-1619
Sales: 1-619-299-7400
Sales fax: 1-619-298-2427"

[bjscheel]

Well that's interesting. Since I didn't find an email for the hotel on the website, I went through the Facebook page for that specific Fairfield Inn.


Fairfield Inn & Suites San Diego Old Town 12:41pm Jul 19
Hi Beth,

Thank you for your interest in our hotel. If you are flying into the San Diego area, we do have a complimentary shuttle to/from the airport that runs daily from 5am-11pm. We also have the shuttle to/from the Amtrak Station if you are arriving by train.

Our Sea World Shuttle runs at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

At Your Service,

The Fairfield Inn & Suties San Diego Old Town

Fairfield Inn & Suites San Diego Old Town 2:24pm Jul 19
The Zoo shuttle runs at 10 am and 6pm (these times are all subject the change). The Amtrak shuttle is also complimentary.

At Your Service,

The Fairfield Inn & Suites San Diego Old Town


Also Tripadvisor has reviews as recent as June 11th that mention taking the free shuttles to various sites. Several reviews also mention Joseph being the manager...and a Joseph the shuttle driver. Maybe Joseph misunderstood whatever Marriott asked him?

Maybe calling the hotel direct would clear it up.

[skiingfast]

I don't know about this particular hotel the Old town FFI. I do some Old Town locations do offer Seaworld and Zoo Shuttles as well as airport shuttles. Old Town is fairly central to those three areas.

Old Town is fairly long so it may be a 10 minut walk from the far end to the north end where the Trolley and Coaster and bus stations are placed.

[woody73]

Originally Posted by skiingfast

I just want to point something out to avoid confusion.

There is a Trolley and then there is the Trolley.

Good point.

We've never had any problem distinguishing the two, but I can see how it can be very confusing.

Woody

[bjscheel]

Need some of the people who were doing SD without a car this summer to report how it went!

[nancy drew]

Originally Posted by bjscheel

Need some of the people who were doing SD without a car this summer to report how it went!

Overall I'm glad we did this, but there were some unexpected hurdles.

In San Diego we stayed within walking distance of the Amtrak station, which was good. We saved on cab fare and that helped a lot. Upon arriving at the station, I purchased our tickets. Easy, painless, no problems. SD is the first stop on the line, so there is no real rush initially.

However, you are on the clock as soon as they allow boarding. Passengers must ALL sit upstairs, unless you are elderly or disabled. And they specifically said that traveling with kids does not make you elderly or disabled. So unless you check luggage (DO NOT DO THIS!!! I know someone who lost all of their luggage on Amtrak) you have to haul everything upstairs. I was one adult with 2 young kids, so this sucked. I was lucky that someone offered to help me carry a bag because otherwise I'd have had to leave it and risk theft. They also announced that the 4 seaters were for large parties, but they did nothing to make a single woman leave the group of seats I wanted. So we were on the boring side of the train. Not a huge deal, just annoying. She ended up being nice, and she let DS sit by her to see the Army training, and we talked a bit, but we didn't have much to look at on our side.

The train was WAY more wobbly than I expected. If you have motion sickness this might be a problem. I really didn't like wobbling like that. I get nauseated easily, and this really triggered it.

The biggest stress for me was the stops. When they stop at a station, you have 2 minutes to get on or off the train. That's it. So we had 2 minutes to get our luggage downstairs and off the train. And it was a FAST 2 minutes. I was nervous, but it was fine. We just went downstairs after the stop right before Anaheim.

We found the taxi stand and it was easy to get to our hotel.

Overall I would do it again, I just wish I had known what to expect. The kids loved it and thought it was cool.

Other little things:

*There are a lot of people walking up and down the aisles to go to the snack car. A lot. Many of them are buying alcohol, even at 9am. Then they go back for more, and more. It can get annoying.

*I think I was expecting it to be similar to airline travel, and it wasn't. It was definitely a downgrade. Again, I just didn't know what to expect.

[cornhead]

Thanks for the update.

[woody73]

Originally Posted by nancy drew

. . . *I think I was expecting it to be similar to airline travel, and it wasn't. It was definitely a downgrade. Again, I just didn't know what to expect.

For yet another downgrade, try Greyhound.

Woody

[nancy drew]

Originally Posted by woody73

For yet another downgrade, try Greyhound.

Woody

[bjscheel]

We have ridden Amtrak from Iowa to Colorado before, so I think we can handle the short ride to Anaheim. Nancy Drew, how did you get along with getting to attractions in San Diego? Where did you stay and how did you get to the places you went?

Thanks!