# Amtrak Vacations - Chicago



## NapTown Jim (Jun 24, 2008)

My wife and I had wanted to take a weekend getaway to Chicago for a while. We decided to book a package with Amtrak Vacations. It was a pretty good deal, I think. I say, I think only because I don't know how much the room rates for the Palmer House Hilton (an upgrade in hotel accomodations I decided to take instead of the Essex) usually are. For approx. $630 we got round trip rail transportation from Indianapolis, 2 nights at the Palmer House Hilton and 2 tickets to the sky deck of the Sears Tower.

Unfortunately our ride to the train station had to leave town so we had to pay for parking at the Pan-Am Plaza garage next to Union Station here in Indianapolis. If we were going to be gone just one more day, we would have saved money to pay for a taxi from our far east side home to go downtown. Anyway, they boarded two large church groups, before they would seat the rest of us. The train consisted of a baggage car labled as "Buffer Car" and two coaches. The train was pretty full. I'd estimate it was at least 90% full. We left Indy right at 6:30 and arrived in Chicago about 5 minutes early I think.

An $8 taxi ride (with tip) to the Palmer House and we were checked into our room and we immediately ventured out to the Navy Pier. We rode the bus. Very convenient. I'd never been to the Navy Pier before, and it was neat. I was hoping to ride the ferris wheel there, but it didn't seem to be operating either day we were in town. That night we went to see Wicked at the Oriental Theater. It was an excellent show. Its kindof a backstory to the Wizard of Oz. I highly recomend it.

The next day we rode the bus first thing in the morning to the Museum of Science & Industry. It had been at least 15 years since I'd been there before. The museum was bigger than I remember. They redid the **** U-Boat exhibit and the guided tour of the U-505 was well worth the extra fee. The museum was celebrating its 75th Birthday and they waived the general admission fee for all guests. by the time we left, I was getting tired of people and we decided not to go out to the Adler Planetarium. We crawled through traffic going back to the hotel probably due to a big country music concert at Soldier Field. We had dinner at Pizanos and their deep dish was pretty good, but I still like Uno's better. We must try Giordano's next time.

Sunday our train home wasn't leaving until 5:45 so we killed time by walking around the Loop, shopping and finally collected our luggage from the Palmer House bell hop, and we were on our way back to Union Station. It was very busy there and my wife was affraid the lines there were going to mean we'd have to step up in line sooner than we expected. I can see now why the Metropolitan Lounge for the sleeper class passengers would be so much better...it had to be because the Coach lounge was a madhouse. I don't remember Penn Station in NYC being that bad, but that was a few years ago. Anyway, I assured my wife that the long line of folks were there to board a train and it would all be gone by the time we would have to board in an hour...and sure enough it was. We left Chicago on time and was held up by 3 freight trains, but we ended up arriving in Indianapolis only 15 minutes late. The train home was also pretty full...perhaps more full than the one we left Indy in. I told the conductor that I'd like to see two trains a day between Indy and Chicago some day. He said I'm not the only one.

Pictures and video of us leaving Union Station in Indianapolis will be posted later.


----------



## NapTown Jim (Jun 25, 2008)

video posted here....


----------



## AlanB (Jul 10, 2008)

Jim,

My apologies for taking so long to respond, but I was on my own vacation and just couldn't keep up with the regular forum stuff, so I never ventured into here.

I'd say that you got a great deal through Amtrak Vacations. As someone who frequents Hiltons, the Palmer House can easily go for anything between $200 to $400 per night for a standard room. So $630 for a room for two nights, RT train tickets for two, and admission to the tower seems like a pretty good deal to me.

And thanks for the report!


----------

