# How early do I need to arrive?



## Kath2003 (Sep 28, 2005)

I'm looking at getting the 8:50am train to Kissimmee from Miami.

How early do I need to arrive?

I'm travelling into Miami from the UK, spending 4 nights in Miami enjoying South Beach before getting the train up to Kissimmee. Is booking the train ticket online via Amtrak's website for collection at the station a safe, reliable option? We'd be booking from the UK prior to flying out to the states. If we miss that train, there's nothing until the following morning!

How early would you recommend we arrive at the station? We're obviously just coach class and have no luggage that needs checking.

Many thanks,

Kath


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## jccollins (Sep 28, 2005)

Booking a ticket online in advance and then picking it up at a staffed station is a perfectly safe way of doing it. Since you will not be checking any bags and only need to pick up your tickets it would be safe to arrive at the station about 30 minutes before departure time. Enjoy your trip.


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## AlanB (Sep 28, 2005)

But make sure to allow enough time to travel to the station in Miami traffic.


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## PRR 60 (Sep 28, 2005)

If you are renting a car in Miami (remember, we have an odd habit of driving on the wrong side of the road) and have the time, you might want to swing by the Miami Amtrak station a day or two before your train departure and pick up your tickets. Arriving just before train time on the day of departure runs the risk lines at the ticket counters and, if the QuikTrak kiosk is down, you might have a hassle. With the paper tickets in-hand, you can just go to the station and climb on the train. If you cannot get to the station a day or two before, I suggest arriving at least 30 minutes early to ensure any unforeseen problems can be handled. An hour would be even better.

Hope you enjoy the train ride and your visit to the States!


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## GG-1 (Sep 29, 2005)

AlanB said:


> But make sure to allow enough time to travel to the station in Miami traffic.


Aloha

Don't expect a taxi from your hotel to know where the station is. When I stayed at the Fountainblue they didn't even know Miami had a train station.

What I did was call the local Amtrak station, they sent the cab to me.

First Long distance trip, MIA, Jachsonvile,DC,Philadelphia,Chicagi,LA... I WANT MORE!!!


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## blueman271 (Sep 29, 2005)

As a former Miamian who has started and completed many a trip in that station I can tell you that getting there 45 mins. before departure time will allow you plenty of time to pick up your tickets and check your baggage. Now if my memory serves me correctly (and although im young it isnt always as reliable as it should be) I do not believe there is a Quik-Trak machine at the Miami station and that you have to go to the ticket agent to get your tickets. It has however, been a little more than two years since I have been inside the station, so there is every possibility that a Quik-Trak machine has in fact been installed. As far as cabs are concerned, if you give your cab driver the address of the station (8303 NW 37th Ave.) he/she should have no trouble finding the station. The vast majority of Dade County is laid out as a grid, with Miami Ave dividing east and west, and Flagler St. dividing north and south. Therefore 8303 Nw 37th Ave would be found in the 83 block of 37th ave on the northwest side of the county. There are a few cities within the county that deviate from the grid Hialeah and Miami Beach being a few notable exceptions. However I digress, enjoy you trip and everything my fine former hometown has to offer.


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## GG-1 (Sep 29, 2005)

blueman271 said:


> As a former Miamian who has started and completed many a trip in that station Snip
> 
> As far as cabs are concerned, if you give your cab driver the address of the station (8303 NW 37th Ave.)  he/she should have no trouble finding the station.


Aloha Blue'

I loved my visit to your former hometown, thought it was Hilarious that a prestigious Miami Beach Hotel, the Fountianblue, had no Idea there was train service to/from Miami in July 1995

And as far as an address for the station never thouht to ask Amtral for it  , figured every taxi would know where it was, even the Hotel was suprised, also helpfull as they picked up the fare to come from ? to take me to the station. They called the station to find out where the station was.


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## Bill Haithcoat (Sep 29, 2005)

On the subject of cabbies not knowing where Amtrak is, I was in the MARTA(subway/bus) Arts Center Station in Atlanta one mornng. A guy with luggage was looking at the subway trains and asking "Which train goes to New Orleans "? He had obviously told the cabbie "train station", and since we in ATL for some reason say "train" instead of "subway", he had been delivered to MARTA.

For that matter, the cabbie may have thought the guy wanted to take the MARTA subway to the airport--makes perfect sense, many do every day.

Fortunately he had plenty of time and I helped him upstairs to a bus to the "real" train station--Amtrak.

The whole thing about people not knowing train servce still exitts, we all meet that from time to time. But also, opposite end of the coin, I run into people who naively assume we still have a lot of train service everywhere.


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## Kath2003 (Sep 29, 2005)

Thanks guys,

We won't be driving in Miami. We're only 21 and although we'll have been driving four years, neither of us is confident enough to drive over in the States, and the cost is absolutely phenomenal! So, we'll be talking the (L?) bus from Collins Avenue to the Amtrak station because money is very, very tight. I reckon we'll probably leave two hours before hand to allow an hour to get there on the bus (I've driven through Miami, what a mess!) and then an hour at the station...so that means a 6:50am bus for us! Woohoo!

Still, we should be able to catch up on lost sleep given it takes SEVEN hours to get to Orlando - what happened to the fast train which only took 5?!

Kath x

PS How does a Quik-trak machine work?! What documents do we need to have with us in order to collect the tickets?


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## AmtrakWPK (Sep 29, 2005)

There were three NY-Miami trains. Now there are two. The one that was cancelled went Miami-Tampa-Jacksonville inside Florida (and some points in between, of course). It did not go through the Orlando area. When that one was cancelled, Tampa no longer had train service, so they re-routed one of the remaining trains by sending it out to Tampa and back on the way up to Orlando, effectively adding some hours to the train's schedule. That, apparently, is the one you will be taking, and because the Tampa detour happens before it gets to Kissimmee, it takes your train several hours longer to get there. The "cancelled" train actually still runs, but only between NY and Savannah, GA. I live a few minutes north of Orlando, and my wife and I have Florida resident railpasses, and travel Amtrak in Florida a good bit. I don't know if you've been to Kissimmee before, but it would be worthwhile to do a a walkabout in the area around the station there. The old downtown, the old main street, parallels the tracks just west of the station, and you will find there the oldest continuously operating hardware store in Florida, which has a mural painted on one side of the brick building. The mural is of old Kissimmee, and is sufficiently life-like that I'm told they had to put steel barricades in front of it to prevent folks from driving down the muraled street, which is hard on both the building and on vehicles making the attempt. A large Obelisk, perhaps 15 meters high, is a block or two south, on the other side of the tracks, toward the lakefront, and has mementos, pieces of rocks, bricks, and various other things, brought from all over the United States and elsewhere. There is also a rather expansive grassy park area, a children's playground, and then of course the lakefront. There are also some storefront restaurants on that main street with inexpensive and fairly tasty fare. I expect you will be heading for Disney, but the area around the Kissimmee station gives you a bit of the flavour of old Florida, and if you have the time, I think it would be worthwhile. I hope you have a lovely holiday.


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## blueman271 (Sep 29, 2005)

The fast train still exists, it is the Silver Meteor and it leaves Miami at 6:50 am getting into Kissimmee approx. fiver hours later. The train you guys are on is the Silver Star which takes a detour over to Tampa after it leaves Winter Haven. As far as the buses are concerned, if my memory serves me correctly (and once again it is sometimes a bit hazy) I do believe that you will be taking the L bus from the beach to the train station. Furthermore I believe that the L route is one of the routes that run all night. If that be the case maybe you should investigate taking a slightly earlier bus, because if there is one thing i remember about Miami it is how congested and hectic rush hour can be and 6:50 am is right in the middle of rush hour.


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## Kath2003 (Sep 29, 2005)

Thanks guys, your knowledge is invaluable!

Quick question: going to I-Drive - best to get off at Kissimmee or Orlando?

The fast train is waaaay too early for us, I doubt we'll be fully sober catching the 8:50am train or we'll at least be nursing a hangover! I can't wait to get to Miami and drink some cocktails on the beach!

We're doing Disney, Discovery Cove and Sea World in Orlando. I've been four times already but my friend has never been to the USA. I've never been to Miami other than flying into and out of it so my only experience of it is the terrible traffic! I LOVE Florida though, and if public transport out there was better I'd take Libby (my friend) down to Key West for some partying down there! We did look into it but the cost of getting down there was too steep.

Still, $30 to get the train to Orlando from Miami, sure beats flying any day! We'll have been on a 10 hour flight a few days earlier so I'm sure a seven hour train trip will seem like nothing in comparison.


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## Chatter163 (Sep 29, 2005)

Yes, the L bus takes you from Miami Beach to the Amtrak station, and does run fairly regularly. (Miami Beach is one of the few parts of town where that statement may be made about Metrobus service.) But the L bus (like any car or taxi going to the Amtrak station) does go through some very unsavory parts of town (N.E. and N.W. 79 Street, near I-95), and unlike a taxi, the bus may pick up some of those characters en route.

Given the money that you will be spending for South Beach, Disney, Sea World, etc., the extra cab fare from the Beach ($25-35, depending on where you stay) will hardly bankrupt you, but it will allow you not to have to lug your valises or backpacks on public transportation, or clearly identify yourselves as European tourists traveling through a rough part of town.


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## Kath2003 (Sep 29, 2005)

Touche. Taxi cab it is.


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## AlanB (Sep 29, 2005)

Kath2003 said:


> Touche. Taxi cab it is.


Check with your hotel also, some hotels do offer shuttle service with a 5 or 10 mile radius of the hotel. Maybe you'll get lucky.


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## caravanman (Sep 29, 2005)

Quik-Track ticket machines are like the cinema ticket machines here in the UK, you just swipe the same card that you used on the internet to pay for the tickets at the quik track machine, and it prints out your rail tickets.

Ed.

ps, anyone know which hotels are nearest to amtrak miami?


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## jccollins (Sep 29, 2005)

Kath2003 said:


> PS How does a Quik-trak machine work?! What documents do we need to have with us in order to collect the tickets?


caravanman is right on with how the blue Amtrak Quick-Trak ticketing machines work. Unfortunately one isn't available at the Miami or Orlando Amtrak stations. Tickets will need to be collected from a live agent at the station's ticket window. The only documents you will need to collect your tickets are a valid government-issued photo id card for each person travelling and money or a credit card to pay for the tickets.


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## Kath2003 (Sep 30, 2005)

So if you reserve your tickets online, you don't pay until you collect the tickets?

I'm staying at the Clay Hotel I hope, near South Beach. It's a hotel/youth hostel of the budget variety so I very much doubt they'll have a shuttle of any kind!


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## PRR 60 (Sep 30, 2005)

Kath2003 said:


> So if you reserve your tickets online, you don't pay until you collect the tickets?


No. On-line purchases are charged to your credit card at the time of purchase. You will only have to show ID to pickup your tickets. It is also a good idea to have the credit card used to purchase the tickets and the reservation code provided with the original Amtrak confirmation.


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## Kath2003 (Sep 30, 2005)

OK. That's cool anyway. I guess we'll have our passports and driving lisences with us so photo ID shouldn't be a problem.


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