Philly Amtrak Fan
Engineer
Happy New Year!
I was thinking last night about places to go/things to do on New Year's Eve. I am absolutely not a night person and worry if driving home I'm sharing the road with a lot of drunk people. I'd like to go to Times Square except it's outside in January at night and I'd assume you'd have to arrive well before midnight to have any view better than what you'd see on TV. Then I thought what would it be like to spend New Year's Eve/Day on an overnight Amtrak train? It does sound like a cool one time experience. The northbound Night Owl unfortunately leaves Philly after midnight. I guess I can travel down to WAS and come back and then get off a little after midnight but then you do risk sharing the road with the drunks again. Ideally I'd take a train like the LSL or CL or a Florida train/Crescent and the train doesn't get into a desired destination until the next morning (Night Owl from BOS gets in at 4:27am, I'm sure the drunks are gone but a bit early for me).
Another holiday I thought it might be cool on a train would be the 4th of July to see fireworks from a train (pray you're not in some remote area that doesn't do fireworks though). I believe quite a few big cities shoot off fireworks at midnight (Philly does) so maybe you can see fireworks outside at the stroke of midnight if you're in or close to a big city.
I would probably not want to spend Thanksgiving night or Christmas morning on a train, especially if I had a spouse/kids (which I don't).
Have you had any holiday experiences on a train and what were they like?
I was thinking last night about places to go/things to do on New Year's Eve. I am absolutely not a night person and worry if driving home I'm sharing the road with a lot of drunk people. I'd like to go to Times Square except it's outside in January at night and I'd assume you'd have to arrive well before midnight to have any view better than what you'd see on TV. Then I thought what would it be like to spend New Year's Eve/Day on an overnight Amtrak train? It does sound like a cool one time experience. The northbound Night Owl unfortunately leaves Philly after midnight. I guess I can travel down to WAS and come back and then get off a little after midnight but then you do risk sharing the road with the drunks again. Ideally I'd take a train like the LSL or CL or a Florida train/Crescent and the train doesn't get into a desired destination until the next morning (Night Owl from BOS gets in at 4:27am, I'm sure the drunks are gone but a bit early for me).
Another holiday I thought it might be cool on a train would be the 4th of July to see fireworks from a train (pray you're not in some remote area that doesn't do fireworks though). I believe quite a few big cities shoot off fireworks at midnight (Philly does) so maybe you can see fireworks outside at the stroke of midnight if you're in or close to a big city.
I would probably not want to spend Thanksgiving night or Christmas morning on a train, especially if I had a spouse/kids (which I don't).
Have you had any holiday experiences on a train and what were they like?