MNN - Mother Nature Network

It was less expensive. Because of school schedules, the week we chose to go to Orlando is a popular week for everyone in New Jersey to take a vacation. As a result, the airlines increase their prices to Orlando. We flew back at about half of what it would have cost to fly there. (Due to scheduling, we were only able to take the train on the way there, not on the way back.)

I hate to fly. I do it, and I'll never let it stop me from going somewhere, but I hate it. I find it extremely stressful.

We wanted the experience.

We didn't have to arrive two hours early to go through security. We arrived at the station 45 minutes before our train departed, and we could have arrived a little later.

There were no fees for our luggage.

We were able to take all the food and drinks we wanted; we didn't have to buy drinks once we got through security as we do at the airport.

Speaking of security, there was no security screening for the train. There was a sign in the train station that said random searches could take place, but I didn't see any.

The seats on the train are roomier than seats on a plane. There was plenty of legroom. Seatbelts aren't required. I didn't feel trapped at all, unlike the way I feel on a plane.

My boys missed two days of school for the trip. They had plenty of time to do their makeup work on the train before we arrived in Orlando. They were able to enjoy their week without schoolwork hanging over their heads.

You never know who you're going to meet. There was a family sitting behind us with kids the same age as my boys. While this might happen on a plane, too, the ability to interact with the people you meet on a train is greater. My 9-year-old and his new friend were able to go on a tour of the train, including getting a look at the sleeper cars, and find room to play games together.

Twenty hours gave me plenty of time to decompress. I watched three movies on the iPad, got some reading done and had long, (mostly) uninterrupted conversations with my husband.

I got a surprising amount of sleep on the train. The seats reclined and a piece pulled out to elevate your legs. It wasn't as comfortable as a bed, obviously, but it was certainly more comfortable than sleeping in a plane seat.

The train takes longer than flying when you're going a long distance. We had the time to take the train on the way down, but to get home in time for school and work, we chose to take a plane home. In our culture, a 20-hour train ride can seem like a huge waste of time when that trip could be taken in five hours (including the two hours at the airport before the flight takes off). Many people see downtime as a luxury they can't afford. Until the United States puts high-speed rail travel in place for much of the country, the ability to ride the train like my family did is not going to be embraced by a large portion of the population.

There was a temperature-control problem in our car. It got very hot in the middle of the night. So hot that in frustration, I tweeted Amtrak about the situation (and they tweeted back early the next morning). The air had been turned off in our car and no one realized it until it was stifling. It took several hours for the temperature to become comfortable once the air was turned back on.

The food service on the train was expensive (negating some of the money we saved by not flying) and the quality was poor. I had packed snacks but not meals, mainly because I had some crazy vision of the dining car being straight out of "North by Northwest." I know better now, and next time I'll take more (and different) food.