This was the honeymoon train trip from hell that only got us partway there on a train.
Our train left Minnesota over four hours late. Our Empire Buider train was held up for 4+ hours because a west coast Starlight train was late and they waited for hours for those passengers to get to Seattle. We called, but they refused to hold our train for us one hour in Chicago. We got to Chicago one hour after our train to New Orleans left. We then spent two and a half hours arguing with customer service in Chicago. Their first offer was to put us up in a hotel for the night, and put us on the next train the next day, but they wouldn't guarantee us a sleeper compartment. They wouldn't even reserve one for us on the next train! There was no way we would accept this. We were not riding coach for 20+ hours. They then finally agreed to put us up in a hotel, gave us $90 for food and cab fares, and got us tickets on a plane the next day. We had a great time in New Orleans, and tomorrow we call Amtrak customer service to see if we can work out a deal for a refund of some sort (they told us in Chicago that they couldn't help us with that). If that fails, we go to the credit card company, but we want to do the right thing and make an effort to work with Amtrak.
The honeymoon was great! The Prince Conti hotel was nice, the food and drink everywhere was great. The weather was awesome compared to Minnesota. All the locals were super nice and happy to see you.
There is no city like the city of New Orleans. Go there and check it out.
