During the week of May 17-23 we had seen signs for the Christmas Carol Train Tour while walking through L.A. Union Station to work and school. It was a very early promotion for the Disney CGI-enhanced movie A Christmas Carol based on the Charles Dickens story and starring Jim Carry as Scrooge and the three ghosts. The train contained animation, exhibits, an original edition of the book A Christmas Carol, and other things related to the film. HP provided the technology and Amtrak provided the train. It was kind of like a mobile Disney ride and would stop in 40 cities in the US over the next seven months leading up to the film’s release on November 6. Only unlike most Disney rides, this one was free. The first stop was L.A. Union Station on May 22-25.
We thought we might check it out since we didn’t have any plans for Memorial Day weekend. On Friday, May 22 I did “recon” and checked out what was happening with the train tour on the way home from work. I walked up the ramp for the platform for tracks 11B and 12B where the sign said to go. I then walked to the far end of the platform and turned left to track 13B where the train was parked. It was decorated with a long movie poster for A Christmas Carol. On the far side of the train was a long queue of people, mostly families with children. The queue wrapped around railes back and forth “Disneyland style”. There were some booths set up, one of which was raffling off an HP laptop computer. A Disney employee passed out a brochure with Christmas Carol word puzzles and another employee at the end of the queue held up a sign that said the wait was 1.5 hours. I also saw some people dressed as carolers walking along the queue. I soon left to catch the 5:20 PM San Bernadino train to get home.
We decided to go to the train tour on Sunday and take the Metrolink train from Covina to Union Station. We had originally planned to take the 2:27 PM train there, arrive at 3:10 PM, and take the 5:25 train home. That would give us enough time for a 1.5 hour wait in the queue and the 45-minute train tour. However, my recon had shown that the wait would likely be longer than 1.5 hours so we decided to take the 12:57 PM train that arrived at 1:40 PM. This would allow enough time for a 3-hour wait and the 45-minute tour.
On Sunday we went to mass at 9:30 AM rather than the usual 5:30 PM. I put on suncream to prepare for the 1.5+ hour wait outside. This is probably the first time I’ve worn suncream for a Christmas-related event. After brunch we caught the 12:57 PM Metrolink train. It wasn’t very crowded compared to the weekday trains, though we did notice some families on board. It arrived at Union Station early, at 1:30 PM. After exiting the platform we noticed that the queue for the train tour extended all the way down to the track 3B/4B platform. Again, it was mostly families with children. Disney employees in white T-shirts directed the queue, made sure the platform ramps weren’t blocked, and passed out more purple brochures. We queued up at 1:35 PM. By 2:14 PM we had entered the tunnel up to the platform for tracks 11B and 12B. An employee said the wait would be at least 2 more hours. Another employee came down the queue asking if anyone wanted a temporary tattoo. Another passed out a different brochure that required naming all the cities on the tour and tracing the route. I noticed that the train would later go through both Santa Fe (6/2) and Albuquerque (6/5-6/7) along with Portland, OR (7/1), Seattle, WA (7/3-7/5), and Baltimore, MD (9/30) where I would go between June 2-4. The tour ends in New York, NY on Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
By 2:27 PM we were high enough on the ramp to see the train and by 2:35 PM we were on the platform. Around 2:45 PM a well-dressed juggler on stilts came by and performed for us. We finally reached the end of the platform at 3 PM and I was making some use of the suncream I wore. There were more jugglers. One on stilts held another guy up who juggled with a third juggler, also on stilts. Near the end of platform 13 two men and two women in Victorian costumes sang carols and talked to people in the queue. There was a chimney from which artificial snow blew out. By then it was about 3:10 PM and we still hadn’t joined the Disneyland-style wraparound queue that was an additional 1.5 hour wait. At that rate we wouldn’t reach the front of the queue until 4:40 PM at the earliest and finish the tour at 5:25 PM, the time that the train we planned to take home would leave. We decided that we wouldn’t make it in time for that train and we didn’t want to wait around for the next train that left at 7:45 PM. So we left the queue and caught the 3:25 PM train home. We got to see some jugglers and carolers but we couldn’t hold out for the long haul that was even longer than we planned.
After we got home I read on latimes.com that around 30,000 people waited in line to see the train tour over the weekend and they usually had to wait 3-5 hours. I guess when anything is offered for free in this economy, people jump on it. We’ll just have to wait until actual Christmas comes later this year.
We thought we might check it out since we didn’t have any plans for Memorial Day weekend. On Friday, May 22 I did “recon” and checked out what was happening with the train tour on the way home from work. I walked up the ramp for the platform for tracks 11B and 12B where the sign said to go. I then walked to the far end of the platform and turned left to track 13B where the train was parked. It was decorated with a long movie poster for A Christmas Carol. On the far side of the train was a long queue of people, mostly families with children. The queue wrapped around railes back and forth “Disneyland style”. There were some booths set up, one of which was raffling off an HP laptop computer. A Disney employee passed out a brochure with Christmas Carol word puzzles and another employee at the end of the queue held up a sign that said the wait was 1.5 hours. I also saw some people dressed as carolers walking along the queue. I soon left to catch the 5:20 PM San Bernadino train to get home.
We decided to go to the train tour on Sunday and take the Metrolink train from Covina to Union Station. We had originally planned to take the 2:27 PM train there, arrive at 3:10 PM, and take the 5:25 train home. That would give us enough time for a 1.5 hour wait in the queue and the 45-minute train tour. However, my recon had shown that the wait would likely be longer than 1.5 hours so we decided to take the 12:57 PM train that arrived at 1:40 PM. This would allow enough time for a 3-hour wait and the 45-minute tour.
On Sunday we went to mass at 9:30 AM rather than the usual 5:30 PM. I put on suncream to prepare for the 1.5+ hour wait outside. This is probably the first time I’ve worn suncream for a Christmas-related event. After brunch we caught the 12:57 PM Metrolink train. It wasn’t very crowded compared to the weekday trains, though we did notice some families on board. It arrived at Union Station early, at 1:30 PM. After exiting the platform we noticed that the queue for the train tour extended all the way down to the track 3B/4B platform. Again, it was mostly families with children. Disney employees in white T-shirts directed the queue, made sure the platform ramps weren’t blocked, and passed out more purple brochures. We queued up at 1:35 PM. By 2:14 PM we had entered the tunnel up to the platform for tracks 11B and 12B. An employee said the wait would be at least 2 more hours. Another employee came down the queue asking if anyone wanted a temporary tattoo. Another passed out a different brochure that required naming all the cities on the tour and tracing the route. I noticed that the train would later go through both Santa Fe (6/2) and Albuquerque (6/5-6/7) along with Portland, OR (7/1), Seattle, WA (7/3-7/5), and Baltimore, MD (9/30) where I would go between June 2-4. The tour ends in New York, NY on Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
By 2:27 PM we were high enough on the ramp to see the train and by 2:35 PM we were on the platform. Around 2:45 PM a well-dressed juggler on stilts came by and performed for us. We finally reached the end of the platform at 3 PM and I was making some use of the suncream I wore. There were more jugglers. One on stilts held another guy up who juggled with a third juggler, also on stilts. Near the end of platform 13 two men and two women in Victorian costumes sang carols and talked to people in the queue. There was a chimney from which artificial snow blew out. By then it was about 3:10 PM and we still hadn’t joined the Disneyland-style wraparound queue that was an additional 1.5 hour wait. At that rate we wouldn’t reach the front of the queue until 4:40 PM at the earliest and finish the tour at 5:25 PM, the time that the train we planned to take home would leave. We decided that we wouldn’t make it in time for that train and we didn’t want to wait around for the next train that left at 7:45 PM. So we left the queue and caught the 3:25 PM train home. We got to see some jugglers and carolers but we couldn’t hold out for the long haul that was even longer than we planned.
After we got home I read on latimes.com that around 30,000 people waited in line to see the train tour over the weekend and they usually had to wait 3-5 hours. I guess when anything is offered for free in this economy, people jump on it. We’ll just have to wait until actual Christmas comes later this year.
RSS Feed