Taking the Brightline to Disney World: Why I switched road for rail

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The prepare’s golden floor glimmers in the Florida solar because it hisses to a cease alongside the previous freight observe. We’re in my hometown Boca Raton on the platform to board the Brightline, the high-speed rail service that’s going to take my household to Orlando for a long-awaited journey to Disney World.

It’s a prepare that my mum and I have waited greater than three many years to expertise, the prepare that I needed to take my father on earlier than he died from most cancers final Christmas. Like most of the roughly 1.4 million British vacationers and 128 million Americans who go to Florida yearly, he would have fortunately pushed to Disney World. However, he turned mobility-impaired towards the finish of his life and the prepare would have supplied a neater route.

In February, I lastly determined to make the journey together with my mum, my companion and our four-year-old daughter, who my father had all the time needed to take to the Magic Kingdom. 

With 5 stops in South Florida and an Orlando terminus that opened in September final yr, the Brightline’s route between Miami to Orlando is the latest American rail expertise. Its benefit over driving is that you’re elevated above the freeway and might see Florida’s sights en route. The drawback is that you could’t cease to take pleasure in them.

Talks about the high-speed rail undertaking started when I was a baby – I bear in mind them as early as 1989 – with proposals of magnetic levitating trains and estimated prices of $2bn (£1.6bn) in non-public financing. Back then, the anticipated prepare would run up to 300mph from Miami to Orlando, a journey of simply 90 minutes in contrast to roughly a three-hour drive.

But there have been hiccups on the method. With building delays, a failed partnership with Virgin Trains USA throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and prices spiralling to $6bn, the undertaking lastly opened however didn’t absolutely accomplish what it set out to. What emerged was the first privately financed American rail system in over 100 years, which now makes use of lots of the identical tracks as Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway. The rail journey by no means achieved its 90-minute objective; the prepare journey now takes virtually so long as driving.

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The 240-passenger prepare begins in Miami, however we boarded in Boca Raton, one hour down the line. Heading south, the Brightline hugs Florida’s historic east coast routes – from the Dixie Highway, a contentiously named road with a debated historical past, to A1A (Atlantic 1 Alternate), the coast road immortalised in the work of pop singer Jimmy Buffett.

It’s a panorama the place the indicators of fast improvement and the property crash of 2008 are nonetheless seen: native architect Addison Mizner’s coral Mediterranean mansions, Nineteen Seventies condos, newly constructed strip malls and luxurious golf programs seem and disappear amongst mango bushes, mangroves, derelict industrial estates and water remedy vegetation. Some legal professionals had been sitting behind us discussing property contracts – they alighted at West Palm Beach amongst glamourous ladies in Jackie Onassis sun shades.

Past alligator-laden wetlands, the prepare follows US Highway 1, the longest American north-south freeway, a road infamous for visitors jams attributable to so-called “snowbirds” – northerners who migrate to Florida for the winter. On our journey I sipped a glass of wine – one other good thing about not taking the road. In one part of the prepare, a bunch adorned in fuchsia and aquamarine boarded with glasses of glowing cuvées and grapefruit palomas. The prepare supervisor reminded us that the liquor licence solely applies when the prepare is shifting.

Everything inside the prepare appeared to be shiny and new – from its trendy gentle gray seats to its extensive aisles. My mum and daughter laughed and performed video games whereas dealing with one another throughout the desk. We handed the time by counting boats – 10 rusty ones in boatyards, three modern yachts out at sea, and one in the sapphire blue waters of the St Lucie River.

As the prepare moved inland, the devastation of citrus greening, a illness that ravaged the state’s orange business, turned obvious. My mum identified the lone tangelo tree standing amongst the patch of overgrown noticed palmettos and pine bushes – it appeared to be an deserted orange orchard. It’s right here we reached our highest velocity, 124 mph, whereas cruising over the San Sebastian River.

We may have stayed in a Disney resort, however a villa in Kissimmee was extra moderately priced at $180 per evening. Kissimmee was the place my household stayed after we had been younger, a metropolis as soon as surrounded by cattle ranches and navel orange farms. Staying exterior the resort offered some respite, however there was no escaping the large vibrant waterpark at our doorstep.

Heading house on the Brightline, a tanned man in a purple print shirt holding a Stella Artois instructed me the prepare is the finest method for locals to get to Miami Marlins baseball video games and the Miami International Boat Show. As we headed in the direction of our closing cease (we travelled all the method again to Miami), the prepare supplied an elevated tour of Central Miami with its Art Deco styling and trendy highrises.

Travelling by road the entire return journey would have price us $12-$40 in tolls plus gasoline, whereas tickets begin at $49 for the Brightline. Was it an total higher expertise than driving? Although not a lot faster nor cheaper, it actually took the stress out of the journey and was extra snug.

My mum mirrored that my father would have appreciated the altering panorama of the Florida he as soon as knew, had he been with us. It was altogether a extra magical expertise travelling to Orlando by prepare – befitting a journey to the Magic Kingdom.

Travel necessities

Brightline

Tickets begin at $49 for customary class and $139 for premium class, which features a five-mile Uber experience from any station (besides Orlando) for the mobility impaired. Overnight station parking is $10 per day.

How to get there

Multiple airways fly from London to Miami and Orlando, together with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. The journey time is round 10 hours.

There’s a shuttle that runs between Miami worldwide airport and the Brightline station. Tickets price $10 for the first passenger and $5 for every extra passenger. The station can also be inside a 10-minute stroll of Miami’s free Metromover monorail, which takes you immediately to the airport and into downtown Miami.

The Brightline stops at Orlando worldwide airport. You’ll want a taxi switch from there to Disney World.

Where to Stay

Kissimmee

Kissimmee is a 40-minute drive from Orlando’s Brightline station. Villas from Jeeves Florida Rentals and Rentyl Resorts embrace entry to a large water park, heated swimming swimming pools and spas, themed rooms and accessible shuttles to Disney World.

Evermore Orlando Resort

This resort opened in January 2024 and is a 30-minute drive from the Orlando Brightline station. Villas and flats encompass a man-made lagoon and 20 acres of seashore. On-site actions embrace swimming, kayaking, {golfing}, luxurious spa experiences and eating at 12 eating places. Transport to Disney World with an accessible shuttle, and an accessible trolley service round the resort is included.

Chau-Jean Lin and her household had been travelling as company of Experience Kissimmee and Brightline.