<p>We’re planning to meet son in NYC for Thanksgiving (great excuse not to host relatives). I’m trying to figure out the best way for him to get there. Presently, it looks like his classes in Boston will meet the Wed before Thanksgiving. Last class ends at 4pm. I want to go ahead and make some sort of reservation now for Wed evening, but just in case it turns out he can skip class or class gets cancelled it would be nice if there was a possibility of leaving earlier. That eliminates cheap flights. Does Amtrak let you change your reservation? I can’t find anything about that on their website. I’ve also heard of the Chinatown buses. Is that reserved seating? Can you change the reservation?</p>
<p>(btw - my husband and I took the Limoliner from Boston to NYC after Orientation, and had a great experience. Highly recommend! <a href=“http://www.limoliner.com%5B/url%5D”>www.limoliner.com</a> We were going to have son do the same thing for Thanksgiving, but they don’t have any late enough departures on Wed.)</p>
<p>I believe that you don’t need a reservation for the Chinatown bus, ordinarily, but it may be different on Thanksgiving Wednesday. if you google Chinatown bus, you will come up with Fung Wah and its site should give more details.</p>
<p>A note of caution: Some Fung Wah buses have caught fire recently. Their drivers do not speak English, by and large, and in one case of fire, the driver did not adequately guide the passengers off the bus. My H and S have traveled a few times without mishap, however. You can pick up the Chinatown bus at the same terminal as Greyhound. The latter may be a bit more expensive but has a better safety record.</p>
<p>S and his friends use the Chinese busses all the time. They are great. There are a number of different lines- try Lucky Star. I think they are safe and the busses are regular coach busses. The price is right.</p>
<p>Several of my daughter’s friends used the Chinatown bus to and from Boston in March; they made reservations on line and paid by credit card. The buses were right on schedule; I don’t know about the safety issues, only that in the cases we’re familiar the experience was just fine. The Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is a very difficult time to travel between Boston and NYC though; I think if money isn’t a problem and you are able to find out on Amtrak’s Web site whether it allows ticket ancellation or changing, that train travel might be a better bet than a bus of any kind. Although Penn Station will be awfully crowded throughout the holidays, the train tracks themselves will still be less congested than the roads. Keep in mind, too, that when you take the Chinatown bus to NYC it does in fact leave you on Canal Street, which may not be that convenient late at night with a heavy backpack, especiallyfor someone who doesn’t know the city.</p>
<p>Greyhound is not too expensive, either. Again, I don’t know about making reservations, but check their website. S spent half the summer going back and forth to gf on on it (was usually getting off at Providence, so c bus was not do-able.)</p>
<p>Several years ago – before the Chinatown bus became popular – my son and friends tried to take Amtrak from Boston to NYC the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It took him forever as the trains were crowded and some trains honored only those with reservations. When he and friends finally got on a train, they had to stand most of the way.
Sounds like Amtrak reservations might be the way to go – unless things have changed. Just note that highways are jammed from Boston
to DC the Wednesday before and Sunday going back.</p>
<p>Yes, Amtrak at Thanksgiving and Christmas is packed.</p>
<p>Greyhound is $35 one way, $25 with a 3-day advance purchase and $30 non-refundable. Lucky Star and Fung Wah are $15 one-way. Since they run every hour, it is not a disaster to miss one bus. Sometimes, they will run several buses in a row if there is excess demand.</p>
<p>My daughter has taken the Boston-NYC-Boston Fung Wah several times and has had no problems with it. Just go to <a href=“http://www.fungwahbus.com%5B/url%5D”>www.fungwahbus.com</a> to purchase tickets online. The bus leaves from Boston’s South Station and arrives in NYC’s Chinatown less than 5 hours later. It will take longer on the Wed. prior to Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Greyhound is currently $18 I believe - get an advance reservation, which is good for a year. Fung Wah is now $15. Both leave from South Station in Boston. Greyhound goes to Port Authority, and Fung Wah leaves off in Chinatown, NYC.</p>
<p>texas137,
Just know that if your child takes a bus, he is going to encounter more traffic on the road than he has probably ever seen in his life. It could take 7 or 8 hours to get to New York, maybe more. If you decide to go with Amtrak, they will probably run late, too, but I can’t imagine it could be anything like the roads will be. I would definitely go with a reservation ASAP because even the trains will fill up.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. I’ve booked the express train on Amtrak, leaving Boston after son’s Wed classes. If it turns out the Wed. classes are cancelled and he can leave earlier, we’ll try to change. But meanwhile, I feel relieved knowing he has a confirmed plan, and reserved seats. After all the input on road traffic, I decided to book the train roundtrip (I had been thinking of the Chinatown bus for the return, but not if it could take 7 hours!) </p>
<p>Now to see what special events are happening in NYC during Thanksgiving week-end… Macy’s Parade? Rockette Christmas show? Ice-skating around the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center? Christmas displays in the store windows on 5th Ave? It will be just like It’s a Wonderful Life!</p>
<p>The tree at Rockefeller Center will be lit on 11/29 this year, but the skating rink opens in Oct. If he does get into the city early, they inflate the balloons for the Macy’s parade in Central Park on Wed night. Lots of people go and have a great time.</p>
<p>The basic deal on Amtrak: many of their trains are unreserved and buying a ticket entitles you to ride, but not necessarily to sit down. Especially at holiday times, unreserved Amtrak coaches are filled with standees crammed in to the max. </p>
<p>If you purchase a ticket for a reserved train, you are guaranteed a seat on that train, BUT your ticket is also good on any unreserved train as well. So if he gets out earlier than expected, he can head to South Station and try and see if he can board an earlier train. Worse comes to worse, he can always ride the original one.</p>
<p>He won’t actually need to file for a refund or get a ticket reissued UNLESS he wants to try to take a different RESERVED train. (And the odds of getting a last-minute seat on a reserved train the day before Thanksgiving are pretty low.)</p>
<p>It’s the opposite direction, but when I went from Philly to NYC last year by Amtrak, I left at 5AM on Thursday morning, and I was one of about 5 people on the train. It was great. It was so quiet, one of the conductors even came and took a nap a few seats from me.</p>
<p>Heard on the news this morning that Amtrak is raising its ticket prices by 7 % effective monday. So if you are definitely taking the train book your ticket now.</p>