I was not certain if I would ever get my children back on a steam powered train again, after being stranded for many hours on our last authentic train adventure. So I made this one a surprise.
The Duluth Historical Railroad Society offers a variety of dinner entertainment train experiences. Due to the limited capacity for each experience, the barbecue train was already at capacity when we made our reservations. The pizza dinner train however did have last minute availability, and since the kids enjoy pizza, I thought this would be a great opportunity to make some memories. Unfortunately for me, if you are ordering gluten-free pizzas, you need to place your order in the morning, or they cannot accommodate your allergy. Yes, this made for one hungry mama by the end of the evening. The things we do for our kids.
The dinner train ticket includes admission to the Duluth train historical Museum, so when we arrived, we went inside and walked around and up and in the train cars while we waited for the boarding process.
About half an hour before departure, they begin calling parties by last name and allow you to enter the train car at that time. They allow you to select a beverage from the cooler as you enter, and find your own seats. Due to social distancing efforts, they did have every other set of seats marked off as unavailable, which was just as well, because if you have ever traveled with a preschooler, inevitably they are going to turn around backwards on their knees and stick their head inappropriately close to the person behind them at least once. So this seating configuration spared us this experience.
Once the train car was pulling out of the station, staff came along and delivered a personal size pizza from Domino’s to each member of your party.
Over the loudspeaker, a pre-recorded tour guide gave educational, historical, and tourist information as the train chugged down the tracks. During the middle of the tour, the recording stops for a while and there was live guitar music being played in the snack car, which is where you could purchase additional beverages and snacks. The snack car was essentially a cargo car, with very open side panels with nothing but a wrought iron fence at the bottom. It has been a long time since I have felt so nervous about allowing my children to explore.
Real talk for a moment. If I had one suggestion, it would be that there were train cars that were designated for adults only, so that they could be spared the experience of riding with children. This train ride went well into the evening, and since our bodies were still programmed for the Eastern Time Zone, it felt even later to poor Bubba, and to say he had a little meltdown would be putting it mildly. Another passenger got very snippy with my three year old, so I did my best to move us along to the snack car, where the live music, fresh air, and train noises from the open cargo car drown out most of his whining. This rude interaction, did ruin the experience for me personally, but I tried my best to handle it with grace for the sake of my children, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the way another adult handled themselves still bothers me.
Shortly after that, the staff brought along warm Domino’s brownies for each passenger. Suddenly my children were very happy that their mom cannot eat gluten, and also very happy in general.
If I were to do this again, I would book further in advance so that we had more options for food choice. I would also arrive earlier and taken advantage of the time to wander around the museum and tour all of the amazing train cars they have on display.
If you ask my kids, I think they would tell you that it was about a half hour too long for their age group. As an adult, I think it was the perfect way to spend an evening, while getting a great overview of Duluth history, as well as some of the popular places to visit while in town, plus dinner taken care of as a bonus.
