Cape Cod Central Railroad — Attraction in Barnstable

Our family was excited to take the lunchtime dining train on Wednesday because it'd be my young son's first train ride! The ride is smooth and calm and the lady who narrated the scenery had a nice calm voice. But the scenery during the ride was mostly trees and streets/lots interrupted by the occasional small pond. The train staff was generally very friendly, and one older staff member played his saxophone which was cool. But there's a big difference between the older experienced train staff and the younger train staff (mostly teenagers or college kids?).

Our experience was ruined by one young attendant who was responsible for seating in our first-class train car. As we walked towards our table, we noticed a group of old ladies standing there looking really confused. I had informed them and the attendant standing next to them that we had "Table 8" as stated on our tickets. The attendant immediately said "sorry, they're sitting there now, I told them they can sit there" because they were part of some tour group and tour groups typically occupy tables 1-8. Then I asked if our family could sit at another table and he was adamant that we couldn't because they're already ticketed to other customers. Really?? Everyone else's tickets are valid but not ours? So I asked where we could sit because our tickets clearly show Table 8, but he gave our table away. He ended up seating us across from Table 8 at "Table 7" which was an unset table that the servers use to serve meals from and to store extra dishes/silverware for our train car. He muttered a 'sorry' and said that he'd return to setup our table. He never did.

My mind really didn't want to 'go there' as to why our family was treated differently than others, but the way my husband looked at me, I could tell that he felt exactly the same. We paid for these expensive ticketed seats just like everyone else yet our seating arrangements weren't respected, while clearly the tickets of others were, since we weren't allowed to sit at any other table settings. And if we were at least seated at another "set" dining table like the others, I would've been fine, but we were made to sit at an unmade serving table. We felt unheard and helpless.

Meanwhile, the old ladies seated at our ticketed table across from us looked just as uncomfortable about the situation as we were. Just before departure our server, Maryann, part of the experienced staff, went to each table in the train car to introduce herself. With confusion on her face, she had asked us why we were sitting at Table 7, and I told her that the attendant told us to sit here instead of Table 8. She then approached the old ladies and checked their tickets as they told her that the same attendant instructed them to sit there even though they offered to move. Maryann told them to move to Table 6 (which was empty mind you) because their tour group only occupied Tables 1-6. She apologized to us multiple times and seated us at Table 8. The situation was kind of embarrassing for all parties involved. Later on during the train ride, the young attendant saw us sitting at our correct table and he gave us a quick half-hearted apology. WVR.

At lunch time, the younger staff members were haphazardly distributing all the stacked meals out of "Table 7" to all the tables. Well, the same young attendant served our table and forgot to give my son his meal. When Maryann returned afterwards to check up on us she promptly rectified the situation. My husband and son ate their meals, but I didn't touch mine. After experiencing the mishaps with our seating arrangement, the haphazard way all the meals where stacked together at Table 7, and my son's missing meal, I was afraid that my severe food allergies probably were overlooked as well. And I didn't want to risk anaphylaxis on a long train ride.

I'd considered their "Polar Express" Train for Christmas this year, but I think I'll pass after this experience. Despite my low rating for the experience, Maryann deserves five stars for her kind...

We, a retired couple, on 07/23/22 rode the Cape Cod Central Railroad departing Hyannis through the villages of West Barnstable and Sandwich to the Cape Cod Canal and back to Hyannis.

We had no problems with the prepaid parking ($5.00) or getting our tickets. The conductor saw someone else with a backpack and told them that there better not be any outside food or beverage in there or they would be put off the train at the nearest stop with no refund. We had outside food, snack and drinks in our backpack so we hurriedly consumed what we could and took the rest back to the car before boarding.

We booked the Standard Class tickets @ $29.99 each and were able to select the upper section of the Standard Class car. The upper section allows somewhat greater visibility over objects along the way and really has no disadvantage except the climbing of an easy set of stairs. One side of the car has three seats on a side and the other has two. We are the typically larger retired couple and we were very tight sitting next to each other in two seats so we moved to the side with three seats and were much more comfortable. The train wasn’t crowded so no one was disadvantaged by us claiming three seats. The real problem here is that almost all of the seats face backwards from the direction of travel on the initial leg of the trip from Hyannis to the Cape Cod Canal and that forced me to twist my neck awkwardly to try and look forward to avoid getting motion sick from looking backward. I know there isn’t the space to turn the train around after each leg, but it should be turned so the seats face forward on the initial leg since things are more interesting the first time around. I THINK THIS IS A BIG DEAL.

The trip is narrated, but the sound had echoes in the upper seats and I think the speakers were only in the lower seating area. This was distracting and often made in hard to understand. This got worse when we picked up more passengers in West Barnstable including several loud children and much worse on the return trip when a group of adults siting behind us talked loudly the whole way home. The Cape Cod Central Railroad should offer the narration via Bluetooth headphones also so those who want to can tune out the distractions and concentrate on the narration can do so.

Unfortunately the view from the Cape Cod Central Railroad is much like the rest of Cape Cod: You can’t see the Cape for the trees. There were a couple of occasions where you could see marsh and dune areas and parts of the Canal, but 95% of the time all you could see were trees rushing past.

My final conclusion is that while the Cape Cod Central Railroad is reasonably priced at $29.99 each for Standard Class, the inability to hear the narration clearly or to see much of the scenery make it a pretty hard no to repeat and I strongly advise the Cape Cod Canal Cruises as a better alternative unless you are really set on...

Booked two first class seats for the Sunday Brunch train ride. We selected our meals ahead of time as per the request of the cook (to buy the necessary ingredients). We ordered the Chicken and Waffle and the Salmon meal and were excited to try out these dishes

Great atmosphere before boarding, they had some live jazz playing while people were arriving. Boarding process wasn’t too difficult, though first class seats were a bit cramped.

Luckily, we weren’t seated with other people and had a whole table to ourselves. On less peak days, it seems there isn’t a huge need to pay extra for the private table though that is an option just to be safe. We didn’t though and were pleasantly surprised.

Everything was all good, they served bowls of fresh fruit as an appetizer. Nothing to complain about there. Drinks were pricey but we decided to try them out. Got a pineapple juice + champagne and blueberry vodka+champagne drinks. Pretty average, nothing to write home about.

For a scenic train, there’s not much scenery. Lots of trees, people’s backyards, short glimpses of ponds and marshes. It was good for the first 20 minutes as we were settling in to a new experience. Felt like taking a very slow Amtrak.

It took about two hours to get to the end of the first half, and we weren’t even served food yet, though we saw them being delivered out to the more premium train carts. Whatever, we paid for the cheapest tickets (not that cheap!).

Right before coming to our table, we were informed by a server that they had ran out of salmon, with the only alternatives being chicken and waffle or French toast. Quite confused, we agreed to a French toast substitute. Only the last 3 or 4 tables were faced with this problem. How is this acceptable?? It definitely didn’t help that the table next to us received their salmon so we were watching a bit jealously.

The French toast was mid, sweet but average. The chicken and waffle was also very average. The waffle was incredibly soggy and the chicken was quite dry. It was a flat chicken cutlet, not even a fried chicken piece. Very, very average food at a premium, and we didn’t even get what we ordered! Quite disappointing. Dessert was a cherry carrot cake but it was more of a spice cake. 5/10.

The server was nice initially but hardly checked up on us. Not sure if she could feel the disappointment emanating from us.

As we did finish our meals, we didn’t ask for any refunds, though that would be quite welcome! If they check these reviews…

All in all, it’s a nice one time experience but if you’re looking for other fun things to do, I can’t really recommend this unless you’re okay with mediocre views and food, and just want to spend a good amount of...