Grand Canyon Railway — Local services in Flagstaff

We chose the Polar Express package at the Grand Canyon Railway and "Resort" hotel in Williams, AZ for our family of five on December 2015. We also invited my in laws from Florida to come up, as we would not be celebrating Christmas together. We were a party of 7. Two hotel rooms, 7 train tickets, 7 spots for dinner and breakfast. The experience that was highlighted or indirectly promised was not what we received. A very underwhelming experience, at best. Hotel bar staff was incredibly rude to my in laws when they ordered a glass of wine. Then she carried on her nasty disposition to our entire party when she realized we were together. Bar area was serving 11 guests at the time and 7 of them were in our party. Female bartender should not be visually present to customers at anytime. She detracts from the entire presentation of family, fun and the Christmas spirit. She surely took it away from us that evening - and this all happened BEFORE we got onto the train. Train was ok. Singing songs was great. Kids loved it. The light show splendor is not as spectacular as you may think. Seemed as though we happened randomly upon people's backyards that were decorated with lights. Nothing amazing. The Santa that boarded our train may have been on one shift too many. He wasn't very kind when we asked him to pose with our group of 5 children. He literally walked away before we could snap the shutter. When we mentioned it, he spoke to us in a reprimanding tone. At that point it was par for the course and we started to wonder if there was a memo we didn't receive. Bottom line - won't do it again. Have and will continue to tell our story. Kids had fun, but the hotel staff ruined it for my in laws who traveled to experience this with them. Not like the story at all. Immensely disappointing. The only reason this experience received two stars above is because I prefer not to use the word "hate". Contacted corporate upon our return. To date, no comment. ...

We loved doing this with our kids (ages 10 and 12). We sat in Coach but felt like we had a 1st class experience. Our car attendant was Mark W and he was extremely friendly and helpful. He told lots of great stories and had excellent recommendations for making the most of our time at Grand Canyon and for restaurants and fun things to do in Williams, AZ also. (Which is an extremely cute town you'll want to hang around!)

If you're also parenting kids with special needs, note that you ARE allowed to bring your own food, drinks and activities onto the train. Plus, you have your same seats when you leave and the train is never unattended so you can leave your things on the train while you explore Grand Canyon!

The actors did a great job of making sure it was clear that nobody was actually hurt during the shoot out before we left, and making sure the robbery was fun and exciting but not scary. There is no gun play on the train during the robbery.

During our ride we saw: prairie dogs, elk, pronghorn, many many MANY cows and...

We had booked on line for the complete package of Grand Canyon Railway Hotel for 2 nights, with breakfast and dinner, riding the Grand Canyon Railway Northbound, getting onto the South Rim Motorcoach and back by Grand Canyon Railway Southbound! That is the best we could have done! You can read by using copy & paste: {1881 Williams, Arizona - Gateway to Grand Canyon & Wild West}: {Riding the Grand Canyon Railway}: {Grand Canyon South Rim Motorcoach Tour}: Hope this will be usefull to others that plan to visit this great hotel and ride the train and motorcoach. We did drive to the Grand Canyon after those two nights and stayed at Maswik Lodge for another two nights for being able to do some hiking and further exploring. Unforgettable time and highly recommended to do it this way; most economical and most relaxed! Thanks for...