The Great Ballpark Tour - thoughts on Megabus

Add comment July 6th, 2008

Greetings from back home on my couch.

Sorry for the couple-day delay, but we pretty much collapsed after returning Friday and just woke back up. A good sign for a vacation, no?

Coming back from Cincy Friday, we took Megabus to Chicago for only $25 apiece. Megabus is a relatively new intercity bus service that advertizes fares as low as $1 between many cities around the country. Haven’t really advertized their business model, so not sure how they survive in high fuel price eras … I guess by packing buses with various levels of fares.

Our bus left Cincy something like 30 minutes late, and reached Chicago at around 30 minutes late. I’m told from online reports that  that we were pretty lucky to be so close to schedule. The trip included a stop in Indy and then a lunch stop at a Popeye’s in Whitesville, Indiana (I am not making the name up).

Megabus is a “no frills” bus line, but I’m not sure what frills regular bus service includes. This one had comfortable seats (the same kind on our own Van Galder Bus Company) and a movie (”Gladiator” … the quintessential Fourth of July movie!). About the only signs of “no frills” were that we had to wait outside in downtown Cincy (huddled under awnings to avoid the rain - I swear, that front followed us the whole trip!) and the fact that we had to load our own luggage into the bottom of the bus. Someone vocally complained about that but, for such cheap prices, whaddya expect?

Overall I would say Megabus is a good option if you get a great price and are going a reasonable distance. I’d look at Amtrak first - especially on its better routes like to Detroit and Milwaukee - but will keep this in mind when going to Indy and Cincy.

Tomorrow, when I get back to work, I’ll give you a rundown on the stadiums (stadia?) and maybe a rundown on general experiences. Sorry I never got to talk more about our time in the capital, maybe I’ll save that for another time.

Thanks for reading.