So I took my first Megabus trip. It was definitely an interesting experience but one I would gladly do again. In fact I already have a trip planned out in my head that will take advantage of the Megabus for the near future.
As I said the trip was an interesting one. I wasn’t expecting for such a plainly marked stop by the convention center. I showed up early since I knew that the Convention Center was having an NRA convention that was tying up traffic left and right throughout the city. I actually found the stop itself rather European. It was something that if you knew to go there, it’s great. If you didn’t know about it, you didn’t. It’s kind of a weird thing to describe. But I actually felt safe and it didn’t seem sketchy at all.
Now my wait for the bus turned out to much longer than I anticipated and I saw the irony of my surroundings. As I said there was an NRA Convention that was occurring in the same area. I was also being picketed by the Judgment Day is May 21 People. Add in the people in the bus stop line (mainly upper middle class by dress and college students). It was quite a group of people.
The timing to the bus wasn’t very good. It ran about an hour and half late. There was some sort of problem with the driver and we had to get a new one. That part was crazy since the three Megabus guys kept saying the bus will be here in 10/15 minutes and it wasn’t coming. But they didn’t seem to know much more then us. I will have to say the moment the bus arrived, we boarded the bus and quickly got on our way.
I loved the fact that the bus had some WI-Fi access. It was great since for part of the Lightening v. Capitals game, I could get ESPN gamecast to follow the game. But midway through the state and about midway through the second period, the bus lost the WI-FI connection. So that was a bummer especially given the events that were happening in the world that day (Osama Bin Laden being killed- thankfully my good friend gave me a text and kept me up to speed about the Osama news and the game).
I was so glad that the bus stopped mid-turnpike and we could get off for a bit. I hate to say it, but that little stop was the only food I ate all day (and it was late in the evening by that point). So it was a relief to know that we could just get off the stop for a little bit and grab a bite to eat. Now I actually didn’t really eat after stopping at the pit stop but at least I had the food in my lap so I could if I got motivated to do so.
Megabus also has two things that really go for it. First it has nearly direct routes. I had two stops between Pittsburgh and Philly. That includes that pit stop. It moved so fast through the stops and everything. Plus the bus stops are in good sections of town. I am comfortable being by the Pittsburgh Convention Center and Philly’s 30th Sttreet Station. Two, the seats are comfortable. I had some leg room and I could get comfy even with seating next to someone. I didn’t have same level of comfort using the Greyhound a little over a day later.
While adhering to the schedule was bad and I would have liked to use the WI-FI the entire bus ride, I really liked using Megabus. I plan to use it soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment