A travelling group of my friend, me and five kids, ages 9, 12, 12, 15 and 15 waited in line at the Toronto Coach Terminal for the 9pm Mega Bus to Washington DC. The weather was hot, hot, hot.
When the bus arrived, a few minutes late, we realized it was the single level version which was perfectly fine with me.
We showed our confirmation number to the bus driver, confirmed that we carried passports and settled into our seats.
The two men sitting across the aisle from me said that they purchased their return tickets for $4.00 each. They suggested that I join the Mega Bus electronic mailing list to receive notice of special sales. Despite paying ten times more, ($40.00 return per person), I still considered this an amazing deal.
The bus was very similar to many of the Greyhound buses I’d been on except that there were electrical outlets between every seat and no pockets to place magazines/books etc in front of me. The seats were of average size which worked for us but would be a bit of a challenge for above-average sized people.
Since it was an overnight trip, we didn’t have the option of turning on our reading lights.
Mega Bus advertises (but does not guarantee) WIFI on all their busses. It didn’t work on this one.
People clapped when the air conditioning came on full force. It felt good but was rather chilly for sleeping…but sleep we did. Despite the heat-wave outside, I’m glad we’d brought jackets.
The bus stopped at the Canada/US border. Bleary eyed, we filed out and collected our luggage, which went through the xray machines. We then had a brief questioning with the guard, took back our luggage, placed it in the storage under the bus and reboarded. It took an hour for all the passengers to get through homelands security…the guards were friendly and professional.
I noticed that we had a few stops for breaks and for pick-ups and drop-offs in a few cities along the way, but I always quickly returned to sleep.
About twelve hours later, I woke up as we entered Washington DC. The bus dropped us off in a large parking lot not far from Union Metro Station.
The Mega Bus ride to Washington, DC was not bad as far as over-night bus trips go. Surprisingly, all of us, including the kids, slept well.
I consider Mega Bus excellent value. At prices like this, I plan to make many for trips with this bus line.
Kimberly,
I am so thrilled to find this posting. I have been hunting for an account by someone who took the DC-Toronto route and yours is the first I've found. I bought a round trip ticket for September to attend the Toronto film festival. Plane fares have sky-rocketed and I'm already paying too much for movie tickets and a place to stay for the entire fest. Even though I didn't get the true bargain Megabus fare, my ticket is just $78. I am so happy to read how it worked out for you and your family. I figure overnight it will not be a problem. So you didn't even have to change buses?