oprah has her reservation line open thet do it different now, of course you have to register, then in search type show reservations, and it will show the dates you can try and get tickets, you can do both am and pm. my daughter and i went two years ago and had fun, we took the train, from mi to chicago, 48 dollars each way. just make sure your hotel is close, we wern't familiar with chicago. you can buy an all day pass for the bus too we did't know that either and also for what they call the blue train, just thought i'd mention it. we stayed two nights but depending on the train you can do it for one nite