I have never taken the Auto Train because I've never had the need to; that said, I have done the New York to FL Amtrak, and return, dozens of times.
Leave your expectations at home, look out the window, and enjoy watching America go by. It's always interesting outside, some things are always the same (I've seen many of the same things out the window for 35+ years and it's nice to see in 2015 what you remember from 1979), but some things of course change. What's out the window? Whatever you choose to see. History, industry, farmland, city, country, archaeology, marine landscapes, urban decay, crack houses in Bridgeport or Baltimore, urban renewal (and other downright interesting shit), are all outside your Amtrak window. We enjoy it every time.
The food on the dining cars is excellent (which, Amtrak is experimenting with phasing out, of course). One of the best steak dinners I've ever had was on the Amtrak train to FL in 2014.
Coming home in 2014 we were 8 hours late out of FL due to various fusterclucks (train ahead of us hit a car, then there was a power failure and none of the gates at crossings worked....the conductor had to get out and flag every crossing manually). Everyone on the train was pissed except us. We watched a horrific thunderstorm from the comfort of the dining car (while enjoying steaks and drinks), and the 8 hour shift in schedule meant that we got to see parts of the rail line in daylight that normally we went through in the middle of the night.
One of the most interesting things we learned, is that the Amtrak right of way goes right through (or damned close to) the site of the Civil War's
Battle of Fredericksburg. We saw a memorial to it, right out the window. I tried to envision all those Civil War guys on the very same land that was right outside the train. Another cool thing was Ashland, VA. The Amtrak tracks go right up Main Street like trolley tracks. We had never seen that in daylight.
That's us, though, and we have always made lemonade out of lemons. Most of the others on the train were pissed because they were late. We got to see a Civil War battle site, from our seats. How can you beat THAT? (As an aside, an
awesome ride for Civil war stuff right out the window, is the Washington DC to Chicago Amtrak run on the former Baltimore and Ohio railroad.)
So, the trip's what you make of it. Whatever Amtrak F's up, we consider part of the adventure. It's always fun.
Disclaimer: we don't do ANYTHING anymore where it matters if we're late, so the train being late didn't phase us one way or another. It became part of the adventure. Look at it THAT way, and Amtrak won't disappoint!