Mobile's Mardi Gras: Riding Amtrak's Revived Route to the Original Celebration

The plastic baby in my King Cake watches over a breakfast of braided cinnamon and cream cheese. This glitter-dusted pastry is a Mardi Gras staple, but I’m not in New Orleans. I’m on Amtrak’s recently restored train to Mobile, Alabama, where the first U.S. Mardi Gras was celebrated in 1703.

Amtrak revived this Gulf Coast service in August 2025, reconnecting the cities for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. The train is modest—two coaches and a café car—but purpose-built for leisure. On a quiet January morning, I had space to watch the world slide by. The four-hour journey, double the driving time, is the point. We passed graveyards draped in purple and green, marshes threaded with waterways, and glimpses of the Gulf sparkling near Biloxi.

The café car bridges the cultures, stocking New Orleans’ Zapp’s chips alongside Mobile’s iconic MoonPies. By 9 a.m., a group of women was mixing prosecco and orange juice, embodying the route’s festive spirit.

Mobile’s Carnival feels woven into the city’s fabric. Beads from parades past hang year-round in the live oaks. The renovated Carnival Museum details the history, from 18th-century origins to the elaborate, jeweled costumes of today’s courts. The celebration is famously family-oriented, with parades on Dauphin Island tossing everything from stuffed animals to ramen noodles to the crowd.

Local bakeries like Pollman’s, open since 1918, sell thousands of King Cakes each season. As I left, sugar still on my fingers, the thought of a King Cake tasting tour next year was already forming. The train’s return has made reaching this older, quieter Mardi Gras not just possible, but a journey worth savoring.