Reviving this thread with an update:
Amtrak has just announced that four of their long-distance trains – California Zephyr, Empire Builder, Southwest Chief, and Lake Shore Limited – will finally be returning to seven-day-a-week service as of the week of May 23rd. The Crescent and City of New Orleans trains are staying at five-day-a-week service for now.
Interesting! Not soon enough to help the OP (and the cancellations didn’t affect us), but I’m sure a lot of people will be very happy.
Less than 2 weeks until our big trip begins, woohoo!
We’ve got an interesting new dilemma affecting the first part of our trip, the one on the Cardinal.
This, being an East Coast train, uses single-level Viewliner cars. Double-decker Superliner cars are used for stuff west of Chicago (and also the Auto Train, which begins south of DC). Those are equipped with a baggage rack on the ground level of the car, in case you have something that won’t fit into your roomette, but which needs to be handy(ish).
So… being as jaw-droppingly graceful as usual, I managed to step juuuuuust wrong on my foot a couple days ago… breaking a bone. Hurts like hell if I put any weight on the foot at all. Doc did not even suggest I stick with crutches: a boot or surgical shoe is fine, which makes logistics like bathing quite a bit easier.
BUT: going more than a few steps - like one might need to do when, well, travelling, is painful enough that I’ve ordered a knee walker. I rented a similar one the last time I broke a bone in that foot (the one right next to the one I broke the other day, interestingly).
So, I WANT that scooter to navigate around the train station and to/from the trains, but Amtrak is rather mum on the ability to store something like that once on the train. On the Superliners, it could go on that luggage rack. On the Viewliners, no such rack. While knee walkers aren’t as common as wheelchairs, I have to hope that Amtrak has some way of putting away a wheelchair for a sleeping-car passenger.
I called last night to find out about possibly upgrading to get a second roomette, to upgrade to a bedroom, or to see if the accessible bedroom was available. Too much money for the upgrades, and the accessible room was already booked.
On the other legs, we either have a family bedroom (has room for the scooter) or a Superliner roomette (has luggage rack).
At least this solves the dilemma of whether to risk the dining car, which is actually a disappointment. No way in hell, unless the foot is feeling a HELLA lot better in 10 days, would I want to attempt that narrow, steep staircase to get to the upper level and thus to the dining car. The transition between cars would be a bit “interesting”, as well, with all that lurching (of the cars, and me).
Attendants will fetch your meal for you. Don’t know if it’s still policy but last July/August they had to fetch meals for the sleeper passengers – there was no seating in the dining car.
Even on coach, where on Superliners people who can’t negotiate the stairs to the upper level are stashed downstairs, they will bring meals to you. Don’t know how things work on the Viewliners.
Yeah - I think we’ll take advantage of having the attendant bring meals. While my foot is not as painful as I’d feared, at this point, those stairs can be a bit daunting.
This has always been an option on sleeper cars. Last time we took the Auto Train, I considered doing so, as I was just getting over a bout of bronchitis and was concerned the coughing would be unpleasant for other diners. Luckily it settled down enough that I felt OK about going to the dining car after all.
Interesting about help while riding in coach. I’ve never needed that - my one long-distance trip in coach, I was perfectly able to get to the cafe car myself (and that was when they’d still seat steerage passengers in the dining car, as well).
Interesting about attendants bringing food to the cabins. We had a trip about 1995, with two adults and two small-ish children in the family cabin, traveling from Minnesota to Seattle. We had full dining options, but didn’t really think the small kids would like to eat at the dining car for the two breakfasts (they were fine with the other meals). I asked if we could bring food back to the cabin, and the attendant was AGHAST that we would even consider doing that (once we got to the dining car, they were fine with it).
That attendant was a jerk in other ways - we were the first cabin in the first car that he was going to service, so he wanted us to wake up at 6:00 AM so he could make up the room and get his day done sooner. It was our vacation, for heaven’s sake! He was hostile and snarly from start to finish of the trip; we tipped appropriately.
As I recall, the stairs are well railed on both sides, so that would be easier on you foot than trying to navigate the swaying aisle of the upper part of the car.
They are indeed well-railed. But they are steep and narrow, and especially with a cane and one foot in a boot (or at least a surgical shoe), won’t be especially easy. We’d have to go along the aisles to get to the dining car in any case, if we go there versus having the attendant bring our food.
At least on the first leg of our trip, the stairs will be a nonproblem since that’s on a Viewliner (single-decker). Of course, on the Viewliner, the food is nothing to write home about…
On the other longer legs, we’ll be in a family bedroom, which is on the lower level. Stairs would DEFINITELY be required there.
And have a 180-degree turn halfway up. That can be the tricky part.
We talked about tipping car attendants towards the beginning of the thread, but it will be the same attendant for the entire journey, correct?
In the dining car I assume one should tip the same amount as waitstaff in a restaurant.
Does anyone know if Amtrak provides shampoo in the sleeper cars? It’s not a big deal; I’ve got a stash of hotel shampoos from my last vacation, so I’ll probably just throw one of those in my bag. It’s just that I’m finding conflicting information on whether or not the provide it. Some sources say they do, others say they don’t – just towels and soap. I’m guessing they used to but no longer do, and the sources saying they do are out of date.
They used to provide a bag with a selection of toiletries, but the last couple of times I’ve traveled there was nothing. Seems to have gone the way of the wine tasting on the Empire Builder and the Coast Starlatelight Parlour Car.
Interesting. The last overnight trip we took was in 2018, and they provided toiletries (I still have the plastic pouch somewhere). Bummer if they no longer do so - but it’s not a big deal to pack our own stuff.
I had a scare last night: I did a search through my email, and saw one in early March, claiming that our reservation on the California Zephyr had been cancelled. This was a day or so after Wildabeest posted about his (her?) reservation being cancelled.
I checked the app and web page, and both showed that the reservation was still in good standing. I called Amtrak - and the agent said that they’d been notified about Sunday and Monday trains being cancelled (back in March), but nothing about Friday - and that we should be good to go. We basically decided that the email must have been sent in error.
The same thing happened to me, although I don’t think I mentioned it in this thread. A couple of days after I got the notification that the Sunday train was canceled and I changed my reservation to Saturday, I got an email saying that my train was canceled. I was worried that now the Saturday train was canceled, too. Just like you did, I checked the app and web page, and it still showed my reservation was in good standing. When I called Amtrak about it the agent told me there had been a mass communication that was mistakenly sent to everyone booked on the California Zephyr when it was only supposed to go to people traveling on the Sunday and Monday trains. I got the feeling she was getting a lot of calls about it. So you are correct that the email was sent in error.
And for the record my pronouns are he/him.
Good question about the attendant. I haven’t taken an overnight train other than the Auto Train since the mid 1980s, and that was just a single night also. I may ask the attendant on our first leg (22 hours) if that’s so for the second leg (46 hours); I’ll let you know what I find out.
As for tipping: recommendations from BC (Before Covid) suggested tipping on what the meal would have cost - but we can’t really tell what that would be any more, since I assume prices won’t be visible on the menu. And I’m not sure how to work that if we do get meals brought to us? Maybe just bump our daily tip to 20 or 40 bucks per day?
On another topic: We often log cash into Where’s George. We’re going to get a bunch of smallish bills for carrying-around money today or tomorrow, and log some of them here, but log more of them at various stops on the trip. We have a rubber stamp for the purpose, which should fit nicely into my backpack.
Good question about the attendant. I haven’t taken an overnight train other than the Auto Train since the mid 1980s, and that was just a single night also. I may ask the attendant on our first leg (22 hours) if that’s so for the second leg (46 hours); I’ll let you know what I find out.
As for tipping: recommendations from BC (Before Covid) suggested tipping on what the meal would have cost - but we can’t really tell what that would be any more, since I assume prices won’t be visible on the menu. And I’m not sure how to work that if we do get meals brought to us? Maybe just bump our daily tip to 20 or 40 bucks per day?
On another topic: We often log cash into Where’s George. We’re going to get a bunch of smallish bills for carrying-around money today or tomorrow, and log some of them here, but log more of them at various stops on the trip.
Day 2 of our trip here. The Cardinal, to Chicago, was half an hour late getting to our stop, and lost another half hour en route, so we got in an hour late. My brother met us for lunch - we went to Giordanos, and found that they have a personal sized pizza at lunch time. My husband and I shared one, and i kinda wish now that we’d each gotten one. They have those pretty much ready to serve, in limited varieties.
The roomette on the Cardinal was cramped, as expected, and the food was pretty grim. It was actually expected that people eat in their rooms. I ordered French toast for breakfast, which magically turned out to be an “omelet” but by the time i found that out, the attendant was long gone. The bathroom situation was bad as welk; we tended to just go 2 cars forward and use the one in coach
The Empire Builder left Chicago right in time. The family bedroom is sweeeeet - full width of the car. we can both sit and put our feet up, and there is room for our stuff.
I had rented a knee walker, which had to go in checked baggage for the first leg, due to lack of space. I regretted that on the trek from the train in Chicago. I did find it useful in boarding the westbound train, where there is a luggage rack to store it.
Hopefully the food will be better on this leg. The dining car is 6 cars ahead of us, so I think we’ll eat in our room.
I checked the arrival of the eastbound Zephyr, and it was an hour late.
I take it that means you got one of the old Viewliners, with the toilets in the Roomettes?
We did indeed. the whole thing was run down and rather dirty - the little trash bin in our roomette hadn’t even been emptied. You won’t have the toilet there on your trip, since you’ll be in a Superliner.
For a solo traveler, the toilet isn’t a bad thing - you can contemplate the scenery while you contemplate other things. Not comfy if you are plus sized, and the sink has two settings: "off’ snd “spray everything within 4 feet”. Amtrak in general seems to delight in spectacularly nonfunctional faucet designs.
Never had occasion to ride a Viewliner, but the Superliner II (pushbutton) faucets seemed to work relatively well. The lever-type faucets in Superliner I toilets remind me of an old television ad where a guy in an airplane toilet has a malfunctioning faucet spray all over the front of his khaki pants — just as the “Return to Cabin” light comes on.
yep - that’s the sort of faucet in the viewliner cars - and some of the superliner , though not all. I’ve seen both sorts on the Empire Builder. Whomever was responsible for choosing those is either a moron, or malicious.
Today: I did not sleep super well on the train, and woke up with a sore back - luckily that resolved as soon as I got up. We had a much better breakfast in the dining car, then immediately staked our seats in the sightseer car - good thing, as by now it it is almost full. We are sure to lose our spots at lunchtime unless i make my husband fetch carryout from the dining car!
The train is about 40 minutes late, leaving Minot . I suspect that will not improve.