I vaguely remember hearing that when we traveled in 1969 (the trip that led to my lifelong love of trains) though i didn’t notice it myself. I was in a single bedroom where you had to lift the foot end of the bunk (if it was down for sleeping) to get to the potty.
We’re on the last leg of our westbound jaunt, just over an hour to go. The train did indeed make up time and now we’re projected to hit Portland early.
We tipped the attendant 50 bucks - which he seemed to find quite generous. i assured him we’d printed it fresh this morning.
Got a good view of what I am pretty sure was Mt Hood from the left hand side of the car a, little while ago.
The coach cars were mostly empty when we went through them (to get to cafe or dining car. My husband said they were more populated early in the trip; I did not see them until some time in ND. The ones bound for Portland were newer looking with those leatherette seats, the ones bound for Seattle were the older blue fabric.
Downstairs roomettes won’t be next to the bathroom - the only room on that side of the car is the accessible bedroom. On the other side are 4 roomettes and the family bedroom, which we have. There is also a luggage rack on the ground level, useful for bulky stuff you don’t need immediate access to. That’s where we stashed my knee walker.
The stairs are a challenge. narrow, steep, two tight turns, and the steel handrail is almost frictionless.
When you pick meal slots, do not take the latest - they will be out of stuff. My salad with Brie wound up having no Brie (when it arrived at all - people at the next table arrived after us, and got their appetizers and entrees before us, and we had to remind the staff that our appetizers had not been brought) and my cheesecake was carrot cake; lunch’s grilled cheese was not available either though the burger was fine.
Good to know. I’ve been looking at their online menu and kind of mentally planning what I want to eat each day, hoping to try something different for each meal. I’d be kind of annoyed if they’re out of my selection and have to repeat a meal.
As discussed earlier, apparently we don’t get lunch on the last day of the Zephyr, at least according to the meals listed on Amtrak’s website. But I wonder if they also close the cafe car a certain time before arrival, to clean it or whatever. Would you happen to know that?
Can’t say what their formal policy may be, but I believe the cafe car is open pretty close to the end. Cleaning and restocking would be part of the turnaround process, and if there’s money to be made, why not?
On one Empire Builder trip we were stuck behind a disabled freight after leaving Milwaukee. The delays cascaded, and at one point we were over six hours behind schedule (and outside the window where Amtrak even theoretically had priority). We were scheduled into Seattle at 10:35 and arrived at 14:33.
Anyway, to make a short story long, a little before noon they opened the dining car free to all classes. The menu was somewhat limited since they were essentially serving leftovers (according to my log, I had steak & ale chowder), but it was a nice gesture.
Note that this was more than ten years ago, and I imagine they’re operating the dining and cafe cars much closer to the bone these days. Probably best to ask.
Yeah, about a dozen years ago I was on the EB where they had someone at the upstairs station in the lounge car as well as one downstairs. I have not seen the upstairs station staffed since then.
nd sometimes even stations: cf. Montreal Central (CN), and Montreal Windsor (CP).
I once looked at trains from Maine to DC and apparently there is still a station change required in Boston. Once when traveling from DC to Vermont, we had to make our way across town in NY from Penn to Grand Central, which was a hassle, but that was a short term thing (summer months) due to track work. On our return trip 3 days later we went through Penn Station for both trains.
More on logistics: You’ll definitely want to plan for one bag being unavailable - either check it, or put it on the rack in the car. The less you have in the roomette, the more comfortable you’ll be. Since you’ll be on the lower level, you’ll still have easy access to a bag on the luggage rack.
Showers on the train: don’t bother. You’re lurching from side to side the whole time, and may be standing in puddles of water the whole time depending on how much the train is leaning . I did take a very brief shower to rinse off critical parts but didn’t even consider washing my hair. The water pressure was barely acceptable, the temperature was lukewarm, and you have to push the button to reactivate the spray every 30 seconds or so. If you do want the option, I’d definitely recommend flip flops or crocs or sonething, both for traction and because, well, shared shower.
Thry do close the cafe car about an hour before arrival.
Where did you find that they don’t do lunch on the last day of the CZ?? given how late that tends to get, and the fact that it’s due in at 2 PM that sounds like a sure recipe for some very hangry passengers. i need to find out if the Capital Limited does dinner, too, or we will have to get something (time petmitting!!) in Chicago.
I was going by the meals Amtrak lists on their web page describing the route (click “dining” under where it says “features and amenities” to expand the section where it lists the meals): “Eastbound: Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast”. Since the last meal they list is breakfast, I’m taking that to mean they don’t serve lunch.
I rode Amtrak in May 1974 from the old Great Northern Depot in Minneapolis all the way to Springfield Massachusetts. It was jumble of older equipment in various states of repair, with mostly Great Northern and CB&Q out west transitioning to New York Central and Pennsylvania further east, finally ending up on a Boston & Maine Budd RDC in Massachusetts.
Today I got an email from Amtrak offering to let me “bid up” to better accommodations. The funny thing was that it included an offer to upgrade to a Roomette, even though I’m already in a Roomette. I assume they just send that email to everyone booked on the train, regardless of what class they’re in.
Yeah, I just clicked on the link and I was only offered the chance to bid for a full bedroom on the Zephyr. Although bidding for a bedroom with a private bathroom is tempting…
It’s also offering to let me bid for either a Roomette or a Bedroom on the Chicago-LaCrosse leg, but that’s probably not worth it on a relatively short leg entirely during the day.
We never got that bid email on our outbound trip, even though we were in a roomette for the first bit. Nor today’s trip on the coast starlight (we are currently in Santa Barbara).
Business class passengers were offered the chance to dine in the dining car, and they were seating groups together there as well (we opted to eat in our roomette). The grilled cheese sandwich is huge.
We got lucky - upper level, and on the left side of the train. Views have ranged from blah to stunning.
Bathrooms: there is one on the upper level, for 8 roomettes. 2 (or 3) on the lower level for 4 roomettes and a family bedroom. On the Empire Builder, the third was locked, for the sole use of the attendant; it is not locked on the Coast Starlight.
.The car we are on is the older design. The stairs have rails on both sides unlike the EB. The bathrooms are horrible - the older design that a hobbit would find cramped. it’s frankly impossible to do any real cleanup after use, Access to the TP is literally blocked by your leg. Turning around is a challenge. And they have the super-soaker faucets. The third bathroom is laid out slightly differently; I’ll try that next.
Tried, and found wanting. No more “legroom” than the others. If I knew who designed these atrocities, I would encourage everyone who has ridden Amtrak in the past 50 years to go to the designer’s house and poop on their kitchen chairs. More immediate solution: if the ones on the CZ are that bad, I’ll go to coach and use one there. Not to be too graphic, the necessary after-party activities took some planning, and I WILL be taking a shower tonight when we get to our hotel.
I did get a good look at the accessible bedroom. it’s similar in size to the family bedroom but because of the toilet and needing room for a wheelchair, the seating is not as nice - two facing seats, and the bunks are parallel to the train direction versus crossways. All in all, the family bedroom is nicer except for the toilet access.
Looks like we won’t be very late arriving in Emeryville, which is good and bad. Being 6+ hours late, i might have pushed for staying at the station after all! I did book us a room at a hotel not too much further than the one next door - still an obscene amount of money for literally 9 hours, but better than doing the homeless street person thing at the station.
Back in 1980, I got to ride in an older- design sleeping car, the Slumbercoach.
Those don’t seem to exist any more, certainly not on Amtrak.
Our roomette has been quite warm today. The climate system is doing nothing, we’ve been keeping the door closed for COVID reasons, and the sun has been shining in all afternoon. We finally broke down and opened the door.
Safely arrived in Emeryville. The station is surprisingly small, for something that originates a major train, but i guess not much else goes through there. We did get a hotel room a couple miles away; had to call a Lyft as there is no taxi stand.
Hotel is nice enough. Not thr Hyatt House that is so close: prices there were ridiculous for a 10 hour stay. The shower was looooovely, except for being terrifying: it was easily the slickest tub I have ever used. I was afraid to even turn around without holding onto tge grab bars - luckily we got an accessible room, so there were plenty of those.
After 12 hours in a roomette, we are really looking forward to the family bedroom.
I rode the Slumbercoach a number of times going to and from Montana in the late '60s and early '70s, and overall I would prefer it to a Superliner roomette for a single passenger (especially the upper units — the singles are staggered — because one wasn’t sleeping with one’s face next to the toilet). IIRC they were retired because the toilets emptied onto the tracks and there was no practical way to retrofit them.
Here’s a photo gallery on the off chance anyone’s interested. Since it’s a Northern Pacific car there’s a pretty good chance I rode in it at least once.
On the Zephyr right now. We left right on time though looking at today’s and yesterday’s arrivals in Chicago, both were 2+ hours late.
Tomorrow’s arrival is predicted to be early, which I’ll believe when i see it.
A couple in the closest roomette to us has been in a roomette for 3 legs of a trip now. They looked at our room and decided they were ruined for roomettes forever.
Yesterday’s arrival was 2:41 late into Chicago. Today’s is expected to be 2:31 late. Tomorrow’s is slated to be early but I don’t believe it. If trends continue, we will make our connection but won’t have time for Giordano’s.
Hmm. I bought a ticket for the Willis Tower Skydeck for 6:30 the day I arrive. If the train is that late I guess I’d still make it, but I’d pretty much have to just walk to the hotel, check in, drop my bags in my room, and then head to the Skydeck.
And I don’t know how strictly they enforce those entry windows for the Skydeck. Maybe if I’m late explained that it’s Amtrak’s fault they’ll understand and still let me in.
Wow, Amtrak must have gotten better. Years ago, when we took it from Chicago to Portland, we were told that we should plan on being a couple of hours late, and that five hours late was the average.
So we just got in this zen mode (easy to do on a train), and didn’t worry about time. We were scheduled to get in for an early breakfast, but instead we had a nice, late lunch when we arrived.
Our biggest issue will be that we have roughly a 4 hour layover before boarding our ongoing train.
Should be interesting to see if (and when) our checked bags make it to DC . We had separate tickets from LA to Emeryville, vs Emeryville to DC. Myv husband checked them all through to DC… so it wouldn’t surprise me if they went directly to chicago and got there a day early.
We were 90 minutes late getting into Reno. Part of that was going at a crawl up the Sierras - another passenger said they usually go 25 miles an hour on that stretch but we were only going 15. I gather that was partly because we were behind a freight train; there was also something about needing to meet up with the westbound train … which was 5+ hours late!! Supposedly we’ll make up some time on the way to Winnemucca - and we are moving at a good clip at the moment. but then Salt Lake City is predicted 2.5 hours late .
I asked our attendant about lunch the last day and he said there is food, but it’s something quick. Not sure what that means, except it’ll prevent some hangry passengers.
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