I've been trying to figure out how to do a report for a coast-to-coast sleeper trip that was pretty much a disaster.
First, I want to say that all of our attendants were great: Roman, David, D'Marco & Luis were all helpful and provided a good-deal of above-and-beyond. I would be happy to see any of them on a future trip.
Our ticket was for California to DC by way of the Zephyr and the Cardinal and a return Capitol Limited to SW Chief to Coast Starlight.
Lesson #1 - Same day connection concerns especially after 2-day western trains are real.
I bought the ticket in February in the wake of our first LD trip - a Crescent-CapLimited-Zephyr that came off without a hitch. Quickly after purchasing this ticket, I knew the same day Zephyr to Cardinal was . . . ambitious (shall we say). But I tracked the Zephyr for a while . . . it seemed to make the Cardinal about two-thirds of the time, so I remained hopeful and figured maybe we'd be bumped to the CapLimited the same day or, at worst, the next. I also purchased same day westward connections -- the Cap Limited I never saw miss its connection to the Chief, and the SW Chief was amazing this spring almost always making a 110-minute window to connect. Then in June it went to only achieving about 50/50.
We staged in Davis the evening before . . . figured we'd avoid the early bustle and the Oakland/Emeryville traffic. And walking a few blocks across a college town during summer to get the train sounded like a much less frenzied way to start. We rode a Capitol Corridor to Davis the afternoon before our trip, got some dinner, walked about as the heat abated somewhat and mostly enjoyed the hotel air-conditioning. Overall, I like this plan for launching on the Zephyr, but I will say, hotel costs in Davis this time were significantly up from previous stays there as recently as last fall. I might rethink for future Zephyr launches.
My child and I were in roomettes eastward, and then my spouse would join us in a family bedroom for the westward trip. We were the only sleepers to board in Davis, "you sleepers? What's your name? Hop on board." They knew who they were looking for. Amid the gathering of child and bags, I thought I saw - and I quickly confirmed - no observation car in the consist.
Our train moved east in a "cool pocket" of 95 degree highs that followed a stretch of many days above 100 throughout the west. Still our roomette stayed a little warm. None of our other rooms on the trip had any issue keeping cool, so it must have just been this car. And it wasn't uncomfortable, just always a little warm. I attributed it to the outside temps until I sat in other cars traveling through similar weather on the trip.
The dining service was just off for us. Maybe we missed lunch reservations by getting on late, and they didn't expect us, but we sat for a long time at lunch before our order was taken (more than 20 minutes, probably closer to 30). And then at dinner the same, though we had a reservation. It was a full car for dinner, so there was a lot going on. And we were seated among the last at our time, so it wasn't really surprising that all others got served first. But when deserts came out, and we had not ordered, I asked for at least a drink for my child, "oh, you haven't ordered yet?" It was 40 minutes between seating and ordering. By day 2, with my child feeling a little queasy by lunch, we took the rest of our meals in the room.
The train arrived in Elko early, and it was announced that we would sit for an hour to let a freight move through . . . still getting through that pass east of Elko under an hour late sounded good. We went to bed. We woke up with the early daylight the next morning, 40 miles east of Elko, now 8 hours behind schedule. A freight had become incapacitated, their crew had timed out and a new crew had to get there. Then our crew had timed out.
We got to see Utah in daylight and arrived at the painted Utah-Colorado stateline marker along the Colorado River at close to nightfall, like one does heading west. To bed around Glenwood Springs and awake in Western Nebraska.
By day 3, my child was struggling . . . was it the warm car, the more rapid ascent on the eastbound train, the uncertainty of the blown schedule? It was hard to know, but all I could do was comfort and keep hydrating as best we could. Plainly we would be staying in Chicago, and my biggest concern was getting her to the hotel and settled in the middle of the night with her already not feeling well.
Rebook information appeared in my app somewhere around Holdrege -- we'd be in Chicago for 22 hours, then a Lake Shore Limited in an Accessible Bedroom to NYC and NE Regional business class down to DC after midnight on the 23rd. My daughter was very excited to get to see NYC - a first for her.
We arrived in Chicago at a quarter to midnight. We gathered in a large seating area immediately inside the Station from the tracks. There were about 50 people with through tickets and they read us all off, handing us our rebooking, our hotel information and food vouchers usable in the next 36 hours (I think they totaled $80). Of course, as this time dragged on, my daughter need a restroom . . . "there's no family rest room in this area. We're the only one's here, so just take her to the restrooms right here." Well, I wasn't going to send her into a public restroom in Chicago by herself, so I took her in. A Chicagoan who had not bathed in weeks was at a sink (we were not the only ones there, apparently), no paper seat covers and no locks on the stalls. Really not an okay situation to send us into. But it had to be done. There may need to be a better plan for this.
The 50 of us were loaded onto a bus going to the Swissotel (the driver: "Amtrak must really be sorry that you've missed your connections"). Ten-fifteen minutes to the hotel, and then we lined up to get room keys. We were in bed at around 1am. Mostly I just wanted to rest up for the next two full days we now knew we still had before us.
The bus was back at our hotel at 10:45. We rode back to the station and spent some vouchers on a breakfast. On our previous trip I'd managed to avoid parking my child in front of a television during our 6-hour layover. This time we unashamedly spent the afternoon with the Disney Channel in the kids area. I discovered and recommend Bluey whole-heartedly.
The Lake Shore went smoothly. I had my daughter in pajamas and in bed before they checked us in. We slept almost into Buffalo and enjoyed our ride down the Hudson Valley.
We had 90 minutes between trains and received as much benefit of the Moynihan Hall Lounge as was possible (wow). The food spread was amazing and the service was superlative.
We loaded up on the NE Regional, and just after midnight (our 6th day in transit), we stepped off in New Carrolton for an easier pick up. Given how I felt on this last day, I took a COVID test immediately. I got my first positive of the pandemic. My daughter got one the next morning.
Lesson #2: It still may be prudent to mask.
Of course you can never know, but I think about older rider across from us on the Capitol Corridor train. She was masked, and, I thought, just being cautious. We sat across a table facing her, and she often unmasked to sip her drink -- then an hour into the trip let out a notable cough. And there was the first night on the Zephyr when we'd sat talking for 40 minutes before our order was taken. Our table mate across from me had just come from a 3-day mass event in San Francisco, and just happened to bring up one of the leading anti-science media personalities who thinks he has better a treatment for COVID than the field of medicine does.
All unknowable. But we could have been more cautious.
We'd planned for 11 days in DC/MD. We'd spend our 9 remaining days with one or both of us under protocols. My daughter and I did manage to get negative tests before our return. But my spouse would not be able to join us for the westward trip.
First, I want to say that all of our attendants were great: Roman, David, D'Marco & Luis were all helpful and provided a good-deal of above-and-beyond. I would be happy to see any of them on a future trip.
Our ticket was for California to DC by way of the Zephyr and the Cardinal and a return Capitol Limited to SW Chief to Coast Starlight.
Lesson #1 - Same day connection concerns especially after 2-day western trains are real.
I bought the ticket in February in the wake of our first LD trip - a Crescent-CapLimited-Zephyr that came off without a hitch. Quickly after purchasing this ticket, I knew the same day Zephyr to Cardinal was . . . ambitious (shall we say). But I tracked the Zephyr for a while . . . it seemed to make the Cardinal about two-thirds of the time, so I remained hopeful and figured maybe we'd be bumped to the CapLimited the same day or, at worst, the next. I also purchased same day westward connections -- the Cap Limited I never saw miss its connection to the Chief, and the SW Chief was amazing this spring almost always making a 110-minute window to connect. Then in June it went to only achieving about 50/50.
We staged in Davis the evening before . . . figured we'd avoid the early bustle and the Oakland/Emeryville traffic. And walking a few blocks across a college town during summer to get the train sounded like a much less frenzied way to start. We rode a Capitol Corridor to Davis the afternoon before our trip, got some dinner, walked about as the heat abated somewhat and mostly enjoyed the hotel air-conditioning. Overall, I like this plan for launching on the Zephyr, but I will say, hotel costs in Davis this time were significantly up from previous stays there as recently as last fall. I might rethink for future Zephyr launches.
My child and I were in roomettes eastward, and then my spouse would join us in a family bedroom for the westward trip. We were the only sleepers to board in Davis, "you sleepers? What's your name? Hop on board." They knew who they were looking for. Amid the gathering of child and bags, I thought I saw - and I quickly confirmed - no observation car in the consist.
Our train moved east in a "cool pocket" of 95 degree highs that followed a stretch of many days above 100 throughout the west. Still our roomette stayed a little warm. None of our other rooms on the trip had any issue keeping cool, so it must have just been this car. And it wasn't uncomfortable, just always a little warm. I attributed it to the outside temps until I sat in other cars traveling through similar weather on the trip.
The dining service was just off for us. Maybe we missed lunch reservations by getting on late, and they didn't expect us, but we sat for a long time at lunch before our order was taken (more than 20 minutes, probably closer to 30). And then at dinner the same, though we had a reservation. It was a full car for dinner, so there was a lot going on. And we were seated among the last at our time, so it wasn't really surprising that all others got served first. But when deserts came out, and we had not ordered, I asked for at least a drink for my child, "oh, you haven't ordered yet?" It was 40 minutes between seating and ordering. By day 2, with my child feeling a little queasy by lunch, we took the rest of our meals in the room.
The train arrived in Elko early, and it was announced that we would sit for an hour to let a freight move through . . . still getting through that pass east of Elko under an hour late sounded good. We went to bed. We woke up with the early daylight the next morning, 40 miles east of Elko, now 8 hours behind schedule. A freight had become incapacitated, their crew had timed out and a new crew had to get there. Then our crew had timed out.
We got to see Utah in daylight and arrived at the painted Utah-Colorado stateline marker along the Colorado River at close to nightfall, like one does heading west. To bed around Glenwood Springs and awake in Western Nebraska.
By day 3, my child was struggling . . . was it the warm car, the more rapid ascent on the eastbound train, the uncertainty of the blown schedule? It was hard to know, but all I could do was comfort and keep hydrating as best we could. Plainly we would be staying in Chicago, and my biggest concern was getting her to the hotel and settled in the middle of the night with her already not feeling well.
Rebook information appeared in my app somewhere around Holdrege -- we'd be in Chicago for 22 hours, then a Lake Shore Limited in an Accessible Bedroom to NYC and NE Regional business class down to DC after midnight on the 23rd. My daughter was very excited to get to see NYC - a first for her.
We arrived in Chicago at a quarter to midnight. We gathered in a large seating area immediately inside the Station from the tracks. There were about 50 people with through tickets and they read us all off, handing us our rebooking, our hotel information and food vouchers usable in the next 36 hours (I think they totaled $80). Of course, as this time dragged on, my daughter need a restroom . . . "there's no family rest room in this area. We're the only one's here, so just take her to the restrooms right here." Well, I wasn't going to send her into a public restroom in Chicago by herself, so I took her in. A Chicagoan who had not bathed in weeks was at a sink (we were not the only ones there, apparently), no paper seat covers and no locks on the stalls. Really not an okay situation to send us into. But it had to be done. There may need to be a better plan for this.
The 50 of us were loaded onto a bus going to the Swissotel (the driver: "Amtrak must really be sorry that you've missed your connections"). Ten-fifteen minutes to the hotel, and then we lined up to get room keys. We were in bed at around 1am. Mostly I just wanted to rest up for the next two full days we now knew we still had before us.
The bus was back at our hotel at 10:45. We rode back to the station and spent some vouchers on a breakfast. On our previous trip I'd managed to avoid parking my child in front of a television during our 6-hour layover. This time we unashamedly spent the afternoon with the Disney Channel in the kids area. I discovered and recommend Bluey whole-heartedly.
The Lake Shore went smoothly. I had my daughter in pajamas and in bed before they checked us in. We slept almost into Buffalo and enjoyed our ride down the Hudson Valley.
We had 90 minutes between trains and received as much benefit of the Moynihan Hall Lounge as was possible (wow). The food spread was amazing and the service was superlative.
We loaded up on the NE Regional, and just after midnight (our 6th day in transit), we stepped off in New Carrolton for an easier pick up. Given how I felt on this last day, I took a COVID test immediately. I got my first positive of the pandemic. My daughter got one the next morning.
Lesson #2: It still may be prudent to mask.
Of course you can never know, but I think about older rider across from us on the Capitol Corridor train. She was masked, and, I thought, just being cautious. We sat across a table facing her, and she often unmasked to sip her drink -- then an hour into the trip let out a notable cough. And there was the first night on the Zephyr when we'd sat talking for 40 minutes before our order was taken. Our table mate across from me had just come from a 3-day mass event in San Francisco, and just happened to bring up one of the leading anti-science media personalities who thinks he has better a treatment for COVID than the field of medicine does.
All unknowable. But we could have been more cautious.
We'd planned for 11 days in DC/MD. We'd spend our 9 remaining days with one or both of us under protocols. My daughter and I did manage to get negative tests before our return. But my spouse would not be able to join us for the westward trip.
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