# Empire Builder and Cascades Trip Report



## lyke99 (Jul 10, 2010)

After our wedding the week before on a chartered train in Spooner, Wisconsin, my bride and I were dropped off at the Winona, MN depot for our Amtrak Adventure/Honeymoon trip on Tuesday June 29.

The train pulled in on time and after the crew change and smoke break, the train pulled its Portland sleeper up to the platform for us. Our SCA Matt Norwood greeted us by name and showed us to our bedroom and gave us our dinner reservation card for 8:30. We received very attentive service from Matt for the duration of the trip. Since we'd eaten before the train arrived at 7:50pm, we went to the dining car to have dessert.

We had excellent service by the dining car crew, particularly from the LSA Ana and server Noelani. At Essex, MT a passenger was put off - he had decided to have a fit over the fact that he could not order a cheeseburger for dinner. Earlier the same passenger wanted to get off the train at Havre for a cigarette while we refueled at the service pad just east of the station. Seriously, buddy, they don't let you smoke at gas stations either.

On July 4 we rode the Cascades from Portland to Seattle. We happened to be assigned two of four facing seats in coach and not have anyone assigned to the other two. It would have been tight with two other people there and we will go business class if we ride that route in the future.

On July 7 we departed Seattle on the Empire Builder to head home. More excitement in western Montana - one of the dining car chefs had a heart attack. We were met by paramedics at Whitefish where he was taken off the train and we later learned he was in good condition, but was kept overnight at a hospital for observation and a stress test. The bartender from the upper level of the lounge helped in the kitchen the rest of the day. The LSA was again Ana from our westbound trip and we enjoyed our service from all servers, but especially Mario. We again had a good SCA named Grant who has only worked for Amtrak since January. He's on the extra board and said that from Seattle he has worked both the Empire Builder and the Coast Starlight, but most often works the Cascades.

Some impressions of the trip: We preferred the Superliner I sleeping car that had been through the "Empire" rebuild we had on our westbound trip over the Superliner II we had eastbound. The Superliner II car had a toilet system failure during our trip over Marias Pass, but after a re-set (maybe two) the system worked fine for the rest of the trip. All trains arrived on time. The on-board service was excellent overall and we are already looking into future trips.


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## JayPea (Jul 10, 2010)

Great report! The Empire Builder is the train I've traveled most frequently as Spokane is an hour away from where I live. I'm glad you had such great service. So many times people will have a bad experience on Amtrak (it does happen) and all that's remembered are those experiences and not the good ones, and that gives people a jaded opinion of Amtrak. What a place to be booted off---Essex, MT! One of the more isolated stops on the EB. The Wishram stop on the Portland leg of the EB is about as isolated; I wouldn't want to be put off there, either. I've ridden the Cascades a few times and always gone business class. It is much roomier.

Glad you enjoyed it to the point you're planning more trips! Two more Amtrak fans!!!!


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## OlympianHiawatha (Jul 10, 2010)

I have ridden with Matt Norwood several times on the _*Texas Eagle*_, once as the Dining Car LSA and a few other times as the Lounge LSA. He has always been very professional and courteous to the pax, a trait that almost always make for a more pleasant ride.


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## lyke99 (Jul 11, 2010)

OlympianHiawatha said:


> I have ridden with Matt Norwood several times on the _*Texas Eagle*_, once as the Dining Car LSA and a few other times as the Lounge LSA. He has always been very professional and courteous to the pax, a trait that almost always make for a more pleasant ride.


I'll be contacting Amtrak to praise Matt and some of the other great employees we encountered - they should hear about the good stuff happening out on the road. I'll also be contacting my members of Congress to let them know Amtrak needs steady sources of both operating and capital funding. That Superliner II we rode needed a refresh and Amtrak just needs more cars period.


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## Guest (Jul 11, 2010)

WOW! A wedding on a chartered train!  Glad ya'll enjoyed the trip/honeymoon and didnt try to go coach! :lol: I totally agree about the Superliner II vs. the Is that have been rehabbed, all we get down our way is the tired/unserviced ready for Beech Grove dogs!


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## D T Nelson (Jul 13, 2010)

JayPea said:


> What a place to be booted off---Essex, MT! One of the more isolated stops on the EB.


On my last trip on the Empire Builder, a coach passenger was handed over to the police during the stop in Winona, Minnesota. As my sleeping car attendant Dennis and I watched this from up the platform, we discussed the putting-off of passengers. He said that the conductors especially liked to put off unruly passengers in Browning, Montana, because Browning is on the Blackfeet Reservation, and the tribal cops are not so delicate as regular cops, especially when the prisoner is not from the reservation demographic (if you get my drift).


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## lthanlon (Jul 13, 2010)

When I rode the Empire Builder westbound last year, we also had a passenger misadventure. The train only stopped for maybe 10 minutes in Havre, MT, but spent almost an hour in Shelby. I never got the full story, but apparently a coach passenger had been drinking liquor straight from a bottle at his seat and caused a disturbance. One passenger told me the guy had a bottle of a "pink liquid," whatever that meant. Police (or sheriff's deputies, I don't recall which) arrested the guy. Much to the disappointment of several passengers with camcorders, the incident was not like what you see on "Cops."


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## lyke99 (Jul 14, 2010)

Guest said:


> WOW! A wedding on a chartered train!  Glad ya'll enjoyed the trip/honeymoon and didnt try to go coach! :lol: I totally agree about the Superliner II vs. the Is that have been rehabbed, all we get down our way is the tired/unserviced ready for Beech Grove dogs!


The Wedding Charter was great - F7 for power, chapel car, dining car, and ex-L&N tavern-lounge 3003. Fun experience for us and our four dozen guests. As for the possibility of going coach, we've decided we're too old for that on overnight journeys.


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## Ryan (Jul 14, 2010)

That sounds like a great trip - my bride and I took a much longer Amtrak honeymoon in April/May, and we're already planning our next trip.

This reminds me, I finally finished out the pictures from the trip over the weekend, I need to come back here and fill in the narrative.


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