# First Timer-Cresent-SC to NY report



## CityLove (Jul 5, 2010)

Hey guys,

Recently got back from out first train trip and wanted to post a trip report for all of the people that helped answer my questions leading up to the booking and trip, as well as for those that are considering an Amtrak trip. I gained a lot of valuable information from this board and wanted to, in some small way, contribute, in an effort to help anyone else that may glean a bit of info from my experience.

My daugher and I took the Cresent from Greenville, SC to New York. I will try to tell the good, the bad and the ugly as best as I can, but I will say up front that it was an experience like none other, and even with the "bad and ugly" mixed in, there was enough good to make me feel that someday we will take another train trip.

I guess the best place to start is at the Greenville station. Ugggg.....probably not the best way to make a first impression on a new customer, but it is what it is I guess. The train was scheduled to leave around 11:00ish (pm) that night. My husband drove us to the station. He had already warned me that it was not in the best part of town, but I figured if he would just drive us and help us get inside with our luggage, he could leave since he had to work the next day. Well...upon arrival, we were told by the very nice man at the window of this teeny, tiny station...would more acurately be called a stationette...that the train was running an hour or so behind schedule. My daughter and I were so excited to be returning to "our city" (New York) that there was really nothing that could happen that would be bad enough to dampen our mood. Anyway, this poor guys was the only one working, which meant he had to check everyone in, answer questions, get boxes for these 2 people that had riden their bicycles to the station and wanted to carry them on board, check luggage, load luggage, and then drive it down to the train once it finally got there. Considering all the had he had to do, and the attitude of some of the people he was having to assist, I'd say he was a great example of what an Amtrak employee can and should be. He maintained a smile and kind word the entire time. His professionalism more than made up for the less that adequate station.

Anyway, the combination of the fact that the train was running late, along with a few "sketchy" people that were in the waiting area, my poor husband decided there was no way he was leaving us until he had personally deposited us safely on the train. I kept telling him we would be fine and that he needed to go home and get to sleep since he had to be up early for work the next morning, but he refused to leave. This is not to say that everyone there was scary looking. There were mostly average looking people around waiting for the train. But there was a small element of passengers that left a lot to be desired. One lady, after finding out that the train was going to be delayed, ask my husband if he would drive her to get some food (something about being sick and having no transportation). WHAT???? Being the incredibly kind hearted individual he is, one who would give a stranger the shirt off his back, he looked around, stunned at the request and unsure what to say. I quickly spoke up and told her no. He later thanked me, as he had been really put on the spot. We had seen her eating snacks earlier, so I still don't know what her deal was.

So, as the tiny station filled to the point of overflow, with latecomers waiting on the sidewalk (thank goodness it wasn't raining), we waited. Our family ended up going back and sitting in the car (we had already checked our luggage). We stayed until we heard the train coming and then walked over to the sidewalk, awaiting boarding instructions. As the train pulled in, the guy that had checked us in drove by with a cart full of luggage and told us to walk to the right "way down there, until you get to that bench." We couldn't even see a bench. We noticed that one woman (alone) was about 50 feet ahead of us walking towards this yet unseen bench, while everyone else stood waiting on the sidewalk. We later learned that they were all riding coach. As my daugher, husband and I walked through the darkness to the bench, we noticed the lady in front of us had stopped and was looking back at us. When we finally caught up to her, she told us she was so glad to see someone else walking that way, as it was kind of scary walking alone in the dark like that. Finally, we made it to "the bench" and eventually a guy in a uniform stepped off, aske if we were in sleepers, looked at our tickets and told us to get on. We kissed my husband goodbye and I told him to hurry up and go get back in the car and leave, but he insisted on standing outside the train and waving at us (luckily we were on the same side of the train so he could see us through the window). I called him a few minutes later after we pulled out just to make sure he had made it back to the car without getting mugged. I still can't believe they don't have a security guard or policeman working there.

Anyway, the attendant pointed us and the other lady to our roomettes, which happened to be side by side. The beds were already turned down, but being the big goofballs we are, my daugher and I had to explore everything and of course we both had to "go potty." We were in fits of laughter, I have no doubt we woke the entire car up! I don't know why we found everything, including peeing in such close quarters, so halarious, but it was. While I had been warned (by members of this forum) that the roomette was just big enough to turn around it, I had packed flip flops "to wear around the room, like in a hotel room" and my daugher found this incredibly funny since we were bumping our knees on the bed just to use the tolit. hehehe We joked about this the entire time, everytime I'd move she'd ask if I was wearing my flip flops...ummm, I guess you had to be there! I have to admit, upon reflection, this was a great time, filled with laughter that I will cherish forever. Something that would not have happened on a more serious, tension filled, airplane trip like we would normally take.

Finally, after our delirium subsided somewhat, she climbed up in the top bunk and I settled into the bottom one and we declared that we would try to get some sleep. She ended up reading and I played around on my ipad. I was happy to see that for the most part, I had 3G service except for the more rural areas of the trip. I don't think either of us slept much. Before we knew it, it was breakfast time, and we were ready to get up and move, not to mention to eat. We made our way to the dining car and found every seat taken. We stood there like two goobers for a few minutes until one of the ladies noticed us and seated us with an older gentleman whom was dining alone. While this shocked my teenaged daughter, I wasn't surprised, given the info I had gotten from this forum. While he was a bit eccentric, he was pleasant enough and I think he just needed someone to talk with. He was finished with his meal, but he ended up sitting with us until we finished ours. His wife had died a year or so earlier and he told us about the trips they used to take together. He was on his way to Washington to see his son and grandchildren. While my daughter later told me she was uncomfortable sitting with a stranger (aren't all kids taught not to talk to strangers????) I told her how much I enjoyed it and that maybe God had put us there for him to have someone to chat with, as he seemed kind of lonely. I think when she looked at it from this perspective, she felt ok about it. I told her she is old enough now to know that not all strangers are bad and that if you don't talk to some of them sometimes, you miss a gift, and that was what this gentleman was to us, a gift. It was really great, and going down the rail, watching our beautiful country slip past, well, I just felt so proud, so American, so good to be alive. Something I never would have had on an airplane. It was nice. Corny, I know, but nice still the same.

After bidding our new friend farewell, we returned to our room where my daughter promptly crawled back up into her bunk and went back to sleep. I tried to read, but I found that I could not take my eyes off the scenery. It amazed me that time passed so quickly as I stared out that window. Our car attendant came by to make the beds up, but since my daughter was still sleeping, I told him to just wait awhile. Little did I know that it was pretty much then or almost never. I ask him if he could make up the bottom part so that I could sit up and be comfortable, but he said the mattress (I think) had to go back on top, so he couldn't make the bottom up until he could do the top, so I was kinda stuck, but I wanted my daugher to sleep so that she wouldn't be dragging around once we got to New York. Of course had I known that it would be about an hour outside of NY before he made our room up, I would have made her get up then. I stayed on the bed, then woke her up and she crawled down and we sat crossed-legged looking at each other waiting on him until finally it was lunch time. I informed him that we would be going to lunch and ask him if he could make our room up while we were gone. We were gone at least an hour and when we came back, our room was just as we had left it. I ask him again if he could make it up and he said he would in a little while. He told us we could sit in the roomette across the hall from ours until he got around to it. This would have been fine, but all of our stuff was in the other room, packed in the bin at the top of the roomette, including our change of clothes and shoes. We had planned to clean up and put on fresh clothes before arriving in NYC. However, by the time he finally did our room, we were wiped out (I think the lack of sleep was finally catching up with us) and about an hour outside of NYC and we didn't want to miss anthing out the window as we approached the city.

When we got closer to the city, the attendant told us we could move our carry on bags towards the door, but we weren't sure we wanted to just take our stuff up there and leave it unattended so we just kept it with us. We finally pulled into Penn and were waiting for an announcement or something to signal that we could exit the train. After a minute or two, we realized we were hearing no talking or movement and we ran to the other windown and looked out and saw that everyone, including the attendant was off the train. We had to quickly grab all of our stuff and fly down the hallway and make our way to the door with no assistance. Thank goodness we looked out! It's funny now, and we keep laughing about it, but at the time, I about had a heart attack.

I noticed there are a lot of posts about tips, and so before I go on, let me say for the record that I had given our guy a $20 tip. Whatever.

So we practically run down the platform, to the escalator, thinking, well, thinking whatever scared women alone on a train platform think...we get to the top and look around until we find where we are to pick up our checked luggage. We had to wait for about 30 min. before they opened the doors for us to get our bags. Everyone in the line was gripping about it, but we were just glad to be standing there with other people. LOL

About the roomette for any newbie who may be considering it: it is really, really tiny. No matter how tiny you imagine it to be, it will be smaller than what you have in your mind! However, if you are traveling with someone you are very close to, it will provide for some great time together to laugh, talk and bond. I especially reccommend it to parents who want to have some quality time with their child, one on one. If nothing else, that was the best part of the train experience for me. I can think of no other time that my 17 year old daugher and I would have spent 15 consecutive hours of uninterrupted time just being together. It was great.

Anyway, we finally got our luggage and struggled around Penn until I spotted a red cap and yelled for his assistance. There really didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason, just mass chaos and lots of noise. But the guy came right over to us, loaded up all our junk onto his cart and hauled us and it out to the taxi que. It was great. I tipped him $10, we got in a cab and in about 12 minutes we were at our hotel (we were staying in midtown, about 7 or 8 blocks from Penn). It was great, much better than arriving at LaGuardia as we normally doing, and paying for a private car service to drive us into the city. Very nice.

Return trip: I posted on here as a guest the night before we were to leave for our trip back to SC. The post is entitled "Quick Penn Station Help" because I couldn't remember my password for the forum. Anyway, you can read the post, but basically we didn't know where to tell the cabbie to let us out at Penn. We were also concerned about going through a strict security check that we didn't have to deal with in Greenville because while we were waiting in line to get our luggage, we noticed that a table had been set up and everyone boarding the outbound trains was having to pass through it. This was one of the other things we liked about train travel, when we boarded in G'ville, nobody dug through our carry ons and looked at our makeup, feminine products or underwear. Now we were concerned that things would be different in NYC since the city is always on high alert. Anyway, after our cabbie let us out at the wrong place, and we were approached by a man offering to help (not a red cap), we finally, safely got to the acela lounge. (I'll make it short, you can read the other post for the longer version if you want.)

After checking in our carry ons in the lounge, we went to check in our checked luggage. My bad weighed 58 pounds and the guy made me buy a $3 box and open my suitcase and take stuff out to distribute the weight. I was not really happy about this to say the least. I know he was just doing his job, and I don't blame him, it still aggravates me to no end that I paid almost $1000 for these tickets, which entitle my daughter and me to 3 checked bags at 50 pounds each for a total of 300 pounds. We each checked ONE bag only, hers was 48 pounds and mine was 58 and I still had to open my freaking luggage and sort through my dirty clothes to put in a seperate cardboard box, which seems to me would take up MORE room in the cargo area, not to mention waste a perfectly good box that I ended up throwing away when I got home. It makes absolutely no sense to me, but I did as I was told. But I have to admit that this incident really put a bad mark on all the thoughts and comments we had made throughout the trip about how much nicer it was to travel by train than by airplane if for no other reason than the luggage/bag issue. It was as if we tempted the luggage gods, as we had no sooner commented yet again on how much we liked it, I found myself elbow high in dirty underware, on my knees, scrounging around on the floor of Penn Station picking out which socks and tshirts to put in the cardboard box. Oh, the humanity! So, at this point, I was wishing someone would invent some kind of human (and luggage!) transporter that you just step into and blink your eyes and you arrive at your destination, with bags in tow, and no one ever has to touch them or you. In other words, I was hot, tired, hungry, wanted to be home, and hating, planes, trains and automobiles at that particular moment. I digress...

So we board the train right on time, it was good to just get in our roomette and settle in. If felt a little more comfortable this time, as the fear of the unknown was gone, replaced with a longing for our southern home. We had a wonderful attendant this time, he delivered our dinner to us, as we were too tired, and too unkempt honestly, to go to the dinning car. He promptly turned down our beds when requested, and gave us a wakeup call precisely at the time we had ask for. We only encounterd a couple of minor problems on the way back to Greenville. One, for some reason, the train had a gross smell. We could really tell when other passengers used their tolit...gross, I know, but I'm just reporting...and the diesel smell seemed stronger as well. I don't know what that was about. Additionally, it was really cold. I was looking out the door to tell our attendent when I heard another passenger stop him and complain about the coldness in the room. I informed him that we were having the same problem as well. He said he would take care of it, and sure enough, within about 30 minutes, the problem was solved. I will say that thanks to this forum, I had packed air freshner and duck tape (neon pink, of course), and both came in very handy. The duck tape was the perfect width to cover the air vents, so thanks for that tip you guys.

For the record, ie tipping, this time, instead of just handing over a $20 tip like I did on the way there, I split it up. I gave him $10 when he delivered our food, then another $10 when he turned our beds down, and then I slipped him another five when we were getting off the train because he helped us with our carry ons. He was wonderful and deserved every cent and was very appreciative, thanking me yet again as we told him goodbye.

I have no doubt that we will again take a train trip sometime in the furture. I think the deciding factor will be if we have the extra time. I will say that the trip there was much more fun than the trip home. In fact, we felt that maybe next time, we might take a train there, then take an airplane home, because let's face it, once the trip is over, you are tired and all you really want to do is get home. The trip to NYC felt like it took a couple of hours. The trip back felt like it took a couple of days. This was no fault of Amtrak however, just human nature I suppose.

And so that's my trip report. I hope it helped at least on person, and maybe entertained at least a few of you old timers!


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## Ryan (Jul 5, 2010)

Great trip report! Does Greenville have a city police force? It may be worth your while to contact the city and express your concerns about the station, it may be as simple as having an officer out on patrol just make a couple of trips past the station at the 2 times daily that the train calls. Sounds like you got a bum attendant on the way up, you should have been able to have your room made up whenever you want - that's why I never tip until the end of the journey. I'd certainly also contact Amtrak, not only to let them know about the crummy attendant, but the agent in Greenville doing great work. "Crummy employees and they can never get fired" is a common theme around here, but unless people contact Amtrak and let them know about the bad apples (and the good ones), they can't do anything about it.

The baggage limit is kind of a pain, but easy to work around - I always weigh out our suitcases when we pack to leave the house and never want to have over 40 (maybe 45) pounds in a single bag (that way there's some headroom for bringing back souvenirs and the like). With 106 pounds of baggage, you could have known before you left home that you were going to need a third bag and changed your packing strategy accordingly. (not chastising, just hopefully passing on a helpful tip)


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## Bill Haithcoat (Jul 5, 2010)

I enjoyed hearing about your laughing about everything. Through the years I have heard people in rooms next to me havng the same reacton, they especially laugh at the toilet flushing.

Reminds me of taking my Tennessee born and bred mother to the Big Apple for the first and only time. She was in the beginning stages of Parkinson's disease, so all things considered,I was not sure how she would react to the frenzy that is the Big Apple. Sittng in the cab after encountering Penn Station she looked at me and burst out laughing, we laughed together.She loved the trip,thanks to the abiity to laugh(while she still could, physically).


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## Shanghai (Jul 5, 2010)

I can relate to having two people in a roomette.

My wife and I booked a roomette on the Silver Star from

New York to Tampa. It was our first long distance train

trip in the US in several years.

Upon arrival in Tampa, I was able to change our return

trip from a roomette to a bedroom. When we now travel

together, we book a bedroom.

The roomette is nice for one person, but a bit too tight

for two people.

Thanks for your fine report.


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## Guest (Jul 5, 2010)

Most enjoyable, I'm especially happy to hear that a 17 year old would be seen in public with her parents, let alone share a roomette! :wub: Liked the comment about your hubby too, sounds like a functional family for sure! 

My dad wad from the Greenville area,used to ride the crescent down to visit, the old station in greenville was much more comfortable and better located, guess sometimes progress is not better!Ryan was correct about contacting the City to have a patrol by the station,most stations are not in the best parts of town and the late night calling time is sometimes scarey for those new or traveling alone!

The other posters already mentioned about reporting the good,the bad and the ugly, I concur!

One thing about packing, most people find as they travel they took too much stuff, hopefully next time youll follow the old saying about "travel light and travel right", I always said when I was a road warrior "Imagine you will have to tote your baggage two miles in a hot climate with high humidity while climbing uphill, worked wonders for sure! :lol:

Most hotels now adays have laundramats so it's easy to cut down on clothing etc. and on the train no-one cares if you wear the same shirt for two days, underwear/socks etc. are light and easy to pack! Most woemen seem to take too much make-up/cosmetics/shoes and other "female" stuff! ^_^

As for the tipping, $20 was too much for the procrastinating SCA, as the other poster siad wait until you are getting off "to ensure profeesional/prompt service"!Glad NYP (except for the cab driver)was a hoot, it is and always will remain "The Apple"! Thanks for sharing!


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## Ispolkom (Jul 5, 2010)

Great trip report. They are remarkably strict about the 50 lb. limit for luggage -- I've had to repack a bag that weighed 53 lbs. Like the others I enjoy reading about the good and the bad, and so often the bad seems to involve the plumbing.

One of the things I like about traveling by train is the people you end up eating meals with. Often they aren't people I would choose (and I'm sure they think the same of me), but they almost always are entertaining enough for the length of a meal.


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## Devil's Advocate (Jul 6, 2010)

Interesting thread. I found the seemingly constant state of concern kind of curious. Seems like it would get a little tiring after a while. Statistically it's more likely people we know will harm us than strangers. I would guess that the strictness of the fifty pound rule has as much to do with the employees who have to lug your bags around as with charging a few extra bucks for a cardboard box. I know if _my_ job description said I'd have to routinely move or stack items "up to 50 pounds" I'd probably be pretty strict about it too, if for no other reason than the longterm health of my back.


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## leemell (Jul 6, 2010)

daxomni said:


> Interesting thread. I found the seemingly constant state of concern kind of curious. Seems like it would get a little tiring after a while. Statistically it's more likely people we know will harm us than strangers. I would guess that the strictness of the fifty pound rule has as much to do with the employees who have to lug your bags around as with charging a few extra bucks for a cardboard box. I know if _my_ job description said I'd have to routinely move or stack items "up to 50 pounds" I'd probably be pretty strict about it too, if for no other reason than the longterm health of my back.


That is it exactly. Usually it is related to the terms of health insurance and liability.


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## CityLove (Jul 7, 2010)

Ryan, yes, we do have a city police force and I believe they patrol the area (stretch of road) that the station is on already, because there are several shelters, food banks, etc clustered around there. I had driven to the station during the day time a couple of weeks prior to our trip just so I would know exactly where it was. It was around noon, so the station turned out not to be open (though I didn't know this until I arrived in the parking lot). On the way there I noticed a lot of men just milling around, kind of just standing around smoking or aimlessly wandering around and I wondered what was going on. In fact, I had to slow down, as some of the men were just kind of walking back and forth across the street as if the traffic would just stop for them. It was only later I found out that it is a higher crime area and regularly patroled by the police. However, the station itself sits back off the road and the check-in/waiting area is in the back of the building (closer to the tracks of course). I didn't particulary feel scared or unsafe. However, had I been alone, or had there been just one or two other riders (as opposed to the approximately 20-25 waiting to board) I may have been more uncomfortable. Espeically if I had to walk that long distance in the dark to board the sleeper car. I agree about alerting Amtrak to the wonderful employee at the G'ville station. It is on my to do list and will take care of it by the end of the week. I only wish I had gotten his name, however I'm sure they will know who was working that night since there was only one guy! I won't report the other guy, as he wasn't horrible, just not as interested or excited about his duties I guess.

As for the luggage tip, I agree with you! Next time I will take better notice of the weight of my luggage. I think in reading all the glowing reports of the lack of baggage hassles with Amtrak, as opposed to the airlines, I was working with the mindset that "it was no big deal"! LOL My bad, for sure! I could easily have brought an additional suitcase and split the stuff, but I was thinking, in good faith, that one bag would be less, one bag would be easier for me and them...yada, yada, yada...but now I know and will do better next time! You are right too, always plan for those must have souviners!

Bill, great story about your mom! Some of my fondest memories of my mom are of the times we were dying laughing about some of the craziest things. Thanks for sharing that!

Shanghai, I had hoped to book a bedroom but there were none available when I booked the trip. I even moved my dates of travel around a few days on each end, and still no available bedrooms. I think I booked back in April, so that was about 2 months out. Next time I will try to book even earlier if possible. The roomette, while tight, was really OK for my daughter and me, but if it were my husband and myself, we too would need a bedroom. He's 6 feet, 220 lbs, so that would certainly make a difference!

Guest, always great to hear about someone who was from "my neck of the woods!" Yep, Greenville had changed tremendously over the past 15 or so years. My husband and I (both upstate natives) are constantly commenting on how much we miss "Old Greenville." I have to admit that both my daughter and myself fall into the category of females that pack too much! LOL Of couse our theory is that "it is better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it." LOL Drives my husband nuts everytime we travel, but I guess it's just a girl thing!

Ispolkom, strict is right! I learned my lesson and will not let it happen again! 2 suitcases for me next time! We did enjoy all of the people we talked with on the train. Everyone we encountered was pleasant, an especially nice life experience for my daughter, good for her to see how many great people from all walks of life are so interesting to talk with if you just take the time. And that's what train travel gave us, time. It is indeed, priceless.

daxomni, it does without a doubt get tiring. However, to make myself blissfully ignorant of safety and security issues would be just plain dumb. It's the world we live in unfortunatly. I remember reading somewhere years ago that a female can/will never know the security a male knows and I guess that just stuck with me. As a woman, and more importantly as the mother of a teenage daughter, saftey has been and will continue to be a big topic for us. Tiring, yes. Necessary, also yes.

As for the luggage thing, I concur with you and leemell as noted above. Liability as well as health concerns are good points...no argument here!

At the end of the day, we had a great trip, made some incredible memories, and will certainly do it again, only next time we will be better educated and familar with the process and we can hardly wait! Choo...chooo....


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## Ryan (Jul 7, 2010)

CityLove said:


> I won't report the other guy, as he wasn't horrible, just not as interested or excited about his duties I guess.


Please do - it's the asking him to put the room up and not having it done in an hour that puts it over the top for me. That crosses the line from "uninterested" to "dead weight that has no place on a train" in my opinion.


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## Bob Dylan (Jul 7, 2010)

I second Ryans comment! OBS like this guy give all Amtrak employees a bad name, he needs to be shapped up or shipped out! As I always say, I report the good,the bad and the ugly from all Amtrak trips, wish everyone would also and these kind of staff might disappear from the trains!


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## Devil's Advocate (Jul 7, 2010)

I agree. It may not be in your nature but if you intend to ride Amtrak again it's important to get the ball rolling on removing bad attendants. I'm going to start making an effort to report these people myself as well. If you're never going to ride again I could understand why you wouldn't care but it that's not how it sounded when I read your posts.


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## Sbaitso (Jul 11, 2010)

Great report, it brought back memories of my first trip to NYC on Amtrak! Glad that you had a good time and were able to laugh about the bumps that you ran into. Hope you're able to take another trip again soon!


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## darien-l (Jul 11, 2010)

Ispolkom said:


> Great trip report. They are remarkably strict about the 50 lb. limit for luggage -- I've had to repack a bag that weighed 53 lbs.


Yes, I've had a similar experience a couple of years ago. I was told it has to do with liability. If an Amtrak baggage handler lifts a bag weighing 51 lbs and hurts his back, he can sue the company. Apparantly, their contract specifies a 50-lb limit on weights they're expected to lift as part of their job.

EDIT: I believe it is the same with the airlines. If your bag is over 50 lbs, you have to pay for the extra weight, the bag gets tagged "HEAVY", and requires special handing (typically two baggage handlers are required). Amtrak doesn't have this option: many of its stations do not have multiple baggage handlers.


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## pennyk (Jul 11, 2010)

:hi: Great report thanks. It sounds like you and your daughter have a very special relationship. :wub: Congratulations. I know that when I was 17, I would have never spent 15 hours in close quarters with my mother.


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## greatcats (Jul 14, 2010)

I haven't been at Greenville Station in several years, last taking a train from there in 2004. One of the agents was Lee Elkins, a tall fellow about 40 at the time, well dressed, with dark hair, mustache, and glasses. A real professional= this may have been him.


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