# Amtrak Viewliner Roomette Trip Report: Silver Meteor 98 CHS-NYP



## jmgriffin

Took a pretty fun trip a few months ago on Amtrak--great way to travel. Hope someone enjoys reading!

*If anyone is interested, there's a good bit more detail, pictures and maps at our blog. Also, I wore my Garmin GPS watch so there are lots of cool graphs and charts that show the speed, stops etc.. Figured that's something you guys might be interested in: http://www.weekendblitz.com/amtrak-silver-meteor-98-roomette-charleston-to-new-york-penn-station/*

*AMTRAK SILVER METEOR TRAIN #98 -- ROOMETTE SLEEPER CAR SERVICE:*

I looked up the train schedule and found that the Amtrak Silver Meteor #98 was running 45-60 mins late which meant that we might have a chance to make it. I told McCown to run home, pack a bag and meet me in 1 hour. I hurried back to my computer, transferred the 15,000 Chase Sapphire points to my Amtrak Guest Rewards account and quickly called Amtrak to book. I was working under the impression that you had to make reservations no later than 60 mins prior to scheduled departure time (9:23PM in our case). OK, so now we’re cutting it really close. I still can’t say for sure if that limit is myth or fact but I got everything booked around 8:21PM. We booked it to the train station and arrived with just a few minutes to spare before boarding the sleeper car.





These long-distance sleeper trains are configured with 3 sleeper cars. Each sleeper has 3 rooms & 12 “roomettes,” for a grand total of up to 45 rooms available per trip. Even with this in mind, the rooms often sell out!

We were greeted by our car’s attendant. It is his job to see to the comfort of all guests in his section. We received excellent service from our very attentive attendant.





A "roomette" is literally just that-- a small cabin about the width of 2 seats. It's literally just long enough for a 6 foot tall person to stretch out on a bed and can be somewhat cramped. It's great for having more privacy than the main cabin since you're able to completely close the blinds and door, secluding yourself from the other passengers on the train. Don't plan on bringing much luggage into these rooms-- there's just enough room for each passenger to have a carry-on sized bag but no bigger. You'll either have to check larger luggage or ask the attendant if there is other communal luggage storage.




Since we boarded the train around 10:15pm, the car attendant gave us just a few minutes to settle in but didn't waste much time before asking us if we were ready for him to make the beds. I put him off a bit but it seemed as if he was ready to make the conversion. So, we took a quick walk to the dining car and explored the other cars and, about 10 minutes later, our room had been transformed.





The most awkward thing about the roomettes, by far, is the toilet/sink combo in the room. This makes for a pretty gross experience. And, the terrible news is that the nearest public restroom is in the coach car which in our case was 4 to 5 cars away. Makes for a pretty annoying walk just to use the restroom. We found ourselves sneaking into the empty sleeper rooms or other roomettes whenever possible.




The all-in-one sink/water/toilet...sexy
After a surprisingly good night's sleep, we woke up somewhere between Baltimore and Washington and headed over to the dining car.

When you're traveling in one of the sleeper compartments, all meals are included --up to 3x a day, depending upon your boarding and departure times. In our case, we boarded at 10:15pm (well after the dinner hour), had breakfast and then arrived in New York by 11:30am (well before the lunch hour) so just 1 meal for us. The good news is that the sleep cabins always get priority seating but they cram people in 4 to a table, so be ready to make small talk with your table mate. We found the food to be much, much tastier than airplane food!

After the dining service, we had just a few more hours left and arrived at New York Penn Station at 10:59am--about 30 minutes ahead of schedule! And, just like that we were already in the city well before our scheduled arrival time--the airlines can't compete with that!

*BOTTOM LINE*: For just 15k Chase Ultimate Rewards points, we had an excellent experience aboard Amtrak's Viewliner Roomette. We slept very well, had great service from the attendant, waiter and kitchen staff--and made it to NYC all before our scheduled arrival time.

Edit: I kept hitting the max on photos so I had to strip most of them out, if you're interested in reading more, I'd definitely encourage you to check out the full post: http://www.weekendblitz.com/amtrak-silver-meteor-98-roomette-charleston-to-new-york-penn-station/ the Garmin Forerunner stats are pretty cool!


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## pennyk

Thanks. Good report and great photos.


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## jimhudson

Just read this on AGR/Flyer talk Forum! Thanks for Posting,Great Trip! I'm envious! (Ill be riding to/from Florida on the Silvers in October but that's not Today!  )


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## jmgriffin

pennyk said:


> Thanks. Good report and great photos.





jimhudson said:


> Just read this on AGR/Flyer talk Forum! Thanks for Posting,Great Trip! I'm envious! (Ill be riding to/from Florida on the Silvers in October but that's not Today!  )


Thanks guys! I hope to be riding and posting more in the future. I'm really wishing that we had more routes down South!


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## amtkstn

Am planning on my first night in a viewliner Did not know there are no restrooms outside of the roomettes.


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## shelzp

Good report and well written plus I always like to see photos. Thanks for sharing.


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## OlympianHiawatha

Great report-and of course that is a picture of just the sink and not the commode  :lol:


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## the_traveler

Good report, but I don't like the idea of either using (as you said) the commode in unoccupied rooms or encouraging others to do so. That room may be unoccupied now, but do you know for sure it will still be at the next stop or at a later stop? And are you 100% certain that nobody used the commode in your "unoccupied" room prior to your boarding? :huh:

Why not do like the other 99.9999999% of the passengers in roomettes do if there are 2 passengers in the Roomette? When one uses the commode, the other person steps out into the hall for those 15 seconds.

And when the new Viewliner II is produced, there will no longer be an in-room commode. There will be 2 public restroom in each sleeper intend.


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## jmgriffin

OlympianHiawatha said:


> Great report-and of course that is a picture of just the sink and not the commode  :lol:


Yep, I was exaggerating a bit! Caught me.



the_traveler said:


> Good report, but I don't like the idea of either using (as you said) the commode in unoccupied rooms or encouraging others to do so. That room may be unoccupied now, but do you know for sure it will still be at the next stop or at a later stop? And are you 100% certain that nobody used the commode in your "unoccupied" room prior to your boarding? :huh:
> Why not do like the other 99.9999999% of the passengers in roomettes do if there are 2 passengers in the Roomette? When one uses the commode, the other person steps out into the hall for those 15 seconds.
> 
> And when the new Viewliner II is produced, there will no longer be an in-room commode. There will be 2 public restroom in each sleeper intend.


Yes, great in theory but when you wake up in the middle of the night and need to take a quick leak both options are terrible: either take the (long) walk to the other cabins or ask your cabinmate to wake up and get out.

I'm really looking forward to the Viewliner II--are they expected to operate on just Superliner routes or would the Silver Star or Crescent have a chance at getting one of the new ones?


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## the_traveler

If you get up "in the middle of the night" (say at 2 am), how can you be absolutely certain that the "unoccupied room" will not be occupied by someone who boards at 2:30, 3 or 4 am? :huh: And are you certain that nobody used the commode in your "unoccupied room" in Florida? :huh: Remember that train started it's trip in Miami, and that room was "unoccupied" until you boarded!


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## Bob Dylan

jmgriffin said:


> I'm really looking forward to the Viewliner II--are they expected to operate on just Superliner routes or would the Silver Star or Crescent have a chance at getting one of the new ones?


Viewliners are used ONLY on Single Level Trains in the East! (Cardinal, LSL,Silver Trains,Crescent) There will be no Viewliners on the Superliner Trains which are Bi-Level!


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## TVRM610

Traveler... The room is not unoccupied until they board... The room could easily have been occupied until they boarded with passengers retraining at the stop they were boarding.

SCA's on Viewliners will usually let you know which Roomette can be used as a restroom if they are asked (and if one is vacant obviously).


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## the_traveler

TVRM610 said:


> The room is not unoccupied until they board


Please explain that. AFAIK - unoccupied means the room is not being used and has no one in it. Are you saying it's ok if there is no one in the room at the time (because they went to dinner) but there are bags and coats in the room. Just because there are no people in the room does not mean that it's unoccupied.
And even if the SCA says it's OK to use a vacant room, that room (including the toilet) must be cleaned before it can be occupied. And I doubt someone is going to look for and wake up the SCA at 2:30 am to make sure that room will still be vacant and unused at 3:30!


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## jmgriffin

Since we've quickly turned this into a "where is it appropriate to use the restroom on a train" debate, if I were to tell you that in almost every case when we "snuck" into a vacant room, the room was confirmed to be permanently vacant and had yet to be remade by the attendant. Is this OK sleep car etiquette or still taboo?


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## chakk

I think the proper etiquette is to only use the toilet inside the viewliner sleeping car room to which you are assigned to travel. You may also use the common-use restrooms in coaches. Travelers in superliner sleeping cars may use the toilet in the deluxe bedroom to which they are assigned (if sleeping in a deluxe bedroom), or the common use toilets in the rest of the car, or the common use toilets in the superliner coaches.


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## pennyk

chakk said:


> I think the proper etiquette is to only use the toilet inside the viewliner sleeping car room to which you are assigned to travel. You may also use the common-use restrooms in coaches. Travelers in superliner sleeping cars may use the toilet in the deluxe bedroom to which they are assigned (if sleeping in a deluxe bedroom), or the common use toilets in the rest of the car, or the common use toilets in the superliner coaches.


I agree with this. I do not think it is proper to use the toilet in an "unoccupied" room.


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## OlympianHiawatha

chakk said:


> I think the proper etiquette is to only use the toilet inside the viewliner sleeping car room to which you are assigned to travel. You may also use the common-use restrooms in coaches. Travelers in superliner sleeping cars may use the toilet in the deluxe bedroom to which they are assigned (if sleeping in a deluxe bedroom), or the common use toilets in the rest of the car, or the common use toilets in the superliner coaches.


It is best to leave the vacant rooms alone unless otherwise told by the Attendant. Now, on a couple trips the Attendant invited us to use a vacant kitty-korner Roomette for a sitting/changing room after she put our beds down which was a nice gesture. The only time we were encouraged to use another toilet was when our Viewliner plumbing froze up overnight on the _*Lake Shore*_ and the Attendant asked everyone to use the vacant H-room in the next car until ours thawed. Nice roomy pot at that


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## Linda T

When I travel with my husband at night and have to use the toilet, he just rolls over and faces the wall, no problem really. In the daytime he just steps into the hall, or sits in a vacant room till I re-open the curtains.

While I might jump from roomette 3-4 (if 4's empty) to take photographs, I would never dream of using the toilet or sink. I've had people try to explain to me why they don't like roomette toilets, but it's beyond me -- I LOVE THEM!


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## Bob Dylan

I have no problem what-so-ever with the Toilet and Sink being in the Viewliner Roomettes! Since I hang out in the Lounge, Diner and Walk the train lots on LD Trains I have no problem using the Bathrooms in Coach! I too wouldn't use the Facilities in Another Room unless told to do so by the SCA, (usually happens when there is a Plumbing Problem!) When I'm in a Bedroom I use the Toilet and Sink but prefer the Big Communal Shower, whether its a Viewliner or a Superliner! This Generally seems to be a Personal Preference thing! (especially for Penny! :giggle: )


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## Rail Freak

jimhudson said:


> When I'm in a Bedroom I use the Toilet and Sink


"Hey Mom, Jimmy's peeing in the sink, again" !!!!!

:blink: :giggle:


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## TVRM610

Traveler...

No I'm saying that the room is not necessarily "vacant" it could very well be occupied by ticketed passengers. The rooms get turned sometimes.

I agree that using a rooms restroom without permission from a SCA should not be done.


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## jmgriffin

Not sure if anyone is interested but the Amtrak Blog picked up our trip report and did a post on it here: http://blog.amtrak.com/2013/07/a-weekend-blitz-on-the-silver-meteor/

Still hoping to book more trips like this in the future!


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