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Seth
Guest
When a child booked in a sleeper is dining, are they required to order off of the kid's menu? Or can they order the regular meals?
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ehbowen
Engineer
The child may order from either the kid's menu or the adult menu, as he (or his parent) chooses.
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Children are free to order off both menus. It is a great treat for them to order off the Adult menu, when usually they have to eat the Child's menu.
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Donna Robindon
Guest
If a train comes in at 8:15am, is there time to have breakfast on train?
RSG
OBS Chief
Most trains with full service dining cars start breakfast service at 6:30 in the time zone at which the train is then located in. Breakfast is first come, first served and usually tends to move rather quickly.
So yes, there is time to have breakfast prior to a 8:15 deboarding. Allow yourself a good hour to be seated, order, and dine to be on the safe side (though the entire service can be often accomplished in less time). Also, the dining car tends to fill up quickly as the morning rolls along, particularly after the public address announcements begin which note that the diner is open and serving. So if you can time it as closely to the time breakfast service begins, you will be better off and less hurried. (It also helps to have most everything packed and ready to go prior to entering the dining car just in case there are delays.)
It worked the other way around for me on two trips, as well.
Yea. Once my wife ordered from the children's menu to get a hot dog for lunch as she wasn't very hungry.
ehbowen
Engineer
Sometimes, depending on schedule. As a specific example, the Southwest Chief is scheduled to arrive Los Angeles at 8:15 a.m., and it does serve breakfast the morning of arrival. However! It is a "limited breakfast"; only a few menu items are served...IIRC, usually the scrambled eggs and the "Continental" breakfast. Also, the seating times are very restricted...if the train is on schedule they open for breakfast about 5 am, and if you're not seated and ready to order by (about) six you're out of luck...the crew stops being paid when the train arrives, and they want to have the diner closed and cleaned up before then.
The good news is that, unless you boarded in the dead of night, you almost certainly have a time zone change which makes it "feel" later, and if you do miss the cutoff, Philippe's just down the street from Union Station serves an awesome hot breakfast.
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Seth
Guest
Thanks everyone for the fast replies! Very helpful.
BCL
Engineer
Usually. I've booked the Coast Starlight partially because they have breakfast hours. The southbound is scheduled to arrive in Emeryville at 8:10 AM, and when it's been on time I've found that I could usually be seated pretty quickly. I also took it once when they stopped at Richmond, CA and that was even earlier. If it's late then it's hard to say. I remember when the CS was delayed there was no more seating when I got on at about 9:40.
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Officially, the cut off time for Breakfast is 9:30 AM unless the train is arriving final destination during the serving time. Generally, the staff needs a good two hours to prepare the Dining car for arrival. Also, the start of breakfast can be later than the official start for Breakfast if the train doesn't depart until like 7:00AM on the TE, which starts serving about 7:30AM. So the normal Breakfast is 6:30AM to 10:00AM, last seating at 9:30AM, but as you can see there are many variables, including if the train is on time.
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My kids when they were you and now my granddaughters looked forward to eating in the DC because there were "Adults". They all enjoy train travel, but eating in the DC was one highlight they remember from the first time tey traveled on the train.
We have traveled to Denver the last two years and also have a trip booked there in June. The arrive time for the CZ at DEN is 7:30 AM. The dining car opens at 6 AM so there is time to eat breakfast. The only problem was last year an America by Rail group was aboard the train. Not only did they take all the seats in the dining car; they were still seated when we pulled into Denver station. The FSA remarked at dinner the night before that this group doesn't even tip. If the America by Rail group is not on the train, you should be able to have breakfast as early as 6 AM. If they are on the train you will be eating breakfast on your own at or around your station of arrival. .
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It seems like the America by Rail group, or least their leader, would be courteous to others wanting or needing to eat before arrival in Denver.
RSG
OBS Chief
From my limited experience, it seems that tour groups in general are just one big PITA. A couple of years ago I was departing CHI on the California Zephyr and the train was delayed in departing because a tour group was late in arriving to the station. (It happened to save my bacon, as I was taking a shuttle from O'Hare and the driver thought it more important to drop everyone else off at their Loop hotels and then me at CUS, so I wouldn't have made the train if not for the tardiness of the tour group.) But the fun for everyone was just beginning, as when it came time for dinner service in the evening, all the members of the group wanted their own table and were apparently indignant that type of everyday normal request wasn't honored. So the announcements for the rest of the evening spent an inordinate amount of time explaining the concept of community seating and how being on a train is unlike being in a resort with a four-star & above restaurant.
Come breakfast the next morning, it was lather, rinse, and repeat. After all of them (presumably) having experienced dinner service the night before, they still persisted in insisting on private tables for breakfast, so again the announcements went into detail how that was not possible. There were also announcements about not hogging the observation car and not saving seats nor using the Cafe Car for seating without purchases. I detrained in Denver so I don't know if the slow learners had to be reeducated further, but I was already sick of them after just one night and glad to be rid of them, though I'm sure not as much as the OBS staff was when they got to EMY. What I found interesting was that the group was comprised of mostly older Anglo adults, so it wasn't like there were cultural or age/inexperience issues to overcome. Just from the announcements and behavior one got the impression that it was a bunch of country club types who were just appalled at the equivalent lack of service and deference given to them on America's Railroad. True or not I don't know, but it left no desire in me to be either part of a tour group (outside of Amtrak Vacations) or to ever experience one on board again.
America by Rail is sold as a "luxury service" and as such the prices reflect this. The audience that they attract is led to believe that they are traveling on the Orient Express to expect and demand top level service. Their actions seem to indicate that rules, common courtesy mean nothing to them and that all the rest of us are "the little people". In the future I will find out what trains they are on and avoid this tour group at all costs.
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