New member taking 50 year anniversary trip

Hello everyone!
My husband and I are taking Amtrak Surfliner, Empire Builder and Southwest Chief for the trip of our lifetime with our service dog, Gracie.
We have booked accessible rooms and I have so many questions.
1) if the train is late, does the next train wait? If not, does Amtrak provide lodging and meals somewhere close to the station?
2) can you take a surge protector to plug in medical devices?
3) How big is the floor space? Or more specifically, can I sleep on the floor with an added air mattress, since neither of us can climb the top bunk and my husband is 6’6”?
Thanks so much, Mary (Gracie) and Steve

Mary Stackhouse said:

Hello everyone!
My husband and I are taking Amtrak Surfliner, Empire Builder and Southwest Chief for the trip of our lifetime with our service dog, Gracie.
We have booked accessible rooms and I have so many questions.
1) if the train is late, does the next train wait? If not, does Amtrak provide lodging and meals somewhere close to the station?
2) can you take a surge protector to plug in medical devices?
3) How big is the floor space? Or more specifically, can I sleep on the floor with an added air mattress, since neither of us can climb the top bunk and my husband is 6’6”?
Thanks so much, Mary (Gracie) and Steve

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1. As long as the connection is a "guaranteed" one and on the same reservation number, Amtrak will take care of you. If the incoming train is more than a few minutes late, they probably will not hold the outbound train, but they will take care of you, rebooking you onto another train, providing a hotel room at their expense, and cash for meals and cab fare. Note that if you had sleeper accommodations on the missed connecting train, the train you are rebooked on may or may not have sleeper accommodations open. If none are available, you will be downgraded to coach and your accommodation charge refunded. You will find that many here book layovers at critical points, primarily eastbound connections at Chicago from western LDs, to avoid that situation.
2. Yes, you can take a surge protector power strip. I have a CPAP and have used a power strip on Amtrak for years.
3. There is not enough floor space to sleep on the floor in a Bedroom with the berth down. If you do not want to have an upper bunk, consider booking two roomettes. That way both will have a lower, you can ask for roomettes across the aisle from each other, and so have access to views and so have views from both sides. Finally, two roomettes are often cheaper than one bedroom.

Correction: there is enough floor space in an accessible room to sleep on the floor, since it is the full width of the car. I got Bedrooms in my head for some reason.

Note there is only one accessible room in each sleeper, meaning only one or two total on most trains. This makes protecting the accommodation at connections even more important, unless you think you'd be all right in a different sleeper accommodation or coach.

zephyr17 said:

If you do not want to have an upper bunk, consider booking two roomettes. That way both will have a lower, you can ask for roomettes across the aisle from each other, and so have access to views and so have views from both sides. Finally, two roomettes are often cheaper than one bedroom.

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Note that if you book 2 roomettes instead of a bedroom you do lose the ensuite bathroom and have to go down the hall to a shared bathroom.

BlackDiamond said:

Note that if you book 2 roomettes instead of a bedroom you do lose the ensuite bathroom and have to go down the hall to a shared bathroom.

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Or you can book downstairs roomettes (#11-#14) on Superliner Sleepers where the bathrooms and shower are a few steps away!

Sometimes, a picture is worth a word or two, and here are drawings with some dimensions of all Viewliner & Superliner sleepers. Note that windows on Family and Accessible Bedrooms are half the normal width of Roomettes and Bedrooms which somewhat restrict your field of view of the passing scenery.

Another suggestion - bring some window cleaner or just use plain water and kleenex and clean your windows. They should be clean if you depart from the train's initial station but they won't stay that way forever. When there is a long stop (usually stops where they say you can get off), just step outside, walk to your window and wipe it down. We always do that because it provides a better view.
Don't forget - if you can climb stairs, go to the Lounge Car - open 24X7 where you can sit on couches and seats facing the large side windows and the curved glass upper windows. And, if you can, take advantage of the dining car instead of having the food brought to your room. Nothing like eating a served sit-down meal while views of a lifetime (or the backyards of a city) go by.

Mary Stackhouse said:

My husband and I are taking Amtrak Surfliner, Empire Builder and Southwest Chief for the trip of our lifetime with our service dog, Gracie.

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Does Gracie have her own mattress? I wonder if being downstairs might be better for her.

Both my wife and I slept at the same time in a Viewliner bedroom lower bed - she's 5'2" and I'm 6'4".

danasgoodstuff said:

Both my wife and I slept at the same time in a Viewliner bedroom lower bed - she's 5'2" and I'm 6'4".

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Accessible rooms on Superliners have the same berths as a roomette, which will not sleep two. I initially missed the OP was asking about an Accessible room, not a Bedroom, myself.

For Gracie’s sake, I would either check with your SCA or find a timetable on your own (others can maybe help with this?) and find out when the longer scheduled stops will be. These would be a good time to get Gracie out of the train to “do her business”. You would probably not want to venture too far away from the train, but you should be able to find a suitable location for Gracie to relieve herself at most stations.

Timetables for all the trains can be found here: https://www.railpassengers.org/resources/amtrak-timetables/

I ride the Builder relatively frequently and the fresh air/smoke stops are
Wenatchee (7/8), Pasco (27/28)
Spokane
Whitefish
Shelby
Havre
Minot
St. Paul
Winona

I ride also ride the Starlight regularly fresh air/smoke stops are
Portland
Eugene
Klamath Falls
Sacramento
Emeryville
San Jose
(Salinas if they are running early)
San Luis Obispo
Santa Barbara

At least some on the SW Chief are:
Flagstaff
(Gallup if running well)
Albuquerque
Raton
La Junta
Kansas City
Ft. Madison

Do not detrain at stops that are not announced as fresh air/smoke stops. If you must because of Gracie's needs, clear it with the conductor.

Two passengers, three connections. one pax 6’6, one service dog, breed and size unknown. I’m going to have to read a trip report on this excursion.