A couple of questions

[Arabella1978]

Hi all. I have a couple of questions for the 'experts'.

I am travelling with my seven year old son on the Empire Builder from Minneapolis to Glacier National Park in August for a wedding. I am a little nervous because my husband won't be with us! I booked a roomette because I thought it would be easier to have a private place since I'll have my son with me. There are some other members of my family who will be on the same train as well. They are all in coach though. Will my son and I be able to see them during the train trip? I.e, will it be possible to get to where they are? Also will they be able to come to our sleeper car or is that restricted? I also wondered if we would be able to have meals together or not. My reservation confirmation has us in car 730 but their's doesn't say which car they are in.

Will I have help changing our room back to seats in the morning, or will I have to figure it out myself? Also, will the room be in the nighttime mode when we board the train in Minneapolis at 10:50 pm?

My son is really excited about the trip. I am too, but just a little nervous. I have never travelled this way before...I'm usually an airport traveller!

Sorry for all the questions! Thanks for any answers!

Arabella

 

[MrFSS]

Hi all. I have a couple of questions for the 'experts'.
I am traveling with my seven year old son on the Empire Builder from Minneapolis to Glacier National Park in August for a wedding. I am a little nervous because my husband won't be with us! I booked a roomette because I thought it would be easier to have a private place since I'll have my son with me. There are some other members of my family who will be on the same train as well. They are all in coach though. Will my son and I be able to see them during the train trip? I.e, will it be possible to get to where they are? Also will they be able to come to our sleeper car or is that restricted? I also wondered if we would be able to have meals together or not. My reservation confirmation has us in car 730 but their's doesn't say which car they are in.

Will I have help changing our room back to seats in the morning, or will I have to figure it out myself? Also, will the room be in the nighttime mode when we board the train in Minneapolis at 10:50 pm?

My son is really excited about the trip. I am too, but just a little nervous. I have never traveled this way before...I'm usually an airport traveler!

Sorry for all the questions! Thanks for any answers!

Arabella

I'll try to answer some of your questions:
When you board at that late hour in MSP more than likely the roomette will be made up for sleeping so you can go right to bed.

In the morning the room is usually made back up for day time use by the car attendant while you are at breakfast. As a sleeping car passenger, your meals are included in the price of your ticket.

You can certainly walk to the coach area to visit others. Depending on how full the car is, there may not be any place for you to sit for any length of time. The best place to visit would be in the sightseer lounge which is open for all passengers on the train.

It may be difficult, but not impossible for others from coach to dine with you. Sleeping car passengers get first pick at reservations. If a seating is filled with sleeping car passengers, then no coach passengers would be able to dine at that seating. However, many times the sleeping car folks don't take all the seats at a particular seating. You'll just have to see how it goes. You can discuss it with the dining car attendant, too, and explain your situation.

Normally coach passengers aren't allowed in the sleeping cars. And, if others came to visit you in your roomette, there wouldn't be any room for them to hardly get in it with you and your son. There will be just about enough room for the two of you and that's it. So, again, the best place is in the sightseer lounge car for the visits.

If you have other questions, please let us know.

 

[wintersummer]

Arabella - I'm also a first time train traveler (also Empire Builder, but from Seattle to Chicago) and have posted about 8 questions about various aspects of train travel during the last week or so. The emphasis of my questions have been on Empire Builder and general information for 1st time Amtrakers. Board members have been so helpful and my trip is all set. Take a glance back at posts that I've started. You'll find a wealth of information! I'll be following your posts, because I'm sure you'll ask some new questions.

 

[RailBirder]

Here is an excellent website that has great Amtrak travel tips...

http://www.on-track-on-line.com/amtrak-tips.shtml

(I couldn't figure out how to post the website as a link??).