PJRACER
Service Attendant
First off, I want to thank all the members who gave my wife and I all kinds of advice, your experiences, and thoughts prior to our trip. We had hoped for a happy experience but came up quite abit short of that. We boarded the #98 in Orlando for travel to Washington, DC then the #29 to Chicago and the #7 to Mpls/St Paul where we rented a car from Enterprise and stayed at the Days Inn closest to the AMTRAK station. The first leg to WAS was OK and the seats in the coach were about half of what my lounger is at home and as was suggested by some members...quite difficult to sleep much in although we probably did get three or so hours of sleep that night and arrived about the same 30 minutes or so late that we had departed from Orlando. We had intended to store our luggage and walkers but found nothing in the way of storage except the area suggested by a member...but decided against as the cost would have been prohibitive. I should mention we ate in the diner on the Silver Meteor which we both chose the half chicken over bed of rice with veggies, roll, salad and ice tea, which we found to be adequate. The reason we wanted to store luggage and our walkers, we figured we could walk unassisted out to the Trolley Tours stop and take a $35 each ride around D.C. So that was out. Spent the layover period in and out of shops and the food court and alot of people watching. We then boarded our Capitol Limited train with lower level seats which was much more comfortable and closest to the rest rooms. Only 5 people in the 12 seat lower for the entire trip to Chicago. Very thankful that I had the tickets changed to lower level as my wife could not negotiate the steps more than a couple of times we went to the observation car and diner. I don't know who came up with the stair case idea, but they sure didn't take in consideration over-weight people (which we are not) or people with other ailments. And throw out the carry-on luggage guidelines as so many people come aboard with luggage the size of a huge foot locker. Back on the night on the Cap Limited, we did manage to sleep better than the previous night....maybe 4 hours in total. Into Chicago almost on time (15 minutes late) and spent a few days visiting our daughter/son-in-law and grandkids before boarding the Empire builder for the day trip to MSP. We again had lower seating to MSP and was mostly un-eventful except for the familiar scenery we lived in for many years in Wisconsin. Reached MSP an hour late and de-boarded where we spent the night at the Days Inn close to AMTRAK. In spite of what some said, we found the Days Inn to be quite nice as Days Inn's go, got a nights sleep and spent a little more of the next week visiting friends and relatives. I had been sneeking a peek all week at AMTRAK Status checking on the #8 MSP to CHI and it was consistently running 5, 6 and two days before we were to leave was 11 plus hours late into MSP and I though o'boy, here we go. Once again we stayed at the same Days Inn, after returning our rental car, same room matter of fact and the front desk did a check on train status for the #8 and it was some place in North Dakota running about 45 minutes late, so we went to bed thinking this next day was going to be our lucky day. Checked again in the morning by calling Julie and at the front desk and the 7:05 arrival was going to be at 8:00 am with departure at 8:45 so we are thinking it is our lucky day and we will make our connection to the #30 in Chicago just fine. We took the motel shuttle the four blocks to the station and the first thing we found out was the arrival was now set back to 8:30am ....but figured still within the time constraints. It did show up at 9:25am and departed at 10:10am and our lucky day was slowly sinking into the sunset. They managed to lose more time for stoppages along the way for freight trains as they always do and we of course did not arrive in CHI at 3:55pm as scheduled but at 7:10 pm and the #30 left at 6:20pm. The conductor got on the microphone and announced what would be happening with people holding connecting tickets for other trains and for those holding #30....just go to the #48 and that would get us to Indiana, Ohio and Washington,DC. Well we had a schedule book and it told us the #48 went to New York and Boston. I checked with the conductor personally and he rudely came back at me with "didn't I hear the announcements". I told him yes, but we were holding "roomette" tickets on the #30 and it was our first AMTRAK experience in a sleeper and we were then continuing on to Florida on the #97. He again rudely said "go to passenger services in the station". So thats where we went and bye the way....all the time boarding and deboarding trains, none of the conductors or their assistants went out of the way to help us off or on with two walkers and two bags and my wifes small carry on. We went into Union Station and I got into the long line at the Passenger Services office and finally got to the one clerk trying to handle the entire crowd of people, where she told me we would be put in a hotel and given money for meals and taxi fare's. As I am leaving this office a police officer (Amtrak) approached me and asked if I was "my name" and follow him over to where my wife was sitting. Here, he was a friend of my son-in-law in Chicago who is an officer with the bomb squad and swat team for Cook County and also gives bomb detection classes for Homeland Security and this nice officer was a student in one of my son-in-laws classes and they had become good friends. Our son-in-law had called him when they learned of our problems with missing train and all.....gave him a description of my wife and myself and this officer had already talked with my wife at the seat she was sitting in, so he said " follow me, lets go talk with your wife." At this point I knew nothing about what was up....then he introduced himself to me as he had already done with my wife.....found out what hotel we were going to and said "come on I'll walk you up to get you a cab". I said " I still have this voucher for cash for taxis and meals, got to get into that long line over at the ticket counter to get that". He said" let me take that voucher, just sit here and relax, I'll be right back". I went around the line and behind the counter got the cash and was back in a flash and we were off to the Canal Street exit with him to get a cab. What a nice guy he was, they just don't come any better. The cab took us to the Hyatt Regency at McCormick Place - - - got a good nights sleep after dinner and headed back to Union Station before noon the next day to see about ticket exchanges. At the ticket counter we inquired about the sleeper roomette we had booked and "sorry, all sleepers are booked up", "but we can get you coach seats on the #30". I then asked about lower coach seats and their answer was "sorry all lowers are sold out", so he made the reservation change for upper reserved coach seats, but come back after 4:15pm and there may be cancellations. Went back after 4:15 and of course the answer was all sold out, so they credited our charge card with the low ball which we paid price of $129 for the roomette. When we went to board the #30, the conductor greeted us on the platform, looked at our tickets, looked at our walkers, and bags piled on them and said "if you don't mind I think I will have you pick two seats out down here on the lower level". So much for the "sold out" crap we got from the ticket agt. on the computer. Matter of fact there was only two other people in the 12 seat lower. After the train got rolling, I asked the same conductor if he could check on either roomettes or handicapped room availability and price. He came back later.....had two roomettes empty to WAS and the price was $335. Now they just credited me for $129 price I had paid for the roomette we would have been in the day before. Go Figure. We got a few hours of sleep that night in the lower.....into WAS about an hour and half late and waited for our final leg on the #97 south to Orlando. This was the straw that broke the camels back. Of course a conductor and his assistant greeted us and checked our tickets and assigned us seat #59 and #60.....told us it was up the four or so stairs and too the left, last seats on right. No attempt to help either of us on with walkers and bags and then have to lug the stuff the complete length of the train to #59 and #60 seat which just happened to face a bulk head with no flop down table, no foot rest. We used my wifes suitcase for the leg rest/footrest and listened the the creaking and squeeking of the connection the our car and the car ahead and the door opening and closing the entire trip. If you want to catch all the swings and sways and ups and downs of a rail car just sit in the front row by the door. THIS WAS OUR CAP ON THE TRIP FROM HELL. There was only one employee on this train that I came in contact with, that was even close to pleasant and he boarded in Savannah, I believe. All the others including the lady at the snack bar acted like they hated their jobs and hated people. Well, I've gone on long enough except to mention our arrival in Orlando was on par for Amtrak....one hour late. Amtrak needs to send all their employees to : Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people" classes.
There were several good points in our trip, but the bad points heavily outweighed the good. The food was adequate at best, the restrooms were the absolute pits, unless you got in right after a cleaning job was done, which was probably one time on each leg of our trip. My wife had to clean her way in each time and of course left it in much better condition than when she entered. They must start enforcing the suggested luggage limits for carry-on. Yes, I do know the situation with pulling over for freight trains which have priority. The Amtrak system has so many possibilities, but government has to fund it or get out of the business. SORRY FOLKS, but you can have your train riding, can't for the life of me understand why you are so fanatical about it. Of course most of you are sleeper people and I never got that experience........but o'boy, I'm getting my $129 back. Bye bye PJRACER
There were several good points in our trip, but the bad points heavily outweighed the good. The food was adequate at best, the restrooms were the absolute pits, unless you got in right after a cleaning job was done, which was probably one time on each leg of our trip. My wife had to clean her way in each time and of course left it in much better condition than when she entered. They must start enforcing the suggested luggage limits for carry-on. Yes, I do know the situation with pulling over for freight trains which have priority. The Amtrak system has so many possibilities, but government has to fund it or get out of the business. SORRY FOLKS, but you can have your train riding, can't for the life of me understand why you are so fanatical about it. Of course most of you are sleeper people and I never got that experience........but o'boy, I'm getting my $129 back. Bye bye PJRACER
but agree that it hardly was a Trip from Hell! :unsure:
