are the sleeper amenities missed?

[tonys96]

The dining options stink. I miss the flowers, and we have taken our own little silk flowers once! I have not done the CS or EB lately, but I can assure you that the Tejanita will gripe about the loss of the W & C. I loved the amenity kits, not for the toiletries, but for the bag. I'll miss them.

More importantly, IMHO, is the slippery slope likelihood.

 

[yarrow]

The dining options stink. I miss the flowers, and we have taken our own little silk flowers once! I have not done the CS or EB lately, but I can assure you that the Tejanita will gripe about the loss of the W & C. I loved the amenity kits, not for the toiletries, but for the bag. I'll miss them.

More importantly, IMHO, is the slippery slope likelihood.

The dining options stink. I miss the flowers, and we have taken our own little silk flowers once! I have not done the CS or EB lately, but I can assure you that the Tejanita will gripe about the loss of the W & C. I loved the amenity kits, not for the toiletries, but for the bag. I'll miss them.

More importantly, IMHO, is the slippery slope likelihood.

agree

 

[seat38a]

Not sure about the other lounges, but at LA Union Station, they have real orange juice in a bottle. So if you need it I'm sure you can snag couple for the ride in the sleeper. Same with the apple and cranberry are all individual bottled tropicana I believe. Last time in the lounge I had a bottle or OJ, didn't pay attention to the brand. This is an older picture from January but as you can see, they have all the GOOD juices in the lounge. Its only in the sleeper they got the crap.

P1000021 by seat38a, on Flickr

 

[neroden]

No suitable desserts.

No entree salads.

Same stuff every day.

I filed my complaint about the lack of entree salads. Penny wise pound foolish.

Silk flowers are a perfectly OK substitute for real ones, however.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

I don't miss them. But then I've stopped riding Amtrak in sleepers. I'll miss S+... for the access to the United Clubs. Not sure if I'll register for Double Days. I'm not sure Amtrak can afford the extra points!

 

[zepherdude]

I miss theCrispy Country Fried Chicken with Fresh Mashed Potatoes and summer squash sampler. The fresh squeezed OJ and the Steak Au Poive flamed tableside. I miss the damask lapkins and silver finger bowls with lemon, hot towles and of course the shoe shine for my canvas tennis kicks. Hot wonderful flakey crust apple pie steaming from the oven with cheese and cinnamon sauce or dripping with french vanilla ice cream or strawberry shortcake with seasonally lucious home grown juicy berries.

But since that was then and this is now........................

I don't miss the newspaper, I don't miss wi-fi, pack my phone in the off position, don't miss TV or radio and really don't miss cranberry juice as In my mind, would prolly drink panther piss instead.

So, a pretty satisfied camper here to kickback and in-joy the ride! I like it the way it is, folks.

Oh Yeh! Homemade Biscuits would be nice too!

 

[Rick Scholz]

Not sure about the other lounges, but at LA Union Station, they have real orange juice in a bottle. So if you need it I'm sure you can snag couple for the ride in the sleeper. Same with the apple and cranberry are all individual bottled tropicana I believe. Last time in the lounge I had a bottle or OJ, didn't pay attention to the brand. This is an older picture from January but as you can see, they have all the GOOD juices in the lounge. Its only in the sleeper they got the crap.

P1000021 by seat38a, on Flickr

Actually, I was in the LA lounge a few weeks ago, and they were serving the same boxed juice as is available on board. Perhaps it was a fluke, or perhaps a change. Either way: Blech.

 

[siberianmo]

I miss the amenities in the bedrooms. Warm juices and water does not appeal to me and I must wonder about cutting back on the bottled water availability.

Never knowing what to expect, I take along my own tissues and pack an ice bag chock full - and enjoy the trip.

I also miss those extra touches in the dining car - but that has been going on for decades. Remember China as opposed to plastic dinnerware? Flowers on

the table were nice - real or plastic. Never had a problem with them taking up too much space - have to wonder about that comment. Hmmmmm.

Menu choices really have slipped and depending on the luck-of-the-draw, those car attendants can either make or break one's day. Cramming four people

around a table for 4 when most of the other tables are unoccupied has never and will never make sense to me.

Of late, I have taken my

evening meals in my room as I get along quite well with moi.

 

[NE933]

The first flowers my granddaughter ever recieved from a man were these flowers from our SCA on our frist train trip. Lawrence had been so good to her on the CZ, and when we were about to arrive in Chicago, he came to our room (we had the family room) and presented her with a sweet bouquet of carmations from the diner. She was amazed by this, and carefully attended to them as we boarded the CL for the rest of our journey. She was only 7 at the time, and still remembers this gift 5 years later. So yes, I miss the flowers.

This picture is what traveling by rail with loved ones is all about. Orange and apple juice is nice, but if you had to do without, we can -- just buy some.

rje

 

[TraneMan]

Missed the French Toast on the Empire Builder! :-( The menu was getting little old after almost 48 hours on the same train.. The shower bag for the sleeper I did miss.. (I did come with our shampoo tho, so I was preppared..)

 

[tommylicious]

do they still have tablecloths in the dining cars?

 

[andersone]

Last month on the EB we had table cloths for lunch and dinner

Breakfast was paper,,,

 

[TVRM610]

I know there are political issues but I wish Amtrak could create some consistency in services. If "sleeper class" is bare bones with a bed just cut the coffee and the bottled water altogether and don't pretend. Last year (2013) I rode the Empire Builder, Lake Shore Limited, and the Coast Starlight twice. I'm so glad I did.. I loved the wine and cheese tasting on all 3 of those trains.

As I have said before.. what doesn't make sense to me is the simple fact that Amtrak is making budget decisions and throwing out the baby with the bathwater. On all 3 trains they could offer a wine and cheese party for a fee, charge whatever it costs to cover the costs. I'm glad they are doing the wine tasting in the PPC again, but from what I hear it's basic wines now? Is that true? (not the local wines the CS used to feature).

Likewise.. why not offer ammenities "at cost" to the Sleeper Car attendants and LSA's... things like the chocolates, flowers, etc. Say "due to budget restraints Amtrak cannot afford to provide these complimentary. Providing extra services encourages increased gratuities, so Amtrak offers the following at cost to be used for OBS." This way the OBS staff that cares, and wants extra $$$ can provide this.

 

[greatcats]

I maintain what I said several months ago in a long letter to Mr. Boardman: The dining car on my last trip on the Southwest Chief looked like a cheap coffee shop, a place that used to look classy, with nice tablecloths and flowers. What is really tacky is the unused stands to computer terminals that were never installed, taking up booth space. Such brilliant ideas! The food has some good points to it, but is rather boring overall. I will be on the CZ and Southwest Chief next month after the Gathering and we shall see what the current status is. However, I decided to FLY Flagstaff-Phoenix-San Francisco to get to the Gathering. I have done the trip by rail before, and while much of it is beautiful for sure, it is a slow and cumbersome connection and gets one to SF late at night.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I missed the French Toast

I personally missed the cranberry juice during my cross country trip this year. As mentioned by the others, that orange juice is crap.

I miss the greater variety of specials in the dining car. I miss the cranberry juice

^ Agree.

The dining options stink. I miss the flowers. More importantly, IMHO, is the slippery slope likelihood.

^ This especially.

I wonder if the handful of irrationally exuberant "couldn't care less" folks can fully comprehend that these changes are likely to be one link in a much longer chain.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Once the toothpaste is out of the tube you can't put it back!

"To make money you have to spend money! No-one ever cuts their way to prosperity except stock manipulators!"

Robert Reich

 

[tommylicious]

Amtrak's single largest, debilitating cost is legacy retirement costs. Which gets my goat because the lady who was the SCA on the LSL I took a few months back was positively terrible.

 

[jis]

Wait, but Amtrak also gets a separately identified grant precisely equal to its dues for pre-Amtrak days retiree coverage, no? So in principle then it is no cost at all, since it is paid for, even in the most anti-Amtrak of budgets proposals so far AFAICT. And for retirees who have actually worked for Amtrak, why shouldn't it pay? If someone was not fired for a cause, there would be no reason to deny them their retirement, whether it gets your goat or not.

 

[fillyjonk]

I'd observe I could care less about the coffee in the sleeper, as I don't drink coffee....but I would like the cranberry juice back, or at least orange juice that isn't so awful.

Newspapers, eh. I admit, I always thought cities gave Amtrak the newspapers (rather than Amtrak buying them) as a way of advertising the city.

I will also observe I was kind of sad when they stopped showing movies in the Lounge Car. I get why they did; it costs money and so many people now have portable dvd players but I have happy memories of watching "Monsters, Inc." on a trip in a lounge car full of mostly-happy people. (And anyway: I'd rather have the option of going to the lounge to watch a movie than to hear the soundtracks of fifteen different movies from people around me watching them on their players)

The main thing, though, is consistency. Even within a particular route. I've been on the TE and ordered hot tea in the diner and been served a choice of teabags, lemon wedge, and honey. And other times I've got a cup of barely-hot water and a Lipton tea bag. (Now, granted, I usually go for the black tea but the choice is nice). I get that I could carry my own bags and just ask for the water, but....it would be nice to be able to expect the lemon with my tea. Sometimes when I ordered oatmeal I got raisins and brown sugar and a little cup of milk, sometimes I wound up with just the oatmeal and had to make do with table sugar and coffee creamer....And when you ask, you get told, "No, we have no lemons" or "No, we have no raisins." Maybe the commissary needs some more work...

 

[rrdude]

I don't miss them. But then I've stopped riding Amtrak in sleepers. I'll miss S+... for the access to the United Clubs. Not sure if I'll register for Double Days. I'm not sure Amtrak can afford the extra points!

Wait!

What?

Say WHAT?

 

[rrdude]

I missed the French Toast

I personally missed the cranberry juice during my cross country trip this year. As mentioned by the others, that orange juice is crap.

I miss the greater variety of specials in the dining car. I miss the cranberry juice

^ Agree.

The dining options stink. I miss the flowers. More importantly, IMHO, is the slippery slope likelihood.

^ This especially.

I wonder if the handful of irrationally exuberant "couldn't care less" folks can fully comprehend that these changes are likely to be one link in a much longer chain.

^^^^

NAILED IT!

 

[neroden]

Amtrak's single largest, debilitating cost is legacy retirement costs.

I'm not sure that's true any more. It was true to a vast extent 30 years ago, but a lot of those guys are dead now.

 

[neroden]

Maybe the commissary needs some more work...

Yeah, it seems to be doing a really poor and unreliable job at stocking the trains.

"Point of sale" inventory tracking might help with that. Amtrak has had that on the to-do list for years now, dunno why they haven't implemented it. Should pay for itself very quickly.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

I don't miss them. But then I've stopped riding Amtrak in sleepers. I'll miss S+... for the access to the United Clubs. Not sure if I'll register for Double Days. I'm not sure Amtrak can afford the extra points!

Wait!

What?

Say WHAT?

I know. Its been tough. I've almost relapsed a couple of times, but so far - at least - I've been able to find other ways to feed the addiction. h34r:

 

[shelzp]

Still had sparkling wine on a recent CS and EB trip! On second thought I brought it myself so guess that doesn't count.

It's funny because if they had never passed it out I would not have thought to bring some along because I don't drink much wine but it was fun to receive it on those trains and I felt like I'd want to have it again. And I was glad I brought it! It's fun to toast to those beautiful trips. Most of my little train toasts involve some Jack Daniels and water but the sparkling wine filled the bill for me and especially on the EB! Love that route.