How many sleepers can a diner handle?

[Anderson]

Good Point about Breakfast and the Lunch Menu, but I am Mainly Talking about the Dinner Menu! I know there is No Tax, just refering to Tip/any Alcohol etc., plus Amtrak uses Pepsi Products and OverPrices the Sodas IMO! For Two Steaks with the AmVeggies, Instant Potatoes or Rice and a Not so great Roll and Am Salad, plus a desert and Coffe/Tea or Milk I still say that $50 is Too Much for the Quality of the Meal! Other Menu items such as so called Ribs on the Texas Eagle, Chicken, the Sea Food Enchilladas etc. are way Overpriced IMO, we're Talking $30+ for Chicken , $35-$40 for other Items that aren"t that Great! The Vegetarian Items seem to especially Underwhelming and Overpriced IMO!

When I ride Coach on LD Trains I usually Eat Breakfast and Lunch in the Diner since A La Carte Cafe Prices are Similar or even Higher @ these Meals, but not Diner, I'd rather save the Money to apply towards a Sleeper, which if there are 2 people together makers the Meals a Better Deal even if they Leave Something to Be Desired in Selection, Preperation and Presentation!

I think the dinner price point is a fair one, but my experience is also that at regular eateries of all sorts (save fast food places), dinner is more expensive for roughly the same portion sizes (or at least certainly not sizes upgraded in line with the prices). Yeah, the veggies can be a bit underwhelming...but overall, I still see it as a decent deal (even if I add in a slice of cake/pie and a solid tip).

 

[HotlantaAl]

Getting back to the subject of this thread. I was on the southbound #19 Crescent on Monday and they had three Viewliner sleepers on the train. I asked why they had three and they told me that the extra sleeper was for a large group from New Zealand.

So how did the diner do with the extra demand? Poorly.

That extra sleeper car had a huge impact on the diner and they had trouble keeping up with demand. In fact, they closed the diner to coach passengers! The demand was so high that they required reservations for both lunch and dinner.

Now if they do add an extra sleeper on the Crescent in the future, I'm sure the diner could adjust. But this trip on Monday was interesting to say the least. My advice for those who ride LD trains with an extra sleeper. Get into the diner as early as possible.

 

[jis]

Put another way, it sounds like you're saying that Amtrak normally provides a meal that would receive a score of 60 out of 100. In other words, a big fat "F" in letter grade form. I really couldn't agree more. Glad we resolved that little dispute. ^_^

Not necessarily. Whether 60 will be an F or not depends on where the bell curve falls. I have taught courses where a 60 was a quite reasonable B, but we were known to set very tough open book tests. This was in a graduate Computer Science program of course. Students used to go bonkers until they received their letter grades.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Put another way, would you rather date a woman that was a 2 or a 6??

If dating has taught me anything at all, it's that I should probably tread carefully when asked to compare something as mundane as food preparation to something as complex as a woman. :excl:

Let's throw an IHOP order in versus Amtrak's breakfast

Just more proof that today's IHOP isn't that great of a value. What turned me off were the dry room temperature meats that have been sitting in a warmer forever and low-end processed toppings in the form of gelatinous goop from a plastic bucket. But at least they'll make fresh eggs and pancakes, so I guess they have that going for them. I also have a soft spot for their butter-pecan syrup for some reason. :wub:

Not necessarily. Whether 60 will be an F or not depends on where the bell curve falls.

I don't believe in bell curves. I'd fail the whole class if they all got 60's. Which is why I'd probably never be hired as a teacher. At least not here. -_-

 

[jis]

Not necessarily. Whether 60 will be an F or not depends on where the bell curve falls.

I don't believe in bell curves. I'd fail the whole class if they all got 60's. Which is why I'd probably never be hired as a teacher. At least not here. -_-

That is an irrational position. Grades have to be related to the level of difficulty of the test. There is nothing absolute about marks. But everyone has a right to be irrational I suppose

 

[user 1215]

That would be supposing that the testing was performed on material taught or even material could have been learned in the periphery of a cirriculum.

If a bell curve is necessary, so is a new teacher.

 

[jis]

That would be supposing that the testing was performed on material taught or even material could have been learned in the periphery of a cirriculum.

If a bell curve is necessary, so is a new teacher.

Yeah, actually a bell curve is not necessary. But at least in small classes you have to take into consideration what the net level of difficulty of the test was. a number score has no absolute meaning.

At least at post graduate level it was not unusual for what would be considered relatively low score to actually get a pretty high letter grade. OTOH it is also quite uncommon for people to get D's and F's at that level. But then again, in the Ph. D. qualifying exams in many good universities only about 25% to 40% ever manage to pass those.

 

[Anderson]

That would be supposing that the testing was performed on material taught or even material could have been learned in the periphery of a cirriculum.

If a bell curve is necessary, so is a new teacher.

Yeah, actually a bell curve is not necessary. But at least in small classes you have to take into consideration what the net level of difficulty of the test was. a number score has no absolute meaning.

At least at post graduate level it was not unusual for what would be considered relatively low score to actually get a pretty high letter grade. OTOH it is also quite uncommon for people to get D's and F's at that level. But then again, in the Ph. D. qualifying exams in many good universities only about 25% to 40% ever manage to pass those.

Well, and there is such a thing as an exam that has a couple of bad questions. I remember on one exam in a (small) public speaking class, the professor threw out about a dozen questions because nobody got them right (well, at least until one kid took the exam late and did very well...but the questions stayed thrown out). I've also known of some professors to design exams to be curved, simply because they know most kids will miss a certain number of questions...and others who design exams expecting a certain breakdown of grades (say, 30% As, 30% Bs, 30% Cs, and 10% Ds/Fs). A professor who consistently gives out 50% Ds and Fs may need to have a "talking to" (as he may well be adversely affecting his students' GPAs without merit), but one who is giving out 75-80% As probably needs that same sort of chit-chat. There's no such thing as a good "uniform" curve, but there should at least be a range.

 

[AlanB]

The demand was so high that they required reservations for both lunch and dinner.

The crew is supposed to do reservations for lunch no matter what the demand is like.

Only breakfast is supposed to be walk-in service.

 

[Bob Dylan]

The demand was so high that they required reservations for both lunch and dinner.

The crew is supposed to do reservations for lunch no matter what the demand is like.

Only breakfast is supposed to be walk-in service.

Depends on the Train Alan, I've NEVER had to make a Lunch Rez on the Texas Eagle North or Southbound, only for Dinner!(and that's a CCC, not a Full Diner!)

 

[Devil's Advocate]

That is an irrational position. Grades have to be related to the level of difficulty of the test. There is nothing absolute about marks. But everyone has a right to be irrational I suppose

Maybe it's best that I'm not a teacher then. :mellow:

All I know is that right now we have a system that fails both ends of the spectrum. Many of our brighter students are suffering sub-par educations in public schools scaled to the limited abilities of far less motivated students. Meanwhile, even the least accomplished students are put on erroneous college-bound paths that will likely result in half-completed degrees and lots of wasted money. By high school age if you're not showing college-level ambition you should be put on a more limited path that focuses on teaching a useful trade you don't need a college degree to acquire. Trying to send everyone to college is wasting huge amounts of time and money that could be better spent providing the less fortunate with more practical educations they can actually finish and reducing the class sizes and increasing the expectations of those who have shown themselves worthy of a serious degree. And then there's the rapidly expanding corporate college market like the University of Phoenix where the services are greatly reduced, the educational experience is substantially abbreviated, and the result is less respected. In addition motivated students are forced to pair up with unmotivated students and often do most of the "group work" just so they can get a passing grade themselves. And now we're busy laying off thousands more teachers in order to pay for our endless wars of opportunity. There's really no way to call the massive incomprehensible mess we've created a functional education system and it's getting worse all the time. -_-

 

[me_little_me]

That is an irrational position. Grades have to be related to the level of difficulty of the test. There is nothing absolute about marks. But everyone has a right to be irrational I suppose

Maybe it's best that I'm not a teacher then. All I know is that right now we have a system that fails both ends of the spectrum. Many of our brighter students are suffering sub-par educations in public schools tailored to the needs of far less motivated students. Meanwhile, even the least accomplished students are put on erroneous college-bound paths that will likely result in partially-completed degrees and mountains of debt. By high school age if you're not showing college-level ambition you should be put on a more practical path that focuses on teaching a useful trade you don't need a college degree to acquire. Trying to send everyone to college is wasting huge amounts of time and money that could be better spent preparing the less fortunate for educations they can actually finish and reducing the class sizes of those who have shown themselves worthy of a serious degree.

Wouldn't this discussion be best posted elsewhere?

 

[me_little_me]

The demand was so high that they required reservations for both lunch and dinner.

The crew is supposed to do reservations for lunch no matter what the demand is like.

Only breakfast is supposed to be walk-in service.

Could be but not my experience on the Crescent or on other LD trains I've been on in recent years.

 

[AlanB]

The demand was so high that they required reservations for both lunch and dinner.

The crew is supposed to do reservations for lunch no matter what the demand is like.

Only breakfast is supposed to be walk-in service.

Depends on the Train Alan, I've NEVER had to make a Lunch Rez on the Texas Eagle North or Southbound, only for Dinner!(and that's a CCC, not a Full Diner!)

No, Jim. I'm telling you what the crew is supposed to be doing.

The fact that they don't do it on some trains doesn't change the fact that under the procedures outlined in SDS they are supposed to be taking lunch reservations.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Does Amtrak differentiate the procedures and expectations of a CCC from a traditional diner or are they considered to be drop-in replacements for each other? I know in my experience the CCC appeared poorly laid out and that this seemed to require substantially more effort to feed the same number of folks. How do the single-level diners differ from either?

 

[AlanB]

Does Amtrak differentiate the procedures and expectations of a CCC from a traditional diner or are they considered to be drop-in replacements for each other? I know in my experience the CCC appeared poorly laid out and that this seemed to require substantially more effort to feed the same number of folks. How do the single-level diners differ from either?

If I'm understanding the question correctly, SDS proceedures apply to all trains (except the EB & AT and maybe now the CS) without regard to what type of food service car is in the consist.

 

[Big Iron]

That is an irrational position. Grades have to be related to the level of difficulty of the test. There is nothing absolute about marks. But everyone has a right to be irrational I suppose

Maybe it's best that I'm not a teacher then. :mellow:

All I know is that right now we have a system that fails both ends of the spectrum. Many of our brighter students are suffering sub-par educations in public schools scaled to the limited abilities of far less motivated students. Meanwhile, even the least accomplished students are put on erroneous college-bound paths that will likely result in half-completed degrees and lots of wasted money. By high school age if you're not showing college-level ambition you should be put on a more limited path that focuses on teaching a useful trade you don't need a college degree to acquire. Trying to send everyone to college is wasting huge amounts of time and money that could be better spent providing the less fortunate with more practical educations they can actually finish and reducing the class sizes and increasing the expectations of those who have shown themselves worthy of a serious degree. And then there's the rapidly expanding corporate college market like the University of Phoenix where the services are greatly reduced, the educational experience is substantially abbreviated, and the result is less respected. In addition motivated students are forced to pair up with unmotivated students and often do most of the "group work" just so they can get a passing grade themselves. And now we're busy laying off thousands more teachers in order to pay for our endless wars of opportunity. There's really no way to call the massive incomprehensible mess we've created a functional education system and it's getting worse all the time. -_-

As me little me suugests this may be best discussed elswhere the topic is here and now so I'll take a swing. The school disctrict my children go to separates the academically gifted students through gifted programs and center based schools specializing is a specific curriculum. The average student has the option of college diploma or a vocational diploma. My son excelled academically and went to a school that focused on math/science which prpeared him well as he is pursuing an electrical engineering major at Virginia Tech. It prepared him well and his is doing fine. He started college as a second semester freshman which saved greatly on tuition. He just informed me he got a 38 on some sort of circuits test that curved to a B. Amen to the curve. My niece is less gifted academically. She is doing well in culinary arts training having done well in high school at the Vo-Tech school. It's all what you make of it, both are happy as clams in mud. Thank God for a great school system where we live.