My g/f took her first Amtrak a few months back on the Heartland Flyer from FW to OKC and back. She was OK with it, but I knew she could be more impressed, so we took the Texas Eagle from FTW to SAS for a Memorial Day-her birthday-celebrate my reelection trip.
We planned this trip back in December, knowing it could have also been a trip to lick our wounds had the election turned out differently, but I digress...............
When booking the trip, we got roomette # 20 both ways, but when we got to the station on Saturday for the ride to SAS I was rudely surprised to find that I had somehow reserved the roomette for FRIDAY instead of Saturday. The ticket agent did some fancy footwork to refund me the full price and get us two coach seats to SAS. The roomette was reserved for the correct day coming back. Just to show that nothing happens by accident, we had a thoroughly enjoyable time on the trip down! There were Trails and Rails folks on the trip in the sightseer, so we spend nearly all the time there and had a blast. We learned some things about the route, played a "north side of car vs south side of car" Texas trivia contest and the g/f and I really enjoyed the trip.
Train had arrived at FTW 42 min early, so we boarded and left on time. nothing too eventful to Cleburne, and then we moseyed to sightseer. Chatted with some folks from St. Louis, and read the paper, drank some of our own brought on board Diet Cokes, and listened to the info from the trails and rails folks. Made each and every stop a little early. boarded folks at every stop except Cleburne. Right after leaving Temple, we started the trivia game and it lasted till 5:30 when the trails folks (and the g/f and I) had dinner rez. I had the steak, Margie had the pork loin. Both were good and tasty. The cost was less than the roomette cost, so we were good on prices! Service was fine, no problems at all. Ate with a couple from Chicago who were in a room and were dieting, so they ordered deserts on their room and gave them to us. That was nice!
After dinner we went back to our coach seats to relax. Seems that in Austin a couple boarded and sat across from us who were from Tampa Fla. The lady was Hispanic (Puerto Rican) and Margie (my g/f) is Mexican, so they started yakking in Spanish. Her husband told me they had been married 25 years and he had never learned Spanish. So, he and I had something in common. I mentioned to him that we were returning in a roomette, and he wanted to try that, so I told him to get on Amtrak.com ASAP.
We arrived in SAS over an hour early!!!!
Margie and I had a fine time in San Antonio, her sister came up from Brownsville to see her, and we went out shopping all of one day. Man those women can shop! We stayed at Best Western Sunset Suites just about a quarter mile from Amtrak station, nice hotel, good breakfast, good rate from hotel.com, but no pool. Via stops right outside the door, and hotel sells via passes. We went to Market Square and ate at Mi Tierra first day out. We went walking Riverwalk, took a walking tour after dark of the area narrated by a storyteller of folklore and history who was worth every one of the 15 bucks we paid him. Spurs won the game that night, and the streets were a madhouse after the game. We finally made the trek back to the hotel through the screaming bedlam of happy fans, and slept soundly.
Next day, we rode the via, and walked our feet into nubs, But we saw a lot of the city, Margie has never been to the Alamo before, and we rode to the top of the Tower of the Americas. Had a fine Mexican dinner and ate some gelato from a homemade gelato shop next door on the riverwalk. Got back a bit early and got ready for the trip back.
We walked to the Amtrak station and arrived at 6:20. I did not find the QT there, so I went to the desk to get our tickets. Since I was there, I went ahead and checked our bags, and kept the little carry on with our drinks, newspapers and snacks. We went outside to the line, and there was the folks from Tampa, who had gotten a roomette on line, and it was # 18 in the transdorm. Margie and I had # 20, so we were going to be neighbors. We all four got to the transdorm, and the SCA looked at the tix of our friends and got angry. He said roomette # 18 had been bad ordered since Chicago, bit nobody ever called our friends. Margie and I went into our room and listened to the crew discuss the situation. The conductor brought two maintenance guys in to look at room 18, and they said they could not fix it. The conductor told the SCA to tell our friends they would refund the cost and send them to coach. That was the last I heard until the train was underway......then Tom (our SCA) told us there had been a no-show in a roomette in the other sleeper, and our friends were in room #10. I was happy for them! Tom, the SCA, was good, kept us informed of what was going on, and we tipped him 5 bucks when deboarding.
Due to the bruhaha, we were late leaving SAS, left about 7:20. Met our friends for breakfast, and I had the french toast, margie had an omlette. Both were great! we went back to roomette and just relaxed a little. Margie poured herself a vodka and OJ about noon, and we again met our new friends for lunch at 12:30. Train was holding to being about 20 min late at all stops..........I had the burger, Margie had the "grilled" chicken, which turned out to be a chicken fried chicken breast, not "grilled" at all. She was OK with it, though. The burger was bland and cardboardy. All four of us went to sightseer after lunch. Our new friends had never rode Amtrak before this trip, and we showed them the ropes a bit. They did not know what the sightseer was. We got to FTW about 20 min late. We got off and left our bags checked in the station, walked around FTW for a while, got our bags, and boarded the TRE back to Irving to go home.
All in all, a good trip, Margie feels she can do an overnighter in a roomette, I have about 55k points, so someday we will do the CS in a roomette. I do believe I am making a train rider out of her, after all.
We planned this trip back in December, knowing it could have also been a trip to lick our wounds had the election turned out differently, but I digress...............
When booking the trip, we got roomette # 20 both ways, but when we got to the station on Saturday for the ride to SAS I was rudely surprised to find that I had somehow reserved the roomette for FRIDAY instead of Saturday. The ticket agent did some fancy footwork to refund me the full price and get us two coach seats to SAS. The roomette was reserved for the correct day coming back. Just to show that nothing happens by accident, we had a thoroughly enjoyable time on the trip down! There were Trails and Rails folks on the trip in the sightseer, so we spend nearly all the time there and had a blast. We learned some things about the route, played a "north side of car vs south side of car" Texas trivia contest and the g/f and I really enjoyed the trip.
Train had arrived at FTW 42 min early, so we boarded and left on time. nothing too eventful to Cleburne, and then we moseyed to sightseer. Chatted with some folks from St. Louis, and read the paper, drank some of our own brought on board Diet Cokes, and listened to the info from the trails and rails folks. Made each and every stop a little early. boarded folks at every stop except Cleburne. Right after leaving Temple, we started the trivia game and it lasted till 5:30 when the trails folks (and the g/f and I) had dinner rez. I had the steak, Margie had the pork loin. Both were good and tasty. The cost was less than the roomette cost, so we were good on prices! Service was fine, no problems at all. Ate with a couple from Chicago who were in a room and were dieting, so they ordered deserts on their room and gave them to us. That was nice!
After dinner we went back to our coach seats to relax. Seems that in Austin a couple boarded and sat across from us who were from Tampa Fla. The lady was Hispanic (Puerto Rican) and Margie (my g/f) is Mexican, so they started yakking in Spanish. Her husband told me they had been married 25 years and he had never learned Spanish. So, he and I had something in common. I mentioned to him that we were returning in a roomette, and he wanted to try that, so I told him to get on Amtrak.com ASAP.
We arrived in SAS over an hour early!!!!
Margie and I had a fine time in San Antonio, her sister came up from Brownsville to see her, and we went out shopping all of one day. Man those women can shop! We stayed at Best Western Sunset Suites just about a quarter mile from Amtrak station, nice hotel, good breakfast, good rate from hotel.com, but no pool. Via stops right outside the door, and hotel sells via passes. We went to Market Square and ate at Mi Tierra first day out. We went walking Riverwalk, took a walking tour after dark of the area narrated by a storyteller of folklore and history who was worth every one of the 15 bucks we paid him. Spurs won the game that night, and the streets were a madhouse after the game. We finally made the trek back to the hotel through the screaming bedlam of happy fans, and slept soundly.
Next day, we rode the via, and walked our feet into nubs, But we saw a lot of the city, Margie has never been to the Alamo before, and we rode to the top of the Tower of the Americas. Had a fine Mexican dinner and ate some gelato from a homemade gelato shop next door on the riverwalk. Got back a bit early and got ready for the trip back.
We walked to the Amtrak station and arrived at 6:20. I did not find the QT there, so I went to the desk to get our tickets. Since I was there, I went ahead and checked our bags, and kept the little carry on with our drinks, newspapers and snacks. We went outside to the line, and there was the folks from Tampa, who had gotten a roomette on line, and it was # 18 in the transdorm. Margie and I had # 20, so we were going to be neighbors. We all four got to the transdorm, and the SCA looked at the tix of our friends and got angry. He said roomette # 18 had been bad ordered since Chicago, bit nobody ever called our friends. Margie and I went into our room and listened to the crew discuss the situation. The conductor brought two maintenance guys in to look at room 18, and they said they could not fix it. The conductor told the SCA to tell our friends they would refund the cost and send them to coach. That was the last I heard until the train was underway......then Tom (our SCA) told us there had been a no-show in a roomette in the other sleeper, and our friends were in room #10. I was happy for them! Tom, the SCA, was good, kept us informed of what was going on, and we tipped him 5 bucks when deboarding.
Due to the bruhaha, we were late leaving SAS, left about 7:20. Met our friends for breakfast, and I had the french toast, margie had an omlette. Both were great! we went back to roomette and just relaxed a little. Margie poured herself a vodka and OJ about noon, and we again met our new friends for lunch at 12:30. Train was holding to being about 20 min late at all stops..........I had the burger, Margie had the "grilled" chicken, which turned out to be a chicken fried chicken breast, not "grilled" at all. She was OK with it, though. The burger was bland and cardboardy. All four of us went to sightseer after lunch. Our new friends had never rode Amtrak before this trip, and we showed them the ropes a bit. They did not know what the sightseer was. We got to FTW about 20 min late. We got off and left our bags checked in the station, walked around FTW for a while, got our bags, and boarded the TRE back to Irving to go home.
All in all, a good trip, Margie feels she can do an overnighter in a roomette, I have about 55k points, so someday we will do the CS in a roomette. I do believe I am making a train rider out of her, after all.
Last edited by a moderator:
Since the Eagle is my "Home" Train (I have ridden over 200 times) I sure can picture the Route as you described it! Ive stayed in the Best Western by the Station also and it is a good place to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the Riverwalk! Your mention of the Starlight makes me want to leave today! I suggest that yall take the Eagle/Sunset (#421) to LAX/transfer to the Starlight all the way to the Bay Area!( 2 Zone Award/20,000Points for a Roomette/19,000 if you have an AGR MC) For your return take the California Zephyr to Galesburg/Thruway to Springfield and Eagle to DFW Area! :wub: (you could also go all the way to SEA on the Two Zone Award and take the Empire Builder to CHI or even transfer in PDX to the Builder to Wolf Point, Montana on the same 2 Zone Award! 
