boxcarsyix
Service Attendant
Took #6(6/27) to Chicago (2 hours late out of Sacramento). SCA was wonderful, volunteered to get ice from the diner, juice, water and coffee available. I left a day early and booked a hotel room in Chicago because I did not trust the connection with the cardinal on 6/30. It's good thing I did, #6(6/28) was 12 hours late into Chicago (I don't think #5 made it to Califronia on 6/27). We kept loosing time and then we were rerouted over UP through Iowa due to flooding. We continued to loose time and then our UP engineer timed out 10 miles short of Chicago adding to our already very blown timetable. We arrived in Chicago nearly 14 hours late. They had enough food from the regular menu (limited selections) to feed the sleeper passengers . Coach passengers had the beef stew. I got to spend half a night in my hotel, but I did make the #50 the next day. It did however, cost me an extra 5000 points to split the trip.
The trip on the Cardinal turned out to be a great ride. The weather did not interfere with the scenery. Service was OK (not as good as the Zephyr). This was my first trip on a Viewliner and I agree with the decision to remove the toilets from the roomettes. Awfully difficult to use with the berth made up. Food in the Diner Lite was OK for what it was. Juice and water were available for the asking, although I only used 2 bottles of water.
We were 3 hours late into Washington where I transferred to #66 into Providence.
Business Class on #66 was not the 2 + 1 Cafe car, but a full BC car. Everyone who wanted to had a pair of seats so the night was fairly comfortable.
Except for the awful on time performance and a short night in Chicago, the trip was pretty good. The weather was good or acceptable for most of the parts that mattered and (thanks to forsight) I did make all my connections.
The trip on the Cardinal turned out to be a great ride. The weather did not interfere with the scenery. Service was OK (not as good as the Zephyr). This was my first trip on a Viewliner and I agree with the decision to remove the toilets from the roomettes. Awfully difficult to use with the berth made up. Food in the Diner Lite was OK for what it was. Juice and water were available for the asking, although I only used 2 bottles of water.
We were 3 hours late into Washington where I transferred to #66 into Providence.
Business Class on #66 was not the 2 + 1 Cafe car, but a full BC car. Everyone who wanted to had a pair of seats so the night was fairly comfortable.
Except for the awful on time performance and a short night in Chicago, the trip was pretty good. The weather was good or acceptable for most of the parts that mattered and (thanks to forsight) I did make all my connections.
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