Trip Report: California Zephyr #5 CHI-TRU

[Nick Farr]

So excited to be taking my not-quite-one-year-old on their first Amtrak trip with their Mom and Grandpa!

Looks like the Metropolitan Lounge is kind of back in business. Canned sodas, chilled and sparkling water on tap. Coffee from the urn, but the espresso machine was not running.






Seeing near perfect mask compliance in CUS.

I'm going to try posting this as a thread as I go along as opposed to trying to get it down all at once. Hope the mods don't mind.

 

[Nick Farr]

Mommy and Baby love the Pennsylvania Room!

 

[Nick Farr]

On time departure! Our party of three is in two roomettes across from each other in the 540 car (Transition Sleeper) from CHI to GSC, when we switch to a Regular Bedroom.

For now, we're in car 39039, a Superliner II transition Sleeper.



Grandpa has been a huge model railroad fan but has never traveled across the country before. It'll be the first time Raven meets their cousins. Mom and I have done this voyage in the Winter, so it'll be her first time seeing the trip without snow on the ground!

The transition sleeper seems half full coming out of CHI. It sounds like we're the only ones with a scanner.

We were told they're taking dinner reservations



We're just waiting for the conductor to take our tickets! One weird thing, probably because we have two sleepers on our ticket, our car and room number did not appear in the app!

 

[Nick Farr]

Wooooow. That was the best dinner I ever had on Amtrak. The steak was really great quality, cooked perfectly rare. The cheesecake was perfect.

Along with the presentation, it's way better than Traditional Dining prior to the Flex Dining switch.

 

[Cal]

Wooooow. That was the best dinner I ever had on Amtrak. The steak was really great quality, cooked perfectly rare. The cheesecake was perfect.

Along with the presentation, it's way better than Traditional Dining prior to the Flex Dining switch.

Stop making me hungry!

 

[Nick Farr]

The store in Grand Junction looks like it's been refreshed. Two registers, looks very bright and clean and the folks there were doing a swift business. Cigarettes are $15 (Smokers: Is that expensive?)

The personalities of the OBS, if they come out, always seem to come out after Denver. Jerzy is our LSA and has been an absolute riot. Martin is running the lounge and the two of them are having a great time on the PA.

Jerzy comes around to each sleeper to take dinner reservations. We've had to get wait-list spots for first-come, first-served Breakfast and Lunch since we started out in the Transition Sleeper (540 car.)

Chris was the conductor between Denver and Grand Junction and did a great job managing the seating in the sightseer lounge. Chris also ran a photography contest and narrated a bit about the mudslide damage in Glenwood Canyon.

 

[basketmaker]

The store in Grand Junction looks like it's been refreshed. Two registers, looks very bright and clean and the folks there were doing a swift business. Cigarettes are $15 (Smokers: Is that expensive?)

Twice the price of the bad habit in the Denver metro area for me.

 

[20th Century Rider]

The store in Grand Junction looks like it's been refreshed. Two registers, looks very bright and clean and the folks there were doing a swift business. Cigarettes are $15 (Smokers: Is that expensive?)

The personalities of the OBS, if they come out, always seem to come out after Denver. Jerzy is our LSA and has been an absolute riot. Martin is running the lounge and the two of them are having a great time on the PA.

Jerzy comes around to each sleeper to take dinner reservations. We've had to get wait-list spots for first-come, first-served Breakfast and Lunch since we started out in the Transition Sleeper (540 car.)

Chris was the conductor between Denver and Grand Junction and did a great job managing the seating in the sightseer lounge. Chris also ran a photography contest and narrated a bit about the mudslide damage in Glenwood Canyon.

Love going into Dave's when on the CZ. Just for fun I go up to the clerk and ask... "Hey, remember me? I came through here last year." [That always gets a laugh!]

 

[20th Century Rider]

Wooooow. That was the best dinner I ever had on Amtrak. The steak was really great quality, cooked perfectly rare. The cheesecake was perfect.

Along with the presentation, it's way better than Traditional Dining prior to the Flex Dining switch.

These are great posts... thanks for sharing with us! ‼

 

[caravanman]

An enjoyable read! Nice family pics too.

I would be interested to know about mask wearing compliannce in the coach cars, if you venture that way?

 

[Nick Farr]

Well, it wouldn't be Amtrak if it were perfect.

We were on time right up until a passenger and her five kids were booted off the train in Provo for mask non-compliance. Law enforcement were dispatched.

Unfortunately, the Vaccum system in our car stopped working right around then. Long story short, because Grandpa has to get up a lot during the night and baby can be a light sleeper, we snagged a roomette for him.

 

[Nick Farr]

An enjoyable read! Nice family pics too.

I would be interested to know about mask wearing compliannce in the coach cars, if you venture that way?

Really depends on the conductor. There's a lot of uncovered noses. Total compliance around 70%

 

[Willbridge]

Stiffest enforcement in coach on a recent trip was GJT>DEN, which includes the GSC>DEN heaviest load on the route, so it makes sense. The only people I saw maskless were eating/drinking.

 

[Nick Farr]

Stiffest enforcement in coach on a recent trip was GJT>DEN, which includes the GSC>DEN heaviest load on the route, so it makes sense. The only people I saw maskless were eating/drinking.

Chris, our DEN>GJT conductor was lenient but fair on it. His announcements were politely asking for compliance while giving people some outs. However, our GJT>SLC conductor was "per the contract of carriage", which may have had something to do with the problem they inherited and ended up alighting via law enforcement at Provo.