The good, bad and the ugly

I recently wrote a post about our adventures traveling from California to Colorado and Utah (check out the post here), spending three days and nights out of 11 on an Amtrak train!

We have traveled a good bit, but never had experienced a sleeper car on a train. It sounded romantic and something to mark a milestone birthday- so why not?

We flew to San Francisco, spent a full day there, then took the California Zephyr from Emeryville (just across the bay) to Colorado.

California Zephyr Leg 1: Emeryville, CA to Grand Junction, CO

The station there is cute, and it’s very easy to get checked in. But the people on the platform directing us? They totally treated us like children. “You cannot get on the train until you speak to an attendant”. “Did everyone hear me?” “What do you need to do before you get on the train?” Seriously. It was condescending at best.

But we had a funny attendant named Roman on our car. He got our bags situated on the luggage rack, pointed us to our car, and made announcements occasionally about dining times and when he could help transform our rooms from seats to beds.

Space and Packing.Thank goodness we could keep our luggage on a rack, because the roomette was tight! Check out how close our legs are in these seats!

There was barely room for my backpack and his small bag. So note, if you have a roomette, get everything you’ll need for your trip into your smaller duffle bag or backpack ahead of time. You only really need pajamas, a change of clothes and toiletries, nightly medicine, snacks, playing cards, book, etc.

Map. What I found somewhat annoying, was that there was no map of the layout of the train- ie, where you are with regard to bathrooms, dining and observation. Or what there even IS to know about…we had a little cafe where you could buy snacks and such too- good to know!

I literally drew my own map below if it’s helpful for you! Each train is slightly different, but generally the cars are in the same order.

We basically just wandered around until we found things, but walking through the cars can be pretty rocky sometimes, FYI. You just have to hang on to the walls or seats and do your best!

Observation Car. We enjoyed this car best. It’s very roomy with huge windows for great views, something I was there to see. There were rules about how to sit (not skip chairs or spread all your stuff over empty chairs), and I don’t usually love rules (as you can tell). But this was actually sensible because there weren’t a huge number of seats to go around, and everyone wanted to sit in there. The scenery was incredible.

The scenery out the train windows is amazing. But it annoyed me that the staff didn’t point out the great things to see! Roman was like, “did you see the river…” and we had already passed it! You don’t know what is coming up around the bend worth seeing, so you don’t know which side of the car to sit on. That’s kind of important, since I mentioned even getting a seat is a competition!

Dining. Meals are included if you have a sleeper car. We tried to confirm this on the Amtrak site and it was not clear, so just be aware. It was actually pretty good food – steak is apparently something they are known for- my husband ordered it and it was delicious. I got chicken which was also good, but the steak- excellent. So be sure to order it if you like steak. Sometimes they ask you to sign up for your dinner time, but other times meals are just first come, first served.

Also be aware that you dine with other people, which as an introvert I had some issues with at first. I did really rely on my husband’s extroverted nature to help the awkwardness. But I soon found the other guests to have very interesting lives, and it was more fun meeting new people than I expected.

When we returned to our roomette and the bed was set up- it was even more cramped than when the seats were in place. I did offer to sleep on the top bunk (since I do yoga and am more agile), but just couldn’t do it with how close the top of the bed was to the ceiling! It was like sleeping in a tanning bed, and my poor husband had to do it!

The room does have outlets, reading and night lights, adjustable temperature gauge, a locking door and curtains to use over the windows and door.

Just no space!

A larger Amtrak bedroom is really expensive, and with everything else we were spending on this trip, we didn’t think it was worth it. But apparently you can ‘bid’ to get a full bedroom, ie put your name and price you’ll pay into a lottery. Two couples we met did this and ended up getting a full sized room for a lot less than the regular cost. We would definitely consider it if we try this again.

Sleeping is next to impossible, and you hear people getting on and off the train in the night. You do have a curtain and closable door, but it was still loud at times, and the rocking of the train can be pretty severe, too. Peeing at night is of course a pain-especially if you’re on a top bunk.

Disruptive Routines. What I found to bother me was not having my regular routines in morning and evening. For example I usually wear pajamas, but after the first night decided to just sleep in a comfy dress. You have such a small space in which to dress, or otherwise do any skincare/hygiene. I have a pretty serious routine with flossing, moisturizing, etc- and if you’re like me, you just have to not stress over it. Just understand you might be without makeup and wearing the same clothes for a while.

I just kept thinking that we’d be staying at great hotels the nights we were off the train, that would more than make up for the tiny rooms. And they really did.

Bathrooms are SUPER small, like airplane bathrooms. My claustrophobia makes these hard for me, personally, and I spend as little time here as possible. I found one larger bathroom on the lower level by the cafe in the trains we rode, so do check that out.

Despite the difficulties sleeping, I would say this first leg of the trip on Amtrak was decent!

We spent lots of time visiting Colorado and Utah, stayed at a resort and a glamping tent, toured Arches National Park, took a wine trolley…spent so many great days that we really enjoyed. Then it was time to get BACK on the train where we exited a few days earlier in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Zephyr Leg 2: Grand Junction, CO to Chicago, IL

This was going to be the trickier part of the trip, with TWO nights in sleeper car.

This time it was easier getting on, finding our train and room number, etc, but we had no known attendant at all, and had to go looking for a luggage rack.

Rules. No one gave us any announcements or information at all, and we were expecting lunch at 11:30 (like on the last car), but didn’t serve it until 12. No big deal, but this is when we learned of the dining room drill sergeant! “Do not walk through MY dining room. Wait to be seated, I repeat…”

Given the layout of the train has sleepers first, then dining cars, observation cars, then coach seats…when you’re in a sleeper room, you have to walk through the dining hall ALL the time. And she did not like that one bit.

There were announcements of other rules, too. I understand the need to remind people the train is no smoking, but ‘you will be ejected from the train…’ ?? It’s bit harsh. And odd warnings about using ‘foul language’ and keeping your feet off the chairs.

I thought it was way overboard. Most of the travelers were people our age (50+), so there was hardly a need for these warnings anyway.

Communication. Since there wasn’t an attendant, we didn’t know if or when they would prepare the bedroom, but when we went back after dinner, it was just done. We only had one blanket and pillow, and asked somebody walking by for them, and still didn’t have them by bedtime. We finally found them down by our luggage. Weird.

Inconsistencies. Because Chicago is the end of the line and where they restock food, clean cars and change up staff, they started shutting things down early, like allowing for less time for lunch, and literally kicking people out of the observation car at least an hour before Chicago.. Because it’s the last stop, they also ran out of ice (?) and delicious butter cakes we loved. The grill was broken the last night, so no steak (which I was hoping for)!

Metropolitan Lounge in the Chicago station was the highlight that ended this leg of the trip. Sleeper car guests have access to this space to wait for your next train in luxury (well not luxury, but higher end than I would have expected). Free snacks, drinks, a coffee bar, and really comfy seats.

The Floridian: Chicago, IL to Pittsburgh, PA

This last (sleeper) train, called the Floridian (because it goes to Miami), was actually better. There was an attendant this time (you just never know) who helped with bags etc. We got on the train like 7 pm, so thought there wouldn’t be any dinner served- so we ate at the station. Then it turned out they did, in fact, serve dinner, so we missed out on that. There’s just always confusion when there’s a lack of communication.

We had to get off at around 4:45 AM in Pittsburgh, so we didn’t bother to have the beds turned down that night. It wasn’t at all comfortable sitting up, but you can deal with it  for one night.

The Pennsylvanian: Pittsburgh to Altoona, PA.

This was just a regular passenger train with no sleepers. I was happy we had opted for Business Class, because we boarded first, and had more legroom than standard coach. So totally worth it. It’s hard to sleep sitting up, but I think I actually dozed off a bit after the night before.

Back home in beautiful northeast PA.

Would we take the train again? We may, but with these considerations.

• Check out the bidding process to get a larger full bedroom with its own bath. We hear of people this worked well for, so it would be worth a shot. A larger room would alleviate a lot of my discomforts with cramped quarters.
• Our itinerary dictated that we do our trip this way, getting on and off the Zephyr and multiple trains back to PA. But if you can stay on for one leg of the trip, even if it’s longer. Changing trains was a pain, but more than this, the people and rules are different each time. We had to keep adjusting for those differences, which made it confusing.
• Use packing cubes (see my post on packing for a beach vacation), where one cube contains train items, easily transferable to your backpack in the roomette.
• Take full advantage of time off the train to stay in nice hotels and get sleep.
• Fill out the comment forms. I’m not sure why some workers had attitudes, but it’s important you voice the issue, or any others you have while riding the train-it can only help them improve!

Have you traveled with Amtrak? I’d love to hear your experience!!