Coast Starlight Breakfast

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Rachel

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My parents are traveling from Seattle to Denver on the Amtrak. The coast starlight comes into Sacramento at about 6:15am and they get off to change trains. Will they be able to get a quick breakfast in before getting off the Coast Starlight?
 
Rachel said:
My parents are traveling from Seattle to Denver on the Amtrak. The coast starlight comes into Sacramento at about 6:15am and they get off to change trains. Will they be able to get a quick breakfast in before getting off the Coast Starlight?
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In a word, no. Generally speaking, breakfast isn't served until 6:30.

Furthermore, there is quite a bit of padding built into the Coast Starlight's schedule approaching Sacramento. Frequently the train arrives there well before 6 a.m., sometimes as much as 45 minutes in advance.

So unfortunately, the train would have to be running very, very late for your parents to be able to get breakfast on the Starlight.
 
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If they were able to adjust their schedule to detrain at the next stop (Davis), they would fine several nice cafes just a block or two from the station for a sit-down breakfast for the 3-hr wait for the Calif Zephyr.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
fairviewroad said:
Rachel said:
My parents are traveling from Seattle to Denver on the Amtrak. The coast starlight comes into Sacramento at about 6:15am and they get off to change trains. Will they be able to get a quick breakfast in before getting off the Coast Starlight?
Click to expand...
In a word, no. Generally speaking, breakfast isn't served until 6:30.

Furthermore, there is quite a bit of padding built into the Coast Starlight's schedule approaching Sacramento. Frequently the train arrives there well before 6 a.m., sometimes as much as 45 minutes in advance.

So unfortunately, the train would have to be running very, very late for your parents to be able to get breakfast on the Starlight.
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Thank you for your answer.
 
Please have them consider the Davis suggestion! They can stay on the Train without being rushed and as was said there are good breakfast places and the lovely old SP Station is a better place to wait for the Zephyr than the underrehab Sacramento Station!
 
jimhudson said:
Please have them consider the Davis suggestion! They can stay on the Train without being rushed and as was said there are good breakfast places and the lovely old SP Station is a better place to wait for the Zephyr than the underrehab Sacramento Station!
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They are using their amtrak rewards so i dont think they can choose to take that route.
 
Although I've yet to make my CZ trip work out, I read many threads last year in trying to plan one. Based on that information, I will second the Davis motion. From what I learned, Davis is an attractive destination.
 
Rachel said:
jimhudson said:
Please have them consider the Davis suggestion! They can stay on the Train without being rushed and as was said there are good breakfast places and the lovely old SP Station is a better place to wait for the Zephyr than the underrehab Sacramento Station!
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They are using their amtrak rewards so i dont think they can choose to take that route.
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Posts crossed. I think you may be right.
 
They can however purchase a COACH ticket on the CS from SAC to DAV and a COACH ticket from DAV to SAC on the CZ. If they ask the SCA, they most likely can stay in their room until DAV. Upon boarding the CZ, they most likely can occupy the room. I've done this.
 
Sorry about that, AGR used to allow you to connect with the Zephyr in Emeryville, Martinez or Davis but now the only Guaranteed Connection is Sacramento! They could buy a Roundtrip Coach ticket SAC-DAV-SAC and if no one had booked their room out of SAC stay in their room and also upon return from Davis occupy their room if none had booked it to SAC? Many of us have done this!

Unfortunately the area around the Sacramento Station is very quiet in the morning and there are few places to eat!There is a Riverboat Hotel with a Restaurant on the River in Old Sacramento next to the Station and several Posts have mentioned and ex Dennys that's open for breakfast in the area!

The Sacramento Station is under rehab but there is a seating area reserved for sleeping car passengers inside the Lobby! Also you use a long tuunel to/from the Station to reach the Platforms for Amtrak!

Google up info on the area around the Station. There have been several threads here on AU also!
 
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jimhudson said:
Sorry about that, AGR used to allow you to connect with the Zephyr in Emeryville, Martinez or Davis but now the only Guaranteed Connection is Sacramento!

They could buy a Coach ticket from Sacramento to Davis and if the Starlight was running late just bail i

n Sacramento and cancel the Coach ticket!

Chances are they may be able to stay in their room if nobody booked it out of Sacramento, lots of us have dine this many times!
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Is there a way to book that online or would you have to call? When they use their points they were only going to be using one zone worth of points. And online when you put seattle to denver there is only one choice.
 
The trip from SAC to Davis is only 15-20 minutes ! They would have 4 Hours in Davis which is much more pleasant than Sacramento!

As Dave said they can book it online as Paid Coach tickets! If for some reason the Starlight runs very late, since the Guaranteed Connection from the Starlight is in Sacramento they could bail in Sacramento and cancel their paid Coach tickets for a refund or voucher credit long as it is done before the Trains leave the Station!
 
If you can book on into Davis or Martinez do so by all means as Sacramento is a toilet compared to those 2 stops. And if you are running behind you can always bail at SAC. When doing this connection that way it is best not to have any checked baggage.

A couple years ago the Booking Agent allowed me to book the connection at Martinez but we lost so much time overnight we ended up having to jump ship in SAC and sit it out there for a couple hours. That was my second time connecting there which is one time too many :)
 
crescent2 said:
Rachel said:
jimhudson said:
Please have them consider the Davis suggestion! They can stay on the Train without being rushed and as was said there are good breakfast places and the lovely old SP Station is a better place to wait for the Zephyr than the underrehab Sacramento Station!
Click to expand...
They are using their amtrak rewards so i dont think they can choose to take that route.
Click to expand...
Posts crossed. I think you may be right.
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When did this change? I was allowed this connection (CS to CZ in Davis) on a trip taken in February this year.
 
I'm not sure exactly when, but I've read about it in a thread or two here just recently. Last year when I was trying to get a CZ trip lined up, DAV was allowed. I don't know why they only allow SAC now. From many posts on AU, SAC isn't nearly as pleasant as DAV.
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
If you can book on into Davis or Martinez do so by all means as Sacramento is a toilet compared to those 2 stops. And if you are running behind you can always bail at SAC. When doing this connection that way it is best not to have any checked baggage.
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If you check baggage in SEA/PDX/etc to DEN/etc, your bags would transfer at SAC anyway.
 
crescent2 said:
I'm not sure exactly when, but I've read about it in a thread or two here just recently. Last year when I was trying to get a CZ trip lined up, DAV was allowed. I don't know why they only allow SAC now. From many posts on AU, SAC isn't nearly as pleasant as DAV.
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It's due to the rule change that only published routes are allowed as AGR redemptions.
 
I was only allowed the SAC connection from the CS to the CZ in March and Anthony confirmed for me that this was now a rule from the folks in operations.

I actually enjoyed SAC. We got there around 5:15 AM. I had breakfast at a cute English restaurant called the Fox and the Goose. It was about a mile walk past the state Capitol building. I was able to store my luggage at the baggage room for the day.

There is a Starbucks next to the station for those that don't want to explore. I found the city to be perfectly fine but I did wait for the sun to come up before exploring. This meant I had to sit in the station for about an hour.
 
I will add that someone on flyertalk was able to get the connection in EMY so as always with Amtrak and AGR YMMV.
 
jimhudson said:
Sorry about that, AGR used to allow you to connect with the Zephyr in Emeryville, Martinez or Davis but now the only Guaranteed Connection is Sacramento! They could buy a Roundtrip Coach ticket SAC-DAV-SAC and if no one had booked their room out of SAC stay in their room and also upon return from Davis occupy their room if none had booked it to SAC? Many of us have done this!

Unfortunately the area around the Sacramento Station is very quiet in the morning and there are few places to eat!There is a Riverboat Hotel with a Restaurant on the River in Old Sacramento next to the Station and several Posts have mentioned and ex Dennys that's open for breakfast in the area!
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The former Denny's is occupied by a regional chain restaurant.

http://www.perkos.com

There was a place across from the California State Railroad Museum called "Harvey House" that served breakfast. I almost bought a Groupon-like offer, but they folded fairly quickly. They were going for a Fred Harvey feel.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/harvey-house-sacramento-3

Honestly it is kind of sad around this area. You'd think there would be decent places to get breakfast, but there aren't many. Not even a McDonald's.
 
The first time I transferred there the Denny's was still going and it wasn't anything to write home about when compared to other Denny's. The Perkos does look a step or 2 better based on the menu but not enough to make me want to connect in SAC.
 
There is also Jim Denny's which is a local breakfast place with giant pancakes. It's a few blocks from the station.
 
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