Advice Requested on Cross-Country Trip

[frugalist]

Mrs. Frugalist and I are planning to take an Alaska cruise in Summer 2011. We are planning to take Amtrak between our home near Sebring, FL and either Seattle, WA or Vancouver, BC. Bedrooms all the way thanks to AGR.

Which route would be best taken westbound, and which would be best taken eastbound? Right now everything is very flexible, including dates. My question at this point is how to get the most out of the beautiful scenery we'll be passing. One primary objective we want to keep focused on is to maximize our time on the train. Another is to take as many different routes as we can.

Right now the plan calls for one direction to include:

Silver Meteor to or from NYP

Lake Shore Limited to or from CHI

Southwest Chief to or from LAX

Coast Starlight to or from SEA/VAN.

To get a change in scenery, we'd like to plan a different route the other way:

Coast Starlight to or from SAC

California Zephyr to or from CHI

Capitol Limited to or from WAS

Silver Meteor to or from SBG.

Knowing the expertise here on this forum, I'm sure we'll get lots of great input. Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

 

[zephyr17]

A couple of suggestions, one is to take the CZ westbound. It is much more "guaranteed" you'll get the best scenery westbound, because of the morning climb up the Front Range leaving Denver. The scenery is about the same both directions on the Southwest Chief.

The other is to lay over in Seattle and not take the Starlight's connecting bus to VAC (that is the correct station code fo Vancouver, BC -- VAN is Vancouver, WA about 250 miles south of BC). Take the Cascades service the next morning SEA-VAC. It is much more scenic and comfortable than the bus. Also, I don't know how I'd feel about a 2 1/2 - 3 hour bus ride late at night after spending quality time on the Starlight.

 

[pennyk]

After a lot of research and "consulting" with the AU experts, I have routed my cross country trip as follows (with stops in Denver on the way to Seattle and West Glacier on the way home):

ORL-WAS: Silver Meteor 98

WAS-CHI: Cardinal 51

CHI-SAC: CZ 5

SAC-SEA: CS 14

SEA-CHI: EB 8

CHI-WAS: CL 30

WAS-ORL: Silver Meteor 97

From Seattle, it is easy to get to Vancouver.

My WAS-CHI segment on the Cardinal is going westbound, which I understand is not best direction to take the Cardinal since it may be dark when we pass the best scenery. I have already taken the CL and Lakeshore Limited westbound and wanted to try another train. The logistics do not work connecting from the Cardinal eastbound to the Silvers back to Florida.

I had a great time planning my trip and the advice I received here was wonderful. :wub:

 

[spot1181]

Outbound, take the Southwest Chief to Los Angeles, then same day connection to the Coast Starlight to Seattle. Extra night on the train, no cost, which you can't do eastbound since you would have to overnight in Los Angeles.

 

[JayPea]

A good part of the fun is in the planning stages! It looks like you have a great trip planned!

 

[Guest]

:hi: Totally agree with the previous posters as follows: Take the CL to CHI, catch the CZ going West, check out the California Rail Museum during your layover in SAC, then up the coast to SEA on the CS, spend a night (or more, SEA is nice in the Summer!), then the Cascades Train to Vancouver! Upon your return ride the CS again all the way to SAC,take the thruway to LAX where you can catch the SWC to CHI, then catch the Cardinal to to WAS, Silver Train to Florida! You really cant go wrong,all these trains are first rate!Were envious! ^_^

 

[frugalist]

Lots of good suggestions so far. I knew I could count on you guys. Of course this creates even more questions.

Regarding the CZ vs. SWC westbound: I'm leaning towards the SWC since it would allow us to experience the full run of the CS up to SEA. Then on our return, we would take the CZ eastbound from SAC. What scenery would we potentially miss taking the CZ eastbound that we would be more guaranteed to catch on the CZ westbound? Is that worth the tradeoff of missing the southern part of the CS run?

Regarding the Card vs. CL eastbound CHI-WAS: What are the advantages of one over the other? I see the following: Card is a longer run by 5.5 hours. We would ride the CL for its full run. The only part of the Card run we would miss would be WAS-NYP, which we plan to ride on the SM on our outbound trip. What about the scenery eastbound? Which is better?

I'm intrigued by the idea of taking as many LD trains for their full runs as possible. This trip will be our first venture away from the Silvers and the NEC on Amtrak. The way I see it, we can ride the full runs of SM (except MIA-SBG), LSL, SWC, CS, CZ (except EMY-SAC, which we would ride on the CS) and either Card (except WAS-NYP) or CL this trip. That's quite a large percentage of Amtrak's routage in one shot!

Planning is, indeed, a large part of the fun of a trip. It certainly works to build up the anticipation. Keep the ideas coming!

 

[Bob Dylan]

:hi: Nice trip! Decisions,Decisions,Decisions! Since Ive be on all these trains except the Silvers I'll give you my opinion FWIW:

The CL and the Cardinal are better routes than the LSL,you catch both in WAS as opposed to the hassle of NYP!The Cardinal scenery is really worth it through the New River Gorge and the mountains and rural parts of W.VA, even Virginia. Heading East from CHI is the way to go on the Card, it gets dark earlier going East and this train is late alot.The Card uses single level cars,(Viewliner sleepers and has a diner-lite) just like the Silver trains.

The Cap Ltd. has pretty nice scenery once the sun comes up when you get through Ohio, it is Superliner Equipment, going East from CHI is the best way to ride this one! Except for the Hudson River I cant think of any real reason to ride the LSL from NYP-CHI??

Definitely the CZ needs to be ridden going West as the others have said, youll miss some of the Rockies if you ride it from California-CHI!The SWC doesnt really matter either way as was said.

The real dilema comes with the CS,I suggest that you ride the CZ CHI-SAC, head up to SEA/VAN,upon your return (remember SEA-VAN is a special route, biz class is only 1,500 points)youll have to spend the night in SEA, catch the CS to LAX but this will require an overnight in LA also, you would have to pay for this part of the trip or else use a one zone AGR award, I dont know how many points you have but three zone bedrooms are 50,000 each which would mean 100,000 plus 6,000 for the SEA-VAN return! SEA-LAX would be another 20,000 for a total of 126,000 minus the AGR discount (5% after 7/31/10, 10% before.)Thats not bad for such a great Long trip!If you havent bought your 10,000 points, you can get them for $275, also your wife, if she has an account can buy 10,000 for a total of $550,then she could transfer them to you for $100 (1C a point!) for a total of $650, a bedroom could easily @ high bucket cost $1,500!Remember the award covers 2 people (4 if the family room w/kids)except on special routes where its 1,500 each for biz class. Decisions,Decisions,Decisions!

 

[zephyr17]

Just a reminder that Vancouver, BC is station code VAC. VAN is Vancouver, WA, which is just across the Columbia River from Portland, OR, and is something over 250 miles from Vancouver, BC. Since it is AGR, you'll be booking with a human being and not the website, but it is still a good idea not to get them confused. I've run into people on the Cascades that have messed up their reservations over this.

PS - reiterating WESTBOUND on the CZ. The ride is good either way, eastbound but even in the summer, if the train is at all late, the spectacular ride down the Front Range above Denver will be in the dark.

 

[frugalist]

OK, I think you guys have convinced me the CZ westbound is the way to go.

Outbound, we'll probably stick with the LSL. Personally, I would enjoy the ride through New York State. Raised there. Spent many working years there. Penn Station don't scare me none! I realize the trip through NY west of Utica will be in the dark, but that's ok. I'll be passing though a lot of memories.

Coming back home I see we can book a 1-zone bedroom award SEA-ABQ. Arrow's routing is CS SEA-SAC, Ambus SAC-Stockton, San Juaquin Stockton-BFD, Ambus BFD-LAX, SWC LAX-ABQ. Then book a 2-zone reward continuing on the same SWC ABQ-CHI, Cardinal to WAS, then the SM back home to SBG. No overnight in LAX on our dime. No extra 1-zone reward trip. Very convoluted routing SEA-ABQ. We like adventures.

Thanks so much for all the great ideas and suggestions. I'm heading to the station in less than 4 hours to catch the SM for my first-ever long-distance train trip. Going to BAL and WAS for a few days of quality time with my adult son. I'll be back on line Friday evening, the 23rd. I'll try to post a trip report when I get back.

 

[RailFanLNK]

So glad you picked the CZ westbound. I was onboard a CZ that was running 12 hours late due to flooding in 10/2006. There was a tour group onboard and they were livid that they weren't getting to "see" the Rockies. I've also heard the Cardinal EB is the way to go allthough I have not personally experienced it. Have fun on this trip and the one you are about to go on!