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As long as there are still unvaccinated people and a pandemic running rampant among them (it's as bad among the unvaccinated as it has ever been), I'll be eating in my room.

Once the pandemic is actually under control, I'll go back to eating in public.
 
For those who just truly can't stomach communal dining - you can always eat in your room.

IndyLions, you make some excellent points, especially about the dining car economics.

I used to love getting out of my room, meeting a variety of people—all different and all interesting—and learn about their different occupations and different areas of the country.

However, I think some of us who used to love communal dining, and may again, are not quite ready for it yet because of the pandemic.

After a year of keeping my distance from everyone, I am just getting used to allowing people within six feet of me on the sidewalk.

I am sure I read way too many of the articles last year about all the disgusting germs people breathe on each other all the time, which I’d never thought about before, and I’m just not ready to have strangers breathing, sneezing, or coughing on my food. (I’m sure some would feel the same about me😊.) I’m not ready to even go inside a restaurant yet, let alone sit next to a stranger at a meal.

if I traveled now, I would have meals in my room, which is a bit ironic because I never used to because I though the pull-down tables were old and dirty and did not pull them out.


However, I hope to feel differently in another year or so and travel LD again and have meals in the dining car. It’s just an adjustment period some of us are going through more slowly than others.

Heck, if I go any slower, maybe the eastern trains will have real food by the time I’m ready!😁
 
IndyLions, you make some excellent points, especially about the dining car economics.

I used to love getting out of my room, meeting a variety of people—all different and all interesting—and learn about their different occupations and different areas of the country.

However, I think some of us who used to love communal dining, and may again, are not quite ready for it yet because of the pandemic.

After a year of keeping my distance from everyone, I am just getting used to allowing people within six feet of me on the sidewalk.

I am sure I read way too many of the articles last year about all the disgusting germs people breathe on each other all the time, which I’d never thought about before, and I’m just not ready to have strangers breathing, sneezing, or coughing on my food. (I’m sure some would feel the same about me😊.) I’m not ready to even go inside a restaurant yet, let alone sit next to a stranger at a meal.

if I traveled now, I would have meals in my room, which is a bit ironic because I never used to because I though the pull-down tables were old and dirty and did not pull them out.


However, I hope to feel differently in another year or so and travel LD again and have meals in the dining car. It’s just an adjustment period some of us are going through more slowly than others.

Heck, if I go any slower, maybe the eastern trains will have real food by the time I’m ready!😁
I feel the same way. I have had my 2 shots of Moderna but I am still taking baby steps about being out in public and I still wear a mask. There is no way I want to take the risk of getting even the lowest case of Covid, or get the flu or cold from some one. So my meals will be brought to my roomette in Sept. And I will be double masked getting to the train and to my roomette. Call me paranoid, but until the percentage of vax people goes up, I will be extra careful. I am traveling this yr because we cancelled last yr.
 
The capacity for the Dining Car would plummet, and the economics of the dining car would get even worse.

The dining car capacity has already been lowered sincd they are now only for “passengers in private rooms.” Not sure how the economics would change at all.

As to the “Big Boy Pants” - I feel that is very unnecessary. I’ve eaten in Amtrak and VIA dining cars many times. I would prefer the option of dining alone when I felt like it. One of the many reasons i loved dining in the Parlour Car!
 
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What can I say? I have already committed the sin of eating my Dinner and Breakfast in the Diner of the Silver Meteor. There was hardly anyone there. The guy across the hall from my Roomette, who kept his door open quite a bit was closer to me than anyone in the Diner. Given the statistics for the vaccinated I don't really feel all that exposed anymore. But then again I don't go out of my way to be in a crowd yet either. If the Diner starts getting crowded there is always the option to retreat to ones Roomette.
 
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As to the “Big Boy Pants” - I feel that is very unnecessary. I’ve eaten in Amtrak and VIA dining cars many times. I would prefer the option of dining alone when I felt like it. One of the many reasons i loved dining in the Parlour Car!
This. I too have enjoyed meals with others on my LD trips, however sometimes you just want to dine alone or with your own party.
 
While I am fully vaccinated withe Pfizer vaccine, as others have said, I am taking baby steps in being out and about. If I was traveling by train currently, I would take advantage of communal dining because I also enjoy meeting people from different areas of the country, indeed the world, in the dining car. Even before the pandemic, being seated side by side with someone was not something that I would choose to do. Why? Not because of concern about their "germs". but because the seating in those booth seats is "tight" in my opinion.
 
I took two TE trips recently - 22 on May 18/19, and 21 yesterday/today. Oddly different protocols - on 22, the SCA told me I could either eat dinner in the diner (if it was not too busy) or have it brought to my room (which I did). It was the flex meal, I got the pasta and meatballs, they were not terrible but were not flat-iron steak (and no salad on that run, a cooler fail took out some of the cold things - also no yogurt for breakfast). I ate breakfast in the diner the next day, they were seating people alone or with the groups they were traveling with. It was fine. They were also kinda relaxed about masks.

Coming back, yesterday, we were told: all meals are in your rooms, you can *only* have the mask off if both the door and the curtain are closed (I didn't test that, I just closed the door and curtain). Had the pasta again figuring it was okay the first time, and I was unwilling to try one of the "beef" dishes or the cod. Had oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast and I had to add the hot water myself to the oatmeal (on the trip up, Mark, the dining car guy, brought it already prepared).

I really hope the full diner is coming back. I want to go back and visit my mom again in July (because I've not been up there in over a year) but it would be really nice to get a proper meal.

It was a regular diner coming up, a CCC coming back - in fact, we had to pick up our breakfasts from the "cafe" car. And all the seating was blocked off
 
I took two TE trips recently - 22 on May 18/19, and 21 yesterday/today. Oddly different protocols - on 22, the SCA told me I could either eat dinner in the diner (if it was not too busy) or have it brought to my room (which I did). It was the flex meal, I got the pasta and meatballs, they were not terrible but were not flat-iron steak (and no salad on that run, a cooler fail took out some of the cold things - also no yogurt for breakfast). I ate breakfast in the diner the next day, they were seating people alone or with the groups they were traveling with. It was fine. They were also kinda relaxed about masks.

Coming back, yesterday, we were told: all meals are in your rooms, you can *only* have the mask off if both the door and the curtain are closed (I didn't test that, I just closed the door and curtain). Had the pasta again figuring it was okay the first time, and I was unwilling to try one of the "beef" dishes or the cod. Had oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast and I had to add the hot water myself to the oatmeal (on the trip up, Mark, the dining car guy, brought it already prepared).

I really hope the full diner is coming back. I want to go back and visit my mom again in July (because I've not been up there in over a year) but it would be really nice to get a proper meal.

It was a regular diner coming up, a CCC coming back - in fact, we had to pick up our breakfasts from the "cafe" car. And all the seating was blocked off

Amtrak Flex Dining = be flexible because each crew will make up their own rules!!!
 
Amtrak Flex Dining = be flexible because each crew will make up their own rules!!!
That applies to absolutely any dining on Amtrak, not just Flex. They could just call the whole thing an "Unforgettable Dining Adventure", tongue firmly planted in the cheek of course.
 
Will have quite the comparison on my upcoming trip. Will have flexible dining all the way west on the zephyr and traditional dining coming back on the Chief on the 26th I will make sure I send pictures and thoughts.
Please let us know how they seat passengers in the dining car on the Chief. The menu on the Chief looks really good. And I am very curious about whether they have a coffee pot in the roomette cars for us.
Have a wonderful trip.
 
One of Amtrak’s biggest challenges getting back on its feet is going to be to reimagine the Acela product in a post pandemic world - business travel will never return to what it was - which means Acela must shift gears to leisure - which means lower fares including for first class.
We all predict the future. We are rarely right. If we could do it reliably, we'd be too rich to care.

It might be that Acela will take more business business from the airlines as the airlines squeeze that passengers - even the big payers - more and more. I was shocked on my last first class trip prior to Covid - seats with no more leg room than coach used to be.
 
I took two TE trips recently - 22 on May 18/19, and 21 yesterday/today. Oddly different protocols - on 22, the SCA told me I could either eat dinner in the diner (if it was not too busy) or have it brought to my room (which I did). It was the flex meal, I got the pasta and meatballs, they were not terrible but were not flat-iron steak (and no salad on that run, a cooler fail took out some of the cold things - also no yogurt for breakfast). I ate breakfast in the diner the next day, they were seating people alone or with the groups they were traveling with. It was fine. They were also kinda relaxed about masks.

Coming back, yesterday, we were told: all meals are in your rooms, you can *only* have the mask off if both the door and the curtain are closed (I didn't test that, I just closed the door and curtain). Had the pasta again figuring it was okay the first time, and I was unwilling to try one of the "beef" dishes or the cod. Had oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast and I had to add the hot water myself to the oatmeal (on the trip up, Mark, the dining car guy, brought it already prepared).

I really hope the full diner is coming back. I want to go back and visit my mom again in July (because I've not been up there in over a year) but it would be really nice to get a proper meal.

It was a regular diner coming up, a CCC coming back - in fact, we had to pick up our breakfasts from the "cafe" car. And all the seating was blocked off


With the door already closed, why in the world would they also demand that the curtain be closed?
 
While I am fully vaccinated withe Pfizer vaccine, as others have said, I am taking baby steps in being out and about. If I was traveling by train currently, I would take advantage of communal dining because I also enjoy meeting people from different areas of the country, indeed the world, in the dining car. Even before the pandemic, being seated side by side with someone was not something that I would choose to do. Why? Not because of concern about their "germs". but because the seating in those booth seats is "tight" in my opinion.
Exactly! Never liked side by side with a stranger. A pretty girl..well I could handle that
 
Will have quite the comparison on my upcoming trip. Will have flexible dining all the way west on the zephyr and traditional dining coming back on the Chief on the 26th I will make sure I send pictures and thoughts.
Flexible dining and traditional dining are 180 from each other. You will certainly appreciate traditional dining on your return.
 
With the door already closed, why in the world would they also demand that the curtain be closed?
Because thaee are a number of power-hungry staff who like to make up their own rules. This has always been the case on Amtrak - no consistency. There are Standards Manuals but some Amtrak employees think they are only a suggestion. It has nothing to do with Covid. It has to do with a lack of management on trains.
 
The dining car capacity has already been lowered sincd they are now only for “passengers in private rooms.” Not sure how the economics would change at all.

As to the “Big Boy Pants” - I feel that is very unnecessary. I’ve eaten in Amtrak and VIA dining cars many times. I would prefer the option of dining alone when I felt like it. One of the many reasons i loved dining in the Parlour Car!

This. I too have enjoyed meals with others on my LD trips, however sometimes you just want to dine alone or with your own party.

My “Big Boy Pants” wording was certainly over the top, and maybe a bit rude. So my apologies.

It is perfectly reasonable to prefer dining alone or in a smaller party. Unfortunately, that’s just not going to happen with traditional dining on Amtrak.

The trains are going to be full, the diners are going to be packed, and they’re not going to double or triple the number of seatings so that people can sit by themselves. It’s just not going to happen.

If you want to eat in the diner post-Covid - with rare exceptions it will be communal or nothing.
 
The trains are going to be full, the diners are going to be packed

The diners are not going to be packed if they are only seating passengers “in private rooms.”

My hope is that if they aren’t going to let coach passengers use the diner that at least they will offer private tables.
 
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It is perfectly reasonable to prefer dining alone or in a smaller party. Unfortunately, that’s just not going to happen with traditional dining on Amtrak.

The trains are going to be full, the diners are going to be packed, and they’re not going to double or triple the number of seatings so that people can sit by themselves. It’s just not going to happen.

If you want to eat in the diner post-Covid - with rare exceptions it will be communal or nothing.
Yeah, hopefully they continue to allow you eat in your room. I do think it would be reasonable to be allowed to dine alone in the later seating where enough tables are available. Obviously not going to happen most of the time.

My hope is that if they aren’t going to let coach passengers use the diner that at least they will offer private tables.
I certainly do hope coach will be able to eat in the diner.
 
I certainly do hope coach will be able to eat in the diner.

It’s what SHOULD happen, but it doesn’t sound like that will happen. The plan, apparently, is to eventually let coach passengers pre-order the entrees that can be picked up and eaten at their seat.
 
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It’s what SHOULD happen, but it doesn’t sound like that will happen. The plan, apparently, is to eventually let coach passengers pre-order the entrees that can be picked up and eaten at their seat.
As the coach passengers' dining car reservations were taken last it'll be interesting to learn whether pre-ordering will give we afterthought coach passengers a better choice of mealtimes. Often at the later serving times commonly left over for coach passengers the diner is out of menu items.

I've always enjoyed communal seating, but I grew up with it on trains, in ships, in the Army and in European restaurants. I get the impression that fear of coach passengers or of communal seating is a relatively recent phenomenon, with the exception of course in certain parts of the country of the race issue.
 
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