Hello,
I'm delighted to find this forum. I grew up taking the California Zephyr every summer from Oakland, CA to Burlington, IA to see my grandparents. And now I have children, two girls in their teens, who actually want to take the train!
I need your advice about sleeping accommodations on the Coast Starlight. We'll be traveling either from Seattle or Portland down to Emeryville. There will be three of us, all about 5'8" tall. We currently have a bedroom booked upstairs, but I'm having second thoughts, as my daughters and I laid out 40" wide to see if two of us could huddle together in the lower bunk, and it seems tight! Also, I'm not sure which side the bedroom (D) will be on, whether it will have the best view going south.
Would you recommend we get two roomettes across from one another instead, so as to maximize viewing pleasure and give each of us a bunk (plus a spare for luggage?) It's also cheaper. Two roomettes would be $300, whereas the bedroom is $400 and the family bedroom (another temptation) is $500.
Another question, though, in terms of view, is can we expect to have those lovely Parlor Cars to spend day time in? How do we get seats there, and is one side better than another?
And last but not least, do you recommend we board at Seattle? We'll be visiting family there, but my husband has to return rental car to Portland which is where we flew in originally, and he's flying home from there. So we could ride with him back to Portland and board there instead...just means we have to leave a bit earlier to make the Seattle train and leave him alone for his drive!
Thanks so much! So excited to share the train with my daughters!
I'm delighted to find this forum. I grew up taking the California Zephyr every summer from Oakland, CA to Burlington, IA to see my grandparents. And now I have children, two girls in their teens, who actually want to take the train!
I need your advice about sleeping accommodations on the Coast Starlight. We'll be traveling either from Seattle or Portland down to Emeryville. There will be three of us, all about 5'8" tall. We currently have a bedroom booked upstairs, but I'm having second thoughts, as my daughters and I laid out 40" wide to see if two of us could huddle together in the lower bunk, and it seems tight! Also, I'm not sure which side the bedroom (D) will be on, whether it will have the best view going south.
Would you recommend we get two roomettes across from one another instead, so as to maximize viewing pleasure and give each of us a bunk (plus a spare for luggage?) It's also cheaper. Two roomettes would be $300, whereas the bedroom is $400 and the family bedroom (another temptation) is $500.
Another question, though, in terms of view, is can we expect to have those lovely Parlor Cars to spend day time in? How do we get seats there, and is one side better than another?
And last but not least, do you recommend we board at Seattle? We'll be visiting family there, but my husband has to return rental car to Portland which is where we flew in originally, and he's flying home from there. So we could ride with him back to Portland and board there instead...just means we have to leave a bit earlier to make the Seattle train and leave him alone for his drive!
Thanks so much! So excited to share the train with my daughters!