Coast Starlight

[gswager]

I'm in a process of making a plan from Modesto, CA to San Luis Obispo, CA. I'm taking ACE commuter train from Modesto (Lathrop) to San Jose and then hop on Coast Starlight.

I do aware that the wine tasting is open to coach passengers for $10, if I'm right. Which approx. station the wine tasting will start, southbound?

 

[Guest*inspiration100]

and another question relating to this... how long does it last for coach passengers?

 

[Rob_C]

I think it depends how on-time the train is. For our late train 11, it began just a little bit before San Luis Obispo. But then I seem to recall it starting as early as Salinas too...

Rob

 

[the_traveler]

It is run sometime between lunch service and dinner service - maybe starting somewhere like 3 or 3:30. So it depends on the OTP, not a certain station.

 

[yarrow]

i don't believe it is a guarenteed opportunity for coach passengers but is offered only if all the tickets are not sold to sleeper pax.

 

[jackal]

The northbound wine tasting was started just after we departed San Luis and began climbing the Cuesta Grade.

The southbound one was...er, was...gosh, for the life of me, I can't remember! I was so enthralled with talking with chuljin (who deserves credit as the generous soul who paid for my tasting!) and our new mutual friend Richard from TrainWeb that I lost track of time. In fact, we were so busy discussing trains and people Richard and I both knew on the Alaska Railroad that the wine tasting sort of took a back seat to our conversation, and I can't remember where one stopped and the other started.

I'm thinking it was perhaps just after we departed San Luis, though. Our train was on-time, FWIW.

Edit: I may have mentioned the wine tasting time in my trip report linked in my signature. The computer I'm on is too slow for me to check, though...

 

[sechs]

Is the wine tasting done both days? I thought that it was only done the first afternoon out of Los Angeles and Seattle.

 

[jackal]

Is the wine tasting done both days? I thought that it was only done the first afternoon out of Los Angeles and Seattle.

I had it both northbound (which would be the first afternoon) and southbound (which would be the second afternoon).

The attendant said they do four tastings per trip (two north and two south), though I got conflicting information about whether different wines were featured for the two tastings done in each area (CA n/s and OR n/s)--i.e. whether there are 8 or 16 wines in total.

 

[the_traveler]

Is the wine tasting done both days? I thought that it was only done the first afternoon out of Los Angeles and Seattle.

I had it both northbound (which would be the first afternoon) and southbound (which would be the second afternoon).

The attendant said they do four tastings per trip (two north and two south), though I got conflicting information about whether different wines were featured for the two tastings done in each area (CA n/s and OR n/s)--i.e. whether there are 8 or 16 wines in total.

On my southbound trip, they did 2 tasting. The 1st day featured wines from OR and WA. The 2nd day featured wines from CA.