Dining on the Cardinal

[njdon]

I hope someone will be willing to describe how 'dining lite' works on the Cardinal for sleeping car passengers. Are there set meal times or are sleeping car passenbers able to eat at anytime? Any insight would be appreciated. I'm taking the Cardinal on June 5th from Trenton, NJ to Chicago.

Thanks

 

[Long Train Runnin']

Well for breakfast lunch the attendant will go through the car and say First call for breakfast/lunch Around trenton breakfast will start so I'd imagine you could eat shortly after getting onboard. Then lunch will start and your attendant will make a first call and a last call. Diner you make a reservation for. Then the last breakfast before Chicago is again a first and last call deal.

 

[njdon]

Well for breakfast lunch the attendant will go through the car and say First call for breakfast/lunch Around trenton breakfast will start so I'd imagine you could eat shortly after getting onboard. Then lunch will start and your attendant will make a first call and a last call. Diner you make a reservation for. Then the last breakfast before Chicago is again a first and last call deal.

Thank you very much!!

 

[SouthernServesTheSouth]

We rode the Cardinal this past week. Our sleeper attendant would stop by each room that had occupants that were awake and let them know when the cafe car was open for breakfast. At lunch they would announce on the PA when they started serving and then give last call later. As stated by LTR above, reservations were taken for supper.

I must say both my wife and I were pleased by the food served and also the dining room attendant's attitude. Just don't order the pizza.

They managed to get us fed and even wrapped up desert for us when we had to leave the train due to a freight derailment.

Fortunatly the derailment was between Clifton Forge and Charlottesville. The eastbound #4 passengers were bussed to the waiting West bound #3 that was turned in Charlottesville to go back to NY as #4. I suspect the westbound passengers on #3 were bussed to Clifton Forge to board the turned #4 which became #3 I don't know this as fact since there were no west bound passengers in Charlottesville when we arrived.

My car was in Charlottesville, so I ended my week long train journey on a bus.

 

[Rafi]

Depending on the crew, they may only give you one seating time for meals in the dining section of the Diner/Lounge car. I took the Cardinal eastbound from Chicago to Baltimore this past Thursday/Friday and that's how they handled it. No reservations--just a "come and get it" call.

I wish it could have been a little more flexible, but in talking to the staff, I understood the dilemma they were in as the LSA was handling the Cafe side of things and the dining steward was handling both cooking and table service duties.

That said, they were able to accommodate sleeping passengers who wanted to eat in their rooms at different times since the sleeping car attendant handled the food delivery for that arrangement.

Rafi

 

[Long Train Runnin']

Just don't order the pizza.

:lol: :lol: Thats funny I had the pizza of the day for diner boy I agree that was a mistake. Not that its terrible its just not that good since its a microwaved frozen pizza.

 

[njdon]

We rode the Cardinal this past week. Our sleeper attendant would stop by each room that had occupants that were awake and let them know when the cafe car was open for breakfast. At lunch they would announce on the PA when they started serving and then give last call later. As stated by LTR above, reservations were taken for supper.
I must say both my wife and I were pleased by the food served and also the dining room attendant's attitude. Just don't order the pizza.

They managed to get us fed and even wrapped up desert for us when we had to leave the train due to a freight derailment.

Fortunatly the derailment was between Clifton Forge and Charlottesville. The eastbound #4 passengers were bussed to the waiting West bound #3 that was turned in Charlottesville to go back to NY as #4. I suspect the westbound passengers on #3 were bussed to Clifton Forge to board the turned #4 which became #3 I don't know this as fact since there were no west bound passengers in Charlottesville when we arrived.

My car was in Charlottesville, so I ended my week long train journey on a bus.

Thank you for the information.

 

[njdon]

Depending on the crew, they may only give you one seating time for meals in the dining section of the Diner/Lounge car. I took the Cardinal eastbound from Chicago to Baltimore this past Thursday/Friday and that's how they handled it. No reservations--just a "come and get it" call.
I wish it could have been a little more flexible, but in talking to the staff, I understood the dilemma they were in as the LSA was handling the Cafe side of things and the dining steward was handling both cooking and table service duties.

That said, they were able to accommodate sleeping passengers who wanted to eat in their rooms at different times since the sleeping car attendant handled the food delivery for that arrangement.

Rafi

Thank you all for the information. I really like this forum and hope to make helpful contributions in the future.

 

[the_traveler]

I took the Cardinal twice in the last few months - in October and in March. On the October trip, they took all the sleeper passengers all at once for dinner. ("If you want dinner, follow me!") On my March trip, I was specifically told that I can go to dinner whenever I wanted - before 9 PM (when they stopped serving). Breakfast and lunch was come when you want.