Dreading California Zephyr dining car

[pebbleworm]

I'm taking another transportation, as opposed to "land cruise" trip on the CZ, and am wondering what recent dining car experiences have been. After a trip last July where eastbound staff served only one table at a time, and westbound were so slow that the only dinner reservations for sleeper pax were after 8:00 PM by the time they got to the last car I am really dreading the diner and planning to bring my own supplies. What have the diners been like lately?

Thanks in advance!

 

[rickycourtney]

The service in the diner was good on my trip last September. I remember the staff was nice, but clearly trying to move the tables quickly.

On a related note... I know that Amtrak has really focused on trying to improve the level of customer service on this train over the past few years. I thought it showed.

 

[Everydaymatters]

The dining car was good on my trip in March. One of the servers regularly got orders mixed up and I thought maybe she was new, but she'd been doing this for several years. Everyone was pleasant and I was always able to get the first seating.

Your trip in July was during a very busy season for Amtrak. That could have been the cause for your late seating.

 

[Shanghai]

We traveled on the CZ from Chicago to Emeryville and return in March

and found the diner very suitable. At times, it was crowded and service

was a bit slow but acceptable due to the conditions.

 

[TVRM610]

I rode the Zephyr twice in the past 6 months from Chicago to Omaha (for work). Both times I had dinner and was more than pleased with service and food. Amtrak as a whole has improved with Customer Service greatly the last few years. On all my trips lately (including 8 long distance trains in the past 4 months) I've only encountered 1 truly bad dining car crew (coast starlight) and last fall there was one lazy and so-so crew on the Capitol.

Other than that it's been mostly 5 stars for me. Specifically the Empire Builder, City of New Orleans, and Crescent. Service and Food on those 3 trains (the particular crews that

served me) were spot on.

 

[Notelvis]

I was on the California Zephyr Chicago - Sacramento in February.

Meals in the diner were really pretty decent. Service was pleasant but 'spotty'.

The dining area was staffed by the LSA and two wait persons which typically would be enough for a February trip BUT on this particular run there was a group with more than 40 people traveling and the sleepers were full. It became evident by the second meal that one of the wait persons was much better organized and more efficient than the other so from that point on everyone tried to time their reservation requests to wind up on his end of the diner.

Again, the staff was entirely pleasant...... just that orders sometimes got mixed up and things bogged down on that one side.

 

[Railroad Bill]

Last September we rode the CZ round trip to Salt Lake City and return. On our return trip we had dinner with two Amtrak PR people who were surveying service and opinions of the train. A very enjoyable dinner as we explained our inconsistent experiences on Amtrak LD trains. She was very interested in our thoughts and wrote down and recorded some of our conversations. She said that Amtrak wanted to make the CZ a quality train and that efforts were being made to improve service on the CZ and all Amtrak rides.

We also met her again in Sanford, Fla in January while riding the Auto Train. It seems there is an effort to address some of the inconsistencies in service. I believe the key is to weed out the few incompetent employees who give Amtrak a bad name with some riders. We at AU are pretty open minded about service problems but I know of two first time riders who will not ride again because of their bad experiences with employee behaviors.

Overall, our meals on the CZ have been pretty good in the last few years, but our first ride was a disaster from EMY to CHI back in 2007 which I am sure left many riders looking for an airplane for their next ride.

 

[Shanghai]

I failed to mention that on our westbound trip from Chicago to Emeryville last March,

a giant rock fell from the mountain about 4 hours west of Denver and hit one of our

engines. We were delayed over 4 hours in the canyon without power, then when

a Union Pacific freight engine replaced our damaged engine, we continued on to

Emeryville. We arrived 9 hours and 32 minutes late, but the crew did an outstanding

job in the dining car and sleepers. It is also my opinion that most of the passengers

understood the difficulty and were not too upset.

 

[City of Miami]

It seems to me that on my last several LD trips meals have been averaging about an hour and a half with long lapses between everything - and since I'm almost always in sleeper, I don't even have to wait for the LSA to come accept my money.

 

[Bob Dylan]

My trips on #5 and #6 have had what I consider "Average" service from the OBS! The Best Scenery but the Food, Equipment, OTP and the Crews Should Be Upgraded if Amtrak wants this too be Considered a "Premium" Route!

 

[fairviewroad]

from that point on everyone tried to time their reservation requests to wind up on his end of the diner.

How does one manage to do that?

 

[chakk]

Passenger loads on the CZ can double in the peak seasons (for example, summer versus February). And regardless of the passenger load, there will only be one dining car on the train, so the total number of dinner seatings may be inadequate to serve all passengers in peak season. On one of my trips aboard #5 a few years ago, the crew had an extra dining car attendant from Chicago to Helper, UT, who detrained there, overnighted in a Helper hotel, and was added to the dining crew the next morning on #6 eastbound.

 

[SubwayNut]

Dinner on my last CZ trip was too fast. I was taking it on Super Bowl Sunday DEN to SLC in coach with a light load, I had maybe gotten to two bites of salad before my roast chicken was served.

 

[A.J.]

My last trip on the CZ was in January; the meals were tasty and the servers were super nice.

The woman in charge seemed a little abrasive at first, but once you got to know her a little she was friendly, funny and went out of her way to make people happy. I forgot that the small pizza offered in the lounge is on the children's menu and she caught me taking one back to my room for lunch one day. She seemed genuinely distressed that I had paid for something I could have gotten for free (as I was in a sleeper).

The food itself was always good, hot, and served in a timely manner. I had two especially tasty breakfasts, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend eating in the dining car. Hopefully you will have a good trip!

 

[cirdan]

The woman in charge seemed a little abrasive at first, but once you got to know her a little she was friendly, funny and went out of her way to make people happy. I forgot that the small pizza offered in the lounge is on the children's menu and she caught me taking one back to my room for lunch one day. She seemed genuinely distressed that I had paid for something I could have gotten for free (as I was in a sleeper).

I think I know the one you mean. When I travelled (in Nov '11) she was pretty straight spoken which might have upset the more sensitive minded but once you got beyond that she had a heart of gold.

 

[TrainLoverJoy]

I am on the Zephyr right now.....and all running smoothly in the diner car.

 

[PaulM]

Most of the respondents seemed to have missed the July part. I just got off #5 in Denver and also had no complaints.

But last July when we boarded #6 in Denver (the train arrived early), we weren't even given a reservation with a time on it, just group #2. I found out why. It would have been embarrassing to give us a 10:00PM reservation. The problem was definitely in the kitchen because food was very slow coming up. I couldn't fault the wait staff because there wasn't much for them to do but take orders and refill drinks.

No, the problem wasn't caused by the full train or the number of dining cars. Basic queueing theory tells you that the average waiting time for a service is determined by the number of customers per unit time and the number of services (meals) that CAN be produced per unit time. But number of meals that can be produced per unit time is not affected by the number of customers, rather by the number and efficiency of chefs.

It was explained at the time that Amtrak had forgotten to check the manifest and add a second cook.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I know that Amtrak has really focused on trying to improve the level of customer service on this train over the past few years. I thought it showed.

Showed in which ways exactly?

I had dinner and was more than pleased with service and food. Amtrak as a whole has improved with Customer Service greatly the last few years.

Improved in which ways exactly? Fresher? Fancier? Friendlier?

Other than that it's been mostly 5 stars for me. Specifically the Empire Builder, City of New Orleans, and Crescent. Service and Food on those 3 trains (the particular crews thatserved me) were spot on.

I've had more than a couple "five star" style meals over the years. They've come from a wide range of cuisines and cost anywhere from $5 to $500. I could write an entire essay about what was so good about each and every single one of those meals. For some reason folks enjoying five star Amtrak meals often have little or nothing to say about what exactly made their meals so great. That they were edible? That the train didn't derail while dining? That they woke up the next day?

The woman in charge seemed a little abrasive at first, but once you got to know her a little she was friendly, funny and went out of her way to make people happy.

That sounds like a wonderful job. You get to act abrasive until your customers take the time to impress you enough to treat them with genuine hospitality. The CZ was the train where I heard two SCA's talking about tips. One was concerned losing tips to picky riders while the other claimed that customers are simply predisposed to tip you or not and that the size of the tip has nothing to do with how much you help them or ignore them. One time I asked an SCA on the CZ if she had any water bottles available while making my way to the sightseer. She replied "No, YOUR people must have taken them all!" I presume this was intended to refer to people in another car, but it also made me wonder if perhaps she was referring to something else entirely. In another incident on the CZ I had an SCA suddenly start shouting at me (loud enough to wake the whole entire car) about how one of my towels had landed on the floor of the shower instead of the towel bag. Yeah, sorry, didn't mean to leave anything for a paid employee to bother with. Ugh. The CZ is an absolutely georgous and beautiful route plagued by a lousy and lazy crew. Or, in AU speak, it's a "five star" experience all the way.

She seemed genuinely distressed that I had paid for something I could have gotten for free (as I was in a sleeper).

In my limited experience the kids menu is generally off limits for adults, sleeper or not, unless they staff specifically allows. Which usually means they've simply run out of everything else.

 

[City of Miami]

Were it not for the 4493 posts I'd think that D.A. sounds an awful lot like Texas Sunset, and of course the San Antonio designation rings true. I noticed that TX SS hadn't posted in a good long while.......wonder what happened to him.

 

[TVRM610]

Devils Advocate.... We (you and me) have been over this before... Once I went into great detail about my meal and you never responded.

My "five star" term that you quoted wasn't meant to imply that Amtrak dining cars are 5 star restaurants... I meant 5 stars for Amtrak standards. I too have eaten in a few 5 star (actually even 4 diamond level) restaurants and I don't know of any train that serves food anywhere close to that level. Certainly nothing in North America.

Yes... In recent years amtrak dining cars have gotten better food. The Bob Evans Breakfast Scramble was just re-heated.... Now you can get fresh scrambled eggs, and on some trains fresh pancakes. Is it perfect? No. But just a few years ago you could not get a steak grilled to order.

And i have noticed a huge change in on board customer service.... As in friendly, more professional, etc.

 

[cpamtfan]

I agree with City of Miami on that subject.

As for the topic. I just think pleasing every person is not attainable. 5 stars to one person may be 0 to another. Some may enjoy for the experience, others may hate everything about it. I think DA is one of those who you can almost never please with ANYTHING from what I've seen. Might as well just shut Amtrak down its sounds so bad from his account..

 

[greatcats]

The last time I rode the CZ over two years ago I had very good to excellent service, in particular, by Mildred Johnson, who was recognized on the Amtrak Ink paper several months ago. I do not consider the cuisine on Amtrak diners to be five star by any definition, but most of it is pretty good. And several months ago, the steak on the Capitol was delicious.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

DA & Texas SS are one in the same (surprised?). He found you can change the displayed name to something other than your user name. DA is aptly more fitting for him.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Were it not for the 4493 posts I'd think that D.A. sounds an awful lot like Texas Sunset, and of course the San Antonio designation rings true. I noticed that TX SS hadn't posted in a good long while.......wonder what happened to him.

See this link: http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?app=members&module=profile&section=dname&id=3930

Devils Advocate.... We (you and me) have been over this before... Once I went into great detail about my meal and you never responded.

That doesn't sound like me. I must have been busy or ill.

My "five star" term that you quoted wasn't meant to imply that Amtrak dining cars are 5 star restaurants... I meant 5 stars for Amtrak standards. I too have eaten in a few 5 star (actually even 4 diamond level) restaurants and I don't know of any train that serves food anywhere close to that level. Certainly nothing in North America.

Like I said my own "five star" examples can be dirt cheap. It's not about cost, it's about attention to detail. It's about genuinely loving the act of buying, preparing, and serving the best you can get your hands on, regardless of your specific budget. I've been absolutely floored by $5 food freshly prepared with quality ingredients by skilled hands.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

As for the topic. I just think pleasing every person is not attainable. 5 stars to one person may be 0 to another. Some may enjoy for the experience, others may hate everything about it. I think DA is one of those who you can almost never please with ANYTHING from what I've seen. Might as well just shut Amtrak down its sounds so bad from his account.

I've had better luck with airlines than I've had with Amtrak. Despite what we often hear about airline travel from folks who almost never fly, it's actually not that bad outside of the TSA cluster mess. That's not to say that US airlines have better service than Amtrak, but most of my flights are short enough that I don't really care if they're good or not. As for travel services that have genuinely impressed me they're usually in the form of hotels, resorts, and restaurants. That's where I focus my effort because that's where it has the greatest impact and does the most good. Who I fly rarely has much impact on my trip. I'd probably feel the same way about Amtrak except for the fact that you're on there for an extended period. If an SCA decides to ignore you or otherwise make things difficult you'll be feeling that abrasive vibe for a long time. Probably long enough to remember it long after the trip is over.