Ispolkom
Engineer
We went to Chicago for the weekend, flying down Saturday morning on Southwest and returning in a roomette on #7, the Empire Builder.
We wandered out to the platform late, to find considerable confusion. The Portland sleeper attendant was missing, his car's door was closed, and most of his car's passengers (probably new to Amtrak) had no idea where they were supposed to go. Not a good first impression, and soon after we left Chicago I heard the announcement, "2730 car attendant to the IC." I'm not sure what that means, but I doubt it was anything good.
It was a great trip. Dennis, our sleeping car attendant, was just perfect. He was helpful when you asked but unobtrusive. We heard him carefully explaining the controls to new passengers, something I don't always notice. We were surprised to get, along with the expected sparkling wine and chocolate, a little bag of Gilcrest and Soames toiletries, exactly the same as the hotel at which we had stayed. A nice touch, since I don't always remember soap and shampoo.
The dining car was one of the nice-looking refurbished ones. Alas, the special was lamb shank and not the buffaloaf we'd heard so much about. My wife had the lamb, and I had the steak, which wasn't the flat iron steak we've argued so much about. It was a differently shaped piece, which if I had to guess might be call top sirloin. The menu didn't use the words "flat iron." It was tasty enough, as was the chocolate Bundt cake. Our table mates, Art and Stephanie, were returning from a NARP meeting in St. Louis, so we had a very enjoyable traincentric conversation over dinner.
What really surprised me was the first case I've ever had of upselling in an Amtrak dining car. When asked about wine, our waitress explained that they had half bottles for $13.50, but for only $2.50 more you could get a bottle of one of the wines they use for the wine tasting. This sounded great to us, and we split a bottle of the Snoqualmie syrah, which went well with our meals, and wasn't a bad match for the chocolate cake.
It was dark by the time the train reached the Mississippi, so we missed the best scenery of our trip. We made good time, though, and arrived in St. Paul half an hour early. We tipped Dennis, grabbed our bags and walked around the station to catch a cab home.
Another great trip, and only a month until our big trip east, to Boston, Washington, Savannah, Atlanta, and several intermediate stops.
We wandered out to the platform late, to find considerable confusion. The Portland sleeper attendant was missing, his car's door was closed, and most of his car's passengers (probably new to Amtrak) had no idea where they were supposed to go. Not a good first impression, and soon after we left Chicago I heard the announcement, "2730 car attendant to the IC." I'm not sure what that means, but I doubt it was anything good.
It was a great trip. Dennis, our sleeping car attendant, was just perfect. He was helpful when you asked but unobtrusive. We heard him carefully explaining the controls to new passengers, something I don't always notice. We were surprised to get, along with the expected sparkling wine and chocolate, a little bag of Gilcrest and Soames toiletries, exactly the same as the hotel at which we had stayed. A nice touch, since I don't always remember soap and shampoo.
The dining car was one of the nice-looking refurbished ones. Alas, the special was lamb shank and not the buffaloaf we'd heard so much about. My wife had the lamb, and I had the steak, which wasn't the flat iron steak we've argued so much about. It was a differently shaped piece, which if I had to guess might be call top sirloin. The menu didn't use the words "flat iron." It was tasty enough, as was the chocolate Bundt cake. Our table mates, Art and Stephanie, were returning from a NARP meeting in St. Louis, so we had a very enjoyable traincentric conversation over dinner.
What really surprised me was the first case I've ever had of upselling in an Amtrak dining car. When asked about wine, our waitress explained that they had half bottles for $13.50, but for only $2.50 more you could get a bottle of one of the wines they use for the wine tasting. This sounded great to us, and we split a bottle of the Snoqualmie syrah, which went well with our meals, and wasn't a bad match for the chocolate cake.
It was dark by the time the train reached the Mississippi, so we missed the best scenery of our trip. We made good time, though, and arrived in St. Paul half an hour early. We tipped Dennis, grabbed our bags and walked around the station to catch a cab home.
Another great trip, and only a month until our big trip east, to Boston, Washington, Savannah, Atlanta, and several intermediate stops.
