On Jan 24th, after spending 10 glorious days sailing the Caribbean and crossing the Panama Canal, we arrived at the FTL station to start our trip home. We checked our luggage onward to Chicago, and sat in the sunshine. The Silver Meteor was about 40 mintues late arriving from Miami. No problem, mon! I've been in Jamaica!! Actually, I was wondering if our return trip would be as good as our previous one; after all, we started out 2 weeks ago feeling the excitement of our first Amtrak trip and anticipating the 10 day cruise. Might this be sort of a let down after being pampered and enjoying the sunshine?
Finally the SM arrived, we met our attendant in Car 9811, Roomette #3: Bianca. She told us that the AC compressor wasn't working, hence it would be a little "warm" in our roomette! Due the late arrival of the train, we only had about 5 minutes to head to the dining car, so opted to wait for lunch. Settled in and enjoyed the So. Florida scenery. We both ordered angus burgers for lunch, and they were very good. It is sooo much cooler in the dining car, that we wished we could just stay in there for the rest of the day! We stopped somewhere past Orlando, and overheard the SA's saying we were "going to pick up and engine, or maybe work on the AC"...(weird to be complaining about air conditioning when it's below zero where we're headed!) We stopped in Deland, and they attempted to switch the compressor from auto to manual, but said it was too hot to work on, so onward we go. Bianca came by and made dinner reservations for us at 5 pm. We pulled in to Palatka, Fla about 1 hour and 15 min behind schedule, and made up a little time heading to Jacksonville. Once again, they tried to work on the compressor, but no luck getting any cool air to circulate. The lack of AC is starting to take it's toll on us...it feels a little cooler with the door to our roomette open, but unfortunately our neighbor across the hall is sort of annoying. (Hope nobody on the forum happens to be this "odd fellow"!) He was a middle aged man, spent his entire trip watching cartoons on his DVD player, with the volume turned up too high, and no headphones. I finally politely asked Bianca if she could ask him to either close his roomette door, or use headphones. I don't think he ever did either, and finally we tried to retire for the night. It was a very miserable night due to the heat, but as we got closer to DC in the early morning, we FROZE...I don't think we had heat in our car either. Anyway, Bianca was pretty apologetic, and said " I hope they do something to make it right for you guys." (Does this mean I should call customer service and register a complaint??) Also, something was wrong with the PA system...we could never hear the announcements that were made; the speakers were very crackly and no volume. Bianca brought coffee to us in our room, and was all-around great, even though I'm sure she had some grouchy customers to deal with! She got a $20 tip.
We arrived in DC at about 8 am, checked in at the Acela Lounge, grabbed some breakfast, and decided to hop on the Old Town Trolley to see more of the sites of DC. We thoroughly enjoyed this, and decided to "hop off" the bus and visit the National Air and Space Museum, which my hubby was dying to see. It was awesome! Took alot of pictures, then hopped back on the bus and finished our tour. We got back to the station in the early afternoon, had a great Cajun lunch in the food court, and spent time relaxing in the Acela Lounge. This place is wonderful, : quiet, nice restrooms, snacks and free coffee and soda, newpapers.
At 3:30 we boarded the CL for our 4:00 departure. Once again, we enjoyed the scenery passing thru W Virginia and Maryland. We saw tons of deer grazing in the fields at dusk. We stopped in Martinsburg WV, right by an old brick roundhouse. What a beautiful old building...does anyone know it this is being restored? We had 6 pm dinner reservations, and ate with a nice couple from LA. Hubby had the Flat Iron steak again, and said it's the best yet! I had the stuffed pasta shells, which were very good, too. Our attendant, Jamil (sp?) turned down our room, and we crashed early around 9 pm. Tired from a big day in DC! We woke up about 6:30 am and just decided to have coffee in our room and watch the scenery; enjoyed the huge steel mills around Gary, Indiana. Soon we could see the Chicago skyline, and quite a bit of snow on the ground. And to think, only a few days ago, I was wading in the Caribbean! Oh well, back to reality!
We backed into Chicago Union Station, claimed our luggage, and spent a few hours wandering the station, and relaxing in the Lounge. Then we boarded the SWC at about 2:45 pm and departed about 3:15 for Galesburg, in coach. This last short leg of our trip was not a very relaxing one...we happened to be in the first two seats in coach, nearest the door that led to the dining and lounge cars. There was a group of young men who CONSTANTLY were running back and forth, doors opening, closing and banging. Then an announcement was made that a young man had "left his cell phone" in the lounge car, and would however took it please return it to him." Then a few minutes later, another announcement the "this cell phone has GPS, so return it to him immediately." Must have been some foul play going on. We spent our time trying to relax and read, but with all this commotion going on, it was sort of tough!
We arrived in Galesburg right on time (5:55 pm), retrieved our luggage, and the two weary, but happy, train travelers faced a 3-4 hour , wintry drive back home to Iowa. All in all, it was a memorable trip, both by train and cruise ship! And we are already planning to make it an annual event, so I'd better start saving my pennies now! Thanks to all the forum members again who answered our questions, and gave us tips and advice.
Cindy
Finally the SM arrived, we met our attendant in Car 9811, Roomette #3: Bianca. She told us that the AC compressor wasn't working, hence it would be a little "warm" in our roomette! Due the late arrival of the train, we only had about 5 minutes to head to the dining car, so opted to wait for lunch. Settled in and enjoyed the So. Florida scenery. We both ordered angus burgers for lunch, and they were very good. It is sooo much cooler in the dining car, that we wished we could just stay in there for the rest of the day! We stopped somewhere past Orlando, and overheard the SA's saying we were "going to pick up and engine, or maybe work on the AC"...(weird to be complaining about air conditioning when it's below zero where we're headed!) We stopped in Deland, and they attempted to switch the compressor from auto to manual, but said it was too hot to work on, so onward we go. Bianca came by and made dinner reservations for us at 5 pm. We pulled in to Palatka, Fla about 1 hour and 15 min behind schedule, and made up a little time heading to Jacksonville. Once again, they tried to work on the compressor, but no luck getting any cool air to circulate. The lack of AC is starting to take it's toll on us...it feels a little cooler with the door to our roomette open, but unfortunately our neighbor across the hall is sort of annoying. (Hope nobody on the forum happens to be this "odd fellow"!) He was a middle aged man, spent his entire trip watching cartoons on his DVD player, with the volume turned up too high, and no headphones. I finally politely asked Bianca if she could ask him to either close his roomette door, or use headphones. I don't think he ever did either, and finally we tried to retire for the night. It was a very miserable night due to the heat, but as we got closer to DC in the early morning, we FROZE...I don't think we had heat in our car either. Anyway, Bianca was pretty apologetic, and said " I hope they do something to make it right for you guys." (Does this mean I should call customer service and register a complaint??) Also, something was wrong with the PA system...we could never hear the announcements that were made; the speakers were very crackly and no volume. Bianca brought coffee to us in our room, and was all-around great, even though I'm sure she had some grouchy customers to deal with! She got a $20 tip.
We arrived in DC at about 8 am, checked in at the Acela Lounge, grabbed some breakfast, and decided to hop on the Old Town Trolley to see more of the sites of DC. We thoroughly enjoyed this, and decided to "hop off" the bus and visit the National Air and Space Museum, which my hubby was dying to see. It was awesome! Took alot of pictures, then hopped back on the bus and finished our tour. We got back to the station in the early afternoon, had a great Cajun lunch in the food court, and spent time relaxing in the Acela Lounge. This place is wonderful, : quiet, nice restrooms, snacks and free coffee and soda, newpapers.
At 3:30 we boarded the CL for our 4:00 departure. Once again, we enjoyed the scenery passing thru W Virginia and Maryland. We saw tons of deer grazing in the fields at dusk. We stopped in Martinsburg WV, right by an old brick roundhouse. What a beautiful old building...does anyone know it this is being restored? We had 6 pm dinner reservations, and ate with a nice couple from LA. Hubby had the Flat Iron steak again, and said it's the best yet! I had the stuffed pasta shells, which were very good, too. Our attendant, Jamil (sp?) turned down our room, and we crashed early around 9 pm. Tired from a big day in DC! We woke up about 6:30 am and just decided to have coffee in our room and watch the scenery; enjoyed the huge steel mills around Gary, Indiana. Soon we could see the Chicago skyline, and quite a bit of snow on the ground. And to think, only a few days ago, I was wading in the Caribbean! Oh well, back to reality!
We backed into Chicago Union Station, claimed our luggage, and spent a few hours wandering the station, and relaxing in the Lounge. Then we boarded the SWC at about 2:45 pm and departed about 3:15 for Galesburg, in coach. This last short leg of our trip was not a very relaxing one...we happened to be in the first two seats in coach, nearest the door that led to the dining and lounge cars. There was a group of young men who CONSTANTLY were running back and forth, doors opening, closing and banging. Then an announcement was made that a young man had "left his cell phone" in the lounge car, and would however took it please return it to him." Then a few minutes later, another announcement the "this cell phone has GPS, so return it to him immediately." Must have been some foul play going on. We spent our time trying to relax and read, but with all this commotion going on, it was sort of tough!
We arrived in Galesburg right on time (5:55 pm), retrieved our luggage, and the two weary, but happy, train travelers faced a 3-4 hour , wintry drive back home to Iowa. All in all, it was a memorable trip, both by train and cruise ship! And we are already planning to make it an annual event, so I'd better start saving my pennies now! Thanks to all the forum members again who answered our questions, and gave us tips and advice.
Cindy
- but I don't have a DVD player on my laptop! WHEW!
