Going on California Zephyr

[deafrailfan]

I looked it over on my reservation, and since i am going on Wolferine after CZ.. I have a reserved coach seat, I looked up on the Amtrak site, and they do have a business class seat for $7.50 more.
It seem not much of a difference, only comfortable seat and complimentary beverages and newspaper. Since it is only 2.5 hours ride, my question is will it be worth it?... and will I be able upgrade it? Or should I leave it alone and use coach since it is only 2.5 hours ride.

Thanks.

Definitely worth it! More room, comfortable seats, in the cafe car, less crowding, one non-alcoholic drink, 100 AGR RAIL POINTS plus any bonus points

you have coming= Priceless! Ive ridden this train many times and there is no comparison between BC and Coach! Go ahead and upgrade, this train sometimes is full dpending on the day of the week and which one you take!

Thanks! I do have AGR membership... since it is only $7.50 upgrade, I can go to Amtrak station to pay cash for the upgrade... is that possible? It is less hassle going through the CC that I made reservation with.

I do agree that AGR is very much worth to have!

 

[Bigval109]

I have a few photo's from my Zephyr trip here: 9 Views from the Zephyr windows.
Eddie

Man, I really loved your pictures. Must be a very nice camera. I take my vacation on this train every year but nothing I have is this good. It looks as though you had very clean windows also. I forgot to mention, I'm leaving today for my ride on the CZ. California here I come

 

[sunchaser]

I have a few photo's from my Zephyr trip here: 9 Views from the Zephyr windows.
Eddie

Man, I really loved your pictures. Must be a very nice camera. I take my vacation on this train every year but nothing I have is this good. It looks as though you had very clean windows also. I forgot to mention, I'm leaving today for my ride on the CZ. California here I come

Have fun! Wave as you pass through!

 

[deafrailfan]

Well, it will be a month away for the journey on the CZ on July 17th. Is there anyone else going in that journey on that weekend? Have any of you meet with any deaf people on the train? I hope to meet new people on the train... how are the crews on the CZ are they great to the passengers?

 

[RailFanLNK]

The crews on the CZ range from great to "lets shove this guy/gal off the train". Just the way it is. The problem employees have always been in the dining car with my experiences. Most of all, the crews have always been good to real good, but there's some that should find a new line of work for!

 

[DesertRat]

Two things I'd thought I would offer:

I am deaf/hard of hearing. I wear a hearing aid in one ear and have no usable hearing in the other. When I went on my birthday round trip on the CS to Tacoma WA I took a friend. I told the sleeper attendant that if there should be an emergency during the night she should come get me (in case my friend can't); but other than that I had no issues because my friend was very good about relaying information to me. On whole, my experience with the staff was great.

The other thing is, the amtrak.delays website name has changed: http://amtrakdelays.onlineschedulingsoftware.com/.

OK, off to check out this Mr. Kisor....

 

[deafrailfan]

Hello Folks,

I went on the CZ last month and the trip went very well besides it went almost 4 hours behind schedule unfortunately due to freight. The crew was awesome, the journey is beautiful scenic out the west. I took the camera with me and took about an hour worth of video for the scenic route and recently edited up and run about 45 mins of videos.

So thought I'd share this with you guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzTq35F_ILI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KomJD1VmDw

The part 1 and 4 is perhaps the best scenic route that I've recorded. I was not able to show all the 4 parts in here, but feel welcome to check out my other videos in my channel if you wish.

Cheers!

 

[sunchaser]

Hello Folks,

I went on the CZ last month and the trip went very well besides it went almost 4 hours behind schedule unfortunately due to freight. The crew was awesome, the journey is beautiful scenic out the west. I took the camera with me and took about an hour worth of video for the scenic route and recently edited up and run about 45 mins of videos.

So thought I'd share this with you guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzTq35F_ILI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KomJD1VmDw

The part 1 and 4 is perhaps the best scenic route that I've recorded. I was not able to show all the 4 parts in here, but feel welcome to check out my other videos in my channel if you wish.

Cheers!

I'm glad your trip went well, except for the freight train delays! I hope you will post a trip report too! The videos are great!

 

[uptheirons29]

That is awesome....love the videos those made me smile...

I will be going on my first trip on the CZ next month coming home to California from Michigan too, and I will go to MI from here on the Southwest Chief...coach both ways. Looking forward to it

 

[frugalist]

Great videos. Thanks for sharing.

 

[deafrailfan]

Thanks guys! I missed the connection to the Wolferine train because the CZ was too late and I ended up 'bussed' to the designation. The train crew was very nice and the engineers even waved when their train approached to my station as you can notice in my video. It would be nice if the sun stayed around a bit longer to view the Denver hills, but it fell dark as the train is running about 2.5 hours late there, and ended up almost 4 hours late in Chicago. Maybe next time I will take westbound CZ or go on the EB or SC going on east. What makes the train travel more pleasant is the scenic and no airport headache nowadays. Having a long vacation from work is worth it on a LD amtrak trip.

My roomette room is on the rear of one of the car ahead of the Diner room which makes it easier to have few steps into the dining room. Their food was great even they have cheesecake dessert or ice cream. The dinner menu consist of salmon, steak and chicken.. that makes the trip more worthy.

I hope my video will help some of you guys get the idea how the CZ route is on the west coast.

 

[deafrailfan]

*** NOTE THIS THREAD IS 3 YEARS OLD ***

just another update: Just booked for the Zephyr trip this time westbound! Going to be fun, been a while since I had the long distance Amtrak ride and of course going to be in a sleeper roomette! I'm booked on room #4 which I assume would be the upper floor deck?

 

[chakk]

just another update: Just booked for the Zephyr trip this time westbound! Going to be fun, been a while since I had the long distance Amtrak ride and of course going to be in a sleeper roomette! I'm booked on room #4 which I assume would be the upper floor deck?

Yes. upper floor and second room from the center of the car on the stairway side of the car. A nice room for ride comfort.

 

[deafrailfan]

just another update: Just booked for the Zephyr trip this time westbound! Going to be fun, been a while since I had the long distance Amtrak ride and of course going to be in a sleeper roomette! I'm booked on room #4 which I assume would be the upper floor deck?

Yes. upper floor and second room from the center of the car on the stairway side of the car. A nice room for ride comfort.

Ok thanks! I remember the last time my room was in the back car and in front of the dining car. I think I'll like the center better than the front or back of the car.

 

[chakk]

just another update: Just booked for the Zephyr trip this time westbound! Going to be fun, been a while since I had the long distance Amtrak ride and of course going to be in a sleeper roomette! I'm booked on room #4 which I assume would be the upper floor deck?

Yes. upper floor and second room from the center of the car on the stairway side of the car. A nice room for ride comfort.

Ok thanks! I remember the last time my room was in the back car and in front of the dining car. I think I'll like the center better than the front or back of the car.

And if you are in car 0531, you will be directly behind the diner. And if in car 0532, you will be in the last car of the train, two cars behind the diner.

 

[deafrailfan]

just another update: Just booked for the Zephyr trip this time westbound! Going to be fun, been a while since I had the long distance Amtrak ride and of course going to be in a sleeper roomette! I'm booked on room #4 which I assume would be the upper floor deck?

Yes. upper floor and second room from the center of the car on the stairway side of the car. A nice room for ride comfort.

Ok thanks! I remember the last time my room was in the back car and in front of the dining car. I think I'll like the center better than the front or back of the car.

And if you are in car 0531, you will be directly behind the diner. And if in car 0532, you will be in the last car of the train, two cars behind the diner.

I checked the reservation and it shows I'm in the car 0532. I thought the sleeper is the first behind the engine and baggage car and coach on the last?

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

They use to be, but the CZ changed the sleepers from the front end to the back end of the train consist some time ago. At least that is how they were when I met the CZ both way in Glenwood Springs, CO, last summer. Have fun. I hope to do the CZ west bound in 2014. I am doing CS, EB, and SW this year in July-August.

 

[deafrailfan]

They use to be, but the CZ changed the sleepers from the front end to the back end of the train consist some time ago. At least that is how they were when I met the CZ both way in Glenwood Springs, CO, last summer. Have fun. I hope to do the CZ west bound in 2014. I am doing CS, EB, and SW this year in July-August.

I wonder what made the changes... I know I'm not here regularly, but I come here whenever I have a plan with Amtrak. I'm kind of behind in the news about the changes, I kind of like the sleeper on the upfront instead of the back. Anyhow, I hope you have a good trip on the CS, EB and SW this summer.

 

[boxcarsyix]

I took the CZ Sacramento to Denver and back last May. SCA and Diner staff were super and the food was very good. The steak was tender and cooked just as ordered. I also took the original Oakland to Denver in 1966. Hard to compare to that trip, the old 10-6 Pullmans had more comfortable Roomettes and the Diner was incredible. I had fresh broiled trout through the Rocky Mountains.

The Amtrak CZ has kept the same schedule so it passes through the most beautiful scenery during the day. Even if you get one of the rare bad apples in the crew, the scenery is worth it. Enjoy