RailFanLNK
Conductor
Hello All, heres my trip report on the #5 and #6. My girlfriend, her two daughters and I took the CZ to GSC. (Glenwood Springs CO) This was going to be my girlfriend and her two teenage daughters first trip on Amtrak. The trip started very well with the CZ being on time into LNK (Lincoln NE) at 12:24 Saturday morning 7/14. I have been quietly praying that the crew(s) that we were about to spend 14 hours with would be professional and fun. For the most part they were excellent, the only complaint was the Dining Car crew on the #6 on 7/19. Poor service and all the crew members we encountered seemed to be fairly miserable with life. Some of the food items were out too.
Our trip started with everyone being really excited. Me and a single parent and two teenage girls who haven't had any kind of a trip in 5 years due to finances. When the train pulled up right on time, we were met by our Sleeper Car Attendent Mr. Reggie Howard. He was fantastic and was featured in book "Zephyr: Tracking A Dream Across America" by Henry Kisor. He showed all of us how to work the buttons in the roomettes. We were in roomettes #9 and #10 and were the very last sleeper car on the train making us at the very end of the CZ. That was cool, not one person walking by our rooms, great photo opportunities and if you got lost, just go to the end of the train upstairs! The only downside.....man....does the end of the train ever rock and roll. No offense here...but I have always viewed those safety harness things in the upper bunk for "sissies"! Well near Hastings NE I almost got rocked out of the upper bunk and onto my face, so I had to strap myself in and swallow my pride!
On an earlier trip with a different girlfriend and different kids, I had went to alot of work putting together a 10 question quiz on "Amtrak" with 1st Prize and a 2nd Prize. The prior kids thought it was "stupid" and didn't complete one question. After they showed me thier disintrest in my "test", I opened up the 1st Prize and 2nd Prize and put the "prizes" back into my wallet. ($50 and $25) Then they were mad at me cuz they were too "cool" to take the test. Well with this trip, the kids that my girlfriend has are gems. They both took the quiz and knew some of the answers. Some of the questions they needed to listen to the answers from me as I gave "hints" and some questions they had to ask an Amtrak employee or a fellow passenger they were dining with to get the answers.
We rolled into DEN on time Saturday morning. I made for sure that my "party" all got to experience taking a shower while going 80mph. My "party" thought I was OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder...which I have) on having a "morning kit" ready at there finger tips. No one had even gotten the "morning kits" put together until late Friday night. Even then, most of the party was doing it grudgingly. :angry: Man...were they ever happy that they did. Not knowing how small the roomettes were, how much luggage was piled in the sleeper car cargo shelves and the speed of the train, they all graciously thanked me for being so "freaky" as the two teenagers were calling me. We then de-trained and snapped pics of Denver Union Station and walked downtown Denver for just a few minutes, we then boarded and went right to the dining car. We all sat together and had our first meal in the dining car. Most of us got the Railroad French Toast and all of our orders were cooked well and Aleshia (sp?) was the LSA and very helpful and quite nice. The CZ #5 was completely sold out on this train and the train was jam packed! We finished off our breakfast just a bit after the CZ started to "climb" out of DEN. I was nervous that we had eaten a little slow and wouldn't find space in the Observation Car, but we got seated and my girlfriend and I got to sit together and the two girls got seperate seats. We sat in the car for 1 hour and then "gave up our seats" to others. (I learned that from this forum)
Ok now comes the "cool" part. One of the questions on the "quiz" was: "During lunch what was the name of your tablemates, where are they from and what do they do in life?" Both girls(ages 17 and 15) thought this was a real easy question and had answered "our mom and Al". They didn't know that I was going to make them "break bread" with strangers. They were NOT looking forward to this at all. Brenda and I were seated with a couple from Reno NV, there 10 year old son decided to eat lunch in the sleeper and not join them. We had a great visit with our "new friends". My girlfriends two daughters were seated with a couple from New York City. They were retired and like travelling by train. We were getting near GSC and our SA (Reggie Howard) came back and said, "Mr. C, we are about 30 minutes from arriving in GSC, I have all our bags ready down below other than the bags in your roomettes." So I told the two teenagers that we were getting close to "GSC" and that they needed to "wrap up" lunch and get there stuff together. Well....uh... :blink: needless to say, neither one of them was back in the sleepers when we were arriving in GSC. I got a lil' anxiety going and walked up to the Dining Car and they were just getting up and wrapping up thier conversations with John and Elenoare from NYC. Both John and Elenoare said, "those kids are really good kids". So....two teens not wanting to meet or "break bread" with strangers took an extra 15 minutes to say "good bye" from there new dining car experience. All they could talk about was that "meal" and how nice John and Elenoare was. We arrived GSC 15 minutes EARLY!!!!! Our trip on the #5 was a smashing success! It couldn't have been any better. Coming up: Part Two, the return home on the #6 where we all got to learn that Amtrak crews can be quite "quirky"! Stay tuned!
Al
Our trip started with everyone being really excited. Me and a single parent and two teenage girls who haven't had any kind of a trip in 5 years due to finances. When the train pulled up right on time, we were met by our Sleeper Car Attendent Mr. Reggie Howard. He was fantastic and was featured in book "Zephyr: Tracking A Dream Across America" by Henry Kisor. He showed all of us how to work the buttons in the roomettes. We were in roomettes #9 and #10 and were the very last sleeper car on the train making us at the very end of the CZ. That was cool, not one person walking by our rooms, great photo opportunities and if you got lost, just go to the end of the train upstairs! The only downside.....man....does the end of the train ever rock and roll. No offense here...but I have always viewed those safety harness things in the upper bunk for "sissies"! Well near Hastings NE I almost got rocked out of the upper bunk and onto my face, so I had to strap myself in and swallow my pride!
On an earlier trip with a different girlfriend and different kids, I had went to alot of work putting together a 10 question quiz on "Amtrak" with 1st Prize and a 2nd Prize. The prior kids thought it was "stupid" and didn't complete one question. After they showed me thier disintrest in my "test", I opened up the 1st Prize and 2nd Prize and put the "prizes" back into my wallet. ($50 and $25) Then they were mad at me cuz they were too "cool" to take the test. Well with this trip, the kids that my girlfriend has are gems. They both took the quiz and knew some of the answers. Some of the questions they needed to listen to the answers from me as I gave "hints" and some questions they had to ask an Amtrak employee or a fellow passenger they were dining with to get the answers.
We rolled into DEN on time Saturday morning. I made for sure that my "party" all got to experience taking a shower while going 80mph. My "party" thought I was OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder...which I have) on having a "morning kit" ready at there finger tips. No one had even gotten the "morning kits" put together until late Friday night. Even then, most of the party was doing it grudgingly. :angry: Man...were they ever happy that they did.
Not knowing how small the roomettes were, how much luggage was piled in the sleeper car cargo shelves and the speed of the train, they all graciously thanked me for being so "freaky" as the two teenagers were calling me. We then de-trained and snapped pics of Denver Union Station and walked downtown Denver for just a few minutes, we then boarded and went right to the dining car. We all sat together and had our first meal in the dining car. Most of us got the Railroad French Toast and all of our orders were cooked well and Aleshia (sp?) was the LSA and very helpful and quite nice. The CZ #5 was completely sold out on this train and the train was jam packed! We finished off our breakfast just a bit after the CZ started to "climb" out of DEN. I was nervous that we had eaten a little slow and wouldn't find space in the Observation Car, but we got seated and my girlfriend and I got to sit together and the two girls got seperate seats. We sat in the car for 1 hour and then "gave up our seats" to others. (I learned that from this forum)Ok now comes the "cool" part. One of the questions on the "quiz" was: "During lunch what was the name of your tablemates, where are they from and what do they do in life?" Both girls(ages 17 and 15) thought this was a real easy question and had answered "our mom and Al". They didn't know that I was going to make them "break bread" with strangers. They were NOT looking forward to this at all. Brenda and I were seated with a couple from Reno NV, there 10 year old son decided to eat lunch in the sleeper and not join them. We had a great visit with our "new friends". My girlfriends two daughters were seated with a couple from New York City. They were retired and like travelling by train. We were getting near GSC and our SA (Reggie Howard) came back and said, "Mr. C, we are about 30 minutes from arriving in GSC, I have all our bags ready down below other than the bags in your roomettes." So I told the two teenagers that we were getting close to "GSC" and that they needed to "wrap up" lunch and get there stuff together. Well....uh... :blink: needless to say, neither one of them was back in the sleepers when we were arriving in GSC. I got a lil' anxiety going and walked up to the Dining Car and they were just getting up and wrapping up thier conversations with John and Elenoare from NYC. Both John and Elenoare said, "those kids are really good kids". So....two teens not wanting to meet or "break bread" with strangers took an extra 15 minutes to say "good bye" from there new dining car experience.
All they could talk about was that "meal" and how nice John and Elenoare was. We arrived GSC 15 minutes EARLY!!!!! Our trip on the #5 was a smashing success! It couldn't have been any better. Coming up: Part Two, the return home on the #6 where we all got to learn that Amtrak crews can be quite "quirky"! Stay tuned!Al
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