How did it work on your trip back to New York?
I assume that you mean how did the car and the service work? To that end, let me start by saying that I thought the crew was fantastic, quite probably one of the best if not the best diner crews I've ever seen on the LSL. Both SA's were very friendly, worked as hard and as fast as they possibly could, and went out of their way whenever they could do so to do the best for their customers. Frankly the weakest link was probably the LSA, and even she wasn't bad, I just didn't have much interaction with her and at least initially she seemed a bit standoffish. Although I did speak with her briefly at lunch and told her that he crew was great and she did thank me for that and told me that they are all still trying to adjust to the Diner-Lite concept.
The wine and cheese party out of Chicago was very nice. I had several glasses of wine and both SA's were walking back and forth with wine, as well as cider for those who didn't want wine or couldn't have wine. I started out sitting with a couple from England, who were in the roomette next to mine, but they left early and I ended up with several other new tablemates. We basically closed the car, leaving just past 10:15 or so and after we had already gotten underway.
Breakfast the next morning went well as again service was prompt and friendly. The French Toast was a bit tough, as is sometimes the case with the new SDS style of French Toast. My coffee was refilled twice, once without my even asking for more. He did somehow screw up bringing me my orange juice initially, not sure if I just didn't say it loudly enough, or if he just forgot it. But when I asked again, it was delivered promptly.
Lunch was probably the worst of the meals, but in all fairness it was also the busiest meal with the car being filled to capacity and everyone arriving within 15 minutes of one another. They probably need to consider doing reservations for lunch in all honesty. Some confusion did arrive during lunch, due in part to the fact that the salad choice was unavailable. I didn't quite catch why, but apparently the salads froze. Not sure if the fridge was just working overtime, or if someone had put them in the freezer by accident.
That led to one person at my table instead wanting to have two appetizers for lunch, whereupon he was informed that appetizers aren't included for sleeping car passengers. Even if they are substituting for an unavailable lunch choice. The gentleman wasn't exactly happy, but he did pay up front for his two appetizers, which he seemed to enjoy.
My lunch however was just fine, as I had the Angus burger. They did run out of vanilla ice cream before I could get any, so I had to settle for chocolate.
I was impressed that we had a fully staffed Diner-Lite, with one cook, to SA's, and one LSA. It wouldn't have surprised me to find only one SA and one LSA, but it would be a mistake for Amtrak to ever cut staffing to that level on this route as the crew was overwhelmed during lunch. That was the slowest service that I had during the trip, but it was understandably slow because of the passenger load in the car. And it wasn't horribly slow, just not as prompt as breakfast had been.
Interestingly, they don’t use the standard two part guest checks; they use a single sheet of paper for the orders. And they aren’t number controlled, like the normal dining car checks. I’m a bit surprised that they aren’t number controlled, but perhaps that is coming.
All of that said; I still don't believe that Diner-Lite is the correct answer, especially for trains that seem to typically run at least 50% to 60% full year round, and perhaps even higher. I do understand that Amtrak doesn't have viable single level dining cars to put on the road, but new dining cars should be at the top of the new equipment shopping list for Amtrak.