Mailliw
OBS Chief
For a future Bedroom would you perfer; a larger room with a wet bath or a smaller room with a dry bath?
Restroom and other experiences in Sleepers
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That a wild question Mailliw. I don’t normal shower on a one night train. Even when I have a accessible bedroom. I am going with a larger room, with a toilet seat that is normal sized, with the wet shower option.
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UserNameRequired
Service Attendant
Preference to a same or larger room with a wet bath. I had to use urban dictionary to look up what dry bath really means (some kind of Canadian term, haha). If taking a shower on a train, and I prefer to take a shower everyday, preference to having our own shower. If not overnight, roomette or coach is fine.
Wet/Dry bathroom is a RV, Boating terminology. A dry bathroom has a shower in it’s own room/space. A wet bathroom is space that can be used as shower or toilet. Amtrak bedroom have this set up. The sink can be inside or outside of the space.
The CityNightLine deluxe bedroom had a dry bathroom, so it can be done on a train design for us common folks. The Rovos rail highest level bedroom take a half of railcar, and you get a bathtub.
The CityNightLine deluxe bedroom had a dry bathroom, so it can be done on a train design for us common folks. The Rovos rail highest level bedroom take a half of railcar, and you get a bathtub.
fengshui
Train Attendant
Neither, I prefer my rooms with no bathroom. In-Suite bathrooms dedicate a large amount of square footage for a space that I will use for less than 1% of my total trip time. I would much rather have that space for seating, table, or other space useful during travel. Using a shared bathroom is not a big deal. I recognize that some people need a dedicated in-suite bathroom, but I would prefer that that be a small minority of bedrooms, plus the Accessible Bedroom, rather than all of them.
While I completely agree with you as a matter of personal preference, there are some people that are horror stricken with the thought of shared bathrooms and for whom the issue is a show stopper. There are others that will put up with it but pretty strongly dislike it. Look at the difference of opinions here on the change in the Viewliner IIs from toilets in the roomettes to shared restrooms. Some disliked the open, in room toilets (me included) and applauded the change, others disliked the absence of the in room toilets. Opinions tended to be strong in both directions.
So shared restrooms will turn off a good many people who can afford bedrooms and who choose them specifically because of the horrible prospect of a shared potty.
fengshui
Train Attendant
Do these people not go to the bathroom when they fly, then? Do they not attend sporting events or other public attractions where shared bathrooms are ubiquitous?
Anyways, I get that people feel that way, which is why I suggested that there be some rooms with in-suites, and more without. Maybe make the rooms on the end of each block have the bathroom, or something,
Well, you are pretty much describing the status quo of Superliners, with five bedrooms and the accessible room on the "wet end" of the car (along with the common restrooms and shower), and 14 roomettes and the Family Bedroom on the "dry end".
That's 15 accommodations without in room facilities to 6 with them. That's a 2.5 to 1 ratio, so having the majority of accommodations lacking facilities is nothing new.
I also don't really understand the aversion to shared restrooms, but it undeniably exists.
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fengshui
Train Attendant
This is a fair take, but it elides over the fact that there is only one large room without a bathroom (the family bedroom downstairs). I would like to see some option for a bedroom-sized sleeper that could sleep 4 adults, and I feel like you could get there with the existing Superliner Bedroom sans Bathroom. I personally think that would attract more passengers than having an in-suite bathroom in each bedroom does today. (Yes, you can book two roomettes across from each other for about the same price as a bedroom, but that's a hack that the average passenger doesn't recognize, and is often not available anyways.)
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Big difference between a 4-hour max flight and overnight. I don't usually need to brush my teeth or wash my face when flying domestically, and I try to avoid BM's in public restrooms as much as possible.
And it seems that a fair number of frequent Amtrak LD riders don't fly.
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My wife tolerates shared bathrooms on planes and elsewhere but isn't using them for bedtime and middle-of-the-night purposes. We both don't like having to robe up in the middle of the night or in the morning or at bedtime to navigate public aisles, especially multiple times even on an overnight trip.
I've been on European overnight trains which were set up like that (and shared a sleeping compartment with non-family members). I vaguely recall a pre-Amtrak train ride for Christmas 1962 (I was 4 1/2 at the time) to my paternal grandparents' home near Albany, NY (which must have been over the route of the current Lake Shore Limited), and our family was in a 4-berth bedroom. I think Mom & Dad had the 2 lower berths, I was in one upper berth, my brother (3 1/2 at the time) was either in the other upper berth or sharing the lower berth with Dad, and my baby sister (1 1/2 by then) would have shared a lower berth with Mom.
Finances permitting, avoiding the shared restrooms on trains is a top priority. No need to go into details about things I've heard and seen. In regards to the comments about airplanes and sports or other public venues, yes, I will avoid eating and drinking for hours in order to avoid having to use the facilities as much as humanely possible. This is especially true on a domestic flight, I've not had to endure a long haul flight in quite some time. At football or basketball games, it's hard to get by without at least drinking some water. However, from my experiences, restrooms at sports arenas are considerably less disgusting than Amtrak bathrooms. And all of these considerations are prior to the recent pandemic considerations. Plus you're not spending the night there.
Generally, based on what Ive been told and my Work expierience in Customer Relations/ Guest Services,the Restrooms that are designated for "Women" are Nicer and Kept Cleaner than those for "Men" and "Unisex" ones.
I've heard it said that "Men are Pigs" and expect Mom to Clean up after them.
Mailliw
OBS Chief
I'm fine with shared facilities if, but we already have sleeping accommodations w/o ensuite facilities (at least on Superliners and ViewlinerIIs). They're called Roomettes and are substantially smaller (and therefore cheaper) than Bedrooms. The lower cost makes shared facilities an acceptable trade off. A Bedroom w/o at bathroom isn't going to be much smaller than one with so it won't be much cheaper. The Jane Hotel is my favorite NYC hotel; it has tiny rooms and shared bathrooms, but it's the only decent hotel in the city that I can consistently afford.
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I've stayed in hotels in Europe (and YMCAs in the US) with shared bathrooms, and they seemed reasonably clean. I've heard that the shared restrooms in the sleeping cars on Amtrak are a lot cleaner than the ones in coach. (I've seen video confirmation of the cleanliness of sleeping car restrooms & shower rooms on YouTube -- but no video evidence of how clean or disgusting the restrooms in coach are, though.)
Have you asked any women about that? Ask them about "hovering".
Yes, I forced my non-train family to ride the Lake Shore Limited and we did have a 4 berth bedroom--wish they "could've" kept them !
You can still get a 4 berth Bedroom with two restrooms by asking for a Bedroom Suite which consists of Rooms A and B on the same car and requesting that the partition be removed. It will require a lot of luck to get A&B in the same car available and it will cost more than a King's ransom. But in principle, it can be done.
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I had considered booking the hubby and me in a Bedroom (just one of them) on the California Zephyr, but when we saw the price difference between that and a Roomette, we decided to try a Roomette instead on this trip. (Maybe I can redeem AGR points for a Bedroom on a different LD route next time?)
You can still get them. Rooms A & B with the partition retracted. It is called a Bedroom Suite and you have to call to book it.
Back in the day, the largest single room was a Drawing Room with 3 berths, 2 lowers and one upper. But 2 connected Double Bedrooms as Bedroom Suites were available then, too.
If your getting a bedroom suite (4 berth) you just need to call Amtrak. They will move peoples bedroom assignment around to get you the suite. You however do need to have two bedrooms available on the train to do this. Of course you still have to get the SCA to open the door, which may require a pry bar to do so….
Or it won't stay Closed and will Rattle and Bang all Night, unless towels or shims are used to keep it firmly closed.
Been there done that.
It’s why I am a big fan of the Superliner bedroom A.
I think it's worthwhile to note that a Viewliner I has an ADA room with an enclosed toilet/shower and the new Viewliner IIs have the toilet exposed in the middle of the room. To have the ability to sell the ADA room as a nice roomy additional double bedroom to non-ADA passengers would seem to be highly beneficial. The decision to expose the toilet makes the room solely for ADA passengers. So the bottom line is it really didn't matter how many ADA rooms a train had if you could also sell the space otherwise. The extra room may actually make it a more desirable room. But now every train may have valuable space unsold since up to three rooms are going to be restrictive on trains like the Meteor.
