Roomette on the California Zephyr

[George]

We are taking the California Zephyr from Chicago to Salt lake City, Utah later this month. We have a roomette reserved but it looks rather small. There will be two of us. What can we expect on this long trip with a short room? What are the meals like? Good, bad or some where in between. What should we be alert for if anything?

 

[Acela150]

We are taking the California Zephyr from Chicago to Salt lake City, Utah later this month. We have a roomette reserved but it looks rather small. There will be two of us. What can we expect on this long trip with a short room? What are the meals like? Good, bad or some where in between. What should we be alert for if anything?

The rooms aren't as small as they look. Yes they are a tad small but can fit two people. Meals are included in your ticket! Also at CHI you will have access to the Metropolitan Lounge. Enjoy your trip!

 

[Bierboy]

Meal quality is VERY subjective; you'll find many here who love them, some who hate them, and many in-between. My favorite meal is breakfast, followed by lunch. I could skip dinner and would be more than happy....and full...

 

[PA Traveler]

We'll be on the same trip in June. We were in a roomette from Pittsburgh to Chicago to Seattle and back last year, our first long-distance Amtrak trip. The roomettes were cozy, I'd say. But if you consider it against a seat in an airplane, it was heaven! It took a little getting used to, but it really was comfortable enough. You can always get out and stretch at the longer stops along the way. The food varied, but I'd say was pretty good, certainly not four-star, but certainly not bad.

 

[A.J.]

the food varies, but if you find you don't like a meal you could always do what I do: get something from the cafe car and eat there, or in your room. the prices aren't too bad and you can get a hot meal. i recommend the hot dogs and the cheese and cracker tray.

on my first time on the zephyr, i was so excited about seeing the rockies that I wasn't even prepared for the snowy awesomeness of the sierra nevadas. it ended up being my favorite part of the entire trip! the moral of the story is, expect the unexpected and have a great time.

 

[RailFanLNK]

Find the dimensions of the roomette at amtrak.com and then take duct tape and make a "temporary" roomette in your basement with the dimensions. Put two kitchen chairs in the space and then take a sleeping bag and lay it down for the night configuration. The sooner you have an idea of how small the roomette is, it won't seem nearly as small when you are already educated about the size. I will take a roomette over coach any time, any where, any day and any how! Breakfast the omelets are still handmade, lunch Angus Burger is good, and dinner the Flat Iron Steak is great. All meals in the diner will have you sitting with two others at your table. Don't freak on this, we have met wonderful people this way!

 

[TN Tin Man]

Let me preface that I am a comfort snob when I travel, my vacation on Amtrak is the vacation, thus I always book a deluxe bedroom.

I travel as a single so keep that in mind. I have no referance as to two in a roomette.

For me a roomette is far more enjoyable than coach (let me hear it from the coach crowd, you know who you are!!). But... The rooms are very small. As a single they have room to put your feet up on the other seat and be quite comfortable. For two I believe the the space between the seats is less than desirable. Remember that with two in a roomette one of you will be travelling backwards (facing opposite the direction of travel) for some that is uncomfortable.

The most important is when the beds are down. There is no extra room. To get into or out of bed can be done with the door closed. Don't expect to have enough room to change into night clothes without occupying a portion of the hallway. It is wise to change in one of the community restrooms then return to your room.

I take the CZ more than any other of the western routes and would remind you as others will, there are two sides of the train and the best way to see is from the SSL, not from your roomette. Get out meet people in the lounge, the diner, and at stops.

A roomette may be small, but the train and the experiences along the way, are large.

Enjoy your trip. Most find train travel enjoyable. I hope you will too.

 

[Guest]

>>Don't expect to have enough room to change into night clothes without occupying a portion of the hallway. It is wise to change in one of the community restrooms then return to your room.<<

I am 62 and have ridden a roomette a few times. It had never occurred to me that this is true. I would say maybe that is true for some, not others.

 

[chandj]

We're on the Zephyr in April in a roomette and haven't been worried at all about the size. We used to go only in bedrooms for longer trips, but started taking the roomettes for shorter ones--like CL between Pittsburgh and DC--and were very pleasantly surprised at their design. We pack light and we are each on the lighter side of average weight (but not skinny), and we find room to change clothes and store our stuff. I travel a lot for business and take a train whenever feasible, so Hubby and I decided he could afford to go with me more frequently if we switched from bedrooms to roomettes. We actually spend most of our time on the trip sitting together in our roomette having drinks, talking to each other and watching the scenery--seldom going to the public areas. Only concern might be, as a PP said, sitting backward. My husband doesn't mind at all and it never even came up as a topic. Have a great time!

 

[Peter KG6LSE]

I did a Roomette trip from SAC to DEN right at the new year . I loved it !

Mind I am 24 and VERY flexible .

to the point where I kept the upper bunk down and used it as a loft .

I do the room for the food . as its included , so I might as well .

I like the ducktape Idea !!!

I feel for 2 normal adults the roomette is Just enough . and like others have said . for the CZ head to the lounge car . the views can be better there .

I use mine for sleeping and thats it ..

Peter

 

[Pat Harper]

I kept the upper bunk down and used it as a loft .

Not to mention you can use it to store your luggage if you don't want to use the community rack near the car entrance.

I would never have thought of this until I read your post. Thanks!

 

[Bianca]

*bump* My husband and I really want to do this trip in October 2012 (NY-California inc California Zephyr) and I would like to know if any more experienced Amtrakkers can help me out with this. I have a pretty good idea of how the first half of the trip will pan out but what is it better to do once the train journey is over? We would certainly spend a couple of days in California before heading back to France - however, what's the best way to come back? Train again (back to Chicago and then onto New York) is probably most cost effective but having already done it once by this point will we be bored of trains? Air therefore from this point of view seems more efficient and adds variety but a flight to France from California will probably be eyewateringly expensive. What would you guys therefore recommend for the return leg of our holiday? Thanks!

 

[Lakeshore]

There are several different routes to return. And you would be able to see more of the country.

We just finished a trip by taking the California Zephyr out to Emeryville. We drove north part way and took the Cascades part way to Seattle, and then returned on the Empire Builder. That runs along the northern border.

You could also take the Coast Starlight down to Los Angeles and take the Southwest Chief back to Chicago and the Lakeshore to New York, or take the Sunset Limited along the southern border to New Orleans and take the Crescent up to New York.

The scenery on the Zephyr was beautiful.

 

[Bianca]

Taking a different train route back sounds like a great idea. I am really keen for us to see as much as possible while we are there as my husband has never been to the US. Keep the ideas coming people

 

[chandj]

For me a roomette is far more enjoyable than coach (let me hear it from the coach crowd, you know who you are!!). But... The rooms are very small. As a single they have room to put your feet up on the other seat and be quite comfortable. For two I believe the the space between the seats is less than desirable. Remember that with two in a roomette one of you will be travelling backwards (facing opposite the direction of travel) for some that is uncomfortable.

The most important is when the beds are down. There is no extra room. To get into or out of bed can be done with the door closed. Don't expect to have enough room to change into night clothes without occupying a portion of the hallway. It is wise to change in one of the community restrooms then return to your room.

I just traveled roomette on Zypher in April. We aren't big people, but we had adequate space and spent almost all the trip in our roomette. We also had space to put our feet up on each other's room seat without problem. To change clothes, we just sat on the lower bunk. I am fortunate enough to be able to choose whatever accomodation I prefer and I truely prefer the roomette for two over the bedroom. Purely personal preference, but I'm not keen on having the toilette right there in the room with me, plus our bedrooms on EB and a couple other long rides had lots of rattling. We used to carry duct tape and use lots of it to quiet things down--never had to pull that tape out in a roomette. Each to their own, but no matter as long as a train trip is involved!

 

[boxcar479]

As all has said a roomette is quite comfy even cozy. I remember our first trip. I had studied the roomette and bedroom features quite a bit, so I thought I knew what to expect with a roomeette. My first reaction was, wow, it sure looked bigger on Amtraks virtual tour. :lol: It was really enough room for the two of us though, and we had such a great trip that we did a 2-week rail pass around the country trip in a roomette a couple of months later. we were on the train 11 of 15 nights, and we were still speaking and smiling to each other at the end of the trip. Space is very tight, so you don't have room for alot of extras in the room, we had a smaller carry on type of bag with just the essentials like our meds and toiletries and things like that. I really like most of the food on the train. I think it is good. RailfanLnk's idea about laying out the room sounds like a good idea. Choosing a different route back is also a good idea. I would choose the Coast Starlight back. with the Empire Bldr. a very close second choice. Whatever you choose, have a great trip and an open mind

 

[the_traveler]

I also would suggest to take a different route back. If (for example) you go from New York to California on the Lake Shore Limited and California Zephyr, return on the Coast Starlight (connecting in Portland) to the Empire Builder and then the Cardinal. This way, you'll get many varied views of the USA, with very little overlap!

In my opinion, the California Zephyr going westbound and the Cardinal going eastbound are among the most scenic routes on Amtrak!

 

[PA Traveler]

We head off on the CZ in about three weeks and are really looking forward to Amtrak again. We'll only be going as far as Salt Lake City, so we'll miss a lot of the best scenery, but I understand the second day out of Chicago is really great.

 

[gallja02]

One piece of advice I would add is to leave an overnight between connections on long distance trains. I have found it takes away a lot of the stress if the train is running late, gives you a chance to see another city, and a night off of the train. On my first cross country trip we went from Boston to Seattle on the lake shore and empire builder. The lake shore was quite late and missed connections to the western trains, at least the eb. Luckily we had planned an overnight anyhow, so we were all set. We saw others though who had planed a same day connection, Amtrak takes good care of you in terms of putting you up and feeding you ansd will put you on the next days train, but often there are no more bedrooms, so you go coach. We saw several people who were going to have sleepers who missed the connnection and wound up spending two days in coach.

I would also agree that a roomette is just fine for two people. You may want to drive around california a bit, the southern part of the coast highway (san fran to LA) is beautiful as is seqoia np. From there you can take the southwest cheif back to chicago, great root too. Enjoy your trip.