T'was the week before Christmas and all through our house,
not a creature was stirring,
because we went on a short cruise to the Bahamas and took the train back home.
I've been lurking for the past week or so and enjoying everybody's trip reports. But I'm not too much of a fan of the photo capabilities of the forum software (but am not REALLY complaining, since I'm new here). So, hopefully I'm not out of line linking out to the photos and the bulk of the travelogue at a different site:
https://snvboy.exposure.co/cruise-2014
look for the "All Aboard" headline halfway through if you don't care about the cruise.
A few other tidbits to add for the railfans:
Walking back from the beverage cubby just after pulling out of Miami, I said "Good Morning" to a little old lady in a roomette whose door was open. She caught my attention, and asked when her SCA would be by that she was hungry for lunch. She wasn't very mobile, so I hunted down our SCA and let him know that she needed some assistance and some lunch. After getting lunch ourselves in the diner, I was getting some more ice from the beverage cubby and checked in on her. She was fed, happy, and showered me with thanks for helping her out. +1 in my karma bucket.
I saw her later getting off the train at Winter Haven. A pretty short trip for getting a roomette, but hey, if it works for her then more power to her!
Ice. Why is it like pulling teeth to get an SCA to have ice on their station? Does anybody really want to be drinking warm OJ? It's another one of those little inconsistencies from one SCA to another. I gave up and just started taking it from the next sleeper, which had plenty of ice.
The new baggage cars really look sharp. We passed a bunch of them in the Hialeah yard, and later passed one of the test trains hauling them. This was my first time in a Viewliner sleeper. We had a bedroom, but I'm curious how many people actually use the commode in the roomette. I think they are probably making a good move taking them out on the new cars. Hopefully they will also be doing the "toilet in the corner" layout that the new Superliner equipment has. It makes for SO much more room - especially for a big guy like me. I'm amazed that the airlines haven't used this layout.
Cruisers. We weren't the only ones. I mention one of them that we had dinner with. We also had lunch with a couple that was returning from a two week cruise, and they cruise a lot. That might be an area for Amtrak to look at for some more marketing opportunities, especially if they could figure out a smooth way to transfer bags and passengers.
I hope you enjoy the travelogue above. Please let me know if there is any interest in posting some "in arrears" from trips I've taken in the past couple years.
Next up for me will be Charlottesville to Emeryville on the Cardinal and Zephyr. A note on that - when I was booking it, the bedrooms were a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the roomette. I jumped on it (of course) but don't know if that is a pricing glitch, or a strategy to fill the bedrooms with pax traveling the entire route so they can resell a roomette a couple times on the run.
Cheers,
Ben
not a creature was stirring,
because we went on a short cruise to the Bahamas and took the train back home.
I've been lurking for the past week or so and enjoying everybody's trip reports. But I'm not too much of a fan of the photo capabilities of the forum software (but am not REALLY complaining, since I'm new here). So, hopefully I'm not out of line linking out to the photos and the bulk of the travelogue at a different site:
https://snvboy.exposure.co/cruise-2014
look for the "All Aboard" headline halfway through if you don't care about the cruise.
A few other tidbits to add for the railfans:
Walking back from the beverage cubby just after pulling out of Miami, I said "Good Morning" to a little old lady in a roomette whose door was open. She caught my attention, and asked when her SCA would be by that she was hungry for lunch. She wasn't very mobile, so I hunted down our SCA and let him know that she needed some assistance and some lunch. After getting lunch ourselves in the diner, I was getting some more ice from the beverage cubby and checked in on her. She was fed, happy, and showered me with thanks for helping her out. +1 in my karma bucket.
I saw her later getting off the train at Winter Haven. A pretty short trip for getting a roomette, but hey, if it works for her then more power to her!
Ice. Why is it like pulling teeth to get an SCA to have ice on their station? Does anybody really want to be drinking warm OJ? It's another one of those little inconsistencies from one SCA to another. I gave up and just started taking it from the next sleeper, which had plenty of ice.
The new baggage cars really look sharp. We passed a bunch of them in the Hialeah yard, and later passed one of the test trains hauling them. This was my first time in a Viewliner sleeper. We had a bedroom, but I'm curious how many people actually use the commode in the roomette. I think they are probably making a good move taking them out on the new cars. Hopefully they will also be doing the "toilet in the corner" layout that the new Superliner equipment has. It makes for SO much more room - especially for a big guy like me. I'm amazed that the airlines haven't used this layout.
Cruisers. We weren't the only ones. I mention one of them that we had dinner with. We also had lunch with a couple that was returning from a two week cruise, and they cruise a lot. That might be an area for Amtrak to look at for some more marketing opportunities, especially if they could figure out a smooth way to transfer bags and passengers.
I hope you enjoy the travelogue above. Please let me know if there is any interest in posting some "in arrears" from trips I've taken in the past couple years.
Next up for me will be Charlottesville to Emeryville on the Cardinal and Zephyr. A note on that - when I was booking it, the bedrooms were a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the roomette. I jumped on it (of course) but don't know if that is a pricing glitch, or a strategy to fill the bedrooms with pax traveling the entire route so they can resell a roomette a couple times on the run.
Cheers,
Ben
Last edited by a moderator:
