crescent2
Conductor
Hi again,
I'm posting this in the regular forum, because the question involves the actual train trips, even though AGR is involved.
My CZ bedroom trip wb from Denver is on hold, and in the meantime, I've managed to transfer/accumulate/buy over 50,000 AGR points so far. (More than I thought I could!) I have not yet bought any AGR points in 2013. My purpose for acquiring these was the CZ trip, but I don't have to use them all on it. By now you know I am a fan of the Crescent, which is the only reasonably close train, so I could use leftover points later.
As you probably recall, I (or we, if sis-in-law joins me) am not trying to get from specific points A to B, but simply want to enjoy the mountain scenery and train ride on the CZ. I'd also considered going sb on CS (roomette) for the coastal scenery while I'm out there. Now I'm wondering if there would be more bang for the buck so to speak if we did a round trip on the CZ instead. In that case, we could also get roundtrip airline tix ATL/DEN/ATL, but I don't know if that's cheaper than separate airline tickets for different city pairs, as I've always flown round-trip and haven't looked at airline tix yet.
We would love to see the coastal scenery, but we are not too keen on spending the night in LA and flying out the next day for some reason.
If we transfer to the CS, we're still leaning toward overnighting in Davis, and then in LA, but if we decided to go roundtrip CZ instead, we might, or not, prefer to stay in San Francisco a couple of nights. We don't plan on exploring any city very much.
I/we want to keep the trip reasonably uncomplicated, not too expensive, and of fairly short duration. To do CZ/CS/CS/CZ, or even CZ/CS/SL (could visit relatives in AZ), would be great in theory, but just too long timewise and with too many hotel overnights.
The original simple CZ plan seems to constantly try to extend and complicate itself! :unsure:
SIL is leaving the research up to me to discuss the details with her later for this trip.
Any strong thoughts on which of the above train trips would be preferable, and on the optimum time of year for them?
The Crescent is the only Amtrak train I've ever taken so I have zero experience with the other trains.
A bonus question for my AU friend Swadian H:
SIL wants to do a guided mystery tour (not in conjunction with the Amtrak trip--I know you're all relieved to not have to hear about that!) Transportation would be a "new or late-model Prevost 102” wide-body H345 motorcoach." I googled it and it doesn't look (?) to be one of the dreaded glasshead types, but please give us your very knowledgeable critique of this B-U-S. :wub: Thanks!
I'm posting this in the regular forum, because the question involves the actual train trips, even though AGR is involved.
My CZ bedroom trip wb from Denver is on hold, and in the meantime, I've managed to transfer/accumulate/buy over 50,000 AGR points so far. (More than I thought I could!) I have not yet bought any AGR points in 2013. My purpose for acquiring these was the CZ trip, but I don't have to use them all on it. By now you know I am a fan of the Crescent, which is the only reasonably close train, so I could use leftover points later.
As you probably recall, I (or we, if sis-in-law joins me) am not trying to get from specific points A to B, but simply want to enjoy the mountain scenery and train ride on the CZ. I'd also considered going sb on CS (roomette) for the coastal scenery while I'm out there. Now I'm wondering if there would be more bang for the buck so to speak if we did a round trip on the CZ instead. In that case, we could also get roundtrip airline tix ATL/DEN/ATL, but I don't know if that's cheaper than separate airline tickets for different city pairs, as I've always flown round-trip and haven't looked at airline tix yet.
We would love to see the coastal scenery, but we are not too keen on spending the night in LA and flying out the next day for some reason.
If we transfer to the CS, we're still leaning toward overnighting in Davis, and then in LA, but if we decided to go roundtrip CZ instead, we might, or not, prefer to stay in San Francisco a couple of nights. We don't plan on exploring any city very much.
I/we want to keep the trip reasonably uncomplicated, not too expensive, and of fairly short duration. To do CZ/CS/CS/CZ, or even CZ/CS/SL (could visit relatives in AZ), would be great in theory, but just too long timewise and with too many hotel overnights.
The original simple CZ plan seems to constantly try to extend and complicate itself! :unsure:
SIL is leaving the research up to me to discuss the details with her later for this trip.
Any strong thoughts on which of the above train trips would be preferable, and on the optimum time of year for them?
The Crescent is the only Amtrak train I've ever taken so I have zero experience with the other trains.
A bonus question for my AU friend Swadian H:
SIL wants to do a guided mystery tour (not in conjunction with the Amtrak trip--I know you're all relieved to not have to hear about that!) Transportation would be a "new or late-model Prevost 102” wide-body H345 motorcoach." I googled it and it doesn't look (?) to be one of the dreaded glasshead types, but please give us your very knowledgeable critique of this B-U-S. :wub: Thanks!