D.P. Roberts
Conductor
WARNING: this is going to be a very long and very detailed report! TL;DR version: the train was frequently late, but we had a great time and were treated well by almost every Amtrak employee we encountered. I know I point out many many negatives throughout the report, but that's only because I wanted to explain absolutely everything that happened onboard. Overall we had an absolutely fabulous trip, and enjoyed it immensely. We took the train both ways on our trip; due to my extreme wordiness and lots of pictures, I'm probably going to break the report into multiple posts.
Day 1: Waterloo, Indiana to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Train #29 was scheduled to arrive in Waterloo, Indiana early Thursday morning. Since we live 3 hours away, that would have meant leaving for the station in the middle of the night. We've done that before, and have regretted it, so this time we stayed in a hotel in nearby Fort Wayne on Wednesday night. We got to the hotel around 8:00, and went to bed early, knowing we had to be up by 5:30 or so to get to Waterloo in time to catch the train.
When our alarm went off the next morning, I quickly checked the Capitol Limited's status, and it was running about 30 minutes late. So, we snoozed a little longer, & made it to Waterloo with plenty of time to spare. I didn't catch our attendant's name, but he wasn't very helpful. When we dragged our luggage onboard, we found that the luggage space was already completely full. Unfortunately, several other passengers were also crowding the area as they attempted to shower or use the restrooms. So, we spent several minutes trying to rearrange the luggage area so our suitcases would fit, but our attendant just kept saying “I'm going to need to ask you to make your way upstairs to your roomette.” If he had a better solution than just leaving our suitcases in the middle of the aisle, I would gladly have listened to him.
After getting situated in our roomette, we headed down to the dining car for breakfast. We both had the Railroad French Toast. It tasted okay, but clearly had been sitting around for a while. I was rather disappointed, as I had been looking forward to enjoying the french toast throughout our trip. I really hoped that meals would improve on the EB.
We returned to our roomette, and soon arrived in Chicago, still 30 minutes late. Our plan for the morning was to check in at the Metropolitan Lounge to check our bags, walk through Union Station (I had been there before, but had never seen the Great Hall), then go to the Lincoln Park Zoo before retuning to catch the Empire Builder. When we checked into the Metropolitan Lounge it was already very crowded, and the attendants were busy wrangling people who clearly didn't understand how the lounge worked. For example, most of the sleeping car passengers just walked in without checking in at the desk, & many coach passengers were trying to get in as well (in one case, a large group was turned away because only one member in their party was in a sleeper, & they thought that this would entitle all members of their party access to the lounge). We finally got checked in, the late arrival & Lounge delays put us behind schedule, so we decided to head straight to the bus station & go to the zoo – I figured that I'd have plenty of time to see the Great Hall later.
On our last Chicago layover, we visited the Shedd Aquarium. This time, we headed for the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a 20-30 minute bus ride, but well worth it. We were a little late getting back, and had to skip the Great Hall again, in favor of returning to the Lounge to prepare for EB boarding.
We were assigned to car 2730, the Portland sleeper. Since we were only going to Whitefish (a few stops east of Spokane), we could have chosen either the Seattle or Portland sleeper. I spent a long time trying to figure out which one would be preferable. The Seattle cars at the front of the train would have been closer to the diner, but they also would have been closer to the horn. The Portland sleeper, at the very end of the train, was a long walk to the lounge and a very long walk to the diner. However, from Minneapolis onward, we would be the last car on the train, with very little foot traffic through our car. The sound of the doors between cars constantly opening and closing can be really annoying at night, and I figured that the long walks to the diner would be a good chance to at least walk around a little on an otherwise sedentary day. So I went with the Portland sleeper.
Unlike other stations, you can only access the tracks at CUS when escorted by Amtrak personnel. And, since sleeper passengers are boarded first, you board ridiculously early & have nothing to look at out the window while waiting for the train to depart. So, once we were onboard, we took this time to examine our sleeping car & our roomette. We were in roomette #5, on the left side of the train. The car was oriented with the bedrooms at the back. I was a little disappointed in this – once the last coach car is taken off in Minneapolis, the passengers in the Portland sleeper have a nice view out the back window. I had been hoping that the roomettes would be at the back, giving me quick access to the “rainfan window” for pictures and such. Unfortunately, this was not the case, but we still took several trips down to the window throughout our trip in order to check on the view.
The car itself was a nicely refurbished Superliner I (car #32054, I think), with wood paneling on the walls & the granite-looking sinks in the bathrooms. It also had lights and lighting controls that I had not seen before – they were LED lights, with touch-sensitive controls on a metal panel. Our SCA, Jana, soon came by & introduced herself, & gave us a brief tour of the room & the car. She said that this particular car appeared to have run on the CL for quite some time, & had only recently been moved to the EB. Jana also told us about the drinks and ice she'd have available, which she kept well stocked throughout the trip. I'll write more about Jana later, but she did a fabulous job.
Our train departed on time, & we were soon outside of Chicago. By late afternoon I was getting a little hungry, and headed down to the cafe in the Sightseer Lounge. I got a bagel & cream cheese, & had planned on eating it in the SSL, but it was full. As I took my food back to our roomette, I noticed that all the passengers in coach were wearing headphones when they listened to music or watched movies. Unfortunately, this was not the case in our sleeper. One of the passengers downstairs was listening to loud rap music, another passenger nearby was watching movies on his laptop, and we heard all of it. I thought it was a little rude, but not quite loud enough to complain to the SCA or the offending passengers.
The dining car attendant soon came by to get reservations for dinner. The route guides had said that the best scenery on this portion of the route started soon after La Crosse, Wisconsin, so I asked for a 7:15 reservation, which meant that we'd be eating somewhere near La Crosse if the train was on time.
We made our way to the dining car & soon met our server. I didn't catch his name for the first day or so: he was rather short in stature but long in beard, and looked to me like an Eli. I later found out that his name was Tanner, but if I accidentally refer to him as Eli in this report, I apologize. Anyway, he was friendly, efficient, and quite knowledgeable about the train and the route. He informed us that we'd be crossing three rivers during this part of the trip – the Black River once, and the Mississippi River twice.
We were seated with a couple from the upper peninsula of Michigan who were also on their way to Glacier National Park. They had driven to Milwaukee to catch the EB; interestingly enough, they were going to be returning on the same train we'd be taking.
I ordered the braised short rib for dinner. This is one of the dishes created by the “Amtrak Culinary Advisory Team” and had been well reviewed by other AU members, with good reason – I absolutely loved it! The beef was fork-tender and delicious. The sauce was very good, and even the undoubtedly-reconstituted mashed potatoes were buttery and very tasty. Mrs. Roberts had the steak, and also enjoyed it.
Here's a photo of the beef short rib with mashed potatoes:
Here's a photo of the steak, also with mashed potatoes and a cup of mushroom sauce:
I went with another AU recommendation for dessert – the chocolate brownie, a la mode. The brownie was served warm, on a plate but still in its plastic tray, with a small container of the vanilla gelato / ice cream, which I just scooped out onto the browie & ate while it melted. It was fantastic! This meal of short rib & brownie was the best meal of the entire vacation. Our dining companions were excited to hear that you can order desserts a la mode, and also tried the brownie and ice cream.
During dinner, we noticed that the Mississippi was constantly on the right side of the train. Since our roomette was on the left, we decided to stop in the SSL instead of returning to our left-sided roomette. The SSL was very crowded, and we could only find seats on the left side, but we were able to turn them so we could see most of the river. As we enjoyed the scenery, the conductor called out over the intercom for any doctors or nurses to go to the last coach car for a passenger who was in distress. We never found out what happened to that poor person, but they did announce that an ambulance would be meeting our train once it arrived in Minneapolis. This made the third trip in a row for us where an ambulance met the train!
We arrived in Minneapolis basically on time. Jana made up our beds, and I volunteered to take the top bunk. It's cramped up there, but I slept okay. I find that if I just keep my eyes closed (rather than staring at the walls a few inches away) I can fall asleep a lot faster in that bunk.
Day 1: Waterloo, Indiana to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Train #29 was scheduled to arrive in Waterloo, Indiana early Thursday morning. Since we live 3 hours away, that would have meant leaving for the station in the middle of the night. We've done that before, and have regretted it, so this time we stayed in a hotel in nearby Fort Wayne on Wednesday night. We got to the hotel around 8:00, and went to bed early, knowing we had to be up by 5:30 or so to get to Waterloo in time to catch the train.
When our alarm went off the next morning, I quickly checked the Capitol Limited's status, and it was running about 30 minutes late. So, we snoozed a little longer, & made it to Waterloo with plenty of time to spare. I didn't catch our attendant's name, but he wasn't very helpful. When we dragged our luggage onboard, we found that the luggage space was already completely full. Unfortunately, several other passengers were also crowding the area as they attempted to shower or use the restrooms. So, we spent several minutes trying to rearrange the luggage area so our suitcases would fit, but our attendant just kept saying “I'm going to need to ask you to make your way upstairs to your roomette.” If he had a better solution than just leaving our suitcases in the middle of the aisle, I would gladly have listened to him.
After getting situated in our roomette, we headed down to the dining car for breakfast. We both had the Railroad French Toast. It tasted okay, but clearly had been sitting around for a while. I was rather disappointed, as I had been looking forward to enjoying the french toast throughout our trip. I really hoped that meals would improve on the EB.
We returned to our roomette, and soon arrived in Chicago, still 30 minutes late. Our plan for the morning was to check in at the Metropolitan Lounge to check our bags, walk through Union Station (I had been there before, but had never seen the Great Hall), then go to the Lincoln Park Zoo before retuning to catch the Empire Builder. When we checked into the Metropolitan Lounge it was already very crowded, and the attendants were busy wrangling people who clearly didn't understand how the lounge worked. For example, most of the sleeping car passengers just walked in without checking in at the desk, & many coach passengers were trying to get in as well (in one case, a large group was turned away because only one member in their party was in a sleeper, & they thought that this would entitle all members of their party access to the lounge). We finally got checked in, the late arrival & Lounge delays put us behind schedule, so we decided to head straight to the bus station & go to the zoo – I figured that I'd have plenty of time to see the Great Hall later.
On our last Chicago layover, we visited the Shedd Aquarium. This time, we headed for the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a 20-30 minute bus ride, but well worth it. We were a little late getting back, and had to skip the Great Hall again, in favor of returning to the Lounge to prepare for EB boarding.
We were assigned to car 2730, the Portland sleeper. Since we were only going to Whitefish (a few stops east of Spokane), we could have chosen either the Seattle or Portland sleeper. I spent a long time trying to figure out which one would be preferable. The Seattle cars at the front of the train would have been closer to the diner, but they also would have been closer to the horn. The Portland sleeper, at the very end of the train, was a long walk to the lounge and a very long walk to the diner. However, from Minneapolis onward, we would be the last car on the train, with very little foot traffic through our car. The sound of the doors between cars constantly opening and closing can be really annoying at night, and I figured that the long walks to the diner would be a good chance to at least walk around a little on an otherwise sedentary day. So I went with the Portland sleeper.
Unlike other stations, you can only access the tracks at CUS when escorted by Amtrak personnel. And, since sleeper passengers are boarded first, you board ridiculously early & have nothing to look at out the window while waiting for the train to depart. So, once we were onboard, we took this time to examine our sleeping car & our roomette. We were in roomette #5, on the left side of the train. The car was oriented with the bedrooms at the back. I was a little disappointed in this – once the last coach car is taken off in Minneapolis, the passengers in the Portland sleeper have a nice view out the back window. I had been hoping that the roomettes would be at the back, giving me quick access to the “rainfan window” for pictures and such. Unfortunately, this was not the case, but we still took several trips down to the window throughout our trip in order to check on the view.
The car itself was a nicely refurbished Superliner I (car #32054, I think), with wood paneling on the walls & the granite-looking sinks in the bathrooms. It also had lights and lighting controls that I had not seen before – they were LED lights, with touch-sensitive controls on a metal panel. Our SCA, Jana, soon came by & introduced herself, & gave us a brief tour of the room & the car. She said that this particular car appeared to have run on the CL for quite some time, & had only recently been moved to the EB. Jana also told us about the drinks and ice she'd have available, which she kept well stocked throughout the trip. I'll write more about Jana later, but she did a fabulous job.
Our train departed on time, & we were soon outside of Chicago. By late afternoon I was getting a little hungry, and headed down to the cafe in the Sightseer Lounge. I got a bagel & cream cheese, & had planned on eating it in the SSL, but it was full. As I took my food back to our roomette, I noticed that all the passengers in coach were wearing headphones when they listened to music or watched movies. Unfortunately, this was not the case in our sleeper. One of the passengers downstairs was listening to loud rap music, another passenger nearby was watching movies on his laptop, and we heard all of it. I thought it was a little rude, but not quite loud enough to complain to the SCA or the offending passengers.
The dining car attendant soon came by to get reservations for dinner. The route guides had said that the best scenery on this portion of the route started soon after La Crosse, Wisconsin, so I asked for a 7:15 reservation, which meant that we'd be eating somewhere near La Crosse if the train was on time.
We made our way to the dining car & soon met our server. I didn't catch his name for the first day or so: he was rather short in stature but long in beard, and looked to me like an Eli. I later found out that his name was Tanner, but if I accidentally refer to him as Eli in this report, I apologize. Anyway, he was friendly, efficient, and quite knowledgeable about the train and the route. He informed us that we'd be crossing three rivers during this part of the trip – the Black River once, and the Mississippi River twice.
We were seated with a couple from the upper peninsula of Michigan who were also on their way to Glacier National Park. They had driven to Milwaukee to catch the EB; interestingly enough, they were going to be returning on the same train we'd be taking.
I ordered the braised short rib for dinner. This is one of the dishes created by the “Amtrak Culinary Advisory Team” and had been well reviewed by other AU members, with good reason – I absolutely loved it! The beef was fork-tender and delicious. The sauce was very good, and even the undoubtedly-reconstituted mashed potatoes were buttery and very tasty. Mrs. Roberts had the steak, and also enjoyed it.
Here's a photo of the beef short rib with mashed potatoes:
Here's a photo of the steak, also with mashed potatoes and a cup of mushroom sauce:
I went with another AU recommendation for dessert – the chocolate brownie, a la mode. The brownie was served warm, on a plate but still in its plastic tray, with a small container of the vanilla gelato / ice cream, which I just scooped out onto the browie & ate while it melted. It was fantastic! This meal of short rib & brownie was the best meal of the entire vacation. Our dining companions were excited to hear that you can order desserts a la mode, and also tried the brownie and ice cream.
During dinner, we noticed that the Mississippi was constantly on the right side of the train. Since our roomette was on the left, we decided to stop in the SSL instead of returning to our left-sided roomette. The SSL was very crowded, and we could only find seats on the left side, but we were able to turn them so we could see most of the river. As we enjoyed the scenery, the conductor called out over the intercom for any doctors or nurses to go to the last coach car for a passenger who was in distress. We never found out what happened to that poor person, but they did announce that an ambulance would be meeting our train once it arrived in Minneapolis. This made the third trip in a row for us where an ambulance met the train!
We arrived in Minneapolis basically on time. Jana made up our beds, and I volunteered to take the top bunk. It's cramped up there, but I slept okay. I find that if I just keep my eyes closed (rather than staring at the walls a few inches away) I can fall asleep a lot faster in that bunk.
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