darien-l
OBS Chief
So, I have a pretty crazy trip coming up in two weeks. It started my family wanting to go to Glacier National Park by train, then I decided to join them, then invited some friends to join me... and it just grew and grew. We ended up with 4 different parties traveling to West Glacier as follows:
Party 1: DEN-EMY-PDX-WGL (this party includes myself)
Party 2: BHM-CVS-CHI-WGL (this party includes my brother)
Party 3: NYP-CHI-WGL (my parents, taking the Cardinal, linking up with party #2 in CVS)
Party 4: NYP-CHI-WGL (a group of friends, taking the LSL, linking up with parties #2 and #3 in CHI)
On the return trip, there are three different parties:
Party 1: WGL-PDX-SAC-DEN
Party 2: WGL-PDX-LAX
Party 3: WGL-PDX
To complicate this even further, one person is only going DEN-EMY-PDX on the outbound, and another person is only going PDX-SAC-DEN on the return. These are people who have some business in Portland, and latched on for a free train ride.
Everyone's itineraries were booked with AGR points (I showed people how to get 30,000 points on Starwood and/or Continental credit cards and transfer them to AGR). There is one exception, though -- parties traveling on the westbound Empire Builder all transfer from sleeper to coach (paid tickets) at Wolf Point (border between AGR zones), because there was widespread agreement that it was better to pay $50 for a daytime coach ride than spend 15,000 extra points on a roomette. Other than the Wolf Point - West Glacier segment, everyone travels in either roomettes or bedrooms.
So since I'm something of master planner of this monstrosity, I am soliciting any tips to make this trip go smoother. The connection that I'm most worried about is Cardinal to Empire Builder in Chicago. The Cardinal has been a pretty poor performer lately, so having a backup plan would probably be a good idea. We built in an extra day hanging out at Glacier before we start backpacking in case any parties get delayed for a day.
Another thing (and this is pretty funny, IMHO), is that there's going to be a mass exodus from sleeper to coach in Wolf Point. I understand that there is a wine tasting thing in the afternoon of the second day -- what are the chances that the group that moved over to coach in Wolf Point will be allowed to participate?
Any tips and suggestions are welcome!
Party 1: DEN-EMY-PDX-WGL (this party includes myself)
Party 2: BHM-CVS-CHI-WGL (this party includes my brother)
Party 3: NYP-CHI-WGL (my parents, taking the Cardinal, linking up with party #2 in CVS)
Party 4: NYP-CHI-WGL (a group of friends, taking the LSL, linking up with parties #2 and #3 in CHI)
On the return trip, there are three different parties:
Party 1: WGL-PDX-SAC-DEN
Party 2: WGL-PDX-LAX
Party 3: WGL-PDX
To complicate this even further, one person is only going DEN-EMY-PDX on the outbound, and another person is only going PDX-SAC-DEN on the return. These are people who have some business in Portland, and latched on for a free train ride.
Everyone's itineraries were booked with AGR points (I showed people how to get 30,000 points on Starwood and/or Continental credit cards and transfer them to AGR). There is one exception, though -- parties traveling on the westbound Empire Builder all transfer from sleeper to coach (paid tickets) at Wolf Point (border between AGR zones), because there was widespread agreement that it was better to pay $50 for a daytime coach ride than spend 15,000 extra points on a roomette. Other than the Wolf Point - West Glacier segment, everyone travels in either roomettes or bedrooms.
So since I'm something of master planner of this monstrosity, I am soliciting any tips to make this trip go smoother. The connection that I'm most worried about is Cardinal to Empire Builder in Chicago. The Cardinal has been a pretty poor performer lately, so having a backup plan would probably be a good idea. We built in an extra day hanging out at Glacier before we start backpacking in case any parties get delayed for a day.
Another thing (and this is pretty funny, IMHO), is that there's going to be a mass exodus from sleeper to coach in Wolf Point. I understand that there is a wine tasting thing in the afternoon of the second day -- what are the chances that the group that moved over to coach in Wolf Point will be allowed to participate?
Any tips and suggestions are welcome!