roomette with in-room toilet, does it smell?

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sleepybobcat

Train Attendant
Joined
Jun 2, 2010
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I was checking out the prices for a trip from New York to the South... on the Silver Star or Meteor.

The trains has roomettes for two people... I noticed that it has an in-room toilet out in the open. :)

I've no experience with this.... does it smell? :) Seems kind of odd to have a toilet right there...

When one person uses it, should the other one leave the room? If it's a #2, won't it stink up

the room for a good while? :(

Also, how does someone get to the top bunk in the roomette?

Any advice appreciated! :)
 
I was checking out the prices for a trip from New York to the South... on the Silver Star or Meteor.
The trains has roomettes for two people... I noticed that it has an in-room toilet out in the open. :)

I've no experience with this.... does it smell? :) Seems kind of odd to have a toilet right there...

When one person uses it, should the other one leave the room? If it's a #2, won't it stink up

the room for a good while? :(
I depends on what they had for lunch! :blink:

No seriously, it is weird. Unless you are particularly close to your travel mate, they should leave the room. It can smell for a bit, but the Viewliner sleepers have pretty good ventilation, so it won't smell for long. The toilet has a vaccume flush system, so there should be no 'residue' after flushing.

Also, how does someone get to the top bunk in the roomette?
Any advice appreciated! :)
To get to the top bunk, you put the toilet lid down, close the sink (it folds up), and use those two levels as steps. This is how they were designed and it works surprisingly well.
 
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I do not like having a toilet that close to my bed. However, the 3 times I have traveled in a Viewliner Roomette, smell was never an issue. Not even after a long sit down.
 
Toilet issue - I've only used the in roomette toilet to pee in & used the other communal toilet for the other.

Upper bunk - the trick is to wait til your roomie does the #2 & then sit on the toilet seat til it explodes sending you to the ceiling, grab the bunk brackets & hold on,LOL!!! :lol: :eek: :p

RF

Seriously, it's easier than it looks
 
Communal toilet? Since Viewliners do not have public toilets, are you talking about a toilet in another car?
that's what I was thinking as well... the in-room toilet should be reserved for #1 only.

#2 should be done in a public toilet elsewhere.... but do passengers have have access

to other cars?

my travel mate just remarked that the only other place that has in-room toilets are prison cells... :D

(and even prison cell toilets are at leat several feet away from the bed) :D
 
The roomette toilet was designed for privacy, at least for one person!!!! Not too many people feel comfortable watching another do his/her business but I'm sure that there are a few exceptions.

As long as the head side of the bed isn't on the same side as the toilet you should be OK. You could always bring a can of Lysol onboard to disinfect everything but roomettes with toilets are nothing new. They have been used on sleepers going back as far as the 1950's.
 
I travel in roomettes on Viewliners quite often and I like the convenience of an in-room toilet. Most of the time, I travel alone, so the roomate issue does not exist. The way the beds are configured, the toilet is at your feet, not your head, so it is not like you are sleeping next to a toilet.

The smell has never bothered me - even when sharing the roomette with a man. :lol:

I have seen people traveling together that are not "close" friends and usually one of them stands outside or goes to the lounge when the other is using the facilities. This is especially common when a mother and grown son or daughter and father are traveling together.

I think it sounds worse than it is. For me, it sure beats having to get dressed in the middle of the night and find a "public" toilet.
 
If sleeping on the bottom bunk and you male roommate needs to go, hopefully their aim is good! Not to mention potential splatter.

Course, the times I have been in a Viewliner, the public toilets were horribly dirty.
 
The roomette toilet was designed for privacy, at least for one person!!!! Not too many people feel comfortable watching another do his/her business but I'm sure that there are a few exceptions.As long as the head side of the bed isn't on the same side as the toilet you should be OK. You could always bring a can of Lysol onboard to disinfect everything but roomettes with toilets are nothing new. They have been used on sleepers going back as far as the 1950's.

Actually preAmtrak roomettes go back to the late 30's but on a small small scale. Theybegin being constructed a lot in the late 40's.'

Of note, though, these original pre Amtrak roomettes only slept one person, the toilet was cleverly disguised so no problem. I do recall they had an in room fan to turn on to help get rid of the odor.Of couse in those days the toilet emptied out onto the tracks.
 
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I travel in roomettes on Viewliners quite often and I like the convenience of an in-room toilet. Most of the time, I travel alone, so the roomate issue does not exist. The way the beds are configured, the toilet is at your feet, not your head, so it is not like you are sleeping next to a toilet.
The smell has never bothered me - even when sharing the roomette with a man. :lol:

I have seen people traveling together that are not "close" friends and usually one of them stands outside or goes to the lounge when the other is using the facilities. This is especially common when a mother and grown son or daughter and father are traveling together.

I think it sounds worse than it is. For me, it sure beats having to get dressed in the middle of the night and find a "public" toilet.
get dressed in the middle of the night and find a public toilet??? i don't think so !!, something seriousley wrong, if human beings cannot wander off to the loo dressed in night attire, i did last year, no one blinks an eye lid !! don't be such a prude, have a sence of adventure. a curtious "good evening" works wonders , well it did for me, but then i am a pretty blonde, with a smile to die for, so the conductor said!!
 
The roomette toilet was designed for privacy, at least for one person!!!! Not too many people feel comfortable watching another do his/her business but I'm sure that there are a few exceptions.As long as the head side of the bed isn't on the same side as the toilet you should be OK. You could always bring a can of Lysol onboard to disinfect everything but roomettes with toilets are nothing new. They have been used on sleepers going back as far as the 1950's.

Actually preAmtrak roomettes go back to the late 30's but on a small small scale. Theybegin being constructed a lot in the late 40's.'

Of note, though, these original pre Amtrak roomettes only slept one person, the toilet was cleverly disguised so no problem. I do recall they had an in room fan to turn on to help get rid of the odor.Of couse in those days the toilet emptied out onto the tracks.
I don't really consider the Amtrak "roomette" to be a direct descendant of the traditional RR roomette.

The RR roomettes were ALWAYS private accomodations for ONE person alone with toilet facilities. Yes they had their own toilet, but only person wasn't using it, so having your travelling partner pants down doing number 2 right in front of you at 3 am was not an issue. There was no partner.

When what is now the Amtrak "roomette" was first introduced, even on the Viewliner, it's name was "Economy Bedroom" and was always designed for two people. Then, as the price showed very little "economy" in the "Economy Bedroom", they changed that to "Standard Bedroom". That got confused with the "Delux Bedroom".

It was only a few years ago that they started marketing that accomodation as a "roomette" and the "delux bedroom" simply as a bedroom. It is clearer and less confusing from a sales standpoint. From a design standpoint, they simply never were "roomettes".

Unlike Superliners or 10-6s (the standard heritage sleeper for Amtrak), there is no communal toilet in a Viewliner.
 
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Smell? Who cares, it is a bad idea and needs to be scrapped.

Thats right, I do not like the in-room option. The sink is viable, but the toilet, well, that will deter me from picking a viewliner sleeper.

I know some do favor this floorplan, but I could almost certainly say the entire toilet/sink combo is NEVER cleaned or sanitized between riders. Now, I know the same is likely for the community bathrooms on the Superliners, but at least those facilities ARE NOT WITHIN INCHES OF WHERE I WILL SLEEP.

If AMTRAK never buys another sleeper with this layout (excpetion is bedrooms, which can be rinsed easily by the passenger if so desired) I would not lose sleep.
 
Travelling with Ms. Spot, I always am assigned the upper bunk. But I always have my invention with me-- Mr.Spot's PeeBottle. It solves the problem of having to climb down, plus I fall back to sleep faster. I've been working on the "Ms. Spot PeeBottle" and the

"All Spot PooBucket" , but there is not enough headroom to sit up. I'm working on it though.
 
Well the Viewliner toilet is definitely super convenient if you're traveling solo. Much better than trekking down to a public rstroom in the middle of the night. And even in the sleepers those public restrooms get pretty nasty after a while. I'll take the Viewliner private toilet and sink anyday. And the few times I've traveled with my wife one of us just leaves the room to give the other one some privacy. You have to leave the room anyway to use the public restroom. And no, I've never noticed any odors and I've traveled a lot on Viewliners.
 
get dressed in the middle of the night and find a public toilet??? i don't think so !!, something seriousley wrong, if human beings cannot wander off to the loo dressed in night attire, i did last year, no one blinks an eye lid !! don't be such a prude, have a sence of adventure. a curtious "good evening" works wonders , well it did for me, but then i am a pretty blonde, with a smile to die for, so the conductor said!!
I would say that depends on what you wear at night. I am perpetually overheating in my bedroom at home at 69°, so I sleep with just underpants. I sincerely doubt people would have no problem with me walking around in my briefs. Now, if I wore PJs, it would be a different story, obviously.

I know some do favor this floorplan, but I could almost certainly say the entire toilet/sink combo is NEVER cleaned or sanitized between riders. Now, I know the same is likely for the community bathrooms on the Superliners, but at least those facilities ARE NOT WITHIN INCHES OF WHERE I WILL SLEEP.
You know, somewhere, sometime, people started becoming germ-o-phobic. What the heck do you consider "sanitized"? Spraying it with Lysol kills 99.9% of germs. However, within hours of its use that .1% of the strongest germs present are back and reproducing and probably filling the room to the point where they become concerned with carrying capacity.

As for the germs being within inches of where I sleep... well, my feet are on the end of the bed near the toilet. I'm sure you've never stepped in crap before. Most people have, its one of the joys of pet ownership- the finding of a present with your foot in the middle of the night. So who cares?

And as for the physical surface you sleep on, they don't need to sanitize it. They call the process of cleaning it "changing the sheets". Which they do after every run, trust me.

Everyday, in every way, we come in contact with millions, billions of germs. It is my experience that, outside of washing your hands sometimes, there is not much you can do to significantly affect your contracting illness from them.

So what you're getting down to isn't cleanliness, sanitation, or safety. Its simply your ew factor. And getting all ew over things is what we call childish.
 
So what you're getting down to isn't cleanliness, sanitation, or safety. Its simply your ew factor. And getting all ew over things is what we call childish.
Dude, don't bother trying to lecture me on what you think that I said or what you think my 'ew' factor might be.

My statement is nothing more than someone less cleanly might not take time to clean up after themselves and most certainly AMTRAK does not. That creates an issue for some.
 
So what you're getting down to isn't cleanliness, sanitation, or safety. Its simply your ew factor. And getting all ew over things is what we call childish.
Dude, don't bother trying to lecture me on what you think that I said or what you think my 'ew' factor might be.

My statement is nothing more than someone less cleanly might not take time to clean up after themselves and most certainly AMTRAK does not. That creates an issue for some.
Take a chill pill.
 
Travelling with Ms. Spot, I always am assigned the upper bunk. But I always have my invention with me-- Mr.Spot's PeeBottle. It solves the problem of having to climb down, plus I fall back to sleep faster. I've been working on the "Ms. Spot PeeBottle" and the "All Spot PooBucket" , but there is not enough headroom to sit up. I'm working on it though.

I seriously hope this Mr. Spot PeeBottle has a cover. Otherwise once you fall asleep you might get a rude awakening.

and I will pass on ordering the PooBucket, sorry.
 
I think it sounds worse than it is. For me, it sure beats having to get dressed in the middle of the night and find a "public" toilet.

Unless you are the lady who asked if she could wear a doily at night and then to the dining car in the morning, there is no need to get dressed. PJ's are cool. Think of it as one giant moving sleep over. Only there is no acne, no truth or dare, and spin the bottle might not work to well.

Ok so it wasn't an actual doily she wanted to wear, but close enough.
 
I've no experience with this.... does it smell? :) Seems kind of odd to have a toilet right there...
From my experience, no. IMHO, its because it works on a vacuum, and any smells are sucked away too.

Personally, I much much rather have my own toilet, than share one with a bunch of pigs. I have seen what the toilet in coach looks like after long trip. At least if I keep my own private toilet clean, it stays clean for my entire trip.

When one person uses it, should the other one leave the room?
Yea, I go for a walk... check out the scenery in other parts of the car and train.

IMHO, it is quite like having a master bath at home, and how a couple chooses to share, or to not share, it at the same time.
 
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