vegan meal request

We took the Empire Builder last week Friday to go to Montana. We'd called about a week and a half ahead of time to request vegan meals (web site said they were available and that we should call ahead of time to request). The person who answered the phone said they were no longer available but she'd request them anyway.

Three days prior to the trip I picked up the tickets from the station and the agent said there was a request in the computer for the meals.

On board the train the dining steward said he was not notified of our request, but he made arrangements to pick up some vegan meals at the stop in St. Paul. His name was Chris, and he got us some great meals! Wow! He was extremely efficient and professional and was quite funny. When we arrived in the dining car for the last meal of our trip he made an announcement to the staff downstairs "The vegans are here." It was heard in the whole dining car. Giggle.

On the return trip we had the same trouble--nothing about vegan meals requested on the steward's manifest. This gentleman did NOT offer to accomodate us. Sniff sniff.

Has anybody else had trouble with actually getting the special meals you requested ahead of time following Amtrak's procedure to get them?

I would suggest that you call Amtrak Customer Service to report the fact the meals weren't on-board. I'm glad to hear that a dining car steward got you your meals at least one way (it is difficult for OBS employee to get supplies for the train from sources other than Gate Gourmet, Inc). What I can say is that Amtrak crew members do get a list of special service requests, which include the special meals. It's printed as a section of the manifest which is generated by notes written in by Reservation and Customer Service department operators. The problem though, from the food service perspective, is that Amtrak's food service provider, Gate Gourmet, either doesn't check the request for a train or outright fails to include it in the stock. In the event a passenger has a special meal request and the stock isn't on-board, the OBS manager overseeing that train is held responsible for failure to do their job. If passengers don't report that they didn't get their requests, than GGI and management won't get disciplined by corporate for not doing their jobs.

I haven't had problems before not having vegan meals or low sodiums, but do have problems getting GGI to put Koshers on-board regularly. This issue, especially on the Silver Service trains where we have a higher volume of Jewish passengers between New York and South Florida, is major since many of them to take the train every year and request the meals months in advance. This makes the dining car crews look real bad to the passengers and leads to losing more and more first class passengers that must have these meals on-board the train. I will say it's better now than the days of slop-and-drop! There was nothing more offensive than telling these passengers the only thing we have for lunch in diner is BBQ pork and potato salad!

Good luck next time with the vegans!

I have heard horror stories with no meals so this is a very commom problem.

I actually think it is a very "uncommon" problem. I have seen vegetarian, vegan, kosher, low sodium, etc. meals served on almost every ttip I have taken. My daughter and her husband are vegan and they take two long distance trips each year and have always gotten what they need. If there is no special vegan meal, the staff can generally find enough salad, vegetables, etc to satisy their requirements.

Recently (Oct 2010) travelled on Lakeshore Limited (Boston to Cleveland). We DID call ahead & were assured that vegan meals would be in the dining car. We arrived for dinner, sat down, ordered and were told they had NO vegan food. Embarrassed we had to leave unfed. Thankfully we assumed this and carried our own food ...otherwise we would have starved!! I felt this was shoddy service for first-class accommodations! Our car steward was very upset at dining management.

Goatdog said:

His name was Chris, and he got us some great meals!

Click to expand...

What were the great vegan meals? Just idle curiosity, since my experience with the vegetarian entrees tends towards my theory that Amtrak hates vegetarians.

Be sure to call Customer Service and both praise Chris and complain about the return. For complaints calling works much better than writing or e-mailing.

I'm sorry to hear that the meals you ordered weren't provided on-board. Chris is my boss and he does do a great job. Unfortunately, special meal requests, IMO, is one area where Amtrak and the commissary could do a better job. If the request is in the system then, the commissary should be notified. Somehow, in Chicago, this generally does happen but in Seattle it does not. I myself do not understand the inconsistency. This leaves it up to the LSA and chef, two more sets of hands and eyes to scan the manifest for special meal requests. Personally, IMO, it's unacceptable for the crew to miss this if the request is there.

Please do report the missing meals to Amtrak customer service so that it may be forwarded to the appropriate dept.

bill said:

Recently (Oct 2010) travelled on Lakeshore Limited (Boston to Cleveland). We DID call ahead & were assured that vegan meals would be in the dining car. We arrived for dinner, sat down, ordered and were told they had NO vegan food. Embarrassed we had to leave unfed. Thankfully we assumed this and carried our own food ...otherwise we would have starved!! I felt this was shoddy service for first-class accommodations! Our car steward was very upset at dining management.

Click to expand...

This seems beyond strange... at the least you could have gotten an "entree" size salad. Were there any options mentioned to you? Baked Potatoes are another possibility, not sure how they are prepared though.

By the way.. the Lounge Car usually carries Amy's Veggie Burgers which are vegan.