East Glacier Park dinner

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M

Minn2013

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I will be traveling in a sleeper on the westbound Empire Builder from St. Paul to Seattle this July with a two-night stopover in East Glacier Park. The scheduled arrival time in East Glacier is 6:45pm. Is there time for dinner on the train prior to arrival in East Glacier? Also, will I be able to have dinner on the train after departure from East Glacier? Of course, I am assuming the train will be on schedule. How late does the dining car serve dinner?
 
Not sure of the WB time, be it 5:00 or 5:30 but, if time is tight, go to the diner when you board and talk to the person in charge. He or she may give you a reservation slip right then. Sometimes a Tour group leader may block an entire seating time for his group.(happened to me). Jim
 
Dinner serving times vary (they have to interface with direction, station stops, and time zones), but the usual first reservation time is 5pm, and they usually serve till at least a 7 or 7:30pm reservation time. I board at a station where the train stops at 8pm, and they always send us right in for dinner unless the train is REALLY late, so I'm guessing you have a good chance at both!
 
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And you will, of course, have a chance to ask before you get off to find out how it will work when you re-board after your stop. But I am betting that, given the timing of the East Glacier stop, they figure on dinner for both alighting and boarding passengers, and can accommodate you (unless the train is REALLY late when you board, iun which case all bets are off. Hope you have a way to track that).
 
Actually anytime one boards after 4 PM or so, the Sleeping Car Attendant is supposed to secure a dinner reservation for you. So first check with your attendant if he/she doesn't mention something at the time you board.
 
Also, bear in mind if your train is running on time. Last summer when I boarded the eastbound California Zephyr in Reno it had arrived 4 hours late. It was 8:00 PM and they sat us for dinner. I think allot depends on the diner car attendants.
 
Year before last, my dad and I had dinner on the westbound EB before getting off at East Glacier. When we reboarded, still westbound, a couple of days later, the train was hours late--got there at about 9 PM, as I recall. The terrific SCA Gul asked when we boarded if we wanted dinner. I don't know how he'd persuaded the dining car to stay open so late for us. (YMMV) As it happened, we'd eaten dinner already in town, when we learned that the train was running so late.
 
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