seat38a
Engineer
No, not my birthday. Thats how they serve it up to everyone.
What's the deal with menus nowadays?
- Thread starter D.P. Roberts
- Start date
Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:
- Status
seat38a
Engineer
You know, I would not be surprised at all that the confetti sprinkles were all Alice's doing!
seat38a
Engineer
Oh one IMPORTANT NOTE about the dining car. While it does not say on the menu that "SODAS" are included in the meal for sleeping car passengers, "THEY ARE!!" We only found out after we ordered them, and when we tried to pay, we were told that they were included. You don't have to stick to the Ice Tea, Milk, Coffee, and Juice listed as "Included" on the menu.
N
Nathanael
Guest
Well, it's the Sunset -- three-a-week service keeps ridership low. The other 3-a-week, the Cardinal, doesn't have a full dining car, so the Sunset probably has the least full dining car of all the trains with dining cars. And January and February are the weakest-ridership months of the year on almost all the trains (Silver Service is the exception), too. Sort of a worst-case scenario for ridership.
trainman74
Conductor
Yes, that "included" listing on the menu is intended for passengers paying cash. Sleeping car passengers also don't have to pay, for example, for the "breakfast meats" which are listed as requring an extra charge.
In fact, I believe sleeping car passengers are allowed to get a second soda (or bottled water) upon request.
Shortline
Conductor
Had the catfish last night. After 3 trips on the TE already this month, couldn't do the steak again. I don't recall seeing it before this month, and couldn't believe it would be any good, but the reviews on the chicken weren't great, so I gave it a shot. Actually was pretty good, with lemon and hot sauce. Was nice to have something different. Those dinners above on the sunset look good too...the poor TE just doesn't seem to get as much rotation as the others I guess?
Last edited by a moderator:
seat38a
Engineer
My parents and I avoided the chicken like the plague. I'm sure there is nothing wrong with it, but the calorie count for it was 1200+ for one meal. Yikes!!! Its not too bad on solid land but if your sitting in your room for 2 nights that could be a problem.
The Davy Crockett
Engineer
It is a crazy calorie count.
This past December, just before Christmas, Mrs. Crockett and I were given only two options for dinner on a SB Meteor. (This due to its late 9:15 PM arrival into ALX, and the LSA saying they only had two options left at that point. I was happy they had held to kitchen open for us and that they were serving us at all.) Those options were the chicken and the vegie pasta. We both opted for the chicken, which wasn't bad. It was a lot of chicken, more than either one of us could finish.
If someone is worried about their diet they don't have to eat all of it, and if they avoid the breaded skin, which is loaded with fat, I'm sure one can consume a lot less than 1200+ calories for that meal.
And even though I wouldn't dream of it, they could skip dessert.
Last edited by a moderator:
seat38a
Engineer
"And even though I wouldn't dream of it, they could skip dessert. "
Heresy! LOL no way that will happen, as you can see in the picture above, I took the a la mode option
"Heresy! LOL no way that will happen, as you can see in the picture above, I took the a la mode option
RickIronton
Train Attendant
- Joined
- May 2, 2013
- Messages
- 92
Menus vary and cost can be minimized but the real issue is that Amtrak does not promote their
dining cars and cafe/lounge cars.
Aside, from the initial announcement of dining car hours and cafe/lounge hours, what is really being done on board to promote the amenities.
What's wrong with a few announcements about of what's available on board for all the riders.
What's wrong with spending a few dollars to pass out sample menus to the coach passengers and having the coach attendant promote visiting the lounge and diner.
It seems that very little is being done with on board advertising.
Amtrak needs to do a little hustling and get the passengers excited about what's in store for them once on board.
Here's a case, on point: my buddy boarded in Chicago on the City of New Orleans and the train was stalled due to brake problems in Kankakee for over 3 hours.
Did he go to the lounge,.......no. Did he venture outside his seat,..........no. All he did was complain about the delay and,..... the crew on board did nothing to offer alternatives to pass the time.
I boarded in southern Illinois at Carbondale, over 4 hours late but from then on he got a tour of the train and admitted that he should have ventured beyond his seat for the hours of delay but no one promoted such an idea.
We can talk about menu items but until we get more passengers excited to visit these venues,...... no money is made for Amtrak.
And, on top of that,..... what surly dining/cafe attendants may await us. If we're lucky, we may be greeted cordially but we may get a reason to never venture from our seat!
dining cars and cafe/lounge cars.
Aside, from the initial announcement of dining car hours and cafe/lounge hours, what is really being done on board to promote the amenities.
What's wrong with a few announcements about of what's available on board for all the riders.
What's wrong with spending a few dollars to pass out sample menus to the coach passengers and having the coach attendant promote visiting the lounge and diner.
It seems that very little is being done with on board advertising.
Amtrak needs to do a little hustling and get the passengers excited about what's in store for them once on board.
Here's a case, on point: my buddy boarded in Chicago on the City of New Orleans and the train was stalled due to brake problems in Kankakee for over 3 hours.
Did he go to the lounge,.......no. Did he venture outside his seat,..........no. All he did was complain about the delay and,..... the crew on board did nothing to offer alternatives to pass the time.
I boarded in southern Illinois at Carbondale, over 4 hours late but from then on he got a tour of the train and admitted that he should have ventured beyond his seat for the hours of delay but no one promoted such an idea.
We can talk about menu items but until we get more passengers excited to visit these venues,...... no money is made for Amtrak.
And, on top of that,..... what surly dining/cafe attendants may await us. If we're lucky, we may be greeted cordially but we may get a reason to never venture from our seat!
R
Roger_That_
Guest
I'd go with B or you're going to get a whole "Ear Plugs" debate going again. :blink:
seat38a
Engineer
On my trip on the Sunset Limited, calls on the intercom were made constantly. The LSA also walks the whole train, sleeper first then coach taking reservations. Also, I did notice that the coach attendant picked up togo orders during meal time for coach passengers. When I walked through coach, the vast majority had the "on budget" thing going on with eating food they brought with them or anything that was "Just Add Hot Water." At least when I was on the train, they LSA and even the cafe car attendant did about as much as anyone could including as you mentioned, describing what is available in the dining car.
Based on my experience, though it varies from train to train, you get no shortage of announcements from the diner/cafe. If anything, it's the contrary...you get some overly aggressive cafe attendants who will read almost the whole cafe menu to you every time they're about to go on break or come back from it. The problem is that occasionally, "a few very brief announcements" can morph into "more than a few speeches" when you're not looking.
As to sample menus, I know those are very common on a lot of corridor trains. The availability on LD trains is variable, but tends to be a bit more sparse. That said, I suspect someone did a cost-benefit analysis on this at some point and it came up wanting.
In the specific case of your friend, the OBS doesn't tend to do announcements after a certain time (usually 2100 around 2200). Considering how late the CONO leaves CHI, they would have hit "quiet time" not much later. Usually the cafe attendant would have made an announcement about that time noting when he was closing. However, speakers go out all the time, so it's possible announcements were made but not properly transmitted.
I love Amtrak, and I love overcooked dining car burgers about as much as is humanly possible, but...
To be fair, getting passengers "excited" about the diner on most trains would be akin to advertising a luxury car dealership that, in reality, sold used 1989 Geo Metros and a single 1992 Bimmer.
Much of what the diner serves is really not exciting. (And if one isn't in sleeper, there's no guarantee it'll be a worthwhile meal.) The experience itself can be a serious draw for some, but the dining on Amtrak is nothing to write home about. It's not that the food is necessarily bad (sometimes it's pretty decent); rather, it's that there isn't a great—or consistently good—product to market.
Last edited by a moderator:
yarrow
Engineer
we were on the sl last week and had ms wong for our server for a couple meals. what a wonderful attitude and superior job.
D.P. Roberts
Conductor
I don't think I've ever heard what I'd consider to be "too many" dining car announcements. The most I've ever heard was on the EB, where the woman in charge of the dining car was not-jokingly referred to as the "Soup ****". She constantly made announcements about who SHOULDN'T be in the dining car - kids running through, people who showed up 3.5 seconds before or after their reservation time, etc. I think most people were afraid to even go down there...
But I do agree about the cafe car. On most trains I've experienced, the cafe car attendant seems to make announcements every few minutes, at all hours of the day. I really wish they'd just get the cafe car one of those "Back in 5 minutes" signs and leave us alone!
P
phk
Guest
By way of comparison, I took Via's Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto last week. Every breakfast had an "omelet of the day". Every day's lunch and dinner menu were different. And no surly, which I seem to encounter on half the Amtrak trips I've taken.
- Status
Latest posts
-
-
-
Siemens Caltrans/IDOT Venture design, engineering, testing and delivery (2Q 2024)- Latest: TrimetWESFan1003
-
-
-
