Last time I had the pleasure of visiting Oakland Station, the friendly folks down at Oakland PD were "escorting" someone out of the station. OPD gave him the full treatment, guy didn't even have to use his feet! ^_^
Last time I rode in a roomette the AC was broken (at least in our room). Drifted to sleep with just the sheet as the room was sweltering. I found leaving the door open slightly was a good source of airflow, if you can put up with the noise outside.
Sleeper car accommodations are automatically assigned a room number when booking online. Booking with an agent (phone or station) will let you pick and choose what room number you are in.
Coach seating is assigned upon boarding the train, by the Coach attendant.
Between Seattle and Olympia the train heades through Kent Valley Industry, before heading along the sound and under the Narrows. Extremely beautiful in my opinion. The scenery can get a bit dull after Olympia headed south, until Kelso/Longview. From there until Portland, the train follows the...
As I head northbound on the Coast Starlight, my Coach, 31018 is equipped with a Amtrak Connect Wifi connection. While it can be connected to, no internet connection is present. Is this a new program rolling out, or have I just been out of the loop?
While I Haven't ridden in a TS, i would suspect that I would be nicer. First you would hear the horn more often, by most people are fine with that. Since there less customers in the TS it means less foot traffic.And no family bedroom, so less likely of a chance for little kids to be present.
I would hope they would flush the tanks during a turnaround. If not I hope at least once a month. the thought of them never being cleaned, or only being cleaned when out of service for extended periods of time disgusts me.
Well last time i took the builder, we had water avalible in coach. Granted it was warm and tasted horrible. But that may be because the train sat 2 hours in the coach yard with engine trouble. It should be the same on the CS. Enjoy your 10 year reunion with Amtrak!