Breakfast on #1

[jimmrl]

Hopefully this is an easy question. When I get on the #1 Sunset Limited in NOL at 9:00 am, will there be breakfast or not?

I will be in a roomette and the meals are "free".

Just figuring out some logistics for my trip in a couple of weeks.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[BCL]

No breakfast to start the trip. This blogger is talking about the only breakfast being served while the train was somewhere in Texas.

http://nomenu.com/?p=48680

I awaken at around seven. We are west of Del Rio, but not quite to the Pecos River Gorge, over which the train seems to be in flight. This land is reminiscent of the most arid, rocky parts of Big Bend National Park, one of my favorite exotic environments. The park is about a hundred fifty miles from here. But as we roll on, the ground becomes greener and greener.

The only breakfast served on the westbound Sunset Limited is this morning’s. I am seated across from an enormously fat man who actually has traveled the entire Amtrak system, even the short routes. He was on the Texas Eagle from Chicago, on his way to Los Angeles. He adds that his itinerary is the longest of all the transcontinental lines from Chicago to the West Coast. He makes me wonder whether I am spouting too much detail in these journal entries.

 

[zephyr17]

The California Zephyr leaving Emeryville at 8:30 doesn't service breakfast, either. Neither does the Coast Starlight leaving Seattle at 9:35. Lunch is the first meal served on both those trains.

IMHO, I think breakfast ought to be served on at least the CZ and the Sunset (the Starlight at 9:35 is less clear cut). They serve dinner on the Capitol Limited and the CONO which are roughly equivalent at the dinner hour. Please let's not start another "everything wrong with Amtrak's dining cars" thread, though.

 

[BCL]

The California Zephyr leaving Emeryville at 8:30 doesn't service breakfast, either. Neither does the Coast Starlight leaving Seattle at 9:35. Lunch is the first meal served on both those trains.

IMHO, I think breakfast ought to be served on at least the CZ and the Sunset (the Starlight at 9:35 is less clear cut). They serve dinner on the Capitol Limited and the CONO which are roughly equivalent at the dinner hour. Please let's not start another "everything wrong with Amtrak's dining cars" thread, though.

I'm familiar with that having taken the CS from Seattle, as well as seeing the signs at the snack shop at Emeryville station. The vendor has signs all over on every storage box and display case noting that there is no breakfast service on #6.

I thought of taking my kid on #6 maybe to Sacramento, but no breakfast service is one reason I haven't booked the trip. We've booked the CS from Richmond/Emeryville to San Jose, and it was nice having breakfast in the dining car, although once it was took late when the CS was running late.

 

[chakk]

I believe the CS now leaves Emeryville at 9:10 AM and not 8:30 AM. Still, no breakfast available in the dining car on the first day out. I don't think they offered breakfast in the dining car either several years ago when the train departed Emeryville at 7:15 AM to clear a work window later in the trip.

 

[the_traveler]

They don't serve breakfast on those trains, parttly due to the "normal" breakfast service hours are 6:30 to (about) 9:30. A departures time of 9:00 is too close to the "normal" shut down time". Likewise, every Western train departing from CHI has dinner as the first meal. This includes the TE with a 1:45 pm departure, since the "normal" lunch shut down time is 2-2:30 pm - again too close to departure.

 

[BCL]

I believe the CS now leaves Emeryville at 9:10 AM and not 8:30 AM. Still, no breakfast available in the dining car on the first day out. I don't think they offered breakfast in the dining car either several years ago when the train departed Emeryville at 7:15 AM to clear a work window later in the trip.

Still scheduled for 8:10 arrival and 8:20 departure. However, our first time they still stopped at Richmond, which gave a good 40 minutes more time on the train compared to Emeryville. We were moving really slowly too.

 

[jimmrl]

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I will have to find something to eat in the French Quarter before I get on the train.

Jim

 

[BCL]

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I will have to find something to eat in the French Quarter before I get on the train.

Jim

Cafe du Monde perhaps?