New Year''s Eve on the Train

[Trainmans daughter]

Hubby and I want to do something really special for New Year's Eve. We usually bang pots and pans in our driveway at midnight if we are still awake by then. So this year we are boarding the Coast Starlight (#14) in Chico on Dec. 30, destination PDX. We will spend the night there and head back the next day. There is no better way to ring in the New Year, right? Since the CS has the PPC, we are anticipating a very fun trip.

Has anyone here ever done a New Year's train trip? What was your experience? Anything special done by Amtrak? What can we expect?

 

[gmcguire]

I'll be celebrating New Years on the Westbound California Zephyr, somewhere in Utah (theoretically 1/2 an hour after leaving Salt Lake City). I don't have any special plans other than having a bottle of prosecco close by!

 

[JoanieBlon]

Last year, we were on the Empire Builder westbound to Seattle (from Chicago) for New Year's Eve. It was pretty quiet. :unsure: I thought there would be more festivities! It was a fun ride, none-the-less.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I was in Times Square surrounded by screaming yelling idiots to see 1984 come in.

I had come in from Atlanta the afternoon of Dec 31 on the Crescent.

Nothing on the train was specific to New Years except that hordes of noisy teenagers got on in New Jersey points. This was at a time in the Crescent's history that it did accept local passengers within the northeast corrider.

 

[tim49424]

Last year, we were on the Empire Builder westbound to Seattle (from Chicago) for New Year's Eve.

I was on the EB on NYE the previous two years. I am disabled and went to sit in the disabled lounge. I got kicked out because the people using the lounge for the disabled/elderly had booked the Hiawatha (which leaves a little over an hour before the EB does) for a special Mystery train. One of them actually got very nasty towards me and threatened to call Amtrak security.

Once I boarded the train all was fine. I did get off at Tomah, however, and didn't bring in the new year on the train.