Sleeper Accomodations On Empire Builder - What Do You Do During Day?

[wintersummer]

We are considering taking our very first train trip and taking the Empire Builder. I have lots and lots of questions, some where the answers may be the same for every Amtrak train, other questions where answers may be specific to the EB.

We plan to get sleeping bedroom. However, I don't want to stay "cooped" up in my bedroom all day. I want to be part of the train! Is there a viewing car? (and is that the correct name?). We would love to stay in the viewing car all day long, but is that appropriate ettiquette?

When it gets time to make up the bedroom, do we do that or do Amtrak staff do that function? If we do it, is there a guide to do it?

Do you lock your sleeper when you are gone to viewing car or dining car? Does the sleeper have any way to secure valuables? Not that I have anything of great value, but just my wallet with credit cards and IDs.

I'm sure this is first of many questions but from reading these boards, I know this is where the answers are! Thanks.

 

[AmtrakCrescent20]

We are considering taking our very first train trip and taking the Empire Builder. I have lots and lots of questions, some where the answers may be the same for every Amtrak train, other questions where answers may be specific to the EB.
We plan to get sleeping bedroom. However, I don't want to stay "cooped" up in my bedroom all day. I want to be part of the train! Is there a viewing car? (and is that the correct name?). We would love to stay in the viewing car all day long, but is that appropriate ettiquette?

When it gets time to make up the bedroom, do we do that or do Amtrak staff do that function? If we do it, is there a guide to do it?

Do you lock your sleeper when you are gone to viewing car or dining car? Does the sleeper have any way to secure valuables? Not that I have anything of great value, but just my wallet with credit cards and IDs.

I'm sure this is first of many questions but from reading these boards, I know this is where the answers are! Thanks.

As long as there is not a great demand for the seats (e.g. when you are going over Marias Pass) you don't want to keep a pair of seats all day.

The sleeping car attendant is supposed to make up your bed (and most likely will without hesitation). They will often do this while you are at breakfast and dinner. If you want to do it yourself, I believe there are step by step instructions on how to do it on the underside of the fold out table below the window in the Superliners.

You can only lock your sleeper when you are inside it, and there is no place, such as a safe, to store valuables. You may want to take them with you; however, because there is an attendant fro every car, they are relatively safe in your room.

 

[yarrow]

we like to spend a fair amount of time in our room as we find we spend quite a bit of time in the dining car. it also a lot of fun to sit in the lounge car and especially for photography the windows are better than in the sleeper. it is fun also to walk through the train a time or two.

the attendant will do your beds but we enjoy figuring them out ourselves though the attendant or another passenger is always ready to help with a balky one

i wouldn't leave anything of great value exposed in a bedroom just for peace of mind. that being said we have never had a problem.

 

[MrFSS]

You can only lock your sleeper when you are inside it, and there is no place, such as a safe, to store valuables. You may want to take them with you; however, because there is an attendant fro every car, they are relatively safe in your room.

The room has a sliding door and curtains. Pull the curtains and slide the door shut when you leave. No one can then see in and things are pretty safe.Put valuables in your carry on and still don't leave them out to be seen.

 

[MrFSS]

If you are interested, here is my report from a few years ago when we rode the EB.

REPORT

 

[wintersummer]

If you are interested, here is my report from a few years ago when we rode the EB.
REPORT

Mr. FSS - Thanks for directing me to your trip report! Great information to help me plan, even greater to make me want to book right now! I then went to your other pages and saw that you've taken many train trips.

Am I making a good choice by doing EB, as our first train trip? We were thinking about doing it like you...flying from our home (North Carolina) to Chicago, then on to the west. We might stop in eastern WA state because we've been to Seattle a number of times and have never explored the eastern part of WA and OR. Also, that last part of the trip is at night, if my recollection is correct.

Is there a location where I can find trip reports from other board members?

 

[Glenn W]

The EB can be a very enjoyable trip. A lot will depend on the equipment available on the EB & how full it is.

You could find empty seats in the coach to escape from the sleeper. Take advantage of any service breaks to get off the train & get some photos. You may want to check out the station for newspapers or snack items.

Yes, you must go to the diner for your meals. Table seating depends on the # in your party. Dining car stewards are experts at filling a 4 place table with "strangers" that can quickly become friends. You can tell us later if any policy for the diner has changed. Crossing Montana will take all day. You may want to carry a portable video game or some tunes. AFAIK Amtrak no longer shows airline type movies from a VCR.

I hope you still have a lounge car. The scenery gets better from Glacier Park into Seattle. The lounge cars can be good for photos.

 

[wintersummer]

The EB can be a very enjoyable trip. A lot will depend on the equipment available on the EB & how full it is. You could find empty seats in the coach to escape from the sleeper. Take advantage of any service breaks to get off the train & get some photos. You may want to check out the station for newspapers or snack items.

Yes, you must go to the diner for your meals. Table seating depends on the # in your party. Dining car stewards are experts at filling a 4 place table with "strangers" that can quickly become friends. You can tell us later if any policy for the diner has changed. Crossing Montana will take all day. You may want to carry a portable video game or some tunes. AFAIK Amtrak no longer shows airline type movies from a VCR.

I hope you still have a lounge car. The scenery gets better from Glacier Park into Seattle. The lounge cars can be good for photos.

Glenn - Thanks so much for this guidance! I certainly plan to get off the train. Does the timetable give an accurate idea of the length of the stops?

Could you explain what you mean by "hope you still have a lounge car"? Are they going away? Thanks!

 

[AlanB]

WinterSummer,

We have an entire forum, down 4 from this forum, on the main page called "Travelouges/Trip Reports". You can find my trip report on not only the Empire Builder, but several other trains in there or by clicking here.

Additionally you can find other trip reports over at On Track On Line located here. And while you're at OTOL, you also might want to check out their hints & tips. They are just chocked full of info for the first time rider.

As for the lounge cars, no they aren't going anywhere for the time being. That could change in the future, you never know, but I think that you should be safe for this trip.

Next, the Timetable is accurate, but if the train is running late, expect the times to be shortened. Always ask your sleeping car attendant if you can step off for a few minutes, and never ever wander far from the train. You can reboard through any open door, other than the dining car. Don't go into the station unless you are positive that you have plenty of time. The train will not wait for you! I've seen people get left behind, in fact it happened on my last trip and I believe that I mentioned it in that trip report above.

Finally as Yarrow noted, just don't leave wallets and purses in the room, take them with you. Put any DVD players or things like that out of sight and pull your curtain closed. Follow those rules and you should be ok.

 

[AmtrakCrescent20]

Just one more thing to add: especially on western LD's, the timetable will not show all the "smoke" breaks. For example, the Texas Eagle remains for at least 5 minutes in Longview if running on time, but the timetable shows it as a "regular" stop. The crew will make announcements for most some breaks.

 

[MrFSS]

If you are interested, here is my report from a few years ago when we rode the EB.

REPORT

Mr. FSS - Thanks for directing me to your trip report! Great information to help me plan, even greater to make me want to book right now! I then went to your other pages and saw that you've taken many train trips.

Am I making a good choice by doing EB, as our first train trip? We were thinking about doing it like you...flying from our home (North Carolina) to Chicago, then on to the west. We might stop in eastern WA state because we've been to Seattle a number of times and have never explored the eastern part of WA and OR. Also, that last part of the trip is at night, if my recollection is correct.

Is there a location where I can find trip reports from other board members?

A quick search revealed THIS link. You might check them.

EB is a good choice, in my opinion, but it will spoil you as some of the others may not live up to your expectations of that EB trip.

The EB arrives in Eastern Washington in the wee hours and Seattle mid-AM.

 

[wintersummer]

Thanks for guiding me to the on-track-on-time. Great information. It's time for me to call it a day but I'll be back in the morning to pick up on my planning!

 

[WICT106]

The Builder has to be one of Amtrak's unheralded trains. BNSF and Canadian Pacific Railways do a pretty respectable job of getting the train over the route without undue delay. It also helps that both landlords have invested enough in capacity along the route to accomodate the upsurge in freight traffic that has taken place over the past deacde and a half.

To answer your question more directly, during the day people have gone to the lounge car, read books and played board games. Most sleeper passengers that I have encountered do these things and spend only a little time in the sleeper sections.

 

[saxman]

If you plan on taking the trip this summer, the train will be crowded. In fact most times of year I've been on it, its been crowded. Though i actually like a crowded train. But everyone knows about Marias Pass and Glacier Park. So grab a good seat in the lounge early on. Its the best place to see both sides. The first half of Glacier, the river is on one side, then it switches to the other about half way through. I don't know which way you are travelling so I can't say which to sit on. But both are pretty spectacular. The EB is probably my favorite and you will for sure enjoy the ride and meet lots of people.

 

[Larry H.]

I also have a brief report on our trip week of may 6th in the travelog section. From what I recall they did a pretty good job of announcing before any stops where you could disembark about the time they planed to stay there. Anywhere from a few minutes to a hour or more in one case where we were running early. I found that many of the sleeper passengers did indeed spend a great deal of there time in there rooms. Of course now and then you would see some in the lounge.. I would spend as much time as your comfortable with in there. It was hardest and sometimes you couldn't get a seat going into the mountains from the east going west. But on return the lounge car was less crowded due to the time of week it was I guess. Several times when we couldn't get three seat together in the upstairs we went down stairs and had a good view from the tables where you could look out both sides of the train. We spent a bit of time playing dominos there. The attendant said it was fine unless there were passengers trying to use the tables for food. but that didn't happen much.

 

[Clyde Deep East Texas]

I also have a brief report on our trip week of may 6th in the travelog section. From what I recall they did a pretty good job of announcing before any stops where you could disembark about the time they planed to stay there. Anywhere from a few minutes to a hour or more in one case where we were running early. I found that many of the sleeper passengers did indeed spend a great deal of there time in there rooms. Of course now and then you would see some in the lounge.. I would spend as much time as your comfortable with in there. It was hardest and sometimes you couldn't get a seat going into the mountains from the east going west. But on return the lounge car was less crowded due to the time of week it was I guess. Several times when we couldn't get three seat together in the upstairs we went down stairs and had a good view from the tables where you could look out both sides of the train. We spent a bit of time playing dominos there. The attendant said it was fine unless there were passengers trying to use the tables for food. but that didn't happen much.

Situation re station breaks and such will be pretty similar to those we encountered on the California Zephyr last October - and for that matter, the Texas Eagle. The crew will tell you they are coming up and whether (there are a few where the railroad says "No smoking on our platforms") you will have time to get off for a smoke.

On our trip, we had our meals brought to us by our car attendant. There was a reason for this - I was suffering from problems with my legs and going up and down (especially down) stairs was a considerable problem, making it hard to get to the diner. It appears that you don't have to have reasons like mine to have Your meals brought to your room.

When they tell you to stay close to the train and listen for the call to board - they do indeed mean it. The train my be late or on time, but when they get clearance to leave the station, that's what they'll do and if you aren't aboard....

Have a great trip - the only Amtrak train i know that matches the EB is the CZ when it comes to scenery.

 

[CharlotteJim]

My two cents on a couple of your questions:

I've found that on LD trains you settle into sort of a rhythym each day--get up, get dressed, go eat, return from eating, relax a bit, get ready to go eat again, go eat, return from eating, relax a bit, get ready to go eat again, go eat, return from eating, get ready for bed...and do it again the next day! Seriously, the eating part by itself will consume a surprising amount of your day, and as sleeper passengers (aka, First Class), all your meals are included and should be thoroughly enjoyed!

Eating also makes you "part of the train" in that if you are at ALL friendly, you will find people to chat with (and, unlike on planes, that WANT to chat because 1) they don't have anything else to do either and 2) riding the train is either novel enough to them or enjoyable enough to them that they want to share their stories with you) at each meal.

Regarding the lounge car, I think the meal breaks by themselves will prevent you from literally spending the whole day in there, but if you want to spend the 3(?) hours between meals there, just keep an eye out for how many people seem to want to be there too. One thing to note about that car on the EB: the NPS has traditionally posted a ranger on portions of the train to talk about the scenery and such. That can cause greater demand for space in the car (in addition to the scenery outside) but also gives you someone else to talk to/ask questions about what you're seeing. Take advantage of it.

I think you said you had made several posts about this trip. I don't know if one of them addressed this, but you might want to consider breaking the trip up with a stop at Glacier NP. My family and I also made a stop at another location along the route; each stop gives you a break of 24 hours or 48 hours or whatever and--obviously--you get back on at the same time of day you got off. We really had a terrific trip doing it that way.

Incidentally, I think you said you were from North Carolina, which caught my eye because (as my name implies) we're from Charlotte. When we did the trip, we actually drove up to Charleston, WV and boarded the Cardinal there to take us to Chicago, thus adding one more day to the itinerary. If you're interested in our planning or details of our trip, I'd be happy to share (I have a VERY long trip log, or at least a big chunk of one, that I could send you, or would answer questions here or offline--I'm always happy to recruit people to travel on the train!)

Good luck!

 

[wintersummer]

Thanks so much for all this great info.

There were two trips last year that got us interested in making a train trip. First, we visited Glacier and Waterton and stayed several days at the Issac Walton Inn. It was wonderful! But, I wanted to get on the train! Second, on another trip, we visited the Railroad Museum in Sacramento, CA. I've never been a "railroad" person until then...but that made us start thinking about this as a possibility.

I'm planning on flying one way on this trip, and will most likely fly to Portland, OR, spend a few days seeing the eastern side of OR and WA, board at Pasco, WA, go to Chicago, and fly home to the Triangle area.

Thanks so much. I look forward to all that eating!

 

[AlanB]

I'm planning on flying one way on this trip, and will most likely fly to Portland, OR, spend a few days seeing the eastern side of OR and WA, board at Pasco, WA, go to Chicago, and fly home to the Triangle area.

I'm not saying don't board in Pasco, especially if it fits well with your plans. But you should know that if you board in Pasco, that you will miss the very scenic ride out of Portland as the train follows the Columbia River from Portland to Pasco.

And remember that the Portland section only has one sleeping car, so book early as prices will most likely go up faster on that section by comparison to the Seattle section.

 

[wintersummer]

Alan - We were thinking about flying into Portland and driving along the Columbia River area, spending a few nights, and then boarding in Pasco at 8:57 p.m. What do you think about that?

 

[AlanB]

Alan - We were thinking about flying into Portland and driving along the Columbia River area, spending a few nights, and then boarding in Pasco at 8:57 p.m. What do you think about that?

Sadly I'm probably not the best expert to answer that question. I've never even been on that leg of the Empire Builder, so I'm only going on reports that I've read over the years by others describing the scenic train ride along the river. I'm not sure about the Columbia River, but I know on another Amtrak run the Cardinal, there are no roads in the most scenic part of that train's ride along the New River Gorge. So that could be a possibility in Oregon too, that you might not see everything as well from a car.

And consider that the driver of the car gets to see very little, otherwise the car might become a permenant part of the scenery.

Again, I'm not trying to squash your plans, but you may want to consider if at all possible taking the drive out first, but then returning to Portland to board the train. You might even find that the rental car is cheaper that way.

 

[gswager]

Alan - We were thinking about flying into Portland and driving along the Columbia River area, spending a few nights, and then boarding in Pasco at 8:57 p.m. What do you think about that?

That'll work as long as the driver is paying attention to the road to avoid an accident. :lol:

Try to visit the Dalles Dam which it will give you a tour inside the dam. Very interesting.

 

[jefffromark]

I have always liked the Empire Builder but my traveling companion did not - because he figured nothing compared to the CZ in scenery. I enjoyed the wide plains and miles of nothingness...and after my meal I would return to the bedroom and just veg out - listen to music and fall asleep - waking up just in time for lunch. Hitting the lounge for a while and wait for dinner - think about adding a few pounds for lack of activity.

 

[Guest]

B)

 

[RailFanLNK]

The woman I'm dating and her two daughters are going to GSC with me (Glenwood Springs CO) in July. She has put together games and stuff. I think all of that is cool, but we board at midnight, sleep till 8am or so and arrive in GSC around 2pm or so. The scenery on the CZ (and other trains) is so cool that I really doubt we will be playing the games on the way there. I have found just runnin' around the train, meeting people, sitting in the lounge car, the sightseer car and all the other things passes the time quite quickly. I'm hoping there will be a couple of teenagers (and preferably boys) that the two girls will meet. I have yet to ever be bored on a train. But then again, I just love the relaxed atmosphere of the train.