dart330
OBS Chief
This was our first experience taking Amtrak overnight, all previous experiences had been in coach during the day. This was also our first AGR redemption for tickets. My girlfriend Alana was in a roomette with me and my grandmother was in a roomette next door (she boarded in SNB after visiting family in CA and this was also her first train ride since 1965). I am glad we gave it a try, but we did encounter some equipment and facility issues along the way.
We were picked up at the Las Vegas Airport at level Zero by Commuter Services, the Amtrak Thruway on Friday May 29th.
The ride was ok, it was a 15 passenger van and luckily there were only 12 people going as several of the passengers were very large and there simply would of not been room for anymore. Not sure what they would of done in that situation. We left right on time at 10PM and drove down to Laughlin. We arrived at 11:30 at the Tropicana Express and had a 30 minute break, they said they sometimes pickup more passengers at this location. I briefly spoke with the driver, he said ridership was really down with the economy, but they sometimes have groups of over 80 people getting off in Kingman to go to Vegas (and a ticket is $60).
After leaving Laughlin it was just a 30 minute drive to Kingman, we arrived at 12:30. I tipped the driver for handling our luggage and being pretty friendly all around. The waiting room in Kingman is pretty awful. I didn't take any pictures because people were sleeping. There was a ceiling fan with one light bulb that looked like it was about to burn out, and various chairs around the perimeter. There were bugs flying around and dead scorpions on the floor. The single bathroom was very dirty, only had cold water, and the faucet was so nasty i would not fill up my water bottle to drink from it. There was nothing else available, no drinking fountain, vending machines, phones, nothing. This was probably the worst part of the trip. From what I have read on here, it is the thruway that is in charge of providing the waiting room, so it looks like they really went as cheap as possible. I would think the city of Kingman would want a nicer waiting room to leave a better impression of the city...
About 15 minutes before the train came, the new conductor for the shift change came and collected everyone's tickets and we walked down to the tracks next to the old station (under renovation for the last decade or so). Train was pretty much right on time at 2AM.
We were one of two couples going first class, the others boarded the car in front of ours and then we got on. The conductor closed the door behind us and we were left to our own to put the luggage away and find our rooms. Luckily we were able to rearrange the luggage and get our suitcases in. We used the facilities on the bottom level and then headed up to roomette 4. Having never been in a sleeper car before, we were a little shocked at the lack of space in the roomette, but we managed to get into some sleeping clothes, hop into bed and close the door. Sleeping was almost impossible the first night, it was close to 3AM before I started nodding off, but I probably woke up every 15 minutes due to the motion and noises of the train.
At 5AM the sun started shining through the edges of the curtain which woke me up, we were in Flagstaff and I really didn't feel I was going to be able to get any more sleep as people were already up and about getting cleaned up and coffee from the station.
We sat in the room on the lower bunk for about an hour just watching the sun rise and watching the mountains, it was really beautiful. As we finally got around to getting out of the room, we were told by other passengers that the toilets were not flushing. Chuck, the attendant said it was due to the elevation and Amtrak was aware of the problem but refused to fix it. There was a circuit breaker on the lower level that had to be reset every few flushes, needless to say this was disappointing. I was glad to not be on the lower level with all those bathrooms, but at times the whole car did not smell the best. Chuck tried to stay on top of the circuit breaker while doing his other duties, we only had to ask him once to reset it.
On to breakfast, we headed to the diner with my grandmother and was immediately seated. We were joined by Bob from Pennsylvania who had a bedroom in the same sleeper car. Alana ordered the quiche (special of the day) and everyone else had the french toast with bacon. Coffee and juice was all included, we all felt the diner beverages were better than the complimentary ones in the sleeper car. As we finished up breakfast we were asked about a lunch reservation and we decided on 12:15 not knowing we were scheduled to be stationary in Albuquerque at that time.
After breakfast we just sat in our rooms watching AZ go by drinking coffee. We were pretty out of it after getting only 2 hours of not very good sleep. I am glad I took my gps, it was nice to know how fast we were going. I recorded a top speed of 96.2mph that morning!!!
We arrived into ABQ almost an hour early so we got out and checked out the new station and the indian jewelry.
We got back on the train at noon and people with 11:30 lunch reservations said they were told there was a problem and that they would be notified when lunch could be served. Around 12:30 they started letting people into the diner and we were told there were only 2 options available due to equipment failure. Tuna salad or chicken with rice. Bob joined us once again and he and Alana had the tuna salad, my grandmother and I had the chicken with rice. We were still provided with a salad and the chicken was almost a gumbo on top of a bed of rice. It was surprisingly good and I was glad I tried something other than the burger I was going to get. Dessert was great! I had the oreo pie, Bob had ice cream, and I think the others got the berry cake or cheese cake.
After lunch we headed back to our rooms and tried to nap some, just sat enjoying the scenery.
They didn't ever take dinner reservations due to the equipment failure. When we stopped at Raton, NM a truck pulled up and they loaded dinner onto the diner.
We decided to head back to the lounge to watch the Raton Pass. I was surprised it was going to take an hour to go 23 miles, pretty slow going. On the way through the diner, they told us we had better go ahead and eat while the food was hot as they did not have heating lamps to keep it warm. We were all still pretty full from lunch, but decided we better eat now instead of going hungry later. We ended up going through the whole pass and the tunnel in the diner. The choices were grilled chicken, chicken fried steak, chicken strips, or popcorn chicken. A lot of the passengers were upset about the food by this point, but we didn't really care as long as they gave us something. Alana and I had the chicken strips and Bob and my grandmother had the chicken fried steak. The strips came with fries and the steaks came with a baked potato, all dishes with a side of gravy. Salad was served along with dessert too. The oreo pie was so good I got it again, and the ladies swapped getting what the other had for lunch. Bob stuck with the ice cream.
We headed to the lounge after dinner and they had a lady from the parks service in there talking over the PA. She was pretty loud so we only stuck around a few minutes. I was surprised there were not more people in there with as full as the train was.
We got into La Junta early too and got off for a few minutes, it was pretty windy and a storm was rolling in.
We got back on and set our watches for central time. I took some sleeping pills and drifted off to sleep. Awoke around 6:45 in KS along the Missouri River. We stopped in a rail yard to refuel and then headed to downtown KC, MO and arrived early again. The station was beautiful, definitely worth the walk inside if you ever get the chance.
After KC we were served McDonald's Egg McMuffins in our rooms. The only choice was sausage or bacon. This really pissed a lot of people off, but at least the toilets were working just as Chuck had predicted they would when we got to KC. North of KC they had been getting lots of rain, so there was a lot of standing flood water. We passed through Marceline, which had a really nice station. I am surprised they removed it as a stop since it is at least an hours drive from La Plata.
All in all, it was a good trip. Had the toilets worked the whole time and the diner not broken down I would have no complaints about the train ride. If we do it again, I think it would be much more comfortable leaving from LA and getting a full nights sleep instead of boarding at 2AM. But until they offer rail service in Vegas, I guess that won't be happening.
We were picked up at the Las Vegas Airport at level Zero by Commuter Services, the Amtrak Thruway on Friday May 29th.
The ride was ok, it was a 15 passenger van and luckily there were only 12 people going as several of the passengers were very large and there simply would of not been room for anymore. Not sure what they would of done in that situation. We left right on time at 10PM and drove down to Laughlin. We arrived at 11:30 at the Tropicana Express and had a 30 minute break, they said they sometimes pickup more passengers at this location. I briefly spoke with the driver, he said ridership was really down with the economy, but they sometimes have groups of over 80 people getting off in Kingman to go to Vegas (and a ticket is $60).
After leaving Laughlin it was just a 30 minute drive to Kingman, we arrived at 12:30. I tipped the driver for handling our luggage and being pretty friendly all around. The waiting room in Kingman is pretty awful. I didn't take any pictures because people were sleeping. There was a ceiling fan with one light bulb that looked like it was about to burn out, and various chairs around the perimeter. There were bugs flying around and dead scorpions on the floor. The single bathroom was very dirty, only had cold water, and the faucet was so nasty i would not fill up my water bottle to drink from it. There was nothing else available, no drinking fountain, vending machines, phones, nothing. This was probably the worst part of the trip. From what I have read on here, it is the thruway that is in charge of providing the waiting room, so it looks like they really went as cheap as possible. I would think the city of Kingman would want a nicer waiting room to leave a better impression of the city...
About 15 minutes before the train came, the new conductor for the shift change came and collected everyone's tickets and we walked down to the tracks next to the old station (under renovation for the last decade or so). Train was pretty much right on time at 2AM.
We were one of two couples going first class, the others boarded the car in front of ours and then we got on. The conductor closed the door behind us and we were left to our own to put the luggage away and find our rooms. Luckily we were able to rearrange the luggage and get our suitcases in. We used the facilities on the bottom level and then headed up to roomette 4. Having never been in a sleeper car before, we were a little shocked at the lack of space in the roomette, but we managed to get into some sleeping clothes, hop into bed and close the door. Sleeping was almost impossible the first night, it was close to 3AM before I started nodding off, but I probably woke up every 15 minutes due to the motion and noises of the train.
At 5AM the sun started shining through the edges of the curtain which woke me up, we were in Flagstaff and I really didn't feel I was going to be able to get any more sleep as people were already up and about getting cleaned up and coffee from the station.
We sat in the room on the lower bunk for about an hour just watching the sun rise and watching the mountains, it was really beautiful. As we finally got around to getting out of the room, we were told by other passengers that the toilets were not flushing. Chuck, the attendant said it was due to the elevation and Amtrak was aware of the problem but refused to fix it. There was a circuit breaker on the lower level that had to be reset every few flushes, needless to say this was disappointing. I was glad to not be on the lower level with all those bathrooms, but at times the whole car did not smell the best. Chuck tried to stay on top of the circuit breaker while doing his other duties, we only had to ask him once to reset it.
On to breakfast, we headed to the diner with my grandmother and was immediately seated. We were joined by Bob from Pennsylvania who had a bedroom in the same sleeper car. Alana ordered the quiche (special of the day) and everyone else had the french toast with bacon. Coffee and juice was all included, we all felt the diner beverages were better than the complimentary ones in the sleeper car. As we finished up breakfast we were asked about a lunch reservation and we decided on 12:15 not knowing we were scheduled to be stationary in Albuquerque at that time.
After breakfast we just sat in our rooms watching AZ go by drinking coffee. We were pretty out of it after getting only 2 hours of not very good sleep. I am glad I took my gps, it was nice to know how fast we were going. I recorded a top speed of 96.2mph that morning!!!
We arrived into ABQ almost an hour early so we got out and checked out the new station and the indian jewelry.
We got back on the train at noon and people with 11:30 lunch reservations said they were told there was a problem and that they would be notified when lunch could be served. Around 12:30 they started letting people into the diner and we were told there were only 2 options available due to equipment failure. Tuna salad or chicken with rice. Bob joined us once again and he and Alana had the tuna salad, my grandmother and I had the chicken with rice. We were still provided with a salad and the chicken was almost a gumbo on top of a bed of rice. It was surprisingly good and I was glad I tried something other than the burger I was going to get. Dessert was great! I had the oreo pie, Bob had ice cream, and I think the others got the berry cake or cheese cake.
After lunch we headed back to our rooms and tried to nap some, just sat enjoying the scenery.
They didn't ever take dinner reservations due to the equipment failure. When we stopped at Raton, NM a truck pulled up and they loaded dinner onto the diner.
We decided to head back to the lounge to watch the Raton Pass. I was surprised it was going to take an hour to go 23 miles, pretty slow going. On the way through the diner, they told us we had better go ahead and eat while the food was hot as they did not have heating lamps to keep it warm. We were all still pretty full from lunch, but decided we better eat now instead of going hungry later. We ended up going through the whole pass and the tunnel in the diner. The choices were grilled chicken, chicken fried steak, chicken strips, or popcorn chicken. A lot of the passengers were upset about the food by this point, but we didn't really care as long as they gave us something. Alana and I had the chicken strips and Bob and my grandmother had the chicken fried steak. The strips came with fries and the steaks came with a baked potato, all dishes with a side of gravy. Salad was served along with dessert too. The oreo pie was so good I got it again, and the ladies swapped getting what the other had for lunch. Bob stuck with the ice cream.
We headed to the lounge after dinner and they had a lady from the parks service in there talking over the PA. She was pretty loud so we only stuck around a few minutes. I was surprised there were not more people in there with as full as the train was.
We got into La Junta early too and got off for a few minutes, it was pretty windy and a storm was rolling in.
We got back on and set our watches for central time. I took some sleeping pills and drifted off to sleep. Awoke around 6:45 in KS along the Missouri River. We stopped in a rail yard to refuel and then headed to downtown KC, MO and arrived early again. The station was beautiful, definitely worth the walk inside if you ever get the chance.
After KC we were served McDonald's Egg McMuffins in our rooms. The only choice was sausage or bacon. This really pissed a lot of people off, but at least the toilets were working just as Chuck had predicted they would when we got to KC. North of KC they had been getting lots of rain, so there was a lot of standing flood water. We passed through Marceline, which had a really nice station. I am surprised they removed it as a stop since it is at least an hours drive from La Plata.
All in all, it was a good trip. Had the toilets worked the whole time and the diner not broken down I would have no complaints about the train ride. If we do it again, I think it would be much more comfortable leaving from LA and getting a full nights sleep instead of boarding at 2AM. But until they offer rail service in Vegas, I guess that won't be happening.
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Thanks for sharing!
