Wine tasting is back on ths CS!! woo-hoo

[Meat Puppet]

Well not permanantly but the cs from llax to ssea had a big tour group on board and they were sold as a trip with wine tasting so everyone on firstsclass got to partake.

this wasnt fancy wine tasting buy strong hard pours and verry funny commentary from the bartenders. No little cups...we were all getting a 75% FULL GLASS OF THE SAMPLES.!!

 

[FormerOBS]

I'm a bit curious about who provided the wine, and whether the pourers were Amtrak personnel. It's possible that the whole event was paid for by the tour outfit, or by wineries that the tour group was going to visit. Another possibility (probably less likely) is that Amtrak had entered into some sort of legal agreement with this group and had to stage a wine tasting to comply with the terms of the contract. Maybe some other unusual situation. As I said, I'm curious.

 

[montana mike]

I would bet that the tour company took care of all of this, since I cannot imagine Amtrak getting back into the Wine and cheese event business after such a public announcement that they were dead and gone. But glad the tour operator likely stepped up to the plate though!!!

 

[yarrow]

and any poor schmucks who booked their trips early when the wine tasting was still an advertised amenity and don't have the luck to be on a run with a tour operator who provides wine for all are just out of luck

 

[Anderson]

I would bet that the tour company took care of all of this, since I cannot imagine Amtrak getting back into the Wine and cheese event business after such a public announcement that they were dead and gone. But glad the tour operator likely stepped up to the plate though!!!

I can imagine it, actually. It is entirely possible that one or more tour companies basically called up Amtrak and said "When we booked this, it was before you hinted at amenity cuts. We used this as part of our advertising and took non-refundable deposits. If you don't let us have our wine tasting, we'll sue since we'll be on the hook with angry customers." For a single customer, issuing a refund would be fine, but for a large enough group of passengers and a frequent user tour company it is likely that Amtrak backed down.

 

[montana mike]

according to our travel agent here in MT, which books a lot of travel via Amtrak, when they had been informed of the cancellation of the dining car and sleeper amenities by Amtrak, there was no offer by Amtrak to compensate them or their travelers (both individuals and groups) for these actions. I will ask them this week about larger groups, but during my last ride on the EB, just a couple weeks ago, both our attendant and the dining car people said that all of the items for the W&C events had been eliminated from the load list.

 

[Anderson]

I am wondering about some of the cruise+train combo tours. With groups just taking the train, that is one thing (the answer is that you can always cancel), but with a more complex tour involving a number of people and deposits (and multiple transportation operators) I could imagine things getting a bit more complex since the cruise might not be so easily cancelled.