This must have slipped since we travelled in June - it was being clearly (and visibly) enforced when we did the Zephyr. There was one guy in the sightseeing car whose mask kept “slipping” down and he was continually asked to put it back up, soon followed by an announcement over the loudspeaker that passengers who were not mask-compliant would be offloaded from the train at the next stop…
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We heard a lot of announcements and saw a few times where people were told to put theirs on. It lasted until the employee left at best. Many times employees walked by and said nothing to people not wearing theirs or not wearing them correctly - esp with the Amish and Boy Scouts, but others too.
The Coastal Starlight enforced it the most and kicked one rider off - though now I wonder if it was a plant or real. The Southwest Chief and CA Zephyr the least.
This morn my husband watched a youtube video about train travel. Top 2 routes suggested were in Alaska and CO–>San Francisco (said skip the Chicago–>Denver part…works for us)
We loved our Chicago to Denver trip! But yeah, probably isn’t as nice as Alaska.
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If anyone wants the Denver to Grand Junction or vice versa trip, remember on our trip they were only allowing passengers, including those like us who paid for first class, 2 hours (of 6) in the Observation car, and they didn’t let us know ahead of time that this was their policy. We’re still pissed and are very unlikely to do Amtrak again due to it, esp since they send all of their ads, etc, to H who plans none of our vacations. Even when I brought this up to them (Amtrak) they were unwilling to change it.
Using the same scenic route (and more) this trip has our attention and will get to the top of our list (sooner or later). It sounds fantastic and would allow us to actually see the scenery Amtrak’s policy caused us to miss:
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/rocky-mountaineer-train-route-united-states/index.html
Otherwise, if Amtrak is the only option when we go to Alaska, we’ll take them, but if there’s any other option I’d choose it first after our experience.
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Those folks sure have a story to tell! But I’m quite happy being on planes, trains, and automobiles that don’t make the news TBH.
A derailment, like other crashes, would never deter me from traveling. They make the news, but they aren’t the norm. We’d rather die young having truly lived than grow into old age having done absolutely nothing.
A hidden policy of only letting people have seats where they can see all of the scenery on the best part of a scenic trip for just 2/6 hours even if they pay for first class is an entirely different issue.
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Was the 2/6 hours for Covid-distancing?
Not at all due to Covid. The train was full and the conductor said it was, “so everyone can have a chance at the good viewing seats” (same concept, might not be verbatim). Otherwise, people like us spend their whole time there and others don’t get a chance.
If one is in the cheap seats (coach), then one can see out both sides of the train as long as those across from you don’t have their curtains pulled. It’s not ideal, but you don’t miss everything. If you’re in a roomette in first class (as we were), you totally miss 50% of the view because you can only see out your side.
The “best” views on this stretch of the train are totally side dependent. One side gets almost all the good views and the other mostly gets a close up of the side of a mountain - which is essentially a wall. Fortunately during our 1st banishment time we were on the good (river) side, but even then we still missed a herd of moose that were on the other side during a patch of good viewing on the other side (tracks crossed the river). I’ve seen moose, but never a herd of moose. It was frustrating to say the least. I can only imagine what it was like for those who had the wall side for that stretch. They saw the moose, but missed all the other vistas with the canyons and river.
Making it even more frustrating was the fact that the Observation car was never full on our trip even with the full train. Announcements were made that there were openings, but our car never got any announcements for the duration of our trip (sound system wasn’t working in our car - not just our room, but the whole car), so we didn’t know it. Fortunately we went back to make another protest during the last two hours since we’d have been on the wrong side of the train to see the best sights and got to stay since there was room. That was pure luck and a willingness to try another protest after our first one had been denied.
If you go off season, I don’t think they have that policy. My youngest and his wife went mid-week last Nov and had no problem staying in the Observation car the whole time, but it was also Covid season and the train was essentially empty vs our going mid August when it was full.
Amtrak could remedy the situation by adding a second Observation car during peak season. Many of us onboard were wondering why the H— they didn’t, esp since they knew it was a problem. Then we also were amazed that they would diss their first class passengers in favor of coach.
So yeah, we’ll take the Canadian train through that section next time and I’m not sure we’ll ever do Amtrak again other than maybe in Alaska. The experience (our first ever on Amtrak) changed us from being very in love with train travel and actively looking at other scenic routes to take contemplating what time of year would be best to take them to wishing we had chosen something else for our Anniversary trip.
Amtrak’s giving H the “points” for our trip on our accounts and not being willing to switch them to my frequent traveler account unless we paid another $40 was the final straw. I called and made the reservations. I paid for it with my credit card. He’s male, so he got top billing (first name listed) and therefore gets the bulk of the points. He’s getting emails and coupons. I get told (in emails) to “travel more and build up my account.” We called to switch it since I make 99% of our travel bookings. Nope. Can’t do that. “You should have known…” They supposedly entered a case with my complaint, but I’ve heard zilch.
Their loss. We travel a lot, but there are many places to still go on this planet. Seeing the US via Amtrak certainly doesn’t have to be one of them for us.
That said, the scenery on that stretch is fantastic. If you can swing the Canadian train, do it. It’s in our plans, probably for next year. If you insist on Amtrak, at least try to learn from our mistakes and figure out how to make it work - maybe off season? And if you join their frequent traveler club, be SURE the person you want to get the most points is listed first. Not all travelers are treated equally with points.
I adore train travel but the cost of the roomettes puts me off it for now. Back when the kids were young, we did many of the Chicago to the west routes, as I’d get two half price fares with two full fares, slept in coach, and brought food for the first 24 hours. It adored being able to spend time with the kids sans household responsibilities. They learned to knit on the train, got started reading, and we played games endlessly.
These days I am unsure about overnighting in coach and would certainly not with Covid.
Overseas train travel is what sparks my imagination. I traveled all over China back in the early 80s by train, in many different classes and found it fascinating. On the retirement bucket list is travel by train down the coast of Vietnam as well as Bangkok to Singapore, though this requires a few changes.
Creekland, your stories certainly give one pause regarding observation car time as well as the insanity over your accounts.
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I prefer people being warned rather than having the same problems we did. When we travel we try to learn from other people’s mistakes too.
Our dream train trip is the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Beijing to Moscow. We’ve got the money saved - just need Covid to disappear and find a time all 8 of us can go. It would have been this past May…
We haven’t been to China at all yet. There’s a ton we want to do there and train is our preferred way of getting around where the train systems are good. Ironically, we had never done Amtrak before though - always road tripped or flew around the US.
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@Creekland Thanks for the explanation. That would make me mighty cranky!
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Cranky could be an understatement with us. We’d planned that trip for our Anniversary, had to change it 5 times (total) due to fires, mudslides, wrong info on their website, and scheduling (peak season). Part of this was extending our SF stay three additional nights. That was fun, but also cost more $$ (didn’t break the budget TBH). Then we finally get on a train going that stretch only to find out at the beginning of the best part that we really couldn’t see it all due to their policy. No one had breathed a word about that earlier.
We were livid - hence - warning everyone about it so at least they can know ahead of time and judge accordingly.
You also don’t get to pick which side your roomette is on. It could have been worse. You can pick numbers from available rooms when you make your reservation, but you don’t know which way it’s going to be on the train. We were on trains where one car was one direction and the next one the other direction - aka odds right, then left. Same train. It’s luck of the draw which side you’re going to get.
Updating this because I finally contacted Amtrak again sending an email to Guest Services asking for an update on my “case” and looking up the CEO’s email address to send him an email that perhaps his underlings will read. I don’t have high hopes for either, but if something does come of it, I’ll let people know.
The “spur” was seeing a mailing to H that came in while we were gone on our last trip (not a train trip) letting him know how special he is. It’s amazing how irritating that can be. I’m not losing sleep over it, but figured I would do something to see if they respond.
If anyone reads my email to the CEO, at least I’ve noted the worst thing with the restricted viewing on the Zephyr. Maybe they’ll fix it or warn people about it in the future. Or maybe they’ll just take people’s money and not give a hoot. Who knows?
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I’ve appreciated you sharing our experiences on this post. Just last night hubby was recommending we look at train trip options, and your experience is definitely helpful insight.
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Ok, I did hear back from the note I sent to the CEO (Bill Flynn)! It ended up with the Senior Director of Guest Rewards and she assures me that my concerns were shared with appropriate teams AND she will be switching my/H points. She also apologized for letting us down.
Assuming it actually happens (it hasn’t been done yet - the email just arrived this morning), then we will consider Amtrak again because we did enjoy most of our trip with the sole aggravation coming from the unexpected banishment at the most scenic part. Hopefully they will fix that part - I did suggest adding an additional Observation Car as an obvious solution if the sole car they put on the train is usually full with more demand for seats.
Personally, we’re still going to try to get on Canada’s Rocky Mountaineer doing the same scenic section and more though. It looks ideal for what we love.
We’ll try other Amtrak routes puttering around seeing what we couldn’t see by car and enjoying the journey. If anyone has suggestions of routes they’ve taken and loved, feel free to let us know. 
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My DH will arrive home this evening after an Amtrak trip that involved four different routes. He ranked the CA Zephyr as his favorite (they limited people to two hours in the observation car if someone was waiting for a seat). His next favorite was the Sunset Ltd, although his sleeper car didn’t have functioning AC; the first night was miserably hot and several people slept in the observation car as a result. Right now he’s on the Coast Starlight and says it’s nice and newer (he’s in coach for this segment; other segments were roomettes). The scenery is great, although he says the ocean got boring after a while (we live in CA, others may not be this jaded!) He admits he ranked the Sunset Ltd above the Coast Starlight because of dining car access vs. purchasing food at the cafe. He was mighty spoiled by the non-stop cheesecake in the dining car. Coming in last was the City of New Orleans…older train cars and minimal scenery.
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It took a couple of days, but Amtrak did come through and change the points so today H asked FIL if he’d like to go by train to sightsee somewhere and FIL seemed intrigued. We may, indeed, be heading somewhere with him soon. I know one of my aunts has said she wants to go “anywhere outside of NY.” If FIL is interested, I’ll check with my aunt and we will coordinate something. (Guys room and gals room) I think it would be fun going with people seeing the scenery for the first time.
It also makes me glad we’ve been able to travel as much as we have before we even came close to hitting our senior years.
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