Has Anyone Taken Amtrak from Seattle to LA??

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Here is the sleeper car refund policy from the website. It says that you can get a refund up to 7 days prior and I am happy with that. I go with what is in writing.:)

 

Sleeping car accommodation charge: Refundable if sleeping car reservations are cancelled at least seven days prior to departure. If cancelled fewer than seven days prior to departure, but before actual departure, the accommodation charge is not refundable but may be applied to future travel purchases by issuance of a non-refundable exchange voucher. If not cancelled before actual departure ("no show"), the accommodation charge is neither refundable nor may it be applied to future travel. The sleeping car non-refundability penalty will not be imposed if the customer chooses to cancel on account of the train being late two hours or more at the boarding station.

[megr1125]

Here is the sleeper car refund policy from the website. It says that you can get a refund up to 7 days prior and I am happy with that. I go with what is in writing.:)

 

Sleeping car accommodation charge: Refundable if sleeping car reservations are cancelled at least seven days prior to departure. If cancelled fewer than seven days prior to departure, but before actual departure, the accommodation charge is not refundable but may be applied to future travel purchases by issuance of a non-refundable exchange voucher. If not cancelled before actual departure ("no show"), the accommodation charge is neither refundable nor may it be applied to future travel. The sleeping car non-refundability penalty will not be imposed if the customer chooses to cancel on account of the train being late two hours or more at the boarding station.

 

that is correct.........i meant that if for some reason you had to change the date of your trip, generally it is more difficult to do once the reservation was actually ticketed......(or so the amtrak agents say....!:rolleyes:)

 

enjoy your trip!!

[luvcruisn']

They'll start serving lunch on the Starlight around 11:30 am or so, but that is along time to wait.

 

I had a roomette from Seattle to Los Angeles for a cruise out of San Diego in 2005. When I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle, after taking the bus from Vancouver, the sleeper passengers were offered a "Continental Breakfast" when we got on the train. There were those small boxes of cereal, milk, coffee, tea, and buns of some kind. Have they discontinued this now?

[megr1125]

i don't remember getting anything like that, however, i didn't take the bus from vancouver.....i started in Seattle.....i would stash a couple granola bars or something.....or run around the corner to Tullys coffee if you have time and grab something....

[luvcruisn']

The bus leaves at 5:30 AM!:eek:

 

Please make sure you get on the bus that is outside of the train station in Vancouver, just to the left of the main entrance to the train station.

 

I recently travelled on the Cascades train from Vancouver to Eugene, Oregon. Sitting in front of us were two ladies who were supposed to take the bus from Vancouver to meet up with the Coast Starlight in Seattle. They had booked a roomette. Unfortunately, they were given incorrect information at the train station by a security agent - no train personnel were around at 5:00am. They were directed to the Cascades train that left at 6:40am. By the time they were in line for the Cascades and found out they were supposed to be outside the terminal instead, it was then 5:45am, and the bus had left. On board, the conductor was going to arrange for a taxi for them from Seattle to Portland to try to catch the Starlight but by then they had made other arrangements in Seattle, and gave up the Coast Starlight experience and just got a refund.

 

I really enjoyed my experience having a roomette when I travelled on the Coast Starlight in 2005; the meals in the Dining Car were excellent, and I enjoyed both wine tastings that we had.

[crzndeb]

Since I am in Lynnwood, Wa., this is a perfect opportunity to travel from Edmonds or Everett up to Vancouver BC for the day.

 

My daughter in San Diego mentioned she wants to come up to see her best friend's baby, due mid Sept. I mentioned that I could fly down there, and we could get a roomette to come back up to Seattle. Since I planned to drive down to SD end of Sept/early Oct. to drop my dog off with her while I do the TA from Rome, this will work out great. She can drive back down to SD with me.

 

Since she will be 4 1/2 months preg then, I will let her have bottom bunk...LOL! I will just have a couple of martinis in the Parlor Car and be good to go on the upper bunk.

 

Can you pick which roomette you want, or are the randomly assigned?

[megr1125]

they are assigned and the only way to find out what you have is to call or look at the ticket...

 

HOWEVER, if you book via an Amtrak human at the toll free number, they can probably tell you what roomettes are open.....

[zephyr17]

A grab bag.

 

No worries about having the ticket mailed. Certainly that is easiest. The advantages of waiting to get the ticket are that you do not get nicked 10% if you want a cash refund instead of a voucher, you can change it more easily, and you can't lose it if you don't have it. In Arizona, it is kind of hard to get a ticket at a manned station, as there are only 3, Flagstaff, Maricopa and Tucson. So it is a lot easier to just get it mailed. You didn't get any options on the website, because the options the website presents are based on whether or not you can get tickets at the originating station, in your case, VAC and the ticket office isn't open for that departure. You can request any delivery method from a phone agent, though.

 

Good point about the buses. Most buses load outside at the south side of the station. When you go in the main entrance of Pacific Central Station, turn right and go down the hall. If you ask a security guard, say you are taking the 5:30(?) BUS to Seattle. Better to leave out "Amtrak".

 

When they "rebooted" the Pacific Parlour Car in 2008, and started meal service in there, they didn't resume the continental breakfast on departure. Bear in mind that in 2007 the Parlours lost their attendant, so no services available, and the Parlours themselves were 2 weeks away from getting pulled from service entirely. They decided to reinstate the service and enhance it instead when UP agreed to get its act together and stop catastrophically delaying the train, which was driving off the customers. Even me.

 

You can't pick the roomette on the website, but can with an agent. I never book sleeper travel on the website because of that. However, some agents don't know how to get a room other than the one the computer initially presents them with, or don't know how to get the the current "bucket" price assigned to a room other than the initial one. I always ask which roomette, and if it is not downstairs or in the trans dorm (you can tell by the room number), I'll just take it. If you don't want the one they give you, and they can't seem to figure it out how to get different one at the same price, just call back. Chances are you'll get an agent that can.

 

BTW: Amtrak's language about the 10% "refund service charge" for cash refunds. For whatever reason, even though they don't say it anywhere, they don't charge it if the tickets haven't been issued:

 

Once the value of a refund has been determined, as described in the following paragraphs, passengers have two options on how to receive the refund value:

 

Exchange Voucher: Passengers may receive the full calculated refund value in the form of a non-refundable exchange voucher valid for future travel purchases. (Note: this option is not available online. See below for details on where to obtain refunds.)

 

Refund: Passengers may receive the calculated refund value, less a 10% refund service charge, in the form of cash, check or credit to credit card, depending on the form of payment that was used for the ticket(s) being refunded. The maximum amount imposed by Amtrak on this 10% refund service charge will be $100 per refund transaction on any single reservation.

[Quilting Queen]

Laura & Ginny you have asked most of the questions I had. All this is almost information overload.

 

DH & I takled * decided to get a roomette, hopefilly incar 10 upper lever. We can go down stairs for shower as long a loilet facility is avaulable upstairs near roomettes.

 

I will get the phone number and call our reservation in. I wish they had breakfast of something on the first day, but we will try to get something the night before. As long as they have coffee available and hot water for my tea we should be OK for a while

 

Norine

[Ladysmith]

When you get on the Coast Starlight in Seattle, ask the conductor when he comes around if there are any 'upgraderooms'available. If there are, you will pay a fraction of the price by purchasing it while on board. Problem is, there may not be anything available but you have nothing to lose!

[megr1125]

Laura & Ginny you have asked most of the questions I had. All this is almost information overload.

 

DH & I takled * decided to get a roomette, hopefilly incar 10 upper lever. We can go down stairs for shower as long a loilet facility is avaulable upstairs near roomettes.

 

I will get the phone number and call our reservation in. I wish they had breakfast of something on the first day, but we will try to get something the night before. As long as they have coffee available and hot water for my tea we should be OK for a while

 

Norine

 

you can always head to the regular cafe/lounge car and buy a muffin or cinnamom roll or something......

 

800-usa-rail is the number...when JULIE answers, ask for an agent..(you will ahve to ask a couple times, Julie the machine is pretty insistent...but she can't sell rooms!!;))

 

there will be a toilet upstairs.....

 

i like this train a lot......have fun....

[megr1125]

y'all may have found this already, but if not...here is a link to the CS info on amtrak.com and they have sample menus and stuff.....

 

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Route_C&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241245648567

 

 

and again, depending on when you get to the station in seattle, you may have time to run around the corner to tully's coffee for some breakfast-they have muffins, bagels and other stuff.....

 

PS..if it is still offered, the eggplant parm at lunch the 2nd day, and the chicken the 1st night were pretty yummiola...they ran out of the eggplant about halfway through lunch...i went around 12:30 ish and it was still available!!