Amtrak; Chicago to Settle to San Francisco To Tucson to Dallas to Little Rock Ar

[moparguy]

Just wondering if anyone has ridden the rails wholly or partially along the route outlined in the title. Wife and I are considering buying a couple 15 day 8 leg passes with bedroom option and spending two weeks riding and sightseeing.

We'll board in Little Rock, then my thoughts are detrain in Chicago for one night, get some good pizza, a little night life, stay in a hotel then reboard and ride to either East or West Glacier and spend a night or two before reboarding and ridding to Settle where we'll spend two or three days. Then down to California with a night or two in Sacramento and or San Francisco. We may visit the Muir Redwood Forrest or the Sequoia National Monument. After that it's likely we'll just ride with no off train nights until we get back to Little Rock.

Back in '13 we road Amtrak's Empire Builder from Williston Nd to West Glacier. We enjoyed the trip since we we were not on a schedule and were prepared for the slow times sitting on sidings while freight trains passed us. Books and a deck of cards were and are recommended. The scenery was memorable.

So, any experienced Amtrakers have advise on any of the above. This may well be a trip we start in two weeks or so.

Thanks, Ron

 

[RVTRKN]

Reseach for the train depot's and the part of the city they stop at. Sometimes there in really bad areas, if your going on a walkabout. It sounds like a lot of fun, please update us on this trip. I know its not quite the same, but we took a train from Anchorage to Denali national park. I love the roominess of the seating and the relaxing feeling, oh and the diner was great as well.

 

[BigPapa]

I’ve thought of doing pretty much the same thing. I think it would be a great trip and a good way to see the country. I talked to the wife about it and she acted interested but not excited. When I said something to our late-teens son and daughter they were totally against it, thought it would be totally boring.

Have you determined an estimate of the cost?

 

[Wayne M.]

I agree with the above. My in laws rode the silver streak I think it’s called, that runs from Manhattan to Orlando, many times and they always went top shelf sleeper cabin. There was hardly a problem but they’ve told me about some stops, and the stations I do know of in the area are not very nice places. This could be an east coast thing, but I’d really study the itinerary. Cross check with trip advisor or similar.
Sight seeing wise, it might be great.

 

[Ozymandias]

We rode Boston to New York and loved it, we would choose Amtrak anytime again in the future.

 

[Jim W]

Ron, Union station in Downtown Chicago is not in a bad area. I travel there serval times a year and we walk up to the gold coast (North Michigan AVE). There is a lot to do in downtown Chicago such as the Museum campus, which includes The Field Museum, Alder Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium plus Grant Park all within walking distance to Union station. Then there is the water taxies on the Chicago River, which can be caught right across from UNION Station. This will take you up to Navy Pier and than transfer to a taxi to the Museum Campus which will take you on LAKE Michigan. Navy Pier is not far from old town where the best deep Dish pizza is, Pizzeria Uno on 29 EAST Ohio.

You will need more than a day for Chicago Il if you want to do everything.

good luck.

 

[moparguy]

Thanks for the info all. Jim W, while I've never been to Union Station I have been to Chicago several times. Back when I did honest work (well, sorta) I attended several conferences at hotels on Michigan Ave. I forget the hotel I usually stayed at but to a country boy, it was the pinnacle of luxury. We visited Navy Pier a couple times when number one son was at Navy basic and A school at Great Lakes. I'm thinking just one night to refresh the memory's, have a good pizza and catch some music. As I recall (from long ago) there are some good, seedy blues clubs in the area. Out of a safety concern, don't think we'll be walking much after the sun starts to sit, taxi or Uber is more likely.

Someone asked about price, it's looking like around $1,000 for two 15 day 8 leg passes and about the same for bedroom cars (for two seniors). Since that includes meals, the bedrooms actually look pretty reasonable. We've got to nail down our exact itinerary to make reservations and then the total price for the train part of the trip will be known.

Anyone thinking about a train trip, here's a current Amtrak map. http://www.atdlines.com/pdf/maps/amk-sysmp.pdf

 

[Brian Sullivan]

Sounds like fun keep us posted

 

[RVTRKN]

We wanted to take a train from Vancouver to ? when we ported in Vancouver at the end of our Alaskan cruise. But time and funds wouldn't allow us. We do plan to take the Canadian train some other time. Here's a link I believe the tour included stops at the major cities hotels instaed of sleeper cars.

https://canadarail.ca/packages/trans-canadian-railway-tours

 

[moparguy]

Well, after a considerable amount of work on my end. I just canceled the trip. We had a fairly ambitious plan as mentioned in the thread title. The trip was based on two 15 day 8 leg passes (one for me, one for the wife at around $459 each) with a bedroom car on the three longest stretches of the trip. Plan was to stay one night in West Glacier at the McDonald Lodge. We admired the Lodge when we visited Glacier in '13 via Amtrak from Williston Nd where I was doing a pipeline project. We'd also planned to enjoy Seattle for a minimum of two nights, then on down to Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park. We wanted to take the Coast StarLight Train from Seattle to LA just to enjoy the scenery.

Yesterday I booked the trip...twice. 1st time was thought Amtrak ( I mistakenly thought) by calling a phone number from the vacation portion of the Amtrak site. Well the price was over 6k and not the expected high 2k number we'd been given just a week ago by a Amtrak agent. When I asked if the price was based on two 15 day passes as requested I was told in no uncertain terms it was "not" since you couldn't reserve a bedroom car while traveling on a 15 day pass. Agent actually got a bit argumentative when I stated the site said you could. Well, left that conversation with a "I'll get back to you". In reviewing the email with the confirmation letter with trip legs and prices it was obvious that even-though I'd gone through Amtrak, I'd been passed off to a outside travel agency. Boston Custom Vacations. It appears both on the Amtrak's website and the email that you're dealing with Amtrak, but not the case. They were not willing to build the trip we wanted since it cost around 4k less.

I called again and requested a Amtrak agent, was transferred to one. After a total phone time of 1 hour and 20 minutes I thought the deal was done. Credit card charged and reservation numbers in hand. Oddly, Amtrak doesn't provide a email with a detailed itinerary. The agent said she had no way to provide one. Ok.

After the call ended I attempted to do a search of the reservation numbers so I could print whatever I found, couldn't make the wife's reservation number work. As if it didn't exist. Huge red-light. All during the call with the Amtrak booking person we were put on hold for extended periods of time as though they didn't know how to complete the task and needed help. In almost every instance when I questioned what was entered, it was wrong. Example, we wanted to spend one night in West Glacier, clerk entered two. This type issue was the case in 5 out of 7 instances. Of course when you make any change the ripple effect affects everything downstream, sorta like starting from scratch.

The final straw was when I called about not being able to access the wife's booking and finding out it was not the same as mine. This final complication caused me to finally say "Cancel the trip" I'll regroup and we'll do this later. We were given a full refund. Should hit our card tomorrow. The agent said there should have been a 25 percent cancellation change but he voided it.

My takeaway from this experience is; 1. Let a travel agency handle the legwork or be prepared to spend a lot of time studying train schedules. 2. Make sure you're talking to a Amtrak employee (if that's your intention). 3. Don't try to cram too much into a two week trip. Sometimes less is more.

One potential Plan now is to take a scaled down trip from Little Rock to Yosemite and Sequoia National Park. Then on to LA and north on the Coast StarLight Train to Sacramento Ca, then east to St. Louis, hit the zoo, see the Budweiser Clydesdale's and spend a little time seeing the local sights. If timing works out catch a Cardinals game then home.

Or we may just load the Buick PA and head East, never been to Charleston and always wanted to see the fall colors in the NE part of the country. Times running short and it's time to get on the road or rail.

Thanks all for the suggestions and advise.

RonR

 

[RVTRKN]

You do realize that Amtrak is a government run company now, it has been funded for many years by uncle Sam.

 

[moparguy]

You do realize that Amtrak is a government run company now, it has been funded for many years by uncle Sam.

I do. However I really wasn't prepared. Lessons learned however.

 

[BigPapa]

Hate you had so much trouble.

Speaking of fall colors, of course it is beautiful here in TN when the leaves turn, marvelously so in the Smokies around mid October, but the most beautiful I’ve ever seen was when I took a trip up to Kalamazoo, MI. It was “business” as I was going to pick up some tractor parts, but fortunately the leaves were at their peak. There were so many beautiful red, yellow, and orange trees and leaves on the ground. I didn’t take my camera and it was before cell phones with cameras so all I have are my memories.

 

[Wayne M.]

I’m with Big Papa. Head on down I81, right down into the smokies, and then it’ll be easy to get to Charleston. You can’t go wrong.

 

[jhenderson]

You do realize that Amtrak is a government run company now, it has been funded for many years by uncle Sam.

Yet some folks, for reasons I can’t imagine, want the govt to be the only place available to purchase healthcare. Maybe they should try booking a vacation through them first.