Back to our New Orleans trip, as I mentioned earlier, our original plans were to have a sleeper room on the Crescent from New Orleans to New York. So now, being booked to go to Chicago and then to New York, our departure time from New Orleans was later.
Funnily enough, we received another phone call from Amtrak the day before we left to inform us that the Magnolia Lounge was closed for renovation and to just make use of the normal waiting hall. As a sleeping car passenger, you are classed as ‘first class’ so this means access to the lounge. Anyway, we weren’t fussed and headed to the station full of anticipation for a real long distance train trip. I had only ever done long distance train travel in coach (and of course all the miles travelled on Greyhound) so I was jumping out of my skin. Check out how long the trip would be –
We went to the automatic ticket machine to print our tickets and there was an error. When we first got our Crescent train reservation, we went to Penn Station to print our tickets. When they cancelled that train, we just decided to wait until New Orleans to get the reissued ones.
Of course, with the machine not printing, we had to go to the desk. We gave the attendant our printed confirmation so he could print our boarding passes. He then said “Do you have the original ones you were issued?” Yep – they wanted the old tickets for the train that WAS NOT RUNNING. EXCUSE ME?! I explained of course we didn’t have them because the train wasn’t running. He quickly said “Well they have the value of cash so if you want to get on to this train, you’ll have to pay the fare ($900!!!) again..” I nearly fainted there and then. Bill was SO calm yet, my voice was quivering. I said that even if we did still ‘have them’ they were in New York. He just shrugged and said “Well you’ll just have to pay..” We were very quick to point out NO-ONE told us that we would have to bring the old boarding passes for a train that was NOT running and that we were no longer booked on.
It was ridiculous and it was looking like we had no way out of it. We had no plane reservation home, our train tickets didn’t exist and we just wanted out of there. I explained that they already cut short our vacation and don’t you think with every email and print out I had there, if we were told to bring the stupid ticket we would have? It was the most infuriating situation to be in. He was being stoic and following the rules and we were just two passengers being jerked around by Amtrak. Tears welled in my eyes and Bill looked straight at me and said “Let me sort this out – we are getting on this train ok?” I tried to keep calm when Bill asked the guy to call the main office and sort this out as it was unacceptable. After twenty of the longest minutes ever and my pleading looks while gritting my teeth and saying to Bill “We are NEVER doing this again!” The attendant got off the phone and told us the situation had been rectified – they were ‘hot marking’ our old tickets (again – the train wasn’t even running and that booking no longer existed so nothing could be done with them!) and writing out our tickets for this trip by hand. I breathed the BIGGEST sigh of relief and thanked God that we got to the station so early so we could sort this out – otherwise, the train would’ve left without us. It was the worst way to start our trip but the drama was over and we had our tickets. Hooray!
The only thing left to do was pick up some lunch and see what the New Orleans Railway Station was like. It is shared with the Greyhound station so it is a bit of a transport hub with amazing murals in the waiting hall –
We needed to grab some lunch and Subway was the only option. We really made a trip back in time. Picture it… I think the best description would be an early 80s pinball parlor perhaps?
There was a jukebox!
There was also top secret slot machines behind these swinging doors!
Pacman!
I loved this room of vending machines –
Before we knew it, we were getting called to board the train.
This was our staircase to our room on the Upper Deck –
The corridors were long and narrow – interesting to walk along these with the train bouncing around –
We hopped on and got settled in Car 5800 Bedroom B. Here is a tour of our room!
Our little room letter was lit up –
The general coffee/tea/juice area for sleeping car passengers –
This is looking out into the hallway –
That carpeted area is the bottom of the top bunk that comes down from the ceiling. The couch Bill is sitting on reclined down to make a bed as well –
We actually had our own shower and toilet in our room. Glamorous! I can safely say that showering in this little ‘room’ while going fast over the rails of the Midwest was one of the silliest things I had ever done.
The shower and toilet were together – so the toilet gets soaks when you have the shower on – it is super cosy! 😉
Flushing instructions –
The shower was really nice and hot and had great pressure!
The toilet paper is kept in a little plastic hutch in the side of the wall – so you don’t have to worry about it getting wet by the shower. They actually recommend you sit on the toilet while you are having your shower so that you don’t lose your balance. I was quite happy to stand.
The bathroom door is where the backpack is –
The view from the sofa looking out the bedroom door –
Not long into the trip, our attendant came by to say someone would be coming by for dining car reservations and that he would set our beds up at 9pm.
We never saw him again but we did get our dinner reservation –
Here is some of what we saw along the way –
Outside New Orleans –
Hammond, Louisiana –
Jackson, Mississippi –
Not sure where this was –
The track was extremely rough. Now, we take the NYC subway every day, I have done travels in Amtrak coach long haul and in all my international travels have been caught in severe turbulence. This train trip was basically unbearable. I was unable to read anything or do stitching. We couldn’t stand up comfortably, we couldn’t sit down comfortably. It was miserable. I have never got motion sickness before and this trip gave me a sickly feeling. We couldn’t wait for dinner to see if it was any better further up the train.
Dining on Amtrak is an experience in itself. Firstly, the food is REALLY good for train food. Secondly, it is communal dining. For every meal you sit with different people and chat while the world goes by. As sleeping car passengers, all of our meals were included and we could order what we wanted.
For dinner, we sat with a couple for Alabama who had just returned for a cruise. It was great talking to them and their friends and the hour long dinner went by so quickly!
The scene in the dining car –
They started our meals with a fresh garden salad –
I got the roast chicken and vegetables –
Bill got the steak with a gorgonzola butter sauce –
Pecan Pie for dessert –
Sorbet for me!
This was the viewing car – clear ceilings and lots of windows this place is the place to hang out during the day on the train –
After dinner we had our showers and waited for our beds to be set up. As this was our first trip we were unsure of protocol or how anything worked as no-one had explained anything to us. We waited and waited and no attendent so we ended up setting them up ourselves. This was really hard work withthe train jolting around. I chose to sleep on the top bunk and when we pulled back the sheets there was a Skoal Bandit laying right there in the bed. A Skoal Bandit is like a wad of chewing tobacco. It was disgusting! We could only assume that when the attendant put the sheets on (they are all done before you get on the train) that the disgusting specimen had fallen out of his mouth or pocket. Bill was furious, I was overtired and the whole thing was just disgusting. This was feeling increasingly like a Griswold Vacation. Bill quickly pressed the attendant button as he wanted to express his non-happiness at the whole situation. But I was angry, wanted to sleep and wanted nothing to do with the attendant. When he came we just dismissed him and he asked what time for breakfast. With the train jerking around, dirty sheets and a tiny room we just tried to grin and bear it. I jumped up the ladder and hopped into bed.
Here is Bill ‘strapping’ me into the bunk. There are long seatbelts that come down from the roof and attach to the bunk so with all the jolting you don’t end up going for a sixer.
“Nigh nigh Bill – sweet dreams Bill!”
I lasted there 20 minutes.
Because of all the movement on the train, I didn’t feel secure in the bunk at all. So I jumped down and we huddled on the bottom bunk. All up we probably got about 4 hours sleep. Cosy much?
We booked for a 6am breakfast so at 5.30 we were trying to get dressed while bouncing around the carriage. We configured the room back ourselves and got dressed and went to the dining car.
We were sitting with an older European couple who hardly spoke English so we just said pleasantries and smiled! Breakfast was yum –
One of the most beautiful things (and so romantic) was sitting in the viewing car and watching the sunrise over rural Illinois. It was just beautiful.
One bonus for train travel is being able to wear moccasins and tracky daks all day!
We only had a couple of hours until we arrived in Chicago so we went back to our room and started to pack up our stuff while bouncing around and still feeling so tired from lack of sleep.
Here is Homewood, Illinois –
Snowy scenery outside Chicago –
As for our missing attendant.. he just came by to collect pillow cases (no change of towels, nothing) and then we didn’t see him until it was time to disembark. We were VERY tempted to book flights from Chicago – NY.
However, when we disembarked in Chicago we made our way to the Metropolitan Lounge to check our luggage and sat down and decided to take the plunge and try another night of riding the rails. The adventure continues!