Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="mikecnorthwest"]I recently took the Coast Starlight and slept in coach. It was not that comfortable and I didn't get much sleep, although I did get some sleep. I think most of my fellow passengers had the same experience. Now I need to take another trip on the Coast Starlight and need to decide between the roomette or coach. It's $256 round trip for coach and $636 for the roomette. What to do? Leaning towards coach as I think I can put up with a lack of sleep to save $400.[/quote] I have taken four or five long distance train trips a year on Amtrak for many years.  I just came back from a trip on the California Zephyr.  I had a roomette from Emeryville to Denver.  If I am going to be on the train overnight, which is usually the case, I book a roomette.  Privacy is the biggest advantage of a roomette.  You can close the door and dwell in your own world as the countryside passes by your window.   The seats in the roomette, however, are not comfortable, and moving around in your compartment when the beds are down is tricky.  Getting up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, which is frequently a necessity for us older folks, is a challenge. Moreover, the mattresses are thin, which is to say they are not very comfortable.  The roomettes in the 10 and 6 cars were much more comfortable.   I find the Superliner coach seats to be more comfortable than the roomette seats.  But in a coach you run the risk of being forced to sit with or near someone who you would never invite to the house.  Screaming kids are my biggest concern.  In addition, I like to read into the wee hours of the morning and then sleep late.  In a coach, if you leave the reading light on late at night, you run the risk of disturbing the other passengers who want to grab some shut eye. First class (roomette) is considerably more expensive in most instances than coach class as you noted.  The cost spread is lessened, however, because the dinning car meals are included in your first class accommodation charge.  In coach class it is necessary to add the cost of your meals to the fare, thereby reducing the cost difference between coach class and first class.  Eating in the dinning car, depending on what you choose from the menu, will cost in the neighborhood of $30 a day for three meals.  And this is not picking off the top of the menu, which you can see on Amtrak's web page.  If you eat in the lounge car, the cost of your meals will be approximately half of what you would pay in the dinning car.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag