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Over the weekend, I picked up our tickets for my first train trip since 2002 -- only this year I will be traveling with my new (we got married last summer) wife! We leave Winter Park on June 30 on the Silver Star, then it's the Capitol Ltd the next day from WAS-CHI, then the Empire Builder the next day from CHI-ESX. We will be staying at the Izaak Walton Inn for a few days and touring Glacier Park, then we will rent a car (probably from Columbia Falls) and head south, making several stops before we head back from Flagstaff to Chicago on the SWC (I forgot what day we come back), then CHI to WAS on the Capitol again, and WAS to WPK on the Silver Star again I think (I left my itinerary at home). I had hoped to be able to come back to Fla. from Chicago via different trains, but the schedules just don't allow convenient and reasonable ("doable") connections other than 4-20-92 (at least they didn't when I booked this, before the new schedules came out). We will be in bedrooms on all legs of the trip.
I also picked up a new timetable over the weekend. The new timetable lists "full meal service" on the Silver Service trains and the Capitol, but lists "complete meals" on the EB and the SWC. Are the "complete meals" the new "diner lite service?" The new tt also lists a sightseer lounge on the Capitol, EB, and SWC.
Of course I will have another travelogue for y'all when we return. I just hope my wife enjoys this trip as much as I will. She has been on AMTRAK LD trains before, so it won't be anything that new to her.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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Congratulations on your marriage. My wife and I honeymooned at the Izaak Walton Inn eight years ago after arriving from Chicago on the Empire Builder.
I don't know what the meaning of the different meal types in the new timetable is. My understanding was that diner service (and menu selection) as we have known it will exist only on the Auto-Train and Empire Bulider by this summer. Be sure to let us know what you experience.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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By May 22, the Empire Builder and Auto Train will be the ONLY trains to have the "regular" meal service that all long-distance trains used to have. (As in real plates, glasses, etc.) By that date, the "diner lite" will be in place on all the other trains including the CZ and SWC.
The "diner lite" is already in place on the TE and CNO. I had it several times. It's not horrible, but probably not as good as before.
So my guess is "complete meal service" is non-diner lite --- and "full meal service" means diner-lite.
Then again, don't complete and full mean the same thing? Hehehe...
Posts: 100 | From: Milwaukee, WI | Registered: Feb 2006
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Your trip sounds great, Rich, If by chance you get Larry Picard on the Capitol as your car attendent you will be in luck. He is absolutely super. He is also very knowledgeable about the route. Nathan is another excellent one. He told me Larry taught him. Last summer I had a horrid cough coming back from Denver. He couldn't do enough for me. He brought our meals, extra blankets and when I would go off on a coughing jag he came rushing in to ask if I wanted anything like hot tea. I thanked him profusly and he answered with "If my mother were sick I would hope someone would take care of her". Can't do better than that!! We will enjoy reading your trip report.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Congratulations on your nuptials. The Izaak Walton seems like a lovely honeymoon retreat. Hope you have a great trip!
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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