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I'm embarrased to say it, but I'm never in the lounge car after dinner -- I go back to the sleeper and turn in early.
So I ask: Are video movies still shown in the lounge car? I don't recall seeing TV sets in the cars in the last couple of years. If they are gone, when did they disappear?
MDRR Member # 2992
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Henry, It has been probably 6-7 years since they were shown. Initially they were trying to steer people to renting those personal DVD players in conjunction with the private company which lasted maybe a year?
HopefulRailUser Member # 4513
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And the Coast Starlight has movies in the Parlour Car lower level, twice a day. One going north, another going south. It is actually not a bad little theater.
Edited a moment later: And, as you can see below, Frank and I are sympatico, coming in at the same time.
sbalax Member # 2801
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I believe the Coast Starlight still has them downstair in the Pacific Parlour car. Is that correct?
Frank in gorgeously sunny and warm SBA
sbalax Member # 2801
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Vicki--
Thanks for confirming that that is what happened! I can only use the meds as an excuse for so long!
Frank in warm and dark SBA
RRRICH Member # 1418
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No more movies in Sightseer Lounge cars? HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!!!!!!! When they did have them, they usually played them so loud that you couldn't carry on a conversation with anyone else in the car, leave alone try and narrate a video, like I usually do.
MDRR Member # 2992
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Rich, I agree completely, but you wouldn't believe how many people complained when, for whatever reason, we did not have movies...
palmland Member # 4344
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If you walk through a coach it is amazing at how many people are watching flicks of some sort on their computers. Same on a plane. I think the days of the overhead movie screens on a long flight are about over and I'm certainly glad they[re gone from lounge cars. Movies for all (like it or not) only makes sense in an enclosed room with larger screen - as on the Starlight PPC.
sojourner Member # 3134
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I too was simply delighted when they got rid of the movies in the sightseer lounge. In fact, I phoned Amtrak several times to complain about them, and I felt my complaints were at last heard. What I said was: Fine to have them after dark, but when it's still light outside, everyone who wants to be in the observation car should be able to be there to see the REAL movie--out the windows.
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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I'm either very old-fashioned or a latent "foamer." On train trips, I just need a window view for a "movie"; if it's dark out or if I'm not at a window, I get off from the "rhythm of the rails," and don't want or need the distraction of a film or a book to disconnect me from the trip.
On plane trips, I admit to being somewhat of a "white knuckle" flyer. I basically get into a coccoon, and try to fall asleep if I can.
Henry Kisor Member # 4776
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For what it's worth, I never watched the lounge-car flicks. The TV sets were probably too old to have closed captioning circuitry.
By day it is the outside movie and by night it is the mystery novel.
A deaf woman who lives in the Northwest once told me a story about her experience with a portable video player in coach on the Starlight.
She knew of the Amtrak requirement that such players be listened to through headphones, but of course she didn't have them and they would have been useless to her anyway. So she figured that she'd just turn the sound off and watch the subtitles, as she always does.
She was watching a movie with a lot of s e x and graphic four-letter s e x talk in it, and she became aware that people were standing up and staring at her. For several minutes she tried to ignore them, but they still stared and hurled nasty expressions her way.
Finally the attendant came around and told her her player's sound had been turned ALL THE WAY UP instead of OFF.
She wanted to crawl under her seat.
notelvis Member # 3071
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Put me in the 'not wanting to watch a movie' on-board category. By day I want to see sights that I don't ordinarily see and in the evening I like to actually dig into the backlog of things I want to read someday.
The 'sights I don't ordinarily see' caveat explains why I can always read by daylight on the Carolinian but never on the California Zephyr.
One exception though - Once on train 6 they had a movie blaring in the sightseer lounge and I found the soundtrack of 'Phantom of the Opera' to go nicely with the Gore Canyon!
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