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Hi folks, I am starting to think about food for my upcoming Amtrak trip and was wondering if there is a standard "feeding" schedule aboard all routes. Is there? I recall reading on this forum that sometimes if the train runs late or something you can miss the meal etc. Do the stations, outside of the big metro areas, have food available that is cheaper to purchase than on the train? Thanks! Mike
Posts: 50 | From: New Hyde Park, nY | Registered: Dec 2004
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When I last rode the Empire Builder in November, there was a 5 PM seating, 7 PM (roughly), & and 8:45 last call for the diner. The lounge car was open until past 11 PM, though. The diner opened up for service by 5:30 AM.
------------------ Over 20,000 miles aboard Amtrak trains.
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the Earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain.
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In my experience on the Starlight, they tend to leave the diner open late if the train is running late. They close it after the train passes those stations that are supposed to be served around dinnertime. In other words, if the train is scheduled to arrive in Salinas at 6:36pm, but doesn't get there until 9:00pm (after normal dinner hours), the diner stays open for Salinas passengers.
Of course, if teh diner is closed, you can still get prepackaged cold sandwiches and nuked food in the lounge cafe until about 11:00pm or so. It ain't as good but you won't go hungry.
Standard dining car procedure is that breakfast and lunch are first-come first served, until everyone has eaten. Dinner is by reservation. The steward walks the train taking reservations, starting with the sleeping car passengers who get first choice of times. If you board after reservations are taken your sleeping car attendant should have a reservation arranged before you board. At the "last call" anyone without a reservation may have dinner in the diner.
quote:Originally posted by Mr. Toy: sleeping car passengers who get first choice of times.
..and are often let into the dining car and served first before it is opened up to coach passnegers. At least that is the way it has been the last four times I've traveled in a bedroom.
Posts: 134 | From: New York, New York USA | Registered: Oct 2001
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Michael - no there are no "standard" times for meals -- each train, and probably each individual run is different. They generally make an announcement about dinner sometime during the mid-afternoon and announce the times that are available for that day, then, as someone else said, the dining car steward walks through the train, sleepers first, and takes reservations. If you are a sleeper passenger it is best to stay in your room (rather than in the lounge car) when they come through to take reservations -- that way you will get your first choice of a seating. If you are a sleeper passenger, but sitting in the lounge car when they take reservations, they will generally go through the lounge car last, after they have gotten everybody else, so you may not get your first choice, even if you are a sleeper passenger.
Typically when you make a reservation, the steward will give you a little card with your selected seating time scribbled on it, but they don't check the cards or collect them when you finally arrive in the diner.
As someone else said, breakfast and lunch are first come-first served.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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Michael -- one more note about meal times. After you make your meal reservation with the steward, you will need to listen throughout the evening (provided you are in a car in which the PA system works.....) for them to call your seating time, and you may not be called at EXACTLY the time your reservation says. If you have 7:30 reservations for example, they may not call the 7:30 people into the diner until quarter of 8 (or later, depending on how busy they are and how fast people leave after they are done eating)
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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