It was awesome.

I am posting my travel log from it:

Crescent Train ride
So far the ride and travel experience has been 100% better than the ride on the Sunset Limited. The staff and train seem much nicer and accommodating. Our departure was right on time 7am. I slept for an hour. But before I slept, I watched us go over Lake Ponchetrain. Beautiful.
Our standard room is great. Restroom in room is convenient, tv showing NEW movies is great. Galaxy Quest and James Bond movie. By contrast,the Sunset ltd was showing the boring music of my heart over and over. So I went to eat. Having only been in the Sunset LTD dining car,I was most shocked by the elegance of the Crescent dining car. Amazing decor and fine menu. I had a long and wonderful conversation with two gentlemen 50-60 years of age.After we spoke of train travel,we found we had a common interest in history.We spoke at length about WWII and Lincoln. What a diverse group also,a furniture executive from N. Carolina and a long haul truck driver from Los Angeles. I loved listening to the N. Carolina accent. The food was great, and the dining car service was beyond excellent. Mr. Chen the dining car captain was most apologetic to my fellow diners as the cook was a trainee and made the pancakes with butter instead of oil.So the pancakes were spotty instead of all brown. To me they looked great. But he brought my fellow diners some new even colored pancakes. Wow, that is service. We have sat mostly with coach riders in the dining car.
We ate soup and sandwich for lunch by ourselves.The ride has been great. This afternoon I have had to call on the staff for terrible smoke. Someone in the sleeper next to us has decided to smoke and the smoke is filling the hallway.The longe car is more of a cafe car and is opened for smoking at times.It seems a shame that such a lovely train have such a miserable lounge car. We had a fabulous dinner of turkey and dressing.Laverne is the best server we have had. We had dinner with a nice older couple from New Jersey. They were visiting son in New Orleans. The wife is just like me,in that she has tried Valium,etc and her family still makes fun of her not flying.Her husband said that they take the train now and don't travel separate. One thing I notice on all the trains for dinner,is that they always bring you salad without a drink. So now, the minute the salad is served, I tell the server to please bring me my tea. We went to sleep by 10:00pm. I woke up to see sunrise. Thought it must be 8am. It was 6:17am EST. so that means it was really 5:17am to me. The ride was so smooth.
As we travel through the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia just South of Appamatox, I wonder how any civil war battle could happen. This area is breathtaking to me. Mountains have always been amazing to me. If I lived in these blue ridges, I would never leave,much less start a war. We just stopped in Charlottesville Va. at 7:01est. The train station looks to be getting a remodel. A lovely red brick depot. Many people are here. We had lunch in Delaware. The steward Mr.Chang was such a kind, accommodating man. He told us about the dining car. We arrive on time but the baggage check in New York is unorganized.

Our trip back started on time from NY. We have great car attendants on this trip.Once we were settled into our car, our attendants offered us a drink and snack. Our car attendants are Aspen and Morris. They are the nicest car attendants we have had on the Crescent rides. Aspen seems to enjoy his job and is very energetic. No lunch service, but dinner starts at 5PM. We had dinner and the diner was empty. The dining car is not the beautiful car we had going to NY. We had the chef's special roast turkey. It was great. We then went back to our room and watched movies and read. We watched Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams. It was very good but sad. We then slept.The ride overnight was either very rough or I was not as tired as I was on the way to NY. I felt like the train was jerking and tipping from side to side. I also kept smelling a burning sulfur smell. At some point the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. I heard a bunch of sirens. So who knows what was going on. I did overhear that a woman was thrown off the train.
I had breakfast with a nice man that was going to New Orleans for a conference. He had a great saying 'if you can't take a train to it,it's not worth going to'. That is my new belief...but I would add driving to that saying too. My daughter and I hung out-watched a great movie called the "straight story". It is a true story of a man (Alvin Straight) riding his lawnmower tractor across many miles to see an astranged brother. We have watched/listened to this movie many times now and is still an amazing movie. Seems like "real people", not actors. We went to have lunch at about 11:30am. I ordered the "Louisiana Gardner",and it was delicious. We have been stuck on the track now for at least 45 minutes. Conductor tells us "freight train" is holding up our train. I feel like I heard that on the Sunset Ltd. I feel like we are circling an airport! At least the conductor comes on to tell us status. We had dinner at 5:30. I was sure to tell Lavergne Chambers how wonderful she was. She was the nicest! I also told Mr. Chang how much we enjoyed having him as our diner captain. He and Lavergne and the chef apparently work as a travelling team. What a great team they make. We are now informed that we will be 2 1/2 hours late into New Orleans. I am starting to feel that New Orleans is not meant for us.

I did a BAL-ATL round trip in late January.

The southbound train was 30 minutes late at DC due to getting behind a MARC local. But we were on time by Charlotte.
Northbound was 30 minutes late until Greensboro, on time at Manassas, 40 minutes early at Baltimore.

Given Southern's roadbed, an Amfleet II coach generally rides well, especially in the center. Another factor is people moving through the car, the last coach obviously has the least foot traffic, but it depends on your deestination.

I'm surprised that you mentioned "Horizon" fleet equipment since the train normally consists of a Heritage Dorm car, 2 Viewliner sleepers, a Heritage diner, and Amfleet II Lounge and Coaches.
 

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They had bingo in the diner sometime on the second afternoon (ie somewhere in Alabama). Service was quite friendly from what I remember - above average I think. Scenery is a bit dull though - lots of trees.

Geoff.