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We just got home from a round trip LA to Portland vacation on the Starlight. We spent a few nights in Portland but the real reason for the trip was to take the train. This time we had a bedroom going up and 2 roomettes across from each other for the southbound trip. It was me, dh and 7 yr old son. This was our 9th long distance family train trip since 2002. We had a great time. The CS was better than our last experience 2 years ago. We did have a parlour car both ways and the train seemed pretty full to us. We were just over an hour late getting into PDX and only 20 minutes late getting into LA!!!!! We parked at Union Station in the park and fly lot and that went well too. Only $6.00 per night for covered parking just steps from the station. It was a great trip and a nice way to end our summer. Let me know if you have any questions.
HopefulRailUser Member # 4513
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Glad to hear the parking worked out, I would have felt badly if something had gone wrong there after I recommended it. And also glad the trip went well, the timeliness on the #11 has been pretty good, only one bad late arrival this past week. I still look forward to my first Parlour Car.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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How did you like all of that construction traffic and torn up streets in dowtown Portland? I was there last week and it was a mess! It's not easy to take the free bus anymore from the downtown hotels to Union Station, which is a shame. Hopefully when everything is completed, it will be simple again.
Glad you had a nice trip. Which crew did you have? Most of them on 11/14 are really nice.
hookedup Member # 1691
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Vicki - thanks for the tips on the parking - you were right on and it worked great! I highly recommend it. We were actually home in San Diego before the last Surfliner would have made it!
Smitty - Yeah that construction in downtown Portland is messing stuff up. I feel bad for the locals it would drive me nuts. I guess the new transit center is supposed to be a real improvement though. I love Portland - it is a nice downtown and a great little city.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites downtown and they picked us up at the station. We did take the #9 bus back to the station though and that went okay.
Our southbound sleeping car attendant was Joy - he was great - one of the better attendants we have ever had. He was really attentive and always around to help and would stop by and check on us frequently.
I wont mention the names of our northbound crew because they were not as stellar. Overall though it was a great trip!
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