Next Wednesday (May 29), the wife & I head out from Houston to Seattle. Room "C" to LAX and room "D" to Seattle. We then jump on the Golden Princess and cruise to Juneau, AK for 7 days, then return to Seattle and fly back to Houston, via SW Air.
I plan on taking copious amounts of pictures with my D5100. I have 2 of the 16 gig SDHC cards and one 8 gig. Hope I have enough, cuz I'm taking my droid tablet, and I do not know if I can download pictures onto it.
This will be a LONG 8 days!
Posted by DeeCT (Member # 3241) on :
Mike, Sounds like a wonderful trip ... ENJOY !!! Dee (who is green with envy).
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
This will be our first time to Alaska. My sister and her husband and my brother and his wife are taking the trip with us, but they are flying to Seattle.
Posted by Vincent206 (Member # 15447) on :
Mike....Just a reminder, there are 2 cruise ship terminals in Seattle and the Princess ships depart from T91, WHICH IS NOT IN DOWNTOWN SEATTLE! The cab ride to T91 takes about 10 minutes from downtown Seattle (public transportation isn't an option). Make sure you go to the right terminal and have a great trip.
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
What day does that put you on #14 on day number 1 coming through San Jose or Oakland? If I'm available, I'll cruise down to the station to meet you. I'm equidistant from both stations (about 40 minutes away for each one), but Oakland is a real hell hole that has become incredibly dangerous....so I might skip that and do San Jose instead. Just let me know what the correct date is.
Posted by HopefulRailUser (Member # 4513) on :
Have a wonderful time! You will find Alaska amazing, very beautiful and very interesting.
Posted by Henry Kisor (Member # 4776) on :
Mike, a bit of photographic advice: Avoid filling up the memory cards. Leave maybe 500 meg-1 gig free. When memory cards are full, the camera does funny things to them. I been there.
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
Thanks for the advise, Henry. I'm relatively new to DSLR photography. And Smitty, I leave LAX at 10:10 AM, Friday, May 31, 2013 in Car 1432 - Room D with a San Jose meet-up at ??? I guess I should look at a CS schedule...
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
Vincent, we have a SeaTac hotel that will shuttle us to pier 91 on Sunday morning. Too bad they will not pick us up at the Amtrak station, but they will meet us at the SeaTac light rail station Saturday night.
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
The Seattle light rail is, at least, very close to King Street Station. You just go up the stairs, turn right, cross the street and then entrances to the light rail are just on the other side of the old Seattle Union Station.
Admittedly with luggage and after having ridden in on the Coast Starlight one would rather have just one transfer between transport instead of two.
I hope you have a great trip.
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
I haven't checked the schedule lately, but SJC should be around 8:30PM or so (at least it has been for the last 20 years or so). I hope I can make it---we'll keep in touch on FB.
Posted by Vincent206 (Member # 15447) on :
Connecting between King Street Station and light rail is easier now with the completed station renovations. If you have lots of luggage, find the lobby elevator and take it up to street level, exit onto Jackson Street, cross the street to Union Station and you are at the light rail station entrance.
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
Vincent, I think my brother is renting a car for a day, and he volunteered to pick us up at the Amtrak Station (and drop us off at Pier 91). His wife will want to see that station!
Smitty, I'll pm you my cell #, via facebook. You can call and let me know if you will be able to make it. 8:30 pm = 10:30pm my time, so I would normally be asleep...
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
I have started to pack my Amtrak suitcase!
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
We look forward to hearing about your trip....... and hope it's a good one.
I'm curious whether the dining car staffs will be giving you meal receipts (even for sleeping car passengers) after each meal as they were doing on the Silver Meteor Sunday/Monday.
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
I plan on doing a minor trip report, and will include that info, David!
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
We are leaving for the Amtrak station in 3.... 2....
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
Well, you should be on the train right now enjoying train #1. Looking forward to a trip report! Tomorrow you get on-board my favorite train, #14. I hope to squeeze in the time to see you at SJC tomorrow. I will text you.
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
Well, Mike should be on the cruise ship right about now. I did not get to see him when his train came through San Jose---they were running too late for that to happen.
His train, unfortunately, did not have a PPC---it had a substitution car which was a Cross Country Cafe. Also had a PV ("Silver Iris") on the rear which was added at Oakland.
Have a great cruise!
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Those Parlour Cars certainly appear to be "money pits"; it is a wonder Amtrak just seems to keep them "going and going", as they would certainly appear to be "Mica bait".
On a more "micro" level I'm sorry that Mr. Mike Smith had to do with a 370XX "X-Country". The least Amtrak could have done was scrounged up a 330XX "Sightseer", even if they had to yank it out of inbound #3, Chief's, consist. No big loss if a CCC did a round trip on the Chief.
Finally, "Silver Iris", when delivered to the CB&Q during 1953, was configured as a 6 Sec-4 BR-6 RM. The car found its way on to the Amtrak roster (#2153) complete with the open Sections. However as I recall, those Sections were used as dormitory space, and one must wonder if the private owners have retained them.
Posted by Mike Smith (Member # 447) on :
Not quite on the ship... We will be heading there in about an hour. The Sunset was packed and the 1432 car on the Starlight was half full. We had the typical dispatch problems but nothing unusual for the past 3 days!
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