I asked a relative who was taking a cross country trip on Amtrak for a review. It's a fairly thrifty way to travel, especially one way travel. She booked just a seat, not a roomette.
Here is her review of the experience:
The train was not a bad experience at all and I could say I
would recommend it to others. I might
suggest using the train for shorter distances, the trek from Spokane to La
Crosse did get a little rough on the 2nd day. I was on the train for a little more than 36
hours and at around hour 30 I was ready for my train experience to end but it
was not bad overall.
*If you don’t want my jabber then there is a summary of pros
and cons at the bottom*
The positives of the train would be the seating, the carry
on luggage, the food, and the views/sights.
There is no doubt that the best thing about the seats is the leg room,
being a tall person this is very important to me. I, like many others traveling alone, was
lucky enough to get two seats to myself which allowed for maximum space but I
don’t think it would have been bad if I did have to share the seat next to
me. The seats if front of you have foot
rests as well as your seat having a leg rest or leg extender (I have no idea
what to call them). So when it came time
to sleep I could lift up the leg rests on both seats and make a kind of couch
to sleep on. The seats also recline
fairly far as well so I had no trouble sleeping at all. An awesome feature of
the train is also that they have electrical plug-ins for every seat so I could
charge my phone or iPad which was great. Another pro of the train was that the staff
really couldn’t care less where your carry on luggage is. On planes they are really strict about
placing you carry on bags in the overhead compartments or under your seat but
on the train everyone just had their stuff in the seats next to them or on the
floor. It was nice because then I had easy access to things when I needed
them.
The food on the train would be
another positive thing. It is definitely not the best food you will eat in your
life, like it’s not crème brulee or anything but it is decent enough. I was brave enough to try one of the
breakfast sandwiches and it was not bad.
The food is a positive just because they offer different options. Passengers can eat in the dining car or go to
the lounge to buy food, and they have a fair amount of things to choose
from. The final pro of the train is of
course the sights; you see many mountains and landscapes that are really
beautiful. I unfortunately went through
Glacier National Park during the night but woke up in the morning just as we
were leaving and saw a really pretty sunset. North Dakota was a little boring
and offered much of the same but the Dakotas are just in an unfortunate flat
and super boring geographical area. Anyway, I saw many beautiful animals and
trees on the trip and the train went through some interesting cities also.
Now for the negative aspects of the train; the bathrooms
suck, there is no delay information, and it may be easy to get motion sickness.
The number one negative is without a doubt the bathroom. The bathrooms are microscopic and tiny, there
is barely enough room to turn your body to wash your hands. All of the locks suck and are broken so you
play a sort of toilet Russian roulette (which in my opinion is worse than the
real game) when you open the doors. I
had a person walk in on me while I was going and I accidentally walked in on
another woman. A random old woman peeing
is not what you want to see at 6 in the morning after you have been sleeping on
a train all night (just saying). Plus,
the bathrooms are gross like you would expect them to be, they see a lot of
traffic. Another con would be the lack of knowledge about delays. They may announce an unexpected stop or how
long they will be at a station but they do not announce how far off schedule
the train is. During the night they make
no announcements on the train at all so then you have no idea about stops that
happen while you sleep. It was frustrating
because I ended up being 2 hours later to La Crosse than I was supposed to
be. The last con would be motion
sickness. Most of the passenger seating is on the upper level but the train
tends to sway in the wind and I can see where it would be easy for someone to
get sick. Also, many people lost their
balance when trying to walk around so I would recommend caution to older
individuals taking the train because they seemed to have the most trouble with
balance.
Overall, if you are accustomed to the plane experience but
cannot afford to get a plane ticket the train is a very similar experience for
less money. It has the same atmosphere
as a plane but more leg room, there are plug-ins, you can use electronics while
on the train, there is better food, and you get to see more than just clouds
all the time. The bathrooms do kind of suck but if it is for a shorter trip
then it’s not so bad. So the train is a great travel option!
Pros:
-a lot of leg room (leg rests and foot rests)
-most people have two seats to themselves
-Plug-ins for electronics
-food/dinner options
-views/sights to see
-similar to an airplane experience
Cons:
-bathrooms (gross, small, and no real locks)
-no delays are really mentioned
-motion sickness
