Amtrak Coast Starlight | Burbank to Emeryville In A Sleeper Car

hey guys we are here in burbank california we are waiting on the coast starlight so excited to see the views of the water from this train so hop on with us and we'll check it out together [Music] we've reserved a roommate for this ride up to emeryville and we've been on this train one time before had a room at and it was on the east facing side of the train so we're hoping today to be on the west facing side of the train which is the better side because you can see the water the whole way up so wish us luck we'll see on a few minutes which one we got [Music] [Music] [Music] it's like you know where room seven is seven yes so on that side uh it is on yes it is okay thank you thank you [Music] nope train pulled in and it only stays at the burbank station for one minute so we made a mad dash to the sleeping car got all our bags on and we did get a room facing west so we will be able to see the water in a little bit it's not out there yet but in a few minutes we'll be pulling up to the ocean all right quick change of plans it turns out they had put us in a crew room upstairs for the room at so they came in told us we needed to switch rooms to a different one and they put us downstairs this time so actually i consider this kind of an upgrade on the co-star light because we're still on the side that's going to face the ocean which is great but the co-star light is one of the only trains that's a sleeper car train that also has a business class and the business class is in front of the sleeper car so they need to walk through sleeper cars today to get to uh the dining room and already just being up there there was people kind of passing by the whole time so that's not normally the case because there's normally another car in front of there but they would have to go through to get to the cafe so that being said and we're now going to be coming up on the water and we're going to be actually closer to the water on the lower level we're pretty happy with this uh change to the lower level which which is kind of like an upgrade for us today so uh we will see what it looks like when we get closer to the water all right so we got our reservation from our room attendant our lunch is at 12 30 so we're we've got traditional dining since we are here on the coast starlight which is exciting so we're looking at the menu trying to decide what to eat and i've had the burger and i've had the savory chili now i'm eyeballing the artisan grilled cheese which i love grilled cheeses um and this one sounds really good it has oven roasted turkey it has bacon two kinds of cheese and um and it's made on a onion bread so that sounds really good they're going to serve that with some tara chips and some coleslaw as well now if you're wondering what rob is going to eat we don't even really have to ask him because i think that we know he's going to have the burger are you going to have the burger yeah i i've had the burger before and i'm going to get the burger again so that's what i'm going to do really cool thing though while we're eating lunch today is that we are just about to pass oxnard traveling north and when you travel north when you pass oxnard that's when the scenery starts so we should be seeing some cool stuff at lunch the the ocean and all the the beaches and all that so hopefully we'll see that uh right as we get up to the dining car for lunch yes so we're gonna have lunch with a beautiful view of the ocean and we'll bring you guys along with us so you can check out the meals as well as you're trying to decide what to get on the traditional dining menu you also do get dessert with lunch as well as with dinner so stay tuned because i'm not sure yet if i want to have dessert for lunch and dinner or lunch or dinner or what we'll find out [Music] okay so i got the burger and ellie got the grilled cheese so i was gonna get the artisan um grilled cheese but they didn't have all the items for that so i actually ended up with the kids grilled cheese and he's getting baked he's making bacon for me and we'll put some bacon in it no turkey but i think it's gonna be pretty good this is one of the best settings for a meal you can get on amtrak because you get an amazing meal we have a view of the pacific ocean right outside your window here how amazing is that to be that close to the water while you're eating lunch and dinner on the coast of our life so what i did was rob's not eating his lettuce or tomato so i added those to mine and i got the bacon in here and actually this coleslaw is one of the best coleslaws i've had in a long time so definitely get something that has the coleslaw that's good [Music] our lunch was great so one of the things also that a lot of people ask us about traditional dining is if you have to sit with somebody and it really just depends on how busy the train is today we are on the coast starlight and the dining car attendant was actually making sure that not only did we have our own table but he wanted to make sure everybody also had a view of this as they were eating so he was seating everyone on one side only of the dining car and keeping the other side empty as well which was really nice not only did we have our own table but we had a great view with great food and great service so speaking of service we also get a lot of questions about tipping the dining car attendant now you can choose to tip right after a meal or you can choose to tip at the end of your trip and uh if you're chew whatever you're doing usually tipping is around two to three dollars per person per meal and you could choose to do it either way we've seen both ways and we've done it both ways before so it there's really no set way either way i'm sure is greatly appreciated by the dining car attendant so if you are tipping you could either leave it right after the meal or you could do it at the end of your trip just make sure you track them at your last meal all right we wanted to give you a little tour of our room here on the co-star light this is a super laner which means that the ceiling is going to be a little bit shorter than on a viewliner and there's a few other things in the room that there is no toilet in the room uh the toilet would be shared outside in the hall so we're both sitting here on the same side on the the seat and both enjoying the view because we have a beautiful view of the ocean out there so we both wanted to be able to enjoy that on the other side uh there is an equal seat to the one that we're on so that's about the size of it it'll fit two people if you want definitely not more than two people though and they both slide down to make the bottom bunk which is what you used to sleep on is that right yes i usually sleep on the wall and how is that for you to sleep down there it's good it's comfortable and it's i think for me as far as you know claustrophobia it's got a little bit more headroom um than you've got upstairs in your penthouse i'd say a lot of more headroom yeah the top bunk there's only 22 inches of headroom once it's laid down so you'll see that when i pull it down here in a second that it can be a little tight up there and also this one is 28 inches wide and that one is not quite as wide so let's go and see what the top looks like real quick for later tonight and yeah we have the we have the the mattresses up there still but you can kind of get an idea of what it's going to be like for me up there there is no window up on this top bunk but this will be ally's mattress it'll go down here and form her bed down there so let me pull this back up we are only taking this to emeryville today because there was a wildfire and burned the bridges north of sacramento so you actually can't take this train all the way to seattle right now you would have to get off and take it as a bus which we definitely did not want to do so we're getting off in emeryville and we're getting on the uh the california zephyr but a lot of people want to always know what we paid for this or how much it costs and so i'll give you that info right now we did this in points actually right we did we got a lot of points stored up yeah we got a lot of points and so this cost us 10 150 points uh amtrak points which you earn by taking rides or you can earn it through their credit card or whatever um so we paid that that's about equivalent to 280 dollars and that's i think what it was when we booked it now i did see just a couple days ago i went to see how full the train was and i went on our system and it the prices have gone up pretty much dramatically i was looking to see how much it would be to go to a bedroom or a family bedroom and see if they still had them available if we wanted to upgrade and the prices had gone way up i think the business class was actually the same as we paid for the room at which we got a long long time ago so right book this early and you're going to save a lot of money and even if you're not going the whole way you're going to stay overnight it can be worth it to think about it because you do get the traditional dining included with that right and otherwise you're going to be eating in the cafe yeah and the other thing is it's such a long ride that you want to be comfortable too so like we're writing from la to emeryville it's gonna take us all day so we do get our two meals included with that which is great yeah we're gonna get in after dark about after 10 o'clock so uh but for now we do have this beautiful view out the window of the pacific ocean and we just passed by uh channel islands national park you may be wondering if on this super liner there are no toilets in the room like on the viewliners where you go to the bathroom so uh if you're in coach there is a big bathroom for everyone in coach and the sleeper car there are several bathrooms in each car so we're on the bottom of right now there should be three bathrooms and a shower down here and then an identical bathroom upstairs so i'm gonna walk out and show you what that looks like and what it is like to be inside one of those so so this is a pretty standard bathroom on a super liner it is uh pretty tight but i'll i'll show you around you can just see the space for the toilet there and you've got a sink here cotton cold water trash can tissues and it's kind of hard to find at first but the flush button is right down there big green button uh it's a little bit hard to see and then so across the hall is going to be where the shower is we'll take a look at that next and make sure you push that shut otherwise someone could come in [Applause] so this is the shower for the sleeper cars there's not one in coach if you're in the coach area and it's this is a pretty good sized shower actually it's very wide and there are bars to hang on to which you will need if the train is moving at any speed there's a hook here for things and towels that you use here so you don't have to bring your own towels they do actually have soap here for you to use too and the call button if you get in trouble hit that call button and they will come and help you uh but if the door is locked i'm not sure how they'll get in so there's another coat hook up here and just a curtain so you got like a dressing room and a shower area which is pretty convenient i'm down in the bay of the train as we pass by uh the ocean this is where you will get on and off the train also where you'll store your luggage if you i did not check it now we we got on in burbank and there was no place to check the luggage so our bags are sitting right here those are our bags and they'll be there all the way to san francisco and uh they're fine there if you there really isn't extra room to put them in the uh in the mat so i just recommend putting your bags there if you can't check them at a major station and they'll be fine just there the whole trip how's your cell signal on this co-star light uh non-existent so no wi-fi either then no okay so i guess we're just gonna look out the window for a little while that's right that's what they're they want you to do just pulled into san luis obispo so i'm gonna hop out and take a quick look around is a fresh air break we'll be here about seven minutes so good time to get off the train all right so you do get your one alcoholic beverage per bride and they are only doing it at dinner time now but look at how nice this is it's a real glass you guys ah cheers all right 14. [Music] all right so now that we're done with dinner it's time for a room setup here for rest now we're not spending an overnight on the train since we're just riding for we just got on at burbank and riding to emeryville so that's not quite an overnight but we would like to rest for a little bit so i'll show you what it looks like here as we've set it up for night time as you can see here the two seats have now become one bed down here and then up above the bed comes down from up here and this is actually the mattress that goes underneath but this is what the upper bunk looks like it's got all kinds of great stuff rob uses this to store some snacks and all of his things that he needs when he sleeps up here and there's the safety belt here but we basically are just going to chill out down here put our legs up and get nice rest so that we're not too exhausted when we get in to emeryville tonight okay we got back from dinner now you saw our lunch earlier dinner time we decided well you get an appetizer you get an entree and you get a dessert again so i got the lobster crab cake and it was absolutely delicious it comes on a bed of farro and it has a nice creamy sauce with it i also got then for my entree the tortellini with creamy pesto sauce and that was really good i also added you have the option of adding the chicken to it as well with no extra cost to that so you can have it just the cheese tortellini or you can add the the chicken pan roasted chicken on top of it which is pretty good so i had it with the chicken it was very tasty and then for dessert i got the cheesecake with some caramel sauce on top just plain like that and it was really good now rob got the green chili tamale and i know that he likes that he did let me have a bite and it did taste really good and then he had the flat iron steak with the baked potato um and that was really good as well and he had the cheesecake also but he had it with what they call the works essentially so caramel sauce and chocolate sauce and whipped cream and a cherry on top and i don't know it was a big party um so the meals a lot of people ask us how much are the meals they are included with the sleeper car ticket so if you have a sleeper car seat or room of any type you those are included with your meal right now they are still not available for coach passengers so those are complimentary meals which is why earlier i was talking about the tips i know you were probably thinking well that doesn't really make a lot of sense but because they are complimentary meals included in your ticket then you don't really have to worry about how much exactly they are so that's how come we estimate that two to three dollars per person per meal on your tip hopefully that helps you guys out all right we've jumped off here in san jose this is our last break to stretch our legs here um before we get into emeryville so we're just hanging out here just so you guys know this is an a this is a smoke break but this particular platform here in san jose is no smoking which is interesting so you have to actually go out to the parking lot to smoke if you want to do that so just so you're aware if you are a smoker but otherwise you're welcome here on the platform walk around stretch your legs before you get into your destination all right we just pulled in here to emeryville we are now headed over to the hotel there's buses here waiting for people who are going to be going onward but we are headed to the hotel to sleep all right we made it over to our hotel here at the senesta we're going to rest up and then get up in the morning and we're headed on to another train ride you guys thanks for watching we'll see you guys on the next one

Channel: Grounded Life Travel

Views: 8,625

Rating: 4.9535656 out of 5

Keywords: amtrak coast starlight, burbank to emeryvill in a sleeper car, coast starlight, amtrak, dining car, pacific ocean, sleeper car, amtrak roomette, amtrak train, amtrak coast starlight roomette, amtrak coast starlight tour, amtrak business class, amtrak trains, amtrak trip report, amtrak coast starlight review, coast starlight amtrak, amtrak first class, coast starlight roomette, coast starlight amtrak roomette, los angeles, union station, los angeles union station

Id: AjQM4tN7KRY

Length: 25min 4sec (1504 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021