Amtrak Roomette Overnight on the Northeast Regional Train

i mean not gonna lie this is a really tight space we needed to get from washington dc to boston and thought skipping a hotel and sleeping in amtrak's smallest private room might be our best bet we may have lived to tell the tale but would we do it again keep watching hello jet setters and rail fans i'm jeb brooks from greenergrass.com right now i'm in washington dc i've got to get up to boston massachusetts tomorrow morning now the easiest thing to do might be to take a flight right to fly up either tonight or tomorrow morning but that would mean booking a hotel so instead we're traveling by train this is the northeast regional a hotel on rails let's check it out the northeast regional runs between washington and boston about seven times each day right now the 10 pm departure includes a sleeper car which we booked in order to arrive well rested in boston at 8 am the next day or so we thought the trip was slated to take 10 hours passed through eight states and the district of columbia and cover 458 miles [Music] when you're booking look for this option to ensure you're on a train with a viewliner sleeper car attached this train has an accessible bedroom bedrooms and roomettes we generally prefer bedrooms but the only availability on our travel date was a roumette this train also has coach and business class and no matter what we were grateful to have a private room we paid 450 for the two of us which we figured was competitive when you consider booking two plane tickets and a hotel on one end or the other we'd flown into dca that afternoon and took a cab to union station a ride which proved treacherous this was an early summer afternoon just as the region's typical storms started up it's days like this where air travel can quickly back up but trains keep running unfortunately we arrived at union station just as the restaurants were closing so even though there are a lot of restaurants here we couldn't eat our train didn't leave union station until 10 pm and it wasn't even 7 30 when we arrived so that meant venturing back outside to find some sustenance but first we headed to club osela the lounge here at union station which we could access since we were in a room at in order to drop off our suitcases it's grim out here really bad weather i just had to buy an umbrella well two because suzanne's uh here as well and they only had ones that were big enough for one person so we've each got our own brand new seven dollar umbrella anyway we're gonna head in here hopefully and grab a bite it's an irish pups by the time we'd finished the sun was gone and the rain seemed to have slowed too so we made the journey back across columbus circle dodging rats the station remains a shadow of its former self in terms of passenger volume but was absolutely the busiest we'd seen it in a long time tonight's departure was late by my standards but that's by design this train is meant to be an overnight means to get up to new england chicago's union station is definitely my favorite station i've seen so far but this is a close second i mean it's absolutely magnificent [Music] it was time to head back to the lounge in order to collect our bags and get more comfortable for this 10 hour overnight journey [Music] our bags were still there waiting for us bag storage is definitely a huge benefit of lounge access in my opinion club ofcella is a nice place for a quick stop but not exactly the kind of spot you'd want to stay for an extended period of time so we quickly reset and boarding began about 15 minutes after we'd gotten back in there boarding was smooth and on time however as with my other experiences leaving washington union station i struggled to find where i was supposed to go as per the usual i have no idea where we're going this is uh i'm an amtrak idiot eventually we found the spot checked in and hopped on board [Music] the hallways on viewliners feel small they're roommates on either side we'd been assigned number three which was occupied by an amtrak mechanic when we boarded i was hoping everything worked it did i traveled on the cardinal in a view liner room at just like this one and it was comfortable but i was on my own for that 24 hour trip let's find out how it works for the two of us on this 10 hour trip hello from the top of the room at the first question was whether we could fit both bags in uh up here so the last time i flew out or traveled in a few liner room i only had one bag now i have two because obviously suzanne is here so the answer is yes you can fit two carry-on bags the room was well stocked with amtrak pillows two bottles of water and some snacks there were also boxes filled with breakfast food for the morning we'll open those up tomorrow our room at was quite utilitarian with buttons and toggles to control the lighting and announcements in the room it's definitely got everything you'd need including a folding sink when you're ready to drain it you need to slowly fold it backwards let's check with suzanne let's see what she says about whether there's room for two it's really small it's i'm concerned that's the whole room this is this is it here we are that's the whole thing right next door is the in-room toilet there's no shared toilet in this car for that we went to business class would you use this if you were sharing the room we didn't but maybe you're more secure than we are let us know in the comments below amtrak does include toilet paper if you need it we were told this train operates at a slower than normal speed and even stops for a time in new york in part so that it's well timed for a morning arrival into boston with departure time fast approaching we closed our door we left washington right on time i just got introduced to our room attendant i mean this is one of the best parts of a sleeper is the fact that you have somebody who's really looking after you it's really nice and every time i've met one of them they've always been fantastic and perry is no exception sleeper passengers on this train are entitled to lounge access at the beginning and end of your trip one free alcoholic beverage the continental breakfast in the box which will open up in the morning breakfast items from the cafe as well as coffee and non-alcoholic beverages anytime here's the northeast regional menu as of the publication of this video pause the screen if you want to explore it more or check out the amtrak website for the most up-to-date information we've decided we're going out to explore let's go check out the viewliner we decided to head up to the cafe to pick up a cap before calling it a day that meant leaving our room and heading back one car these were some really rough tracks we struggled to walk in a straight line or even stand up sometimes maybe this was a bit of foreshadowing for what was to come tonight anyway we passed by the other roommates and entered the business class car it was then that the cafe attendant yelled at us telling us to leave to leave now because she wasn't open yet and that and that my friends is what we call an epic fail we decided to skip our night cap and instead ask for our roommate to be turned down it was done in no time the bottom bunk is bigger than the one on the top but the top one does have some netting to help prevent its occupant from falling out but as i've learned it does not offer complete protection for all of the upper bunk's contents this is a much nicer blanket that i'm used to on the long haul trains out west so looking forward to trying this it looks like it's kind of a microfiber sort of material so that's an upgrade i guess you'd say down the hall i found a roommate set up for one passenger to sleep having had that experience before and now comparing it to the way suzanne and i have the room set the upper bunk really does make the space feel significantly smaller suzanne thought i should try something i hadn't done before take the smaller upper bunk you want them the upper block was that like a scene with a skies reference like see on the rails see you in the upper bunk yeah i don't think she's kicked you catching the other side [Music] my lower back hurts you've been laying down for like a minute less than a minute 30 seconds [Music] they say you win some and you lose some and i think that it's fair to say that last night was one that i lost it was not a good night's sleep the roommate is usually pretty good because you're sort of lying with the movement of the train which helps you sleep and i guess ordinarily that'd be the case but last night for whatever reason i just couldn't really sleep well i it didn't help that suzanne's ipad fell on me in the middle of the night that was sort of a surprise she just said she's sorry it's not her fault we've just woken up in connecticut i think mystic connecticut is coming up in the way of context we boarded at 9 45 for an on-time departure at 10. our beds were turned down about an hour later just before 11. we tried to fall asleep then but failed all told we had about three hours of sleep between us the whole night i finally gave up at 5 15 but suzanne kept trying until the morning's first announcement at about 6 30. passengers who are better sleepers than we are can reasonably expect up to about eight hours of uninterrupted sleep it's worth noting on the question of whether there's room for two thanks to the design of this viewliner round the upper bunk has its own window a luxury absent on the super liner also i was able to keep my curtain open in a lower bunk without bothering suzanne who was still trying to sleep shortly after giving up on trying to sleep i headed back to the business class cabin to investigate the bathroom situation again other than toilets and the roomettes there's only a shower no shared toilet in our car the bathroom and business class was large and pretty clean always make sure the door to an amtrak bathroom is locked there's usually a light like this or some other indication to make the point from there i stopped at the cafe it finally opened up apparently and i grabbed a cup of coffee by the way here's that viewliner shower it's a little tight but certainly does the job [Music] i returned to our room where for the next several hours i enjoyed watching the new england coastline pass by we'd lucked out and gotten a rounet on the right side of the train as we traveled northward it meant seeing the seaside for most of the morning after that first announcement of the day suzanne was ready to get up did you feel like the train went like this i did feel that i felt that too i mean i'm a light sleeper in my own bed and it's nearly impossible to fall asleep for any sustained period of time between the emotion and the true truth the northeast corridor is prime real estate for amtrak it's here that the railroad makes a great deal of its revenue and i'd have thought the track would have been smoother but suzanne was not exaggerating it was an unpleasant experience in fact that marked the worst night of sleep since i had to pull all-nighters in college and frankly i think at least some of the culprit was my own fault i failed to follow my advice i figured on such a short trip i didn't need to abide by the three ps prunes power strips and pillows i really lived to regret not bringing along a pillow for this trip all that being said the views really were spectacular the rainy overcast morning really fit the image i have of new england i felt like i was a character in some kind of a nathaniel hawthorne novel at some point i headed out on a quest to dispose of our trash it meant walking down the hallway with a viewliner's bedrooms including the accessible bedroom i'll link to a comparison of amtrak's room types in the description below after a bit of a search i found this bin at the back of our car that fit the bill i also discovered the empty luggage car we decided to open up our breakfast boxes at this point this is a great way to give overnight sleeper passengers the best of both worlds they're able to get some extra sleep and get something to eat without having to venture out to the cafe the boxes had some basics like a muffin trail mix and a bottle of water but again breakfast items in the cafe are available at no cost to sleeper passengers i struggled earlier to find a place to put trash uh and you know as per the usual i just discovered it here in the room the rounet always has surprises i want to show you a trick that i learned from a comment somebody left about these view liners and that's this this handle you got to make sure it's open uh so that there's air flowing out of the window sil in order to cool it down and when we open that up it did get a little cooler in here [Music] about three minutes from the last and final stop for this train boston south station that's where we're getting out our journey's not done yet so keep an eye on this channel for more it was also about that time that i began to feel awful jet lag had set in i have an admittedly unusual view on jet lag you see i don't believe it's caused by transiting multiple time zones but rather by not getting sufficient sleep in any given 24 hour period which of course can happen when crossing time zones but it also happened to us on this trip through exactly one single time zone we barely slept at all which meant the entire next day was painful we'd be making our way on board cape air to bar harbor where a comfortable hotel bed and naps were waiting for us stand by for that video was there room for two in the round well the answer is yes we're grateful for the space it gave us to stretch out but i'm not so sure we'd choose to travel on an overnight amtrak train between dc and boston again this feeling is not one we want to replicate unless it involves crossing an ocean i'll explain more once we freshen up in the amtrak lounge here in boston as you can see it's a nice space but since there were no showers we didn't stay long i think the best way to describe this feeling is it's the same as if you've just gotten off a medium-haul flight like say across the atlantic from the east coast to europe just a little disoriented um a little groggy but also really excited really excited about what's to come in the day so a very similar feeling to that although it's been a while since i've had it the good news is i think i've got some international travel coming up soon between now and the next time see on the rails or the sky i'm jeff brooks from greenergrass.com right now i'm in washington dc i've got to make my way up to the uh what we like to call the uh hotel that was let's check out oh shoot i'm jeff brooks from greenergrass.com i'm stan and it's now time to travel by elevator which in union station is a little bit risky so uh let me know in the comments what you think of suzanne's uh on camera performance because i frankly found her to be an expert i really liked when we talked over each other that was a nice nice feature of our conversation have you ever bought a single use umbrella let us know in the comments what am i gonna do with this what's that on oh your shirt a 7-47

Channel: Jeb Brooks

Views: 583,619

Keywords: amtrak roomette, amtrak review, amtrak sleeper car, train travel, amtrak sleeper, amtrak train, amtrak overnight, amtrak trains, amtrak guide, amtrak travel, amtrak sleeping car, amtrak sleeper review, amtrak roomette tour, amtrak information, amtrak northeast regional, amtrak commuter train, amtrak overnight train, amtrak roomette overnight, roomette, roomette for two people, amtrak commuter, commuter train, roomette overnight, roomette for two, amtrak trip report

Id: EYwMOl8eZNg

Length: 16min 37sec (997 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 19 2021