Did the Zephyr (CHI-SAC) Jan 2020, had a roommette. You actually WANT to walk around, sit for extended periods in the observation car, enjoy/sample an empty coach seat between stops, lounge in the cafe car, get out on the platform on specified stops. Rooms are luxury and are priced accordingly. Trains (coach seats) reign supreme over busses and the sky for comfort

My rule of thumb is one night trip I get a roomette and on a two night trip I get a bedroom...

One annoying thing about roomettes or family bedrooms are all the noises that come from rattling doors. I carry a few Rubber Mini Squeegees that I wedge between all the moving parts and this reduces the noise substantially. S hooks are also very useful for hanging additional bags.

Thanks for these details. The best takeaway for me is how the pricing increases as supply goes down. Great to know that when planning. Not having to leave the space in middle of night (sometimes multiple times for those of us of a certain age 😑) is a big plus but the convenience of not sharing a shower is a big pull for me too!!

Last time I got a Roomette, it was under $200.00 from Chicago to San Antonio. It was just me. Since meals were included, it was a fair price. I had the pricier meals at dinner. I booked it months in advance.

I've learned so much from your traveling experiences and advice. Thank you!!

Even though I think I've used nearly every type of room, I still found this video really helpful! Really interesting observation about sleeping in different directions in a bedroom vs. a roomette compared to the direction the train is traveling. I never thought about that.

I am a frequent traveler of Amtrak where I always get the room. Several times the shower is a massive problem because they have a tendency to leak to the lower rooms below. Then the train staff are banging on your door to ask you to stop using the shower. But it's still my favorite way of cross-country travel😁.

I think it's great how you explain everything how each different area rooms space and storage

This was very informative, thank you. Our trip to Reno from Sacramento is coming up and we were on the fence. While we normally fly everywhere, this trip came recommended for the scenic views offered on the route. Great channel!

Thank you for such informative videos, you have been so helpful in our first train travel trip. Also have picked up more tips from this video and next time I think we will be booking a roomette. Thanks again and safe travels ☺😊

I've been thinking of taking my grandkids on an Amtrak. Your videos have been extremely helpful. Thank you.

Very helpful in deciding roomette or bedroom.. thanks!

Love your videos....I always look forward to new ones. I personally use the auto train. Easier with the car and my kids. I have done the roomettes and the family room for a family of 4. We personally liked the roomettes better

Thank you for your blog shows about riding the Amtrak

Thank you.... extremely informative and helpful. You guy's do a great job! Hopefully, I'll be taking Amtrak from Philadelphia to Winter Park FL. next year.

I love watching the two of you. I have always wanted to travel on Amtrak, but have never done it, so I do it through you. Thanks!

I discovered your videos while researching what the new traditional dining menu is like and am hooked on your channel! It's all fantastic information, I look forward to watching more of your adventures!

Could watch the bedroom videos all day! Thank you :-)

Very nice video on the differences in the two rooms. We are going to get to experience both on our trip to the Grand Canyon. Our dates got changed because Amtrak stopped their Monday and Tuesday departures for our trip. We had to move our departure back to Sunday and we’re told there were no more roommates for the outbound trip. We were upgraded to a bedroom on that segment! After researching the room differences and now watching your video, we are looking forward to experiencing the bedroom. Thanks for the informative videos, I am trying to watch more of your videos for more information on our trip. We leave tomorrow and are so excited!

Super useful information. Thank You!

Another great & informative video! I love how you always diplomatically describe the toilet in the Viewliner I Roomette! :)

Thank you for this valuable information. I cannot wait to book my trip 🥰

Your videos are so helpful. Can't wait for my March trip

Awesome information. Will pass this on to my friend. We are thinking of taking a several day trip via train. Thank you

Very well presented. Thank you for us first timers!

Always great information, my wife and well be traveling in June were so excited, 👌

Great video guys

Thanks it was helpful.. Going to look at other Videos of yours

One other thing re: price differences between the two. Amtrak (now?) has a bidding process, where you can name how much you want to pay for an upgrade to the next step up. And if the next step up is available, they will give it to you for the price that you offered. I was able to upgrade from a Roomette to a Bedroom for $150 for an overnight.

Great information thanks 👍👍

Good info thank you for sharing

Thx for mentioning the price as I was going to ask you about it. Awesome videos!

This is excellent

New subscriber here. Love your videos!

So like your reviews!

Very helpful! Thank you!

Good info, Bedroom it is!

Bedroom is on my bucket list

Very informative video thank you.

I've been watching your videos. I always wondered what those sleeper units looked like on the Amtrak. I want to one day take a train ride across country new scribe...😉

Very helpful

My husband is a flight attendant and due to the pandemic we have not traveled on a plane together in over two years. He returned to flying last summer. I’m excited to explore a train trip together. I have multiple sclerosis and I’m hoping I can navigate the different amenities the train has to offer. Thank you for your awesome videos. I found you two weeks ago and I’m hooked! Are we able to purchase travel insurance?

Its always a Joy to see a Couple who love to Travel, especially together! I was wondering, I am a.clean Freak. How do the Roomette and Bedroom Smell? And are they clean when you Board? Should I Bring Air Freshener? Is there good Ventilation?

Once, I think it was autumn 2011, I was able to get a bedroom for just a little more than the cost of a roomette. It was awesome! I've never seen anything like that again, though, so that was my only time in a full bedroom since price is definitely a consideration for me.

If I can affordable I would do the bedroom for me and husband and by myself I will do still bedroom seem bigger. Thanks for the info.happy thanksgiving to you both and family.🥧🙏🤗🤗😀

We just completed our 2nd Amtrak journey in a roommette on the Empire Builder EB. I tried to bid up, but my offer was not accepted. There was an empty bedroom. My husband and I looked around and saw that the space is nice. He is 6'4" and said he would prefer that in the future. However, on the Zephyr, one couple said their shower flooded. Amtrak was able to accommodate them. On this most recent trip, 2 young men had a bedroom, and they were using the car shower. I know because I saw one of them come out, as I was going in. We also me 2 retired Amtrak lawyers who were each in their own roommette. One of them said he would never pay for the bedroom. For the next trip I am planning on The Southwest Chief, the bedroom cost is about 2.5 times more than the roommette. I am just looking at the price for 1 for cost comparison, because I plan to use a companion coupon.

We just got married. And now we enjoy our time together traveling. This is something new and she’s giving it a shot. Using the train. Maybe one day we can hook up and hang out together Travelling. Thank you for your video we will be taking our first train from Fayetteville North Carolina to upstate New York. And I think I’m gonna get that bigger sleeper.

that roommate sounds so cute

I want to book a bedroom for a short (end of the semester treat) trip. So, I really enjoy your videos, which are based on experience. I am an adult college student. This simply means, my finances are limited.😂😂😂

I live when in movies you see the train bedrooms😍

Thanks for all the helpful hints. If all goes as planed. I am going to take a trip from Chicago t Reno. late September , early October. for my birthday ( Oct. 2) Just waiting for my schedule for next year. To see when I will have my days off. I am on a 6 day rotation at work. 6 on , two off. Going to plan on booking some time in March. didn't the two of you mention the prices are going to go up some time next year???

Is buy one get one a companion set up or it is a ticket set up? meaning, as a solo person, can I buy one and use the other later?

Y'all have GREAT Videos!!! We are planning our first Amtrak trip and we have a few questions, if I may? We would be in a Viewliner on the Crescent. We are looking at the Roomette - but - Do you have trouble with leg-room? We aren't giants, but every video we see it looks like your knees would be touching? Is that correct? How do you go about booking an accessible room? We see that they are available in various videos, but don't see it offered on the Amtrak website where you book trips? Do you know anything about parking in New Orleans at or near the train station? We'd have to leave a car during our trip, and that is an issue! Or should we plan on catching the train at another stop near New Orleans? How can you find out about parking at stations? There seems to be almost no information on the Amtrak site. THANKS!!!!

Thank you

Your videos are great! Do you know which routes have the Viewfinder II sleeping cars. Thanks.

Would like measurements on lower berth in a viewliner bedroom. Maybe big enough for 2.

Thanks this was very helpful! I have one question tho - If you’re a solo traveler and buy a ticket for a roomette, will you be sharing with a stranger or do they assume you will be alone in the roomette?

On Superliber sleepers the disabled and family rooms are located on lower level. 1each at either end. In 1998 I traveled round trip from San Jose, CA - Klamath Falls, OR. Roomette reservation was double booked. Agent at K Falls got me refund and gave me family room for return. Also had nice ride in lower level roomette on another trip.

Thanks for all the info, it's been really helpful. I'm thinking about a trip from Chicago to California (Yellowstone national park). But it's a little confusing. I really need a restroom in my bedroom. Which train will I be riding on? The Superliner or something else? Do you have any advice? Please help a first timer, thanks.

I'm traveling solo in a roomette. Does one seat flip up so i can store a suitcase there while sitting in the other? I placed a bid on a bedroom for $150, so fingers crossed.

If you tend to be a walker, a little figitty, can you just walk up and down the train any time you want?

I'm supposed to go to Florida in June of 2023, and to be honest, I think I would prefer the Viewliner 2 Roomette. Which one is easier to get the Viewliner 1 or the Viewliner 2?

if you can book roomette and do the upgrade bidding thing to try to score a rooom for less. i did that for the auto train and loved it. i cant wait to ride in the new bedrooms though with more plugs.

Hi Guys Im really looking forward to getting a roomette for a trip from Philly to Florida! Having a toilet in the roomette is a priority however Amtrak has told me that they have no way of knowing if a Viewliner 1 or 2 will be scheduled the day of my travel! Have you ever asked this question to Amtrak when geting a roomette?

ty for that in fo's

I have been watching your channel for almost a year and I even enrolled in the Amtrak Guest Rewards program. We want to go see our granddaughter in Portland, Oregon in the near future by a train. Is it possible to book a roomette from Boston to Chicago(20 hrs) and purchase a bedroom the rest of the way on Empire Builder(40+ hrs)with a single booking?

Question: Do you know if Amtrak will be serving Turkey to their Thanksgiving passengers in the sleeper cars?

If someone travels alone in a bedroom or sleeper car do they have to pay double to have one of these rooms to themselves?

Thank you for these great videos. I seem to recollect that in one type of bedroom you get no bathroom. Is that correct?

When does Amtrak offer discounts? You mentioned the BOGO, is that discount offered at a certain time? I promised my daughter we would travel by train and this video was amazing thank you so much!

Is the cost of a roomette or a room “per space” or “per person”? That is, what would a person traveling alone need to pay?

What train allows the 2 rooms join together

As older adults,the idea of climbing onto an upper bed does not work for us. Could we each have our own roomette across from each other?

Would you get a room for a 12hr train ride?!? Going from Atlanta to New Orleans (9am-9pm train ride) and trying to decide if getting a room is actually worth it. Any input?!?

Guys, don’t have another wagon with view to share with others to use during the day?

Is the $1000.00 bedroom for one night or for your whole time your on the train?

GLT: Thank you for your videos. I'm a railfan, my wife is not, i'm pretty much fine with going anywhere by rail, and I'd love to do several "out west trips" we live somewhat close to Cincinnati Union Terminal. I'd be fine with a one or two night "overnight" but I don't want to disenfranchise my wife from further railtrips - any suggestions? Since we are both retired, most of time, we could afford a room as opposed to a roomette.

Is the cost you are talking about for 1 or 2 passengers? Do you pay the price for both of you or is it the cost for both? Thank you!

After we arrive in n.y.c can we get to Whitehall, n.y?

Keep in mind: the roommette is 3'6" wide by 6'6" long. No matter how you mix it, that's all the space you will get in a roomette.

I'm wondering if there are high and low seasons? Are there months I could travel to get the best rate?

Thanks for your videos. I instantly became a fan of your channel and how informative it is of the essentials of Amtrak travel. One thing I'm not sure if you covered: the luggage space above the hallway, at least for the Viewliner roomettes. Do the Superliner roomettes have over the hallway luggage space too?

Will they have a full menu in the dining car next year cause i am going home to Washington State? I get a bedroom

If you are in a Roomette, can you sit in a Coach seat during the day, or are you confined to the Roomette?

Thanks for the great information. I'm planning a big trip in 2025 for our 50th anniversary and gathering as much information as I can. And as I see you travel and listen to the Q & A I learn so much. Riding coach in December but may do a Roomette in May. My concern for a Roomette is that I like to keep my feet elevated a bit (just had both knees replaced this year) so I don't have swelling but the facing seats look pretty close together without room to do that. I know in the coach seats you can get your feet elevated so that was a plus for that accommodation. Thanks for the great videos!!

I don’t really comment but this video I couldn’t help but comment it was so great. I would love to take my granddaughter on Amtrak for the experience but I would have to have the bedroom and I can’t afford to do it but I hope her parents will take her before she gets much older. She’s 10 now. Do you think she would enjoy just going coach. We would go from Malvern Arkansas to Champagne Illinois. One way as family will bring us back to Arkansas. Amtrak is so hard to look up prices and try to figure out a trip. Do they have ppl that can do that for you. It’s very confusing or I’m just very old lol I tried calling but the lady wasnt understanding me or didn’t want to mess with me as I was trying to compare prices for different type rooms and different times of the year and days of the weeks and months get the picture lol This would be the last thing I would prob ever be able to do with her so I wish someone could help me figure out if I could afford to do it with her. This video really answered several questions for me. I love y’all videos. My granddaughter and I watch them together whenever she’s at my home. Love you two guys.

I'm staying in a Roomette on the Coast Starlight in May. I can't wait! I understand Traditional Dinning is back and I am so looking forward to that service being brought back after the Covid changes. Another plus of the Roomette or Deluxe Room is you can take your mask off in your private room and in Coach or Business class seats you have to wear a mask for the duration of the trip, except when eating or drinking.

Are the accessible bedrooms on the bottom?

When booking on Amtrak is it per person. So if ticket price is 700....then it's 700 per person? And which roommate has toliet.......i don't think I want the ones that would...rather one without.

Useful tips! Do you all typically hear loud conversation or people playing music in roomettes next to you?

Interesting videos. Thanks. I have never travelled an Amtrak long distance train but I have been on the Auto Train many times. In the roommets I have been in the sinks have the pesky lever type faucets that spurt out water. Also if you book a bedroom on the Auto Train try to avoid the “A” bedroom. It is located directly over the wheel trucks and is at the end where the cars join. As a result it is smaller than the other bedrooms and not as comfortable especially when the beds are lowered. I asked the room attendant if it was smaller and he confirmed that it was. And apparently Amtrak does not discount this room nor do they warn about the smaller space. If cruise lines can advise of an obstructed view Amtrak should do the same for “comprised” accommodations. IMHO.

I am new to your videos but I am going to start watching you more. I am blessed with six sisters and two sister-in-law’s who travel together every year. Three years ago we all took Amtrak from Ottumwa, Iowa to Denver, Colorado… it was a blast. After watching your video I guess we traveled coach because I know we slept sitting upright although the chairs did slant downward much like a recliner and the thing that surprised me as I told you when you had to go to bed… “All lights out “, and that was very hard for me because I’m a bit of a night owl! But I asked one of the stewards if there was someplace I could go as I was having a hard time getting to sleep and she said oh yes go upstairs to the upper level and there are lots of people up there two talk and sing and play cards or whatever and that’s what I did on the upper deck. Especially when they stop and pick up other people and many of them are traveling at night and they bring their musical instruments and their famous people that travel that way and don’t want to be recognized but they practice your music upstairs… at one point in fact, the engineer himself came upstairs while I was up there. My sister and I both went on the upper deck and played cards for several hours and we had a nice time with the people upstairs and there were multiple musicians and we gave her a word not to tell anyone who else was up there as far as famous people but it was so much fun. Something that you did not mention that we discovered and we were told we could use was large handicapped bathroom/showers four times bigger than what you showed on our Amtrak train. No I don’t know what type of Amtrak train we road on; I know that if we wanted to eat in the dining hall we had to order in advance and since we were going to be getting on and off in the same day basically ... if my memory serves me correctly, less than 24 hours and we boarded in the afternoon and arrived early morning in Denver we just had the one evening meal and we stopped in Omaha and we bought our meal there because we had a bit of a layover and they had great gift shops there in that Omaha depot… I could’ve spent a whole day or two just shopping the marvelous gift shops surrounding that depot plus all the great food and ample tables for the entire crowd of people that came in. Again we play cards while we waited for the train to load again. We also took plenty of snacks should anyone get hungry so that was never an issue for us on the train, whereas you were traveling for longer periods of time. I did take a prepackaged airplane neck pillow that was inflatable and a blanket with me that was very compact and I was very glad I did. We had been told that we had to where our bags measure our bags before boarding and none of that was true!! We were also told we had to carry on luggage on and therefore not bring anything that we could not handle ourselves. That part was true as well at least at the Ottumwa site/depot. But after that, we had the nicest train station attendants Who not only helped us load our luggage but made sure that we all were able to sit together in a compartment despite what our ticket said. They remembered us coming back and going and enjoyed us to be sure that they saved an area for us on our return trip. We tip them very well because of the extra effort they went to to see that we were able to sit closer together between Omaha and Denver and also on our return trip from Denver to Ottumwa and made it so we did NOT have to get off the train at Omaha like we did going out to Denver. Because we grew up in a large family of 12 children, many of the amenities that you talked about were not concerns of ours. We were used to living in close quarters and without extra growing up. I only had one sister it was “demanding”, so to speak, partly because of her size and also because she lives well off and travels more in a luxurious style…(spoiled), so she did not like the closeness of coach but she did love being able to get up and walk around and go to the upper deck while we were traveling especially that we had a great views out the long glass windows. We all like the fact that we could get from one town to the other very quickly and didn’t have to worry about driving on and sharing the driving in a larger SUV or rented van as we have done in the past years…. I have been considering taking an Amtrak trip again soon especially to see parts of the US that I would like to go to by myself but also to return to Colorado to see my older sister who I’m very close to. I appreciate your video because you have brought a lot of things to my mind that I will need to consider on my next trip. Thank you so much and keep making your great videos. I like to travel whether it’s myself or vicariously through someone else😊♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

I’ve been looking into Amtrak but geez, it’s over $1000 for 2 people round trip from Atlanta to New Orleans in a bedroom. Crazy.

Do you have really hot water in the shower

How about the Bedroom on the Empire Builder??

What room would work if we have a 1 year old.

when are you on live?

I would love to take my grandson that's 13 on a 2/3 day train trip SSSOOOOO BAD, but I'm BBBRRROKE how can I get the best deal? I'm a new subby and I want to say THANK YOU for coming across my timeline! My grandson n I always talk about it n I told him HOPEFULLY before I leave this earth ima find away. Can u give us some ways we can get the best accommodations with the least amount of $? 🙏😁👍👍. #PEACEBLESSINGSLOVESTRENGTH&CHEERS #CITYOFBROTHERLYLOVE&SISTALYEFFECTION

Is the bedroom upstairs or downstairs on train