I Spent 53 Hours on a Train

From September 23, 2022 to September 25, 2022, my husband and I spent our time on the Amtrak California Zephyr. This train took us from Chicago, IL to Emeryville, CA which is just outside of San Francisco.

We learned about this train from my childhood friend and her husband, who took this same train but from Emeryville to Chicago. They really enjoyed their long journey and recommended that we try it as well. So in early 2022, we decided to do and booked our trip for the end of September. At first, we wanted to get the bedroom which has a private bathroom but it was about $2,200 which was way more than the $1,200 roomette. Sure, we didn’t have our own bathroom but felt a private bathroom isn’t worth an additional thousand dollars.

Potential Cancellations

A week before our departure, there was danger that our trip wasn’t going to happen. On September 12, 2022, news came out that the freight train union were planning on striking due to working conditions. Amtrak employees weren’t the ones on strike but Amtrak trains, and especially the California Zephyr, runs on tracks managed by the freight train employees. If they were going on strike, Amtrak wouldn’t be able to run. However, on September 15, 2022, the union agreed not to strike meaning that our trip was a still a go!

The First Delay

Our departure was supposed to be on September 23, 2022 at 2:00PM CST. I worked that morning and clocked out at noon which would give us plenty of time to get to Union Station in Chicago. I met up with my husband after clocking out and we stepped into Union Station for the first time ever. We found the Amtrak lounge and waited there for a bit. Thirty minutes before we were supposed to depart, an announcement informed us that our departure was going to delayed for about 2 hours due to mechanical issues. We later learned one of the cars had to be replaced. The two hours went by and we still didn’t depart but after another 30 minutes, we were finally boarding and departed at 5:00PM CST, a total of 3 hours delay.

The Roomette

For our trip, we booked a roomette, a small room that holds 2 passengers facing each other. We had Room 4 which was located on the second floor. For myself and my husband, we were able to sit in there comfortably, as well as keep two backpacks in the room. We had a rolling luggage that we stored in the luggage storage on the first floor. There was also a table that we can pull out and stow away easily. There was also plenty of privacy as the room has a sliding door that locks from the inside as well privacy curtains. We mostly kept the sliding door closed so that the music and videos we listen to doesn’t bother our neighbors.

At night the roomette turns into bunk beds. The bottom bunk was slightly smaller than a twin and the top bunk was thinner than the bottom. However, my 6 foot tall husband was able to sleep on the top bunk comfortably. I will say on the first night, sleeping on the top bunk was rough. We were speeding through Nebraska and with the train being top heavy, I moved around a lot. Luckily, the bed has a strap that prevents you from falling.

Each sleeping car has their own dedicated car attendant who basically assisted us with anything. He was with us the entire ride too. Our attendant converted our roomette to a bunk bed and back. He also delivered meals to your room should you decide to eat there instead of the dining car. He kept the bathrooms clean and stocked as well. We actually tipped him before we departed as we knew he would be taking care of us for the next 2 and a half days.

The Bathrooms

Because we had a roomette, we shared bathrooms and showers with other passengers who also had a roomette. There was an issue with our car’s bathrooms unfortunately. Someone had flushed something and backed up our toilets. So we had to go the other sleeping car to use the bathroom. Luckily, there were plenty of bathrooms that I didn’t have to wait at all when needing to use it.

The only time I waited was for our car’s shower room. We woke up really early to try to be the first ones to use it that day. My husband got in first and another lady waited for him to finish. When I finished brushing my teeth, I grabbed an extra change of clothes from the roomette and noticed my husband had finished showering and the lady waiting had already gone in. No one else was in line and I only waited about 5 minutes for my turn. The shower room wasn’t too bad. There was a curtained off area for the shower and a changing area to dry off and change. It was also stocked with lots of clean towels. The water heated up pretty quick for me, but my husband said it took awhile for him. Maybe it was because he was the first to use it that day.

The Food

Included with the price of a sleeping car room, you are provided breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast starts at 6:30AM, lunch at 12:00PM and dinner started at 5:00PM. For dinner, you have to reserve a time with the dining room attendant who will come to each room asking what time you wanted to eat. My husband and I planned out our meals beforehand so we can try to get as many different dishes as we can.

Meals are eaten at the dining car. You can request having a meal in your room as well. We only did this for our second dinner because we were exhausted and wanted to relax. Depending on how many people were in your party, you will most likely end up eating with other people. Since it was my husband and me, we typically ate with another duo. At first, our introverted side was taken aback by this but after being able to break the ice, we really enjoyed talking to different people from all walks of life. Many of them traveled a lot so it was fun listening to all the places they’ve been to and even recommended us their favorites.

Now, the food. We watched a lot of videos of the California Zephyr and everyone said how amazing the food is. I was a little skeptical but I was honestly blown away with how delicious it was! Here is everything we ate on board:

Day 1

• Dinner
  • Appetizer: Mexican souffle with grilled street corn; coconut crusted shrimp
  • Entree: Amtrak signature flat iron steak; Atlantic salmon
  • Dessert: chocolate toffee mousse; ultimate Meyer lemon cake

Day 2

• Breakfast: Breakfast quesadilla; scrambled eggs
• Lunch: natural angus burger; Monte cristo grilled sandwich; white chocolate blueberry cobbler cheesecake
• Dinner:
  • Appetizer: coconut crusted shrimp x2
  • Entree: panko chicken breast; rigatoni bolognese
  • Dessert: chocolate toffee mousse x2

Day 3

• Breakfast: Amtrak signature railroad French toast; three egg omelette
• Lunch: natural angus burger; Monte cristo grilled sandwich; chocolate toffee mousse; white chocolate blueberry cobbler cheesecake

Obviously there were a few things that we got multiple times and those I highly recommend getting. There were a few lunch items I wish I tried like the chili but I wasn’t sure if my stomach could handle it on the train. Overall the meals were delicious and we tipped the attendants every meal as well.

In addition to the dining room, there was also a cafe located on the first floor of the viewing car. The gentleman managing the cafe made entertaining announcements and was just a great guy all around. We would occasionally go down there to get a can or two of White Claws to drink while sitting in the viewing lounge.

I took photos of all the meals we ate which can be found on my food Instagram here.

Timeline of Our Journey

The majority of our first day was spent travelling westward in Illinois. West of the Chicagoland area was mostly rural which was totally new to me. The first view I wish I saw was the Mississippi River. Because of our delay, we got to the Mississippi River around 9:00PM so it was already dark out. I was really sad that I didn’t get to see it but I knew there were more things. We slept through most of Iowa and half of Nebraska. My husband said he woke up when we stopped in Lincoln, NE around 4:00AM.

As we sped through Nebraska, I saw parts of America’s countryside I’ve never seen before. I grew up in the Los Angeles area and now live in the Chicagoland area and seeing farmland was foreign to me. I got excited seeing the cows and other farm animals watch as our train went by.

Our next big stop was Denver, CO. We actually had to back into the station which was different but we were able to step outside for about 30 minutes while crew refueled and restocked the train. While they were doing that, we walked around for a bit to get fresh air.

After we left Denver, we went through the Rockies. The conductor made announcements throughout our journey, sharing notable sights to look out for. No words can explain how beautiful the Rockies are and I can only hope that whoever reads this makes their way over there one day. My favorite fresh air stop was in a little town in the Rockies called Glenwood Springs. Most of the people who got on the train in Denver actually got off at this stop. The town was so cute and we learned that there was a hot spring resort. One day we want to come back to that town. Our train went along side the Colorado River which was my absolute favorite. People fishing and kayaking on the river even started to moon us!

It was already night time when we stopped at the final town of Colorado, Grand Junction. We were fast asleep when we entered Utah. I felt the train stop and woke up to a view of a train station. I checked my map and saw that we were in Salt Lake City at around 3:00AM. I wanted to get up but was too tired and just fell back to sleep.

When I woke up, the sun was barely rising as we were already barreling through Nevada. I think we only stopped twice, one in a small town in the middle of the state and the other in Reno. We actually picked up quite a few coach passengers in Reno since most were going to Truckee, CA, which ended up being our next stop and the first stop of California.

After Truckee, we climbed the mountains of Tahoe National Forest. This was another leg of the journey that was absolutely gorgeous. Again, no words or pictures can do it justice, you just have to see it for yourself.

We finally came down the mountain and made it to Sacramento. A lot of people also got off this stop, even some of our friends who started the journey with us in Chicago. We had a few other stops after Sacramento but by around 5;00PM we finally saw San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay.

The Unexpected Delay

We were about a mile away from our final destination, Emeryville, when our train stopped. We were stopped for about a few minutes when an announcement was made. Apparently, someone had followed their GPS into the train track and was stuck. It would have taken awhile for the tow truck to pull out the car and for an engineer to check the tracks so we started backing up to switch to another track. After backing up another mile or so, we were stopped again. The engineer who was supposed to switch the track had to handle an issue where another Amtrak train was hit by car! After 45 minutes, we finally were able to switch tracks and by around 8:00PM, we finally arrived in Emeryville, CA, four hours after we were supposed to originally arrive.

Final Thoughts

Overall, we really enjoyed our time on the California Zephyr. From the moment our train departed, our vacation had started which made our trip feel longer than it really was. We saw parts of America that you don’t normally see. We met lots of different people we probably wouldn’t have met in normal circumstances. There were times on our journey where we didn’t have signal and there was no WIFI on the train so we were cut off from the rest of world as we watched the scenery fly by.

If you have the money and the time, I highly recommend taking this journey. Even if you don’t do the whole trip from Chicago to Emeryville, at least take half of the trip whether its between Chicago and Denver or Denver and Emeryville. Honestly, Denver to Emeryville was probably the best part. If you have any questions or need tips/recommendations, please feel free to comment below or email me at sheenamakescontent@gmail.com. If I get enough questions, I might make a follow up blog posts answering them!

But that is it for me! Thank you for taking the time to read this and I’ll see you all in the next post.