Leaving:
Wed, October 7, 2015
Wed, October 7, 2015
Wed, October 7, 2015
Coming home:
Wed, October 14, 2015
Wed, October 14, 2015
Thu, October 15, 2015
11 Coast Starlight
(PDX
- RDD)
Depart 2:25pm
Arrive in Redding 2:21am [Friday]
1 Adult, 1 Child, 1 Infant $306.00 round trip
Reservation number 6C8A13
I'm writing this blog to document my experience for the police report, as well as share my experience and advice to anyone considering using the train to travel with their little ones.
Depart 2:25pm
Arrive in Redding 2:21am [Friday]
1 Adult, 1 Child, 1 Infant $306.00 round trip
Reservation number 6C8A13
I'm writing this blog to document my experience for the police report, as well as share my experience and advice to anyone considering using the train to travel with their little ones.
I boarded in Redding Oct. 7th at around 3:35am. I had two babies, two car seats, two carry on bags, and two suitcases. I special ordered my ticket so that I would have special assistance getting on and off the trains with all my stuff. They were very helpful getting on the train. The first train was rather uneventful, but a few things to note:
1. The bathrooms are extremely tiny. Im 5'2" and when I sat on the toilet my knees hit the door. It was nearly impossible to bring my two kids in there and beg my 3 year old to use the potty. Its like a portapotty, it's loud, and disgusting, and smelly. I could see how uncomfortable it was for him, so I put him in a diaper for the trip. They had a changing table in the bathroom, but it folded out over the toilet, was about half the size of a normal changing table, and again...this bathroom was disgusting. They had no soap, so I recommend bringing hand sanitizer.
2. The announcements on the train are very loud. They woke my kids up at every stop. They have "quiet time" from 11pm to 7am. We boarded at almost 4am, and just when my kids were finally sound to sleep they clicked on all the lights on the train at 7am and said "GOOOOOOD MORNING AMTRACK GUESTS! IT'S WAKE UP TIME HERE...BLAH BLAH BLAH, something about food, the lounge car, when they will take breaks..." and at every stop they made a long and loud announcement. Which of course is just part of it, I just didn't consider this when traveling with my young infant who sleeps often. Also, the doors connecting the train cars are being opened and closed almost constantly and are also very loud.
3. The seats are almost unbearably uncomfortable. I am someone who has spent a lot of her life sleeping on floors, recliners, the ground, etc...and I've never hurt so badly as when I slept on the amtrack. When I got to my parents I noticed bruises on both sides of my legs from the seats, and they do not supply pillows or blankets anymore so definitely bring your own. They do have sleeper cars, but I was not going to pay over $1000 for us three to sleep in it. I would have bought plane tickets at that price.
4. Meals are difficult to understand. They go around and ask if you want a reservation to go sit a picnic type table down stairs, but if your kids are asleep, they wont bring the meals to your seat. One man said I could, but then never returned to help me. So they have a snack bar with a decent amount of options, but it's over priced, quite a walk from your seat, and they close often for breaks. Definitely bring your own snacks. Also, trash cans are difficult to find on the train.
1. The bathrooms are extremely tiny. Im 5'2" and when I sat on the toilet my knees hit the door. It was nearly impossible to bring my two kids in there and beg my 3 year old to use the potty. Its like a portapotty, it's loud, and disgusting, and smelly. I could see how uncomfortable it was for him, so I put him in a diaper for the trip. They had a changing table in the bathroom, but it folded out over the toilet, was about half the size of a normal changing table, and again...this bathroom was disgusting. They had no soap, so I recommend bringing hand sanitizer.
2. The announcements on the train are very loud. They woke my kids up at every stop. They have "quiet time" from 11pm to 7am. We boarded at almost 4am, and just when my kids were finally sound to sleep they clicked on all the lights on the train at 7am and said "GOOOOOOD MORNING AMTRACK GUESTS! IT'S WAKE UP TIME HERE...BLAH BLAH BLAH, something about food, the lounge car, when they will take breaks..." and at every stop they made a long and loud announcement. Which of course is just part of it, I just didn't consider this when traveling with my young infant who sleeps often. Also, the doors connecting the train cars are being opened and closed almost constantly and are also very loud.
3. The seats are almost unbearably uncomfortable. I am someone who has spent a lot of her life sleeping on floors, recliners, the ground, etc...and I've never hurt so badly as when I slept on the amtrack. When I got to my parents I noticed bruises on both sides of my legs from the seats, and they do not supply pillows or blankets anymore so definitely bring your own. They do have sleeper cars, but I was not going to pay over $1000 for us three to sleep in it. I would have bought plane tickets at that price.
4. Meals are difficult to understand. They go around and ask if you want a reservation to go sit a picnic type table down stairs, but if your kids are asleep, they wont bring the meals to your seat. One man said I could, but then never returned to help me. So they have a snack bar with a decent amount of options, but it's over priced, quite a walk from your seat, and they close often for breaks. Definitely bring your own snacks. Also, trash cans are difficult to find on the train.
But overall, we didn't have too much trouble...we saw some amazing scenery and met some really awesome people. My lay over that time was only 2.5 hours and we met a nice lady who helped entertain my kids and watch my bags so I could use the bathroom. My kids were crabby, as expected, and we didn't receive too many dirty looks! However, if you've never ridden the train before, it's hard to navigate where to go, but there was always a person to help me, but honestly if felt like coincidence that they were there to help me to the train station. So don't count on this help. Everything at the station seems hectic and rushed and when you have as much stuff with you as I did and two grumpy kids, you feel like a major nuisance.
So I spent a week in Idaho and the whole time my poor kid was so traumatized from the toilets on the train that he really struggled during the trip, so for our trip back home I decided to make sure I had enough diapers for both kids. I wasn't going to make him use a bathroom he was uncomfortable in, of course. After I packed up my stuff and headed out the door for the train station, about 10-15 minutes from my parents house, I got a text from Amtrack saying that the train was a half hour late. I was grateful for the text, but I was supposed to depart at 11:45 and I was already tired, but I suppose a half hour wasn't going to kill us. We drove there and and I got another text saying the train would be another 40 minutes...that's over an hour late. Thank God I didn't take a taxi there, or I would have been stuck in the cold and dark with sketchy people. There was a tiny train station that had a few chairs and one bathroom, but no way would I have sat in there by myself with two babies. Nope. Finally the train got there and I boarded and there was a person to help me on the train. Again, I get my kids to sleep and of course they wake us up at 7am...leaving my kids grouchy the rest of the trip...but that's life. We arrived in Portland at 10am. We had a 4.5 hour layover this time. I was nervous about this all week, and even considered having my husband just pick us up in Portland and drive home, but we decided against it last minute. Oh how I regret that now.
When we got off the train the man who helped us last week was driving by and he said "I remember you from last time! Let me help you!" He grabbed my bags, put them on his cart, and drove us to the train station. He said he would keep my baggage in a certain area and then as soon as the train was there he would put it on the train for us, that way I didn't have to carry all this stuff around with me in the station. I said "Great, let me just grab this back pack and you can take the rest!" I grabbed one back pack that I was sure had snacks, diapers, and wipes in it. I didn't think I needed anything else. Tucker and Forest were pretty bored in the station, but the cafe was open so I grabbed us some breakfast and coffee and tried to wait it out. The station had some crayons and color pages and Tucker went to work. When I was sitting there around 11:30am, Forest had a seizure. He has a seizure disorder so it wasn't a huge deal, but I had to turn on my phone that had limited battery [I lost part of my charger while boarding one of the trains so I couldn't charge my phone this time] to call my husband to have him call the pediatrician. He got all the info and down and told me he ordered a pizza to the train station for me and it should be there an hour and a half from that point, so about 1pm. So we went outside and waited. and waited. I made friends with a lady who was waiting on the same train and she was helping me entertain the kids. About 12:30, still no pizza, Tucker tells me he has to poop. I said "ok, let's go to the potty" he gave me that 'hell no' look and I knew this was going to be tough. I said "ok you're in a diaper, but if you poop in the diaper we still need to go to the bathroom and change you on the floor, so do you want to use the diaper or the potty?" then he started running to the bathroom. When we got in there he started crying not wanting to poop on the potty or his diaper. So I bribed him with a train tshirt from the gift shop to be brave and to sit on the potty. [the automatic flushing is not fun for 3 year olds]. I pulled down his pants and saw he already pooped a little bit in the diaper...I set him on the toilet and he pooped a little more and then told me he was done. My mommy poop detective skills knew he wasn't, but wiped him and got him down. I went to get him a new diaper and saw that I had grabbed the wrong bag and I didn't have any more diapers or wipes and they had already put my bags outside. So I cleaned him up and told him to be extra careful about having an accident because he didn't have undies or a diaper or any changes of clothes, but he assured me he was good until we got on the train. We went back outside to wait for the pizza guy. At 1:30 tucker said "mom, I pooped my pants". I almost cried. I strapped Forest back up on my back, asked the lady I had made friends with to look after my bag and wait for the pizza guy. I had to carry him all the way around the train station and back into the bathroom. I pulled down his pants and it was from his waist to his ankles and on his shoes. The toilet paper was more like tissue paper and was sticking to him, not cleaning, and disintegrated in the water. By this point we had 10 minutes to board our train. So I took his socks, wet them down, and wiped him off with it. There were no paper towels in the bathroom, just automatic dryers. So I took his pants, socks and shoes, and poured soap on them and began hand washing [literally hand washing] them in the sink. They were sweat pants and were heavy fabric, so it was tough to get them really clean. The drain was just a metal circle with small holes for draining. Every time the sink filled up with poop chunks, I had to scoop it out with my hand and fling it into the toilet. About that time, my phone fell into the sink, and I knew that was the last time I'd use that phone. I, as fast as I could, got these pants and shoes as squeezed out as I could and then tried the automatic dryer to dry them. They were soaked but we were out of time. I got him dressed, ran back out to our friend to get our bag. My poor baby was freezing in his wet clothes, and the pizza that was promised to him never showed, but we ran back and found the helpful man just in time.
He had all of our stuff waiting by the train for us. I thought I'd take a few minutes, as everyone was getting off our train, to find him some dry clothes, but as soon as I bent down into the bag I spotted a strange man with a blue guitar approaching us. I still had Forest on my back and he was sleeping. The man walked up to me and I grabbed Tucker's hand. He said "what a pretty baby" as he touched Forest's head. Usually I'm a pretty passive person, but this time I sternly said "do not touch him please, he is asleep" with a look on my face like "are you stupid?" hoping he'd take my hint to leave me alone. Instead of leaving me alone he instead reached for Tucker and twirled his hand in his hair and said "what a pretty little girl, I want to touch her hair." I pulled Tucker behind my leg and I felt him squeeze me in fear and I angrily yelled at the man "STOP TOUCHING MY CHILDREN!" He had an angry look on his face, then reached for Tucker and said "take my hand, come with me little girl, come this way" as he grabbed his hand and was trying to pull him away from me. I then yelled "Stop taking my son! Go away! Goooo!" and was hoping someone around me would hear me. I was shaking and the man then got a terrified look on his face and ran back on to the train he came off of, the one I was about to board. Then the helpful man came back to retrieve my luggage and I was short of breath and told him "that man with the blue guitar right there just tried to take my kids!" He said "that is not ok, I will address that and handle the issue."
At this point I just wanted to call my husband, but of course my phone was just not going to turn on for me. I got on the train and was still shaking from the experience. I knew I couldn't leave the kids at all to get food or use the bathroom now. I got Tucker changed into warm clothes and finally got him settled to sleep. Forest fell asleep and I decided I needed some rest. I started to doze off and then I got this weird feeling. Light were off so everyone was supposed to be in their seats, but the man with the blue guitar was standing between me and my dinner tray. He was staring at me eating soup. I lost my breath and just stared in the silence until he walked away. I then got up and walked to the lady sitting behind me. "That man with the soup...was he standing by me for long?" "you don't know him? I thought maybe he was your husband? He was by you for a few minutes" "no, I don't know him, he tried to take my kids from me in Portland!" "I will help you keep an eye out for him"
Terrified I didn't sleep, and didn't come across anyone on the train that had the time to help me...they were just running everywhere.
The porters on this train just seemed really unhelpful. First off, when I did finally grab some snack from the snack bar, while a nice lady helped watch Tucker for me, I had a terrible experience with the man running the snack bar. First off, he was to return from his break at :15, and he wasn't there until :27...which is a long time when you have a stranger watching your toddler. He finally opened and I grabbed some food and grabbed my credit card out. I wanted to use that since it is hooked up to my amtrack rewards, and I wanted the points for the food I purchased. I had used this card the whole trip with no issues. When the man grabbed my card and he said "the sign out side says ID is required" in a very condescending voice, as if I was a child. I rolled my eyes and handed him my ID. He then said "the names don't match"..."yes, that's my maiden name" "then why did you even hand me your ID? The whole point of an ID is to match the names" "Well this card has been doing me just fine on all your other trains" "well people run red lights too, I suppose you'd want me to break that law too for you?" Oh My God. I almost snapped this dude's neck. I get it...it's his job...but seriously...asshole. If only he knew the day I had, the last thing I needed was his lecture. I then paid with my debit card which for some reason took a while on his machine, and he implied I must not have any money on the card...This guy seriously needs to attend a common courtesy class.
I got my food, and got it back to my seat, where I heard some chaos between some workers and a Russian lady in front of me. There's two sides to every story of course...but from what I understand she missed her stop in Eugene because she thought they would come and get her, and she didn't understand the announcement. Maybe it was her fault, maybe not, but she was clearly in distress, there were no more trains or buses going from Klamath Falls to Eugene for the night, and she had no more money and no cell phone and no one to call. She needed to get back to her very sick husband and he would be worried about her. They spoke to her in a very stern and annoyed voice. They just kept repeating to her "we made several announcements and we were stopped for 15 minutes, it's your responsibility to get off the train, now you need to make a plan of what you will do." They were so unhelpful [except kind Hulo...shout out to Hulo...best porter on that train that night!] that all the passengers on the train were brain storming ideas for her and trying to get cell reception to call a cab for her, which she did not even have money for and was going to cost her about $400. I was just disappointed in how rude they were to her, when she was clearly so stressed. She was from a country with a much better train station so you can imagine her confusion and distress. I understand the train workers can't take care of everyone, but really a little more compassion would have helped calm the situation.
They came and woke me up a few moments before our train stopped, and this time he didn't offer to help me to get my belongings together. I had less than 10 minutes to pack my stuff, get one kid on my back, wake another one up and carry him, two carry on bags, and blankets. Needless to say I left trash everywhere...I really didn't have time to clean it. I walked us down the stairs and getting baggage off was a little hectic, but by this point I didn't even care, I was just happy to be done with Amtrack. So that was my experience. And maybe I just caught them on a bad week and just had a stream of bad luck, but I have never felt so stressed and unsafe, so I will not be riding the train in the future without my husband.
So here is a list of pros, cons, and tips if you DO decide to bring kids on the train.
They have outlets to charge devices, so bring a tablet, phone, dvd player, ds, whatever. They don't have any music or tvs, so you need to supply your own entertainment.
Meals are confusing and over priced [$13 hamburger??] and not great quality, so bring your own snacks. Sandwiches, cereal bars, dried fruit, etc.,... You should be covered on drinks there [coffee, water, soda, juice, and redbull are all available, as well as beer, wine, and everything inbetween] so you dont need to pack heavy drinks.
You NEED a pillow. I only brought blankets and I was miserable.
Bring warm and comfortable shoes. Sounds silly, but just trust me.
Bring hand sanitizer or baby wipes.
Bring a grocery bag for your trash, so you can just throw it all away as you are exiting. They make many announcements complaining of trash, but don't make it easy on you to clean up.
It does cost about the same as driving...they are fair priced, and you can walk around, however, having kids makes you feel like you're ruining everyone else's trip. You also have to rely on people you don't know to do their job, and well, like anywhere, there are people who are incompetent, making it stressful to rely on strangers to deal with you luggage and children.
You can call ahead and ask their operator any questions you have. They are easier than trying to navigate their website, so don't hesitate to utilize the phone number to feel prepared.
Lastly, you don't know who is wearing wet poopy pants and sitting your seat before you...pretty gross, but poop happens.
