What a difference
The Rocky Mountaineer
Power adjustable: reclining seats that do not intrude on the passenger behind, leg rests, lumbar cushion, heated seat cushions, USB and AC plugs, functional tray tables, coat rack, and an unparalleled view of the outside world. And that is upstairs. PURE COMFORT!
The Equipment
- Two locomotives
- Two generator cars for house power
- Four Double decked Gold Leaf coaches each with…
- Seating for 72 passengers
- Four car attentive attendants
- Two service managers
- One car maintenance tech
- One chef
- Free bar
- Dining room with seating for 36 passengers
- Two large restroom one is wheelchair accessible
- Outdoor vestibule
- Elevator
- Interior circular stairway
- The several single deck Silver Leaf Coaches lack the dining room and meals are served in the passenger’s seat. I don’t know about other amenities.
Services
- Free transportation to and from hotel
- All luggage checked
- Hotel in Kamloops included (luggage waiting in room)
- Technically only two meals are provided, but there is a continuous flow of drinks a snacks during the day. I could not stuff in another meal.
The onboard routine
- Leaving the hotel as
- Park bags just inside the room door
- Proceed to the lobby and board the bus
- On board
- Find your assigned seat and settle in
- Announcements are made as the train gets underway
- Coffee, tea, and pastries are served in your seat
- Those in seats 1 – 36 retire downstairs for breakfast
- As they are eating seats 37 – 72 are offered drinks
- When the dining room has been cleared and reset, seats 37 – 32 retire to the dining room and seats 1 -36 are offered drinks in addition to the ones they had with breakfast
- When each group returns to their they are offered savory or sweet snacks.
- The routine is repeated for lunch
- As all this is going on there is an informal contest for spotting game (mostly black bears) and spectacular scenery. Frequent calls ring through the air like “bear on the right”, “great Mountain View 3 o’clock high”, in an amazing variety of accents. Passengers are swapping hints on getting good shots from a moving train, and commiserating with one another over the tree that jumped up to spoil the shot.
Thus endeth the first day
I won’t attempt to describe all of today’s images, but you can see them in today’s images
Today’s images
