SoCal

Only time I've taken a sleeper on Amtrak in the past few years was when my wife and I took the Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland, Oregon. The station in Chicago had a special lounge where sleeper car passengrs could wait. Does anyone know if there's a similar lounge at the station in Portland? I'm taking the Coast Starlight fron Portland to L.A. in March. I'm overseas now, hence I'm not just phoning. Thanks!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

According to the current Amtrak timetable, Portland Union Station has a Metropolitan Lounge.

Rare

Yes, there is a Metropolitan Lounge in Portland! It's fairly small, but quite nice. It's located on the track side of the station. If you're standing in the main waiting room, walk toward the tracks; just before you would exit the station to board a train, there's a door on your right to the lounge.

Upon entering, there is a desk on one side where an agent/attendant normally sits. If the procedure is the same as the last time I had the opportunity to use the lounge (five years ago), they will have a manifest for the trains leaving that day. They will ask your name and check it against their manifest. (I don't remember if they ask to see your ticket, and that may have changed anyway.)

There is a refrigerator with bottled water, juice, and (I think) soda, and hot coffee. Nice furniture, windows, private restrooms, a place to leave your luggage. When it's time to board your train, there is an exit directly from the lounge to the tracks, so you don't have to go out through the main waiting room.

For me, it's one of the highlights of taking the train from Portland! ^

AlanB

How does one keep coffee hot in a refrigerator?

kspeed55

If I am remembering correctly, the lounge is more “old style” as far as lighting fixtures, higher ceilings, woodwork, etc. which makes it interesting. I think it has a wall of windows looking out onto the tracks.

SoCal

Thanks for the info. Any idea how long you can leave bags there (e.g., for a few hours while I walk around downtown)? I'd be there in the afternoon,so maybe ice coffee would be good.

chuljin

One doesn't have to, because there were two 'and's:
There is [a refrigerator with [bottled water] [juice] and [soda]] and [hot coffee].
He actually did it right, carefully avoiding one of my advertising pet peeves:

'Amtrak can get you there quicker, safer, cheaper, and often has onboard wifi'
which means:
Amtrak can get you there quicker
Amtrak can get you there safer
Amtrak can get you there cheaper
Amtrak can get you there often has onboard wifi

Should be
'Amtrak can get you there quicker, safer, and cheaper, and often has onboard wifi'

darben

Native English speaker I presume and you stayed awake in school.

Rare

My memory is a little fuzzy on exactly where the bags were. I think there was a sort of walk-in closet, but we were some of the last passengers to arrive, the closet was already full, and we set our bags next to it in the small hallway leading to the tracks. In any case, I don't think there would be a problem arriving early, leaving your bags, and walking around downtown for a few hours. I'd just tell the attendant what I was doing. In fact, that sounds like a great idea; the times I've been there, we arrived less than an hour before the train departed, so didn't have time to do much except walk around the station.

Yep. Here's a trip report with pictures, another one, and a few more pictures.

In a well-insulated container?

Thanks for sticking up for me.

Membership has its rewards.

kspeed55

That is what we did. I seem to remember that there is a room just inside the entrance to the lounge where we stored our baggage.

gatelouse

WOW. And I thought my command of the English language was beyond reproach.

I would have probably copped out and used a semicolon, perhaps incorrectly. As in: the Met lounge welcomes sleeper passengers for the northbound Starlight, southbound Starlight, eastbound Builder; and the occasional S+ cardholder even though they're technically not entitled.

GoAmtrak

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9650; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.1+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.431 Mobile Safari/534.1+)

S+ are definitely entitled to access all station lounges systemwide. Or am I missing some tongue-in-cheek humor here?

gatelouse

Certainly some humor intended (I try), but I thought the S+ lounge access perk only applied to ClubAcela lounges in the NEC. Many years ago when AGR was fairly new, I presented a S+ card at the Portland lounge; the agent had no idea what it was, suggested this might be a NEC-only perk, but decided to let me in anyway as a courtesy.

Would love to have an official source to confirm that S+ cards are also good at Met lounges. Would these lounges accept the single-day ClubAcela coupons as well?

AlanB

Here you go:

Select Plus Benefits.

trainman74

Since we've already been parsing the English language in this thread: that statement only mentions access for family members or a guest -- it doesn't say that the S+ cardholder himself or herself is entitled to access.