Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Rio Rancho, NM - USA
Programs: DL, UA, WN, Amtrak, Hyatt, Accor
Posts: 1,793
Regarding noisy passengers, especially children. I always ask for a roomette on the lower level, this sometimes puts me next door to the "family room," which has 4 bunks.
A few years ago I got on the train in L.A. and saw there were several children in the family room next to me. I was expecting the worst. Turns out it was a French-Canadian family who had just bicycled (including the 5-year-old) from San Francisco to L.A. They were on their way home.
The parents were in another room upstairs. To my great surprise the 4 children were extremely quiet, very polite, and I never heard ANYTHING from the adjacent room. I happened to look in the room the next morning (door was open) and it looked like an explosion in a toy factory, but the kids were practically silent for the entire trip. The parents came down a few times to check on them and asked me if they were making noise. This experience certainly gave me a great impression of French-Canadian kids.
I'm with everyone else on this thread, noise makers should be forced to move from any Quiet Car. That redcap certainly never should have put people with a crying baby in a Quiet Car. And the conductor was a wimp.