Seating on the Alaska railroad

[dickinson]

I remember reading on here that the seats were no longer with a table and four people with two being backwards. Well I’m on it now And the whole train has those tables. Because I can’t ride backwards and the other people we were seated with were not willing to switch (can’t blame them) we had to move to the snack car. Not bad but not a domed car and no commentary. 

 

Just wanted to let others know. Maybe Princess cars have everyone riding forward but no guarantees you get one. If you need to face forward maybe contacting Princess in advance would help. 

[cheeseclan]

Maybe things have changed.  When we went two years ago there were no tables at all in the domed observation car.  We all had forward facing seats.

 

the tables were downstairs in the dining section of the car.

[Colo Cruiser]

13 minutes ago, cheeseclan said:

Maybe things have changed.  When we went two years ago there were no tables at all in the domed observation car.  We all had forward facing seats.

 

the tables were downstairs in the dining section of the car.

Regular cars had seats facing each other and a table when ever we have taken the train.  🤔

They were not dining cars FWIW.

 

 

 

[Colo Cruiser]

42 minutes ago, dickinson said:

I remember reading on here that the seats were no longer with a table and four people with two being backwards. Well I’m on it now And the whole train has those tables. Because I can’t ride backwards and the other people we were seated with were not willing to switch (can’t blame them) we had to move to the snack car. Not bad but not a domed car and no commentary. 

 

Just wanted to let others know. Maybe Princess cars have everyone riding forward but no guarantees you get one. If you need to face forward maybe contacting Princess in advance would help. 

What train are you on in Alaska?

[cheeseclan]

Maybe ours was a different car since we were on a connoisseur tour.  But not sure that is the reason since the front half of the car was not on a connoisseur tour but a self guided tour.

[dickinson]

Going from McKinley Lodge to the ship. Alaska Railroad cars. Someone said Princess cars are two stories.  This train has none of those. The point is .... not all cars are individual seats as I thought because of some thread I read. 

 

BTW the few employees we interacted with were all very nice. The manager gave me a book about the train etc that they usually sell. I also have tons of leg room and space to keep my backpack. 

[Thrak]

Connoisseur tour this past May. Train from Fairbanks to Denali Lodge was all regular front-facing seats with domed viewing. Downstairs was the dining area and that had seats on either side of the table so some were forward-facing and some were rear-facing. They actually distributed pins for being on the Goldstar line/coach/whatever. (Another useless pin... I think my wife probably stuck it in her drawer with the Captain's Circle level pins.) It was definitely a comfy car with good bar service. They gave us each 2 "free" drinks.

[JF - retired RRT]

6 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Connoisseur tour this past May. Train from Fairbanks to Denali Lodge was all regular front-facing seats with domed viewing. Downstairs was the dining area and that had seats on either side of the table so some were forward-facing and some were rear-facing. They actually distributed pins for being on the Goldstar line/coach/whatever. (Another useless pin... I think my wife probably stuck it in her drawer with the Captain's Circle level pins.) It was definitely a comfy car with good bar service. They gave us each 2 "free" drinks.

We didn't do the Connoisseur tour and the seats in our car were all forward facing, no table.

BTW: the WC on the car was hold your breath disgusting. TMI?

[Thrak]

28 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

We didn't do the Connoisseur tour and the seats in our car were all forward facing, no table.

BTW: the WC on the car was hold your breath disgusting. TMI?

 

Ewwwwwwww..... We had clean and odor-free facilities.

[cheeseclan]

Our  WCs were also clean on our trip.

[marybrodo]

Wow, this is discouraging for me.  Princess raves about "luxurious" rail experience, so I never imagined that it could include backward seating.  I just called Princess and they were totally and completely dictatorial "it's first come, first served"... and they seemed to get kind of mad at me when I called it a scrum.  

 

So, does anyone here know: are there any ways to ensure that you can get to the train "early" and snag those precious forward facing seats?  Or, would appreciate comments about an experience, good or bad, riding backwards for nine hours.

 

Thank you in advance.  Also, thank you to the OP for letting me know what I might be in for.  At least I will be prepared.

[StephAndy]

I also remember reading that the Princess cars had been remodeled and were all forward facing upstairs with dining downstairs. DH gets motion sickness riding backwards on our local light rail cars for just 20 min. Sure hope we get lucky next summer and snag at least 1 forward-facing seat!

[lstone19]

The train used directly between Whittier and Talkeetna uses the Alaska RR cruise charter train (the other five days of the week, it's used for other cruise lines between Seward and Anchorage). As it makes the round-trip in a single day and there is no place to turn the train around in Talkeetna, it has a locomotive on each end and simply reverses at Talkeetna. So half the seats face each way.

 

The train used directly between Whittier and Denali uses Princess (and HAL) owned equipment. This equipment only goes one-way on a give day. When ending the day at Denali, the train continues north a little bit to Healy where the train is services and can be turned around for the next trip south (and likewise at Whittier, the train can be turned at the west end of the tunnel where the Whittier branch meets the mainline going to Seward). So seats can always be facing forward.

[jagoffee]

We were on the Denali to Whittier train, so all upstairs seats were facing forward and preassigned.  It was not first come,  first picking seats.  The dining car has one bench facing backwards.

We absolutely loved the very comfortable train ride.

[marybrodo]

LStone and Jagoffee, thank you for your comments.  We are taking the Whittier to Denali train, and it sounds like I should be more optimistic.  I appreciate your help, and will look forward to the trip!

[AZJerry]

On our Whittier to Denali trip several years ago we had the facing seats with a table in between. While we lucked out and got forward facing, our seatmates were absolute pills. Read books the entire way and had no interest in any inaction with anyone.

[dickinson]

I would suggest to anyone traveling from Talkeetna an Whittier that if you have a problem riding backwards to contact Princess about your issue. They assign the seats in advance. 

[geoherb]

I thought the assignment was to a table and not a specific seat. We lucked out and had a great couple that we shared a table with from Fairbanks to Denali on our cruise tour.

[JSandage]

We rode the Denali to Whittier train in May, we were in a beautiful domed car with all seats facing forward, plenty of leg room and dining below. We were in the first car right behind the engine. My only complaint is that they started seating for lunch from the back of the car so we didn't get lunch until almost 3:30. We could have ordered something delivered to our seats but wanted to wait for the dining room - our choice. 

 

 

[voljeep]

9 minutes ago, JSandage said:

We rode the Denali to Whittier train in May, we were in a beautiful domed car with all seats facing forward, plenty of leg room and dining below. We were in the first car right behind the engine. My only complaint is that they started seating for lunch from the back of the car so we didn't get lunch until almost 3:30. We could have ordered something delivered to our seats but wanted to wait for the dining room - our choice. 

 

 

ok, that looks much better than the 'old' way of facing others have posted

[dickinson]

The “old” way isn’t old. Alaska RR cars have the tables. They use them from Talkeetna to Whittier.  A five hour train ride. 

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, dickinson said:

The “old” way isn’t old. Alaska RR cars have the tables. They use them from Talkeetna to Whittier.  A five hour train ride. 

Yes. 👍

 

In our experience.......the dome car is a totally separate and different car with regular seats as noted in the photo versus the main cars with the tables. The dining car also has tables.

[voljeep]

14 hours ago, dickinson said:

The “old” way isn’t old. Alaska RR cars have the tables. They use them from Talkeetna to Whittier.  A five hour train ride. 

 

13 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Yes. 👍

 

In our experience.......the dome car is a totally separate and different car with regular seats as noted in the photo versus the main cars with the tables. The dining car also has tables.

so, how do you "know" for sure which setup you will have ... before boarding ?

 

does it depend on what 'type' of cruisetour ? - on your own vrs connoisseur

[jagoffee]

4 hours ago, voljeep said:

 

so, how do you "know" for sure which setup you will have ... before boarding ?

 

does it depend on what 'type' of cruisetour ? - on your own vrs connoisseur

The train that we had from Denali to Whittier had a wide mixture of passenger types.  All cars had the same forward facing dome cars.  (I know because I walked all the way to the back to the last car).  I wanted to experience the platform on the last train car.  An amazing experience.

[dickinson]

We were on a six day land tour. We could have chosen connoisseur but chose Denali Explorer. Started in Anchorage then on to Denali and from there Mt Mkinley lodge (it’s near Talkeetna ). We were bussed between lodges except took train from Mt McKinley lodge to the ship. Apparently that train, especially on a Saturday in case that makes a difference) was Alaska RR. All seats are preassigned. If you have problems contact Princess customer service in advance. I’m sure there is a special needs department.