Luggage and Amtrak

[ekeberg]

Can you carry your own luggage on the train from Seattle to Vancouver or does it have to be checked? Do they weigh bags like the airlines do?

 

Lynn

[Budget Queen]

No they don't weigh bags, but why do you want your bags with you?? You have limited OVERHEAD space. (you going to lift all those bags??) Baggage check is simple, you turn left as you enter the station. Fill out a tag and hand the bag to the porter and they load it on the baggage car.

 

In Vancouver, the bags are off loaded for you and you walk over and pick it up, then continue into the station.

 

They fill every seat, this train always sells out. Plenty of single passengers do this train so most always no empty seats.

[Kylie]

They did weigh our bags last summer and were very strict about the weight - 50 lbs. A friend of ours was given boxes to move some of his clothes into to get the bags under the limit. He had driven to Seattle so hadn't weighed the luggage before getting to the Amtrack station. Otherwise it is easy to check bags and retrieve them after the trip.

[cruisergrandma]

We too had bags weighed and some in our party had to remove items and repack others to get under their 50lb. limit. They are VERY strict about this. We each took our carry on with us and checked everything else as normal.

[Budget Queen]

Thanks for the weighing clairfication. They did not weight any of our bags

5-06 trip.

[ekeberg]

Thanks for the information.

 

We are taking the train from San Diego to LA on business class then we board

another train for Seattle where we are in a sleepette. We are due to arrive in Seattle at 8:45 pm and we have already booked a hotel for that night, but we have been told the train from LA to Seattle is very late 90% of the time.

We then board Amtrak again in the early morning for Vancouver and have business class seats again.

We are trying to take only one suitcase each and one small carry on so we can cart our luggage. I have read that you should take your luggage on the train from LA to Seattle and they put it on racks outside the sleeper cars, but I was not sure for the shorter train trips.

We will really have to pack smart for this trip since we will be gone a total of 11 days.

 

Lynn

[Cruisechick82]

They also weighed our bags, we had 2 suitcases, a duffle bag and we each had a small carry-on.

 

Try to sit near the booths by the doors when you are waiting at the Seattle station. That is where they had out the seating assignments. When we were there they had 2 lines, one for coach and one for business class. Try to get in line quickly and ask for waterside seats. They asked for our birth certificates/passports at this point too.

If you are planning on eating in the dining car try to get on the list quickly as it filled up for us and some people had to wait well over an hour to get in.