19 August 2012 / leggypeggy

Spectacular train ride—at a bargain and with a workspace

Canada, seniors, The Canadian, Toronto, train, Vancouver

Poor John peeking down the carriage

Almost everyone we met in Canada raved about The Canadian—the train that connects Toronto and Vancouver. Not one of them had been on it, but they all knew it was a breathtakingly scenic, not-to-be-missed, once-in-a-lifetime journey.

So we booked it. Actually I dragged the chain and we nearly missed out.

Poor John saw a great online deal for a sleeper cabin for two from Vancouver to Toronto. The last-minute bargain price was just under $900 each, with all meals included—the usual fare is $2100-plus per person.

But I couldn’t make up my mind about a departure date. By the time I did, the option was sold out. Oops!

Time to go into recovery mode. What about Toronto to Vancouver instead? I picked a random date and, yes, there were four single cabins left. So I clicked on ‘book now’.

I breezed through the questions, and ticked the box that indicated we were seniors. Bang, the price dropped by almost a third to $581.10 each (including tax). That put a stop to any wavering about the date. I booked immediately and here we are now—sitting on the train.

My chair folds down into a single bed—like a Murphy bed.

We boarded last night about 10, and were soon settled in cabins 4 and 5 in Car 119. The car has four double cabins, three sets of curtained bunks and eight single cabins (with four at floor level and four up a couple of steps). That must be how they manage the pull-out and fold-down beds. Poor John’s cabin is across the aisle from mine and at floor level. Our cabins are just over a metre wide and about an arm span long, plus the bed space.

Long before we boarded, we were asked to choose a meal schedule. Thank goodness we got to the station 90 minutes early because we managed to get the popular middle timeslots—12:20pm and 7:20pm rather than much, much earlier or much, much later.

Breakfast is open slather between 6:30–8:30am. Never expected to see so many people up by 7am. We were pleasantly surprised by the calibre of the meal—tomato, cheese and bacon omelet, with hash browns, toast or muffins, juice and coffee or tea.

Lunch was even more impressive. I had salmon and turbot with salad.

My workspace—the upholstered lid of the in-cabin toilet. Don’t flush while in the station, or when the computer is on top.

They like to keep us busy. I could have taken the napkin-folding course this afternoon, but I’m holding out for the beer tasting. Dinner is in a couple of hours.

Rather doubt that my waistline will survive four days of this.

I hope to post several items about the journey. No idea when they will actually appear. There’s no internet in remote Ontario. Info about the train promised wifi, but apparently that only happens on a single well-travelled and populated route between Quebec City and Windsor.

Never mind. I’ll cope, even if I have to resort to napkin-folding. 🙂

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