Roomette: Left side as you enter
Looking straight into the roomette
Right side
First of all, you have to imagine the “economy bedroom” on Amtrak Superliner cars. The seats are wide and quite roomy, but that is all there is in the roomette, two seats that face each other, window on one side, door to hallway on the other. If we both sit straight upright, our knees touch. If we want to stretch out, we have to adjust feet and legs to stay out of each others’ way. The whole thing is just over six feet front to back and maybe 3-1/2 feet side to side. Very cozy for two.
Now at night, the two seats slide together and lie flat to form the lower bunk. The upper folds out from the wall above. It’s quite narrow. If I lie on my side with knees pulled up, my butt’s against the back wall and my knees actually hang off the edge. It’s also not very high. If I lie on my back I can bend my knees but there is no room to sit up. This led to interesting contortions when trying to put my pants on this morning.
But wait, let’s go back to actually getting into the thing last night.
Roomette info on Amtrak’s website
Scroll down to “Virtual bedrooms” and click on day and night views to see what the roomette looks like. Warning: objects are much, much smaller than they appear.
There are these two little steps next to the rear-facing seat that provide access to the upper bunk. So when the bunk is folded down from the wall, you climb up the steps, aim your butt in and sort of roll into the space. Then you realize that the blankets are folded tightly under the yoga mat mattress and you’re lying on top of them with no way to pull them loose, so you roll legs back out, carefully find the upper step with your foot, and lower yourself to the floor. Untuck the blankets and sheet. Climb the steps, aim your butt in and roll into the berth. Wiggle out of jeans and fold them, find a place near your head to put them. There is, I’m happy to say, a little net hammock for personal items and a pocket on the wall for your eyeglasses. Thoughtful and well-laid out. So everything is stowed away, I’m under the blanket, and all is good until I needed to turn onto my tummy, which is how I usually sleep.
As I noted above, when I’m on my side my butt’s against the wall and my knees are hanging off, which means that turning over is a delicate, inch-by-inch process. Turn a bit, ooch back until butt’s against wall again, turn some more, ooch back, etc. Now I’m on my stomach and I realize there is one major problem: my feet are jammed uncomfortably against the wall at the bottom and one is turned at an angle that is going to cause major pain in short order. I maange to ooch upwards to give my toes some breathing room, but then I have a problem with the arm I usually put under the pillow. Eventually, though, I find a happy medium that gives me just enough room as long as I don’t breathe too deeply.
Then I realize I forgot to hook the safety harness.
Five minutes later, after I have carefully ooched my way round to my back, I find and hook one end, only to realize there is no frickin’ way I can even reach the other hook. I’ll just have to remember not to roll over in my sleep and hope that the train doesn’t jolt sideways during the night. Five more minutes of turning and careful positioning, and I’m back in sleeping position.
Now my arm’s gone to sleep.
Sigh.
Eventually, though, I do sleep. I’m aware of the train making several station stops during the night, but they don’t really keep me awake. Once I got comfortable, the rocking motion was actually quite soothing. I could have used a light blanket, but otherwise I was fine.
Morning. Time to get up, put on my jeans and go across to the bathroom to finish getting dressed. Since I can’t sit up in the upper bunk and the lower one takes up the whole width of the roomette, I have to unfold my pants, lie on one side, slide one foot in, then the other. Pull jeans up to knees. Roll sideways, aim toward the upper step, and try to get one foot down without tripping over the pants legs. Manage that, get both feet on second step so I can at least straighten knees completely while bent over at the waist, get pants pulled up and zipped, reach down and slide roomette door open, step down over bottom bunk into hallway. (Robert has slept through all of this and is still out like a light.)
The bathroom is incredibly tiny but at least there is room enough to stand up straight. I can finish putting on my unmentionables and get my jeans straightened and zipped properly. Robert, who didn’t ever undress at all, just needs to put his shoes on and he’s ready to go to breakfast. When we get back, the beds have been made up and the seats are back to normal.
Thus endeth the first night on the train.
Stay tuned for our next major adventure: Shower on the train!
