We've been trying to take a trip like this for years now. We actually booked a roomette from Chicago to Arizona several years ago, but the concierge at Chicago station failed to tell us our train had arrived, and then had left. Yes yes it's "our responsibility to know", but this was our first time, and there are no train arrival departure screens in the fancy high end waiting room they had us in. It was the employee's job to tell us when to leave.

We asked the staff several times, showed them our tickets, the whole works. They just said get your stuff ready and sit over there. So we did. Eventually, one of the several times I went back up and asked, they said "your train left, you missed it".

The whole thing was a debacle. The guy was incompetent. I can write up a whole story on it, but man, it really soured me on Amtrak.

We got refunded, but that was it. It took literal YEARS to get any extra compensation out of them for the horrendous treatment one particular employee gave us, and the last minute plane tickets we had to buy (we still had to get to Arizona).

Now we're using the voucher we got from that experience, to try again. And you better believe I'm gonna be watching that arrival time on my phone, like a hawk. And I'm gonna pester those workers, in a kind way, but I won't be forgotten again. I want to know exactly when the train is boarding, and I want to be there when it does.

Is there anything else I should know?

I've read to bring an extra blanket, and snacks, and drinks. Is that excessive? My SO does get cold, and snacky.

I plan to bring a power adapter for chargers, and some handheld gaming devices for when the views aren't amazing, or it's dark out.

I know not to trust the arrival time, so I'm gonna reserve a car rental at the airport in Sacramento for 24 hour pickup, and our hotel is prepared for late check in.

We plan to drive to calavera to the big tree park to look at Sequoias the whole day, then get dinner, and drive back to Sacramento the next day to catch a flight home.

The trip is really just an excuse to ride the train, and see the sights. But we can't take much more time off to do anything else in CA. We like nature and hiking so I think it'll be a good fit.