Amtrak Crescent Roomette Review: Overnight Train to New Orleans

Traveling in a sleeper car overnight on an Amtrak train is a unique USA travel experience. If you’re wondering what it’s like, this post is for you.

Read on for our Amtrak Crescent train review, sleeper car roomette tour, and everything you need to know about riding the overnight train to New Orleans from the East Coast.

Our Trip: Amtrak from Philadelphia to New Orleans

We caught the Crescent train in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where we also got to use their Metropolitan Lounge (more on that below), on a Friday afternoon in October 2023. The ride was 30 hours, and we arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana by 9p.m. on Saturday night.

Take a tour of our roomette via our Amtrak Crescent train roomette review video…

This was our third overnight Amtrak trip in a roomette, all booked with Amtrak points. (See our California Amtrak overnight train review here)

About the Amtrak Crescent Train

Why take the Amtrak Crescent?

We took Amtrak from Philadelphia to New Orleans, but the Crescent train actually originates in New York. If you ride form start to finish, you’d actually pass through 12 States.

The Crescent connects many East Coast cities, including NYC, Washington DC, Baltimore, Charlotte to those in the South, like Atlanta and Birmingham. 

The train passes famous landmarks, like the U.S. capital building, as well as small towns, lakes, rivers, and many peaceful wooded areas, including the Talladega National Forest in Alabama.

The Amtrak Crescent train numbers are #19 going Southbound to New Orleans and #20 going Northbound to New York.

Sunrise in Georgia on the Amtrak Crescent train
If you’ve never done an overnight Amtrak ride, some of the key benefits compared to taking a flight include:

• Fewer carbon emissions
• Slower pace and better scenery
• More space and ability to walk around on the train
• Meals included in the room price
• Lie-flat bed in the room

In addition to spending time in your sleeper room, you can also access other parts of the train like the Cafe Car, pictured below.

In addition to the Café Car, the Crescent train also has several sleeper cars, first class seats, coach class cars, and a baggage car.

Accommodations on the Amtrak Crescent

Upper and lower roomette bunk beds in the Crescent train sleeper car

I’ll start our Amtrak Crescent review with the bedroom options, since this is a sleeper train and the room is where we spend most of our time on an overnight Amtrak trip.

The Crescent train has “Viewliner” Sleeping Cars, which means they’re all on a single level. 

Bedroom options on the Crescent train include:

• Roomettes – fits up to 2 people with bunk beds, fold up sink and toilet, shared shower in the car
• Bedrooms – fits up to 2 people with bunk beds; in-room sink, toilet, and shower; more spacious

When booking a room on Amtrak.com, make sure to select the number of passengers in your search. When booking for two people, the price will be displayed per room, which includes the fare and all meals for both passengers.

When traveling solo, Amtrak won’t book another passenger in your room. 

You can get a sense of the price difference between roomette vs bedroom in the example above. There is no option to select a room number, they are automatically assigned upon booking.

Amtrak Crescent Roomette Review

Is it worth it to get a roomette on Amtrak?

To make the most of our Amtrak points, we found the roomette to be the best value for an overnight trip. Sure, we would love to have more space in one of the full bedrooms, but we personally couldn’t justify the increased cost (and we didn’t have enough points).

Depending on your budget, a much cheaper alternative is to ride in a Coach or First Class seat overnight and bring your own meals.

What does a roomette get you on Amtrak Crescent?

• A private compartment with two seats that convert to bunk beds at night
• Sliding doors that lock from the inside and privacy curtains
• Hot meals with several choices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner 
• One complimentary alcoholic drink with dinners
• Complimentary water bottles and drink station in the car
• New bedding, pillows, towels, soap, and hangers
• Access to a restroom and shared shower in the same car
• A big picture window
• A fold-down sink
• Power outlets
• Fold-down table
• Air con controls
• 1 personal and 2 carry on items per person
• Overhead storage of up to 2 suitcases in the room and a smaller space below seats
• Optional checked bags: 2 suitcases up to 50 lbs and 75 linear inches each
• First Class attendant to assist with luggage, bed transition, etc.
• Amtrak Lounge access at major stations – see below for lounge review of Metropolitan Lounge in Philadelphia

Wifi is available on the train. We tested the internet speed in Wilmington and got 2.5 Mbps download, 1.5 Mbps upload. The wifi can drop as the train goes out of range. You can check email and websites, but we would not rely on the Amtrak wifi for working remotely or taking video calls.

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Below are photos from our Amtrak Crescent roomette, plus the shower room and drink station in our car:

The interior did seem worn and scuffed but sanitary. The buttons and nobs appeared a nostalgic, several decades old.

I had read somewhere that updated sleeper cars had decor and furnishings in maroon color, whereas older models were in blue. The curtains and seats on our car were blue, however, there was another car in maroon – we just didn’t get a close look at it.

Presumably, not all of the roomette cars necessarily have their own in-room toilets. Instead, there would be a shared restroom on the sleeper car for roomette passengers. This was the case on our California ride.  

We were surprised to find toilets inside our roomette on the Crescent train. It was hidden under a linoleum cover, which doubled as a low countertop or a step when climbing into the upper bunk. The toilet flushed with a button, and toilet paper was provided in a cubby next to a hidden trash compartment.

Crescent Roomette Sleep Experience

The roomette’s two seats, which face each other, pull out and flatten into a platform for the lower bed. The upper bunk bed pulls down on a track.

The car attendant can help set up the bunk beds and bedding for you after dinner and put it back in the morning, but Jedd decided to do it himself.

You can watch the roomette transformation from seating area to bunk beds in our review video above.

Neither of us slept well, but we didn’t expect to. We’re both light sleepers.

The rocking of the train could have been soothing if the movement was more consistent. The ride often felt bumpy and I found myself awake several times, even when we weren’t stopping at a station in the night.

We also found that the upper bunk was a bit harder, as there’s no seat cushion underneath the mattress. We thought the room temperature was fine, maybe around 72 Fahrenheit, without using the thermostat.

I was a little worried that the conductor announcements would continue for each stop throughout the night. We could lower announcement volume in our room, but not turn it off. Fortunately, the final announcement over the speaker was at 10pm and we didn’t hear from the conductor again until 7am.

Even despite some down sides, I’d much prefer sleeping in the roomette over a red eye flight. At least we got to lay down!

Amtrak Crescent Bedroom, First Class, and Coach

Although the focus of this post is on our Amtrak Crescent Roomette review, we did explore the rest of the train a little to check out the other bedroom and seat options.

Above is a photo of a wheelchair accessible bedroom with the beds made, which was very spacious. A door to the private restroom with shower was around the corner on the left.

Below is a standard sleeper bedroom in its original arrangement. You can see the upper bunk is stored above. The private bathroom with shower is behind the sink on the right.

Beyond the Cafe Car are the train cars for First/Business Class and Coach. There are no middle seats, though some rows do face each other.

My understanding was that the Coach cars were often fairly full, as these seats are cheaper and commonly used by passengers doing shorter journeys along the Crescent route. 

Food on the Amtrak Crescent Train

We boarded around 4pm and our attendant immediately took our meal orders for dinner that night as well as breakfast the next day. She said otherwise she’d need to wake us at 5:30am to take the breakfast order.

The next day, we put in our orders for both lunch and dinner. We passed through a time zone in the morning, so we ended up getting lunch closer to 1pm East Coast time (12pm Central).

Here’s the official Amtrak meal timetable:

Breakfast: Available 6:30 – 10am; board by 9:30am
Lunch: Available 11:30am – 3pm; board by 2:30pm
Dinner: Available: 5:00 – 9:30pm; board by 8:30pm

The menu was the same for our entire journey, so we had the same five options for lunch and both dinners.

The breakfast options were pancakes, omelette, or continental breakfast. It was a little confusing, as the continental listed 5 additional options but it didn’t seem like we could choose more than one.

So we both went with the breakfast sandwich and tea.

The lunch/dinner entrees all came with a side salad, bread roll, and dessert. However, at dinners, we could each add one of the alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, or spirits) to our meal for free.

We tried the Beef Burgundy with mashed potatoes, BBQ Glazed Salmon with rice, and Chicken Parmesan with linguine noodles. Honestly, everything was tasty but only the cake was amazing.

Since the pandemic I believe, Amtrak has moved away from serving sleeper car passengers in a dining car (our train didn’t have a dining car at all). On the Crescent train, they did “Flexible Dining” which means they package everything up and deliver it in a to go bag, like room service.

The meals came in microwave-style plates sealed with plastic. Alcohol came in single-serving bottles with plastic wine glasses. The utensils looked shiny like silverware but they were plastic.

I wish there wasn’t so much wasteful single-use packaging, and the food appearance left something to be desired. But again, everything tasted good. For what it was, we enjoyed the meals.

The Amtrak Crescent Schedule and Checking Train Status

I had difficulty finding a scheduled route guide online for the Amtrak Crescent train. I did find this 2022 downloadable Amtrak Crescent timetable, which still seemed accurate for the New Orleans route.

There’s also a webpage where Amtrak tracks all the trains in real time: https://www.amtrak.com/track-your-train.html. Below is a screenshot I took of the map when we were in Atlanta – you can see the blue arrow on our route that represents the train location.

Apart from a few pauses where we had to let a freight train go by, we stayed fairly close to being on time the entire route. In fact, we arrived to New Orleans a little early.

The Amtrak Crescent stops

With 33 stops across 12 States, the Crescent train can connect you to many destinations along the East and Southeast. See the full list by clicking to open the map on the Amtrak Crescent page.

In New Orleans, you can transfer to the Sunset Limited, which goes to Los Angeles via Texas or the City of New Orleans train, which goes to Chicago. Several stations like Alexandria and DC can connect you to the Cardinal train line, which connects Chicago and New York through the Shenandoah Valley.

New Orleans station at 9pm

Amtrak Crescent fresh air stops

We enjoyed stepping of the train whenever possible, but there were just a few opportunities for fresh air stops on the Crescent route. 

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Washington DC Stop

Our first and longest stretch break was Washington DC.

Before arriving, the conductor made an announcement that they would be a changing from electric to diesel in DC, so power would be down temporarily and the Cafe Car would be closed during the stop. They also announced we’d be departing promptly at 6:30pm, allowing 30 minutes to stretch legs or take a smoke break.

Our attendant, Latrice, recommended ordering dinner before DC, as many more guests would be arriving and ordering. We had plenty of time to eat in our roomette before that first rest stop at 6pm.

We ran up the escalator and through beautiful D.C. Union Station. Just out front is Columbus Circle with a memorial fountain and Union Station Bell where you can see the dome of Capitol building.

I had originally intended to speed-walk further into the park toward the capitol, but since it took 3-4 minutes just to exit the station, we played it safe. We took some photos and then returned to the station, which is very beautiful.

Being October, the sun set and the sky got dark as we departed DC. We could see the capitol dome and Washington monument lit up, then crossed the Potomac River.

Atlanta Georgia stop

A mile from Atlanta, we paused to let a long freight train pass, so we did arrive a little late, around 9am.

There isn’t really anywhere to go, but we were welcome to walk alongside the train in the Atlanta station. Typically the Atlanta stop is about 25 minutes. There was no given departure time, as it was dependent on roughly 100 people getting off then new passengers boarding the train.

Our attendant made sure we knew that we could get back on the train wherever there’s a uniformed staff person. It’s important to board as soon as the signal is given. We left Atlanta at 9:18am.

Birmingham Alabama stop

Upon arriving in Birmingham, the conductor announced it would be our last stretch/smoke break of the ride and instructed everyone to stay train-side.

The Birmingham stop was roughly 10-15 minutes. There’s not much view of town except a handful of interesting buildings. We departed Birmingham around 12pm (1pm Eastern time), and lunch was dropped off shortly after.

Cost of Amtrak Crescent Roomettes

For our roomette and two passengers from Philadelphia to New Orleans in October, we paid 24,389 Amtrak points. We also earned a 5% rebate of 1,219 points through our Amtrak credit card benefits.

We booked several months in advance, and I noticed as the dates got nearer that the prices had gone up. Like flights, the prices are dynamic. Better deals may be found by booking well ahead.

Doing a quick search for Spring 2024 (4 months from the time of this writing), as an example, the Crescent roomette costs $740 for two people from New York to New Orleans. A bedroom is basically double that cost.

If you compare this to flights for two people on the same date, the lowest fare is $214 x 2 = $428. So the difference is about $312, but don’t forget to factor in the cost of a hotel room and 4 meals. 

Amtrak Metropolitan Lounge in Philadelphia Review

As mentioned, Amtrak lounge access is included for overnight sleeper car passengers. Note that not every station has a lounge.

For the Philadelphia Metropolitan lounge, we didn’t see signs from inside the main hall, but we were directed to the “Red Cap” people which did have a big sign on one pillar in the main hall. They lead you to an elevator for access to the lounge and instructed us to check in when we entered.

We showed our sleeper car ticket and were told that someone would come get us at 3:40pm (15 minutes before departure).

The first thing we noticed in the lounge was the excessive heat, but otherwise it was pleasant.

The Metropolitan Lounge has a refreshments station with packaged snacks like beef jerky, chips, fruit bars, pretzels, nuts, and Kind bars. (I read that there would be Tasty Cakes but not this time.) There were refrigerated mini water bottles, La Croix, and soda as well as a coffee machine with hot chocolate and tea options.

The lounge covers a long hall with several seating areas, tables, and counters looking out over the station. A couple desks with printing and computers were set up for business activities. Bathrooms with two stalls were available.

There is a mini “conference room” for 6-8 people with windows separating it from the rest of the lounge space. However, there’s no ceiling on the conference room so sound carries in and out.

On Friday afternoon, the lounge was fairly quiet with just a handful of people until it got closer to our Crescent train arrival. Train departure announcements were made on an intercom and displayed on a screen.

We made the mistake of leaving as soon as we heard our train announcement. Other passengers waited for the Red Cap person and were escorted down the elevator directly onto our train platform.

Amtrak Crescent Roomette Review: Is It Worth It?

If you’re taking an overnight train to New Orleans, I think the Crescent roomette is worth for some extra comfort, privacy, and convenience of having meals prepared for you.

As we calculated above, the cost of flights, meals, and hotel for two people is comparable to the roomette price. However, the train takes 10 times longer than a direct flight (3 hours vs. 30 hours).

I hope you found our Amtrak Crescent roomette review informative and helpful. Let us know in the comments if you have anything to add or any questions we might be able to answer about our experience.

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