Napa Valley Wine Train

Reviews 3

MI

Michael Booth

A very nice experience. Staff were all very nice and helpful. Ventured to the gift shop before the train and picked up some wine, nice selection of gifts here and reasonably priced wine. Bring it on board the train and pay a $15 corkage fee. Bottles on the train were $50 up. There was an introduction speech then off to the train we went. One group by one taking photos. Then onto the train. The train is very nice and antique. We opted for the dome train with the curved windows then at the end you will have a quick tour of the train. The other cars were just as nice so you cannot go wrong. All tours are on the same train and there are different stops and different train cars depending upon which package you bought. Food and service was good. They expect a $15 per person tip at the end. In my opinion, and train car is sufficient. The merlot lounge car has the seats facing out one by one with a nice view outward of the vineyards and the Pullman car has 2 top and 4 top tables. The dome car has lower ceilings as this one is double decker (the others are single deck) so the dome car is the upper deck and the 2 top tables were a bit crammed. Not sure how it would be with 4 people on the 4 top. We were 2 people on a 4 top table which was a good experience. Otherwise I would recommend the other cars. Onto the packages, they are complex and a lot. So you basically have 3 options. 1. 1.5 hours on train + Vineyard tour + bus back 2. 3 hours on train (lunch package / no Vineyard tour) 3. 3+ hours on the train (3 hours on the train plus 4 stops to 4 different vineyards) Personally I wouldnt do any of the vineyard tours. Its simply too expensive. AND you have to forfeit time on the train. 1.5 hours on the train is too rushed. Then you have to take a bus. Kind of defeats the purpose. If you want to do vineyards and the train then do the Quattro package train + 4 vineyards. If you dont need to do the vineyards then take the lunch package for 3 hours which gives you sufficient time on the train. Keep in mind you can visit these vineyards yourself. Most of them have walk in availability and the fees are typically $20-25 and more if you want premium options. The vineyard was extremely sales oriented and commercial. A big put off. The tours dont even tell you which grapes they use. So weird? I thought the grape type for every wine is crucial. Plus the wine is very expensive. The train was expensive but if I had to recommend it to friends and family it would be the basic lunch package at $166 or the Quattro. Definitely dont do the vineyard tour with the 1.5 hour train experience.

CH

Chris Farmer

My wife and I rode the train this past weekend. I wasnt exactly sure what to expect going in to it but was disappointed to realize the train essentially parallels the main highway. Up the road for 10-12 miles. Stop. Switch the engine to the other end and drive back on same path. The "sites" arent really anything you cant see from driving your own vehicle. The allure comes from the Pullman cars used and the nostalgic atmosphere. The lunch meal was good but several issues marred the experience for us. First of all, there was a mix up in scheduling. The train tried to blame our lodging that scheduled the trip, but the train staff are in fact to blame. Turns out there were two people with the same name on the train (this was their explanation). The "other" me called and tried to add a couple to their reservation and somehow in doing so, they cancelled my reservation. When we checked in, they reinstated the reservation after some confusion on their part. Upon boarding, we were seated in one of the appetizer cars right next to the drink/bar station. The staff seemed overwhelmed and disjointed. One of the servers poured our "complimentary" glass of champagne (paid for in price of trip). The bottle ran out during my pour with literally an inch of liquid in the glass and the server said she would be back with more. She never returned. I assume she forgot because everyone was so busy, but she walked past our table at least 10 times getting everyone elses drinks. I let the glass sit hoping she would notice but she never returned. In fact, no one returned. None of the servers checked on us for 40 minutes. 40. Just before leaving the car for the dining car, one of them asked if we needed anything to drink. We figured water (which we hadnt even gotten at that point) was plenty challenging for them at that point. During those 40 minutes we got the listen to the bartender complain about the trains driver. "Who is driving today? Because they suck!" Direct quote. There were numerous other examples of distracting and detracting behavior. Once we moved to the dining car it did get better but our impression had already been created. The food was good, the waiter good, but we really just wanted to get back to the station and go exploring on our own at that point. We both agreed there is no reason to ever ride the train again even if the experience had been outstanding. Too touristy even for a tourist. Perhaps the dome car would be a better atmosphere but I can only comment on our particular trip.

A

A Private User

This was going to be a happy 21sr birthday event. What better way to celebratet but to go on the Napa Valley wine train. We booked two for lunch and indicated that this was to be a birthday celebration. Our confirmation email from the also confirmed that the "special occasion" was a "birthday." Not only the entire trip was mismanaged and left much to be desired, but the birthday treatment was a big disappointment. At the end of a very ordinary and disappointing meal we watched servers carry candle and treat to several guests in our cabin. We waited for our turn then asked our server if we were getting a birthday treat.. Our waitress came back with a little fudge without any candle, put it in front of the birthday girl and walked away without acknowledging the special occasion or wishing happy birthday as was done to other guests. We felt disappointed. We asked for our server and asked why would there be no candle on our table. She said, "We dont do that for everyone" and just walked away. We felt really let down at this point and requested to speak to the manager as another server walked by. Several minutes letter our server came to the table and said, "I am sorry that I did not bring any candle" and left. Still no candle. So we stopped another server and asked to speak to the manager. No manager, but the server came back several minutes later and put a lit-up candle on the table and left. So we stopped another server and asked to speak to the manager. Finally after several minutes someone came and said she was the manager. She asked what happened. We explained. She said that not bringing a lit-up candle with birthday treat and not wishing happy-birthday was just a conicidence. The fact is that there were about 5-6 birthday event in our car and each and every one got a lit-up candle and a very cheerful happy birthday wish from the server. Not so in our case. Folks for $100/person you can go to a top-notch restaurant in San Francisco bay area. There are world class restaurants in town that would love to have your business and give you a decent birthday event. Napa Valley wine train has no respect for you if you are not white. For a state like California where minorities are almost a majority, the train staff is all white with the exception of a busboy.

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