Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad - Garibaldi Station — Attraction in Garibaldi

Warning This will be long. "It is there last run of the season" The train ride... Great train ride. From the scruffy look of the Conductor and "Vintage" look of the cars, even the diesel engine we had was fun. Though we were looking forward to the steam engine. It was fun. The tracks are solid, not a rickety ride. But if you're not good on a boat, the sway might get ya. We did do the dinner train so we were seated at tables. A bit close to each other but roomy enough for a big guy. We did sit on the east side of the train but had great views of the ocean and wet lands on the west. The crew seemed in good nature, real nice. There are glasses of water as you seat. With a cheese board, ours included grapes, two types of crackers, baguette slices, French, and whole wheat. Two cheeses,(not Tillamook) sliced sharp white cheddar, and medium cheddar. Both had "dried" out a bit. But hey, we were on a cattered trip. I get it. There is a drink menu sitting there. Wine-$5.00 Beer-$5.00 Hard Seltzer -$5.00 and sparkling waters -$5.00. All served in the same glass style as the water. Wine, they had 3 to choose from. Convenient Store specials for sure. Domestics for beer. Not good ones, either Heineken was the best listed. The Hard Seltzer selection, if you are into that, seemed good. Though they didn't have the Dark Cherry. (We asked) We did get a complimentary can of Sprite.

Once again, I have to mention the serving crew. Top notch, great peeps. Good peeps. Real pros.

OK, the dread. The meal. There was for out ride a choice of three meals. Tri Tip with steamed Yukon Gold potato and vegetable. Chicken Alfrdo, Seafood pasta. I had the Tri Tip. My wife, the Chicken Alfredo. Mistake 1, we did the meal train. Like I've said already. The train ride was fun. I want to do it again. Mistake 2, we ate the meal. So, no, I did not get I'll from anything we ate. Surprising. The "Meal" wasn't fit for inmates on a deserted island. Mistake 3, we opened our mouths when we were being skipped when the plates were being delivered. We got our plates. Pictures to follow. The Grey scaled piece of meat that died on my plate, the lone foil wrapped Yukon, the sadness that was the frozen corn. On the same 10" plate was served the meals salad course. It was a Spinach layer, with sliced strawberry crumbled feta cheese and a red vinagrette. Had potential. But missed. In the worst way. My wife's pasta dish.. DANG!! Chicken? Alfredo? the pasta dish was the saddest dish I've ever seen served. We honestly had to search for the chicken. There were 3- 1 inch pieces hidden in the pile of over done, sauceless pasta. You'll notice the dried clump in the photos. The sadness of both these dishes can not be overlooked. In my opinion this meal rates low enough that McDonald's would be preferable as a meal choice. As we later tried to get DQ to help with our lack for dinner this eve. I just can't forgive anything about the meal. Absolutely the worse thing i have ever consumed. We are truly suprised that this is allowed to happen. That a cattered tourist attraction even considered these plates to be served to customers. The menu is a good menu. The choices offered are great selections. Im sure that the chef had every intention for a memorable meal. Just not the memory we are taking with us. The dried out, over cooked, dead slab of roast they called Tri Tip. The canned chicken, the from a jar Alfredo hinted sauce, and over cooked, dry, pasta is a total fail. So badly done I won't admit in public I ventured to eat. We did eat, the cost of the experience dictated that I do. Not a cheap venture, especiallyfor us. Now I have skipped over a bit of an issue we experienced thru the the ride. Being in the car with the restroom we endured the odor of sewage that wafts thru the train car from time to time. There is no way around it. We'll, there is actually, the window in the restroom should be opened and the vent made to vent up out of the car on top. The oder went away when the train went in reverse back to Garibaldi. Once again. The crew, a great...

I want to be honest because I got more information from the reviews than I did on the website and I was still pretty letdown by this ride. I don't want to leave them a bad review either. They were super kind and I loved the history teacher who was narrating part of the trip. I just hope this helps someone else.

We did the "Fall Splendor" yesterday and it's not their fault that the leaves hadn't changed yet on the route but the title was very misleading. We did this because it was our first time living in a place with fall colors and we did not see even a little bit of that on this ride. The drive from Portland to the coast was magnificent and much more lovely than the train ride. The ride is just a view of the coast. Based on the photos and everything (There is no way the photo used to sell the tickets on their website was actually part of this ride), we assumed this train would go to a more secluded area and show you things you can't see on your own. But really, it was a very very very slow ride past some apartments and motels, a high school, camp grounds with lots of rvs, and much of it was right on the edge of a parallel road. I read the poor reviews and thought maybe people were just picky but I'm very sad to say that this was so boring. We just wanted it to end and it was not worth the 2 hour drive out there. It was very misleading.

I also don't know why people mentioned stops because we had none. It was 50 minutes one way, then we reversed the same way we came, and we didn't get out until it was over. There are bathrooms before you get on the train, but no bathrooms on it and we had no stops.

The narrator was a sweet ex-history teacher. He had to do his spiel back to back to back on each of the 3 cars. So the narration doesn't happen the entire time, just for maybe 20 minutes of it.

If you want to take your chances anyway like we did, you might like it! We did the historic fully covered car which was neat and comfortable. We were in seats 49 & 50 which had the coastal views. The other side of the train had the high...

NOTE: The drop off and pick up of these trains is NOT in Garibaldi at this time-as stated on the website-you actually have to drive out to Rockaway Beach to catch the trains! Apparently, in Garibaldi-they are doing construction in the area the company operates! Be sure to read the instructions on your confirmation, not from the website or Google. That being said, it was a delightful afternoon! The staff are friendly and helpful. If you don't want to be around a lot of little kids, during better weather, you should definitely opt to buy tickets for the covered car. Most kids and families want to in the uncovered and open cars, so the covered cars are mostly adults and quiet(er). The last car has the comfy seats and tables-and we enjoyed the trip so much! You can bring drinks and snacks aboard but there is no restroom on the train and it's a 45 min ride to Wheeler, the stop that has (1) public bathroom for use. There are plenty of public restrooms in Rockaway, as well as shops to buys snacks and drinks, before you depart. Parking is also plentiful in Rockaway-just be sure to read the signs for allowable time to park. The ride is fun! The clickety-clack of the wheels on the rails, the beautiful scenery and large windows made for a great time. At Wheeler, you get 30-40 mins to browse the few shops there, wait to use the restroom and take pictures. The step up to the cars is a bit high/steep and there are no accommodations for wheelchairs or passengers with other mobility issues. But, they offer stepstools and assistance as much as they can. The open air and uncovered cars feature one of the staff giving an audible history of the areas the train goes through. The only not enjoyable part of the trip was when one of the staff got on a portable wireless speaker and did some LOUD announcements for some of the rider's birthdays. Very cringy and unnecessary. We would definitely do another Oregon Coast Scenic...