There must be an easier way to make a living than this!
[music]
Hello! Right, apologies to those of you who have been lamenting the fact there
have been no campervan videos recently. Bear with us, this is the last railway
themed vlog until a long time, because we're going to head south today, and then
we'll be back up in Scotland and then we're off to the Hebrides in the
campervan, so stick with us. But for those of you interested, as you may have
guessed this is a trip on the Caledonian Sleeper. We are currently at
Inverness... you see a sign we're currently Inverness... but we're not getting this
sleeper, this is one of the old sleepers, one of the original stock. But the
sleeper from Inverness down to London takes 12 hours and I think that's too
long for Dougal, so we're going to get the regular train down to Glasgow and
then we're going to get the new sleeper train - the new stock -from Glasgow down to
London
[music and ambient train sounds]
I want to go on that one! I don't think we are though. Come on Dougs, let's go get
the next one.
[music]
Right so like I said you can get the sleeper direct from Inverness, but we've
chosen to break our journey in Glasgow. That means we can give Dougal a rest, and
then it's only seven and a half hours from Glasgow to London. So now we're
going to go and eat at the dog friendly Thirteenth Note, one of my favourite
places to eat in Glasgow, also does great vegetarian and vegan food as well as
being dog friendly. Then we're going to go to Glasgow Green - try and wear Dougal
out with a bit of ball chasing - and then we'll be off to Central Station and
taking the Caledonian sleeper!
[to Dougal] You know where we're going, don't you?
[ambient sounds + music]
[to Dougal] Come on Dougs!
Right so we're at Glasgow Central, and
what's interesting is that the train is not on the main departure board but if
you look... they will say 'Caledonian sleeper 23:40
sleeper to London Euston now boarding on platform 10' So from 10... let's go!
And this is really good to see, you've got a fresh water point right opposite
platform 10 where we're going to get the sleeper.
Nice one Network Rail!
[ambient sounds]
Right so we're all checked in.. we checked in at the ticket barrier. We have to pay
30 pounds for Dougal. So when you travel on the Caledonian sleeper with a dog you
have to have a cabin to yourself. Now fortunately with the new stock you can
have the standard class cabin solo, so we got a solo; that's one without
the shower and toilet. Or of course if there's two of you travelling and you're
sharing a cabin you can also have the dog, but you can't share a cabin with
someone you don't know with the dog, and also you can't travel with the dog in
the seated accommodation - you have to have a sleeping cabin if you want to
travel with the dog and it has to be only you or just your party in that
cabin. So the dog is a 30 pound cleaning supplement, and when we checked in we've
been told we've got to go to the Club Car and see Brian and pay our 30 pounds.
The interesting thing is I didn't think dogs were allowed in the club car and
you can't leave dogs unattended in the cabin.
So I don't quite know I'm meant to do but here's coach L...so coach L room number
seven is us. Good boy! What do you reckon, Dougs? Coach L... No Dougal, no.
Go on and stay on! Here we go... well that's narrow. That is narrow.
Come on Dougs.
Not a good start, is it? No toilet! All right, come on...
Here we go.
Here we are. Oh gosh, oh I say! Alright let's get rid
of the bag and give you a guided tour.
OK, little tour of our cabin here on the New
Caledonian sleeper. So I'm going to be comparing this to the previous
incarnations of the sleeper. So under the the bunks here you can see there is space
for a Dougal. Oh Dougal, cheer up! But one thing I noticed straight away is
that even though we have solo use of this cabin they've got both bunks made
up and you cannot move the ladder. Now on the old stock you could get rid of the
ladder if you were in the lower bunk but on this one it's fixed, you can't move it.
So... not so keen on that. We have an amenity kit with earplugs eye mask and soap.
Room service menu...Wow so I guess you can call the host... main course:
haggis neeps and tatties nine pounds, macaroni cheese seven pounds... that's not
too bad at all is it? Sandwich four pounds, Tunnocks caramel
wafer 80p, apple 50p... so pretty good. You've got wine there... wine for about
five pound a small bottle, and then whiskey is... gosh... six pound fifty, seven pound 20 a
measure... so pretty good. And then you have your onboard magazine. Now up by the head
here is the USB to charge your phone and you've got somewhere to put it,
night light, main light... that's the top bunk but on the bottom bunk you've got
the main set of switches here which is the two main sockets, two USBs, call
button for the host, and window light - that's posh isn't it - as well as... as well
as the same controls as there are in the upper bunk. So we have a full-length
mirror here on the door so you know what this means folks don't you?
HELLOOO! Sorry.
Room to hang the jacket, oh and this is neat as well I missed off here you
can actually dim the lights... Idon't know if the camera is picking that up well... yeah
making the camera go funny... so you can dim the lights as well. And then finally over
here you have washbasin, hot and cold water, complementary water and a keycard
so that if you go to the club car which we're going to have to to go pay for the
dog, you can lock your cabin. And then this is really neat you get free tea or
coffee in the mornings, so you can hang them out. And if you want to pay for
breakfast this is really good: bacon roll is £3.50, or a vegan smoothie is
also £3.50... I think we might go for that yeah.
That looks really good. Right so there's the tour of the little cabin so now
let's go to the club car and pay for the dog.
Yes Dougal, £30 for you! He doesn't look impressed.
Right so this looks like the lounge car.
I say that's very nice isn't it?
Right let's go and pay for the dog.
So we've paid our cleaning fee for Dougal,
£30, thank you. So while we're here I'll just give you a
quick... I'll show you here the seated carriage. We won't go in because there's
no dogs in there. So this is the seated carriage!
Come on Dougs, let's go get some more fresh air before the train goes.
[music]
So if anyone's a wheelchair user, here... no no that's not a good start is it? So the
accessible toilet is out of order just like the toilet next to our cabin.
So here you go this is obviously the accessible cabin. Sorry about the flicker.
Plenty of room to transfer... sink... yeah plenty of room and a big
pneumatic door entry in and out. Excellent!
All right, so we found a working toilet and well this is it.
It's a toilet.
So we've got to walk a couple of carriages to come and spend a penny.
Oh dear!
[music]
So, table there... let us have a look at this.
[music]
The soap has definitely got smaller.
Ear plugs.
[music]
Good morning!It is twenty to seven, just had a knock at the door, and the lovely attendant brought
in this, which was my breakfast which is complimentary because of the lack of
water. And some tea and some biscuits. Yeah, I slept okay... wouldn't say it was the
best night I've ever had. The one thing I would say is that I don't think this new
stock is particularly quiet or particularly smooth, in fact I would say
the older train was a bit quieter and a bit smoother. With the earplugs in and
everything it... you know it wasn't too bad. It's just when you had to hit some rough
points and things like that it really did wake you up. But yeah. So I'm just gonna have
my breakfast. We have until 8 o'clock to vacate the cabins, so there's no rush
which is nice. Yes, gonna have my breakfast
and then we're going to head to St Pancras.
Well I tell you what, you don't get breakfast in bed with easyJet!
That's plastic.
That's disappointing, that's plastic.
Still better than flying.
Okay so we now are at the park between Euston and St Pancras giving Dougal a
bit of fresh air, some water, and a bit of play with the ball. So overall how do we
rate the experience with Caledonian Sleepers new trains? Well let's focus on
the positives to start with, and the great thing is if you're travelling with
a dog you don't need to pay for both berths because you need to have the
entire cabin. If you're travelling on your own you only have to pay for the one
berth. The ticket...a single ticket for a solo classic cabin without an ensuite is
about 160 pounds and then it's 30 pounds for the dog. It sounds a lot... it is a lot...
but then when you compare the single train fare plus a hotel and the fact
you're saving at least a day of your time, then suddenly it's not too bad, so
that's a step in the right direction. And also the fact that Caledonian sleeper
now charge 30 pounds for the dog, whereas ScotRail, when they ran the franchise,
it used to be 90 pounds for the dog. So that's an improvement.
Great for the USB points and the sockets in the cabin, the staff were all amazing...
really friendly. I love the fact you still get your cup of tea in the
morning, that's great, but what about the things that didn't go quite so well?
There was no toilet in the carriage, no water to the sink. The trouble is as
trains get more and more advanced because people want more and more things,
there are more and more things to go wrong. So it was... you know wasn't great
but it wasn't the end of the world. I would say the thing that probably
shocked me the most that I didn't really enjoy the most, was the poor ride quality -
the fact that we were jolted around quite a bit in the night. I was expecting
something a lot smoother than we got. I do wonder why they didn't go for
articulated stock on these new trains, but there you go.
But overall it was a
positive experience. Would I do it again? Yes I would do it again. So I hope you
enjoyed coming with us, if you did enjoy it you know what to do:
give us a thumbs up, subscribe if you don't already, it just leaves me to say
from Dougal and from me..
Thanks for tuning in!
Dougal, you gonna come say goodbye to your public?
[music]