guys i'm at penzance this evening and i am taking this the night riviera sleeper
all the way from here to london paddington i've been looking forward to this for
months it's going to be a fantastic trip hope you can join me me for it
before i get on this we're going to check out the lounge facilities at penzance so
come with me and have a look at these and then we'll get on board cheers for now
on the front of our train tonight would be 57 306 provided by direct rail services
and with the name plate her majesty's railway inspectorate
175 i'm not quite sure what that means but if you do then please let me know
and on the rear of the train was another class 57 the more glamorous looking 57604 pendennis castle
named after the mighty fortress built by henry viii near falmouth
the night riviera lounge is located right behind the platforms note the cornish translation below by the way
it was fairly quiet at first i was greeted by a welcoming member of staff
and offered drinks and snacks biscuits etc the usual station lounge experience really
as it filled up it began to get very warm so much so that i decided to make an early
exit and head back up the platform to wait for the sleeper host to meet me
well as you can see the host was really good at explaining everything and i
headed on board to find my cabin access was easy with the electronic key
provided
well this is quite nice isn't it i'm going to show you around the cabin and this i believe is the
ladder for the top bunk which we won't be using tonight it's single occupancy they
make the bed down for one the lower bunk and just leave the top bunk up
there's a handle there and obviously the bed folds down onto there i like the bed actually
it's a little bit narrow but it's no narrower than the caledonian sleeper for example
a nice little reading light there room service don't want to press that i thought that was
the light switch better not do that and i'm not quite sure what that is if anybody knows
please let me know a few light switches that's the main light a light a vanity light and
another light i haven't quite figured out yet
okay and what have we got here we have got the blind which i can never work these things
i'll come back to that in a minute when i've figured out how to do it and we've got a little
bar of soap there room key by the way swipe it opens the door a lot less faff than the caledonian
sleeper in my opinion okay and unsurprisingly we have a sink with hot and cold running water
lovely and tidy too we have underneath the sink the litter bin
which is a place to put your litter in yes the interconnecting door which remains locked for
the duration of the journey what have we here a thin cupboard type thing let's have a look inside
okay some instructions about the sofa and a bottle of water at the bottom some coat hangers
which is great i'm sure that other door will open but do i need that tonight
i'm not sure i'm hanging my coat up at the back of the door as you can see here
heating control through there it's pretty cool in here which is great because it was
sweltering in the lounge really hot I had to come out and stand on the platform to be honest
i think the heating control is just there interesting really
it's not very prominent i know where the emergency exit hammer is and i know where the alarm is but
you could do with a sign for the heating control i would imagine but anyway
never mind we've found it now haven't we nice little table there for you i might use that later
to watch some youtube videos when i'm in bed oh my god we finally managed to get the blinds
to work there we have it a beautiful well I say the sun setting the suns actually set
over the saint well saint michael's mount in the distance there I don't know if you can see that
and the beautiful bay of i'm going to take a punt at this saint michael's mount bay
let me know in the comments below if that's wrong okay it's time to check
out the lounge i think i'll catch you in a bit
and what a beautiful evening it was for the sleeper certainly living up to its name
and for once the cornish riviera did actually look and feel like the mediterranean coast
i made it to the bar which was located between the
sleeper accommodation and the standard class seated coaches
first impressions were very nice the gwr colour scheme retained throughout the bar stools looked
a bit uncomfortable to be honest i didn't try them as i think they may have been out of bounds
because due to restrictions it was very much a sit only wear the signs tell you kind of
situation i had a small bottle of wine which was reasonably priced but i'm not keen on
being served a plastic glass to drink it out of plastic usage must have gone through the
roof during the last 18 months i reckon it was nice and cold though which is the main
thing isn't it again the on-board staff in the lounge car were friendly and they actually look
like they enjoyed their job which obviously leaves a good impression on the customer
and the sky tonight was a fantastic colour as we headed east through saint erth truro and par
note there's plenty of charging points in the lounge both usb and conventional 3-pin
we were making good progress but there's no rush on the night riviera
we have plenty of time to get to london but as the host said before
it's a really early arrival time so it was time for me to try and get some sleep
as i headed back note that there was an accessible toilet at the end closest to the lounge car and
adjacent to the accessible cabin with wheelchair space all in all it's a nicely thought-out design
i had a quick look at the other toilet at the other end of the carriage
the door had latch locking an interesting circular mirror on the wall and a corner sink
it's very different to what i'm used to finding on the conventional trains i'm
normally taking but a push button tap
and separate hand dryer coat hook and shaver point important for some on a sleeper train i guess
it's very clean though and no issues at all with this area
on exiting the toilet here's a quick look at the carriage door encrusted with warning signs
they're centrally locked these days anyway for safety reasons
and here's the room key deposit box for the morning (guess who forgot)!
okay guys well i went to the lounge car for a bit that was really nice actually
and quite reasonably priced drinks but it's like a really early start in the morning the steward
is coming around with a bacon roll and a cup of tea which is nice for about six o'clock
though which is not so nice so i'm going to get a little bit of shut eye now hopefully
and and i'll catch you in the morning cheers for now
morning from london paddington well we made it predictably and also predictably i didn't get
much late sleep i'm a bit of a light sleeper to be honest and i don't sleep very well in
these kind of situations but i thought the bed actually was quite comfortable
the carriage temperature was a bit cold for me but yeah all in all not a bad experience
the ride was reasonably smooth it does help i'm in the middle of the coach so that's good
anyway i've got some breakfast that's just been delivered by the lovely steward and
i've got a cup of tea which is gonna be a godsend for me to be honest and a bacon roll and lots of
milk so i'm gonna have some breakfast then i'm gonna head out into the city probably check out
the lounge actually at paddington if I can and see what that's like so i'll catch you in a bit guys
i reckon i had about two hours sleep as i emerged onto the brightly lit platform at paddington and
what a fantastic station to arrive at though and the sleeper was right outside the first class
lounge on platform one it was about 6 30 in the morning so still quite quiet in the station area
before i tried out the lounge i had a quick wander up the train and through the standard
class seating area for those of you that are mad enough to consider this as an option on this train
it does look a bit like normal gwr first class doesn't it with the helpful addition
of curtains on the windows like i said i would struggle to sleep in one of these seats but
i'm sure some would be very happy it depends on the individual i guess
but it's also very much down to budget i paid 84 pounds for my ticket which
i think is good value the seats are priced around about half that although you can buy a cabin
supplement on the train if it all gets a bit much dependent on availability obviously at the time
anyway i did visit the lovely lounge here at paddington and again it was quiet
but the staff were very friendly and helpful note that it's not an either or situation here you can
still have breakfast on the train as well as using the lounge in the station i had a coffee and a
couple of croissants and just really relaxed in there for an hour or so now the one major
plus point here is the very well kept showering facilities a very welcome sight this early in the
morning
okay guys and that was the night riviera sleeper i'm at paddington now
you can easily tell because i've got a
little friend with me there and yeah so i'm just chilling i'll tell you what first class lounge has
some showers and it's great to have a shower once you get off the train i feel really refreshed now
having an average night's sleep so yeah full marks to the first class lounge at london paddington
and the sleeper wasn't bad either to be fair i think it's equally as good as
the caledonian sleeper if not better certainly the lounge cars are a lot better in my opinion
anyway thanks for watching this if you'd like to subscribe to the channel i would really appreciate
that i'm off now to london victoria coach station where i'm going to be taking a coach
over to bristol again so wish me luck and i'll see you next time cheers for now