Here is my carriage. Sans Prince Charming!
I'd been at Euston since stupid-o'clock (so I could meet Ste) and was watching the boards obsessively. That and the fact I walk fast meant I was the first person into the seated carriage. The train was about 20 carriages long, but the seating is near the front and only takes up the one.
NB -
Caledonian Sleeper. The main length of the train is split into berths/ cabins and a lounge car for people with more money than me (aka have made better life choices
)
So I got on and saw that half the carriage was reserved, and half not. Lovely jubbly - less noise and less disruption. But - oh dear. My seat was the second in from the door (to the toilet and the buffet!) and faced across a micro table to another reserved seat. Arrrgh. Don't worry - clever Cherry checked all the other reserved seats and realised no-one was joining the train after Euston (London). So I moved my reserved ticket to a single seat further down the carriage - which was vacant.
A few minutes later I was joined by a Japanese man who had the same issue - his reserved seat was in a block of four. "Don't worry about it!" sez I, "If there's no reservation ticket you can sit there if you prefer."
And shortly after that I was approached by a lovely blonde teen (very good English - perhaps Dutch?) who was worried about putting her baggage on the seat opposite the one she was allocated. Bearing in mind that was supposed to be MY seat I reassured her that no-one was going to get on and claim it.
As it turned out, only half of the reserved seats were even taken up. I think there were about 8 of us in a 30 (?) seat carriage.
I loved it. There was legroom, a buffet a clean toilet, silence and constant movement.
Pics are a shot down the carriage and my seat. Excuse the colouring for the second pic - I was trying to make it match the real colour - it was oranged out by the setting/ flash. Each seat had a pull down table and foot-rest. When I was really tired I retreated to a double seat and used one of the duvets (visible in the luggae racks) as a pillow/ partial wrap. The train was warm enough not to really need to be covered, but it made things cosier.