Help, I can't understand rail sleeper lingo
 

Hi, I've looked at the eurail pass info so many times, and can't find the difference between these 2 things- (prices for a sleeper from Paris to Venice)

passholder 1 double peak $94
passholder 2 double peak $157 .

Also, what is Excelsior double peak $169?

It mentions a shower and basin in the 2 berth room, but does it have a bathroom?

Hope someone has the answers. Thanks

Does passholder 1 mean a 1st class and passholder 2 mean 2nd class? Sorry if I sound duh, but I just want to make sure.

I'm not positive, I'd just call and ask them to be sure. I know Excelsior is the more luxury private double sleeper car with a shower, so that's why it costs more. I think the other two are the difference in a first and second class sleeper car (below the Excelsior level). I think the 1 and 2 on those fares doesn't mean anything, it's just a bookkeeping number they've assigned the fare, as the rates are the opposite for what they should be if they meant first/second class. The Raileurope description states that "passholder 2" is for first class sleeper, but doesn't say that about the "passholder 1". Which would surely be confusing and weird, but that's all I can figure out.

I'm sure someone else will know more about this. Are you referring to the Excelsior as the 2 berth room with shower? That's the only kind I thought had a shower, and yes, it should be a small bathroom in the compartment like on an airplane (or do you mean toilet? it has one of those).

You can also check out the info and pictures of the compartments at
www.seat61.com

Sleeping cars are not first- or second- class. The price depends on how many people are in the compartment - you pay more for sole-occupancy than for two people sharing. On the Paris-Venezia train, there is the Excelsior sleeping car with compartments with bathrooms, traditional sleeping cars (2- or 3-berth compartments) and 4- and 6-berth couchette compartments. If the prices quoted are per person, then the difference must be the difference between a first-class pass and second-class pass – a holder of a first-class pass would expect to pay less than somebody who has only a second-class pass.

I don't know about that, I think I've seen many trains that have listed first vs. second class sleepers. I also think a first class sleeper would cost more, not less, than the second class.

Anyway, I found out and it is neither of our suppostions: the "1" and "2" don't mean anything, they are just numbers for the options, as I thought. The passholder 1 is the supplement if you have a France and Italy railpass, and the passholder 2 is if you only have a single country railpass (one or the other). That makes sense as to why the supplement is less if you have both countries covered on your pass.

(There are different fares for whether there are 2 vs. 1 persons in the car, but that would not be labeled "double peak" but "single peak"). I guess you know the peak refers to certain peak days.

This was on a different overnight train - Stockholm to Copenhagen, but we had a shower/bathroom in our overnight compartment. Be aware that it is not anything luxurious, but it does serve its purpose. There was a small drain in the floor, right in front of the toilet. I think we had to fold up a small table to be able to use the shower. & it had a hand held showerhead so that with the very small amount of space, you could direct it exactly where it needed to be. The bathroom/shower area was separated by a curtain from the sleeping area. It was small/very confined area & a little bit difficult to use, but you know what. It felt good to get off the overnight train feeling clean & a bit refreshed, rather than dirty & greasy.