Had a very pleasant trip on the 1815 St Pancras-Leeds last night- as has been said, just tea, coffee, water and Walkers biscuits collected from the buffet but on the positive side the crew were very pleasant and the buffet counter was open on departure. After checking my ticket (through to Leeds), the TM pointed out that the buffet would probably shut somewhere around Chesterfield, so when I went to pick up a second cup of coffee on departure from Nottingham, the steward put a handful biscuits in my bag rather than the usual pair!
I get the impression that from a crew point of view, north of Nottingham it's probably seen as a fairly easy journey on a Saturday- not late enough to have too many revellers and overtaken by XC between Sheffield and Leeds so not that much passing trade. I could have had a faster journey in Standard on East Coast but I had a good book and it was nice to be able to step out and get some fresh air on the platform at Nottingham knowing that there was a good ten minutes until we were due to leave.