I've taken Eurostar between Paris and London a few times over the years, and I remembered it being…read morerelatively painless back in like 2010. It's still nice to take a train from central Paris and end up in central London, and probably worth some aggravation to avoid the hassle of airports. But it isn't cheaper, and it kind of sucks.
We took the Eurostar from Gare du Nord to St. Pancras last month and had a pretty unpleasant experience. Brexit may be partially at blame for the long, slow line at customs, but surely Eurostar can do something about their staffing to speed things along. It took longer to get through than any airport security I've dealt with in several years.
The train was fine, unremarkable but comfortable enough. I didn't want to be on it, though, for something like two bonus hours. We were delayed due to an unspecified incident near the tracks at Lille, that the announcer referred to as a "tragedy" during one of his many mushy updates. We were eventually rerouted and left the station over an hour after our scheduled departure time, and took a slower route that avoided Lille. I have since looked up this mysterious tragedy in Lille, and the only references it to it online are related to this Eurostar delay.
My boys were excited about going through the chunnel, but the actual passage felt like any other tunnel. I guess we can say we've been through it, at least. The ride was otherwise not the easiest with two kids, starting as it did with over an hour of sitting in place. My three-year-old was also sick that day, something we discovered when he threw up in the customs line. He proceeded to throw up twice more on the train, once on me, and once in the bathroom, where my husband had the pleasure of cleaning the floor with what he describes as half-ply European toilet paper.
I guess that part isn't Eurostar's fault, but their nonsense certainly didn't help. I'm glad the train got us from point A to point B, but I'll avoid taking it again in the future.
