The new Eurostar trains. Are they an upgrade?

Well NO. You would think for 1.3 BILLION $$$$$$ They would have made some improvements? But oh no. In fact they made them worse. They have decided from all your complaints about space and chairs to actually DECREASE the seat sizes. Yes you heard correctly, they made the seats bloody smaller! WHY OH WHY!? Grrrrr....... Then they decided to take away the comfy head rests and replace them with brittle andplastic, and if that isnt enough they place a totaly useless light on ur seat which is so weak and projected in such a pointless angle that u wonder why they bother. The menu in business class isnt much better either, let me explain why. The food you get when you take your next flight is treated bearing in mind ur taste buds do not work in the same fashion due to the atmospheric pressure. So as you can understand allot of thought goes into which foods to offer (or not with some airlines and ticket classes).

Anyway, it appears eurostar has taken the same atmospheric considerations when deciding which meals to provide, WHY!? We going 250 to 290klm on ground level which means you should be considering restaurant food not airline food! Grrrr.......
Staff are super friendly, but again your now paying more for even less space than was already less before, so technically you have less of less. Kinda reminds me of my student days, when I had an overdraft, what a wonderful feeling knowing u have not just 0 but you have an overdraft! Thats how the seats made me feel, and its not just economy its in business too.

Rip off Business class

So I finally convince my company to let me join the high flyers club. Or at least thats what I thought.
570 euro for a return London to Brussels!!!! thats 570!!!  as apposed to the 170 euro return. what does an extra 400 euro buy you?

MY DREAM
So I was expecting champaign, my own butler, a private spa, my own waiting area, gold cups with diamond encrusted plates, 5star cheffs at my beckon call, red carpet with rose petals as I walk accross the floor, being picked up by a custom rolls royce with a celebritiy of my choice or picked up in a helicopter and land on the roof, and of course not forgetting lots and lots of free chocolate!

THE REALITY
No que to check in, so big smile on my face, but then customs que, which was about 6 people long. Pretty much same as in economy! Then passport control, again same as economy :(
Then your thrown into the same lounge area as economy :(  But then i notice the business class lounge on the right side in London. Ooooh! Finally heaven! But all it is is actually a much smaller waiting area with free orange juice and small bakery choice which isnt for everyones choice.
Thats it. No red carpet, no helicopter, no private spa, NOTHING! None of my dreams came true on the business class absolutely NOTHING!!!!! I was so pissed.To be honest its more comfortable sitting in the economy lounge because you have more choice of seat type and they all much bigger seats. You have more food choices and a selection of shops. So I struggle to wonder why do they charge so much money for business class? Because it certainly is not for the service.

the extra 400 euro buys you NOTHING. basically. Think of it this way, you arrive at the eurostar, there is a que infront of you of 10 people, would you say oh here is 400 euro so I can skip this que? The reality is your all getting on the same train and you will all go through the same customs control.

TRAVEL ADVICE

Obviously the best travel advice you can get for taking the eurostar is forget it. But if you really insist or you just curious about having the experience then read on. First you have to be aware of the obvious no go times of the year, these are summer and christmas period. On theses weeks you can expect cancelled trains, delays of 2+ hours, the que just to get to the entrance ofthe eurostar, not the check in, just the entrance will be longer than a concert at your favorite singer. There are always the other guys in the que also, you know the people who are trying to carry more than what they can actually carry, only to be turned back because they have too much luggage, yes it happens, if you have too much luggage your ass is being turned away. two bags max, big or small doesnt matter.

If you really insist on traveling in those periods, buy the business class, check in is much much easier, however delays remain the same as you all get the same train.

Dont get the economy seats, if someone goes to the toilet and does a stinky poo, you gonna smell it for the next few hours!

Good luck!

NON-FLEXIBLE

When you book a ticket on the eurostar you have to make sure your on time, there is no next train situation and there is no second chances, there is no transfer option and there is no lateness window of opportunity, miss your train and your screwed. They will be happy to direct you to the ticket office where they will be happy to screw you AGAIN for another ticket.

Book months in advance of be robbed!

Just have to emphasize this fact, you MUST book your ticket months in advance otherwise you will pay 2 or 3 even 5 times more for the same chair on the same train. In other words Eurostar screws you up the ass for deciding last minute you wanna go somewhere, they assume that everyone knows months in advance before they need to travel and are more than happy to shake people down, con them into paying more when they need to go in short notice. Its a scam and people need to wake up.

Stupid passport checks

OK I have to say something about this rubbish, you get your passport checked when you arrive, after of course checking in and scanning your ticket, you have to go through UK passport control and then you have to go through another French passport control. so two checks, AND THEN UK customs says HELLO! Where are you from, where are you going, what do you do for a living pointless waste of life questions. So three checks. By now your passport should be feeling warm from all the handling of it. Finally reach the train, 30 minutes later, private security and police jump on the train and guess what? Check your passport AGAIN!!!!!! As if the first 3 checks was not enough! So 4 checks before you even arrive at your destination. Come on people sort yourself out.

UK CUSTOMS CONTROLS

First let me point out that NOT all UK customs staff are retarded, I met some really nice intelligent decent people who make me proud to be British. 

However, have met some real idiots and I mean serious mental issues going on inside, one crazy person was checking my bags leaving the UK to Paris for drugs, I am no drug dealer, but even I know that drug prices in London are the highest in Europe, why anyone would import drugs FROM London TO France!!?!?!? Makes no sense whatsoever. Why do we have UK customs in London checking passengers LEAVING the UK!?!?!? and checking for drugs!? How idiotic. At the same time its estimated 300 to 500 illegal immigrants are crossing our borders effortlessly hiding in trucks. WTF?!

Come on people sort yourself out we are paying tax to support your wages you could at least earn them.

So Eurostar customers, no matter your nationality you will probably get some harassment by UK customs. Especially if you fit some type of PROFILE, i.e dont look like bin laden going through the security check or you should add at least another 30 minutes to your journey, I think Eurostar currently do not offer such realistic warnings on their website. Good luck!