When we then turned up to check-in, there were rather large queues and it seemed that the electrical problem was also effecting the entry gates.
The last time I was on Eurostar was in 2005 and things have changed a little from then. There are still different classes but they are now called Business Premier, Standard Premier and Standard. After studying the differences I can tell you that the standard premier and the business premier have exactly the same seats so the considerable amount extra you'll pay for going business isn't really worth it.
After queuing to have our e-ticket scanned, there was another queue for the x-ray machines and then a bit more queuing to go through immigration - we both managed to get a particularly surly Frenchman who gave Paalo an especially long once over.
The final bit of farce was the complete balls up in regard to boarding the train. It seemed that only one up travelator was working and instead of letting people go up on the non functioning downwards travelators they were just allowing the crowd to build and build. Finally someone decided to allow people to walk up the broken travelators to the platform but only if they didn't have any luggage.
The reason for this became apparent as we began our ascent - these were on a seriously steep angle and even just trying to hold onto your luggage was difficult - I can't imagine how difficult it would be with the travelator not working.
After all this, the train left pretty much on time and there's only one stop, just outside of London - from there it is non-stop to Paris.
As part of the Standard Premier ticket we've given a light lunch
