Rizma W.
Yelp
Simply put, Eurostar is the quintessential paradigm of inefficiency.
It took an unfathomable amount of trial and error just to find passport control for Eurostar in this massive labyrinth of a station. Fortunately, one station employee was able to point us in the right direction (because having adequate signage is apparently not a thing at Gare du Nord station).
For some reason, Eurostar did not deem it necessary to widely inform passengers about the Customs officer strike; we only found out about after overhearing conversations from fellow passengers. I tweeted them to get more info about it, and get some recommendations on what we should do to prepare. Not surprisingly, I never received a response.
Anyway, we make it to the registration area, get in the back of this ridiculously long line and pass through the first area without incident. We saw several tables bearing signage encouraging non-European passengers to fill out customs "Landing Cards", however, there were nothing but paper luggage tickets on those tables. In fact, it wasn't until we got in the passport control line that we saw a small pile of Landing Cards at the manual check-in desk. None of the useless Eurostar staff members made any effort to pass them out, or make sure that non-European passengers (all of whom were situated in a separate line, mind you) had a copy.
As we were getting ready to go though the gates to passport control, this absolute twat of an employee (Arab dude with some slicked down version of a mohawk, cheap cologne and too small pants) nastily tells us we have to get out of line and go to the end of another unfathomably long line next to the one we were standing in (which was also filtering into passport control, by the way). We're all going to the same place, and there is virtually no signage letting people know where to go or which line to wait in. Not to mention that the first employee who checked our ticket didn't say a thing about us being in the wrong line.
As much as I wanted to let him have it, I was just ready to get the fuck out of this goddamn country. So we get into the other line only to find that the line we were JUST IN a few minutes prior is now full of people on the EXACT SAME TRAIN WE'RE ON.
Adding insult to injury, after a 3+ hour wait, we (as well as at least 100 other similarly situated passengers) missed our train... a situation that I'm certain we would not have been in had that asshole not needlessly delayed us. Ironically enough, that same guy was also the person they chose to deliver the bad news, which he delivered with that same rude, nonchalant tone that he used with us.
Affected passengers were told to simply "take the next one". However, that one is the last train of the day. Since we're taking the seats of the people who are on that train, I can only imagine what the people scheduled on the last train are going to do.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why Americans are sometimes compelled to act "ugly" in other countries.