Eurostar Check-in, Gare de Nord

If it were me, I would just get there the extra 30 minutes ahead of time so as not to be stressed. What important thing would I do with those 30 minutes anyway?

Agree with Norma. Would rather be there 1 hr early and not need to be than to be there 1/2 hr early and find out I should have been there earlier. You never know what could happen that might make the boarding process take longer so why risk it? It's only 1/2 hr.

I get there early and scope it out. If it's crazy I go on in. If not I go to a cafe across the street and wait a few minutes. But 45 minutes is my cut off. I get panicked if I wait beyond that!

I'm taking Eurostar to London tomorrow, and Eurostar texted me yesterday to advise that I be sure to be there an hour early.

Honestly I'd go the extra 30 minutes (to equal a full hour) -- the alternative is missing your train and having to buy a costly last-minute new ticket (or two). Why risk it? (Of course if money is no object, then cut the time as close as you want!)

I took the 10:13 Eurostar from Gare du Nord to London last Tuesday. I got to the station an hour and 20 minutes early as the previous week I’d done a day trip to Chantily out of GdN and the traffic to the station was heavier than I anticipated. Last Tues it wasnt so bad. There was also some construction going on in the station so I wanted time to locate the Eurostar escalators to the upstairs departure area.

I hung around on the main floor of GdN until I could see the 9:15 Eurostar (time approx) boarding then headed up the escalator to the departure area. You do have to fill out a departure card so did that as directed by the person stationed there and headed for the line. There were not many people in line at this point and I was thru The French side right away. The UK guy asked questions in a chatty but thorough manner. I was stumped when he asked if I knew anyone in UK (I do casually but not really to visit) so we sort of laughed about me not really fitting any profiles he was looking for.

It turned out this train was not particularly full as there were many empty seats in my car. On a departure when it is full I likely would have used all the time. I prefer being early and being ahead of the crowd. I would go for being ready to ascend to the departure lounge an hour before, not arriving at GdN an hour before.

When you pick your seats, try to get cars 1-10. The waiting room is divided with the 1-10 folks heading further along the waiting room for staging. This seemed less congested on this departure.

There was a strong police presence that morning as well (more than the week before when we went to Chantilly) and I did not note any petition girls that I have seen there before.

I'm on the train to London now -- about an hour ago, I watched the two guys in front of me get turned away from checking in and sent to the ticket office to look for tickets for the next available train because they were too late to arrive at the check-in point for their train. I was very glad not to be in their shoes.

P.s. both departure city stations handle the process about the same (except when departing Paris, if you have a non-European passport, you have the additional step of having to fill out the UK arrivals card first): you go through the check - in gate by scanning your ticket on the machine reader; you go through immigration exit control for the country you're leaving; you go through immigration entry control for your destination country; and you go through security for you and your bags.

The nice part is that when you arrive in the other city you just walk off the train without having to do immigration (as you did it in your departure city), but it does make for a longer process on the front end.