Best time to get to Check in at Eurostar.......?

[aussietravellers]

What is the best time to check in for the Eurostar at St Pancras (8.35am train) to make sure that we have room for our luggage (suitcases) at the end of our carriage/coach. When I phoned before to confirm our booking the guy on the phone said there is room for a small to medium suitcase each possibly . I said, well we are travelling from Australia to Europe for a month, so we won't have small suitcases, they are large. So he said well there probably will not be room left so you will have to send them as unaccompanied baggage or something.

Well I really don't want to do that, I would like them to come with us, our suitcases are not huge, they are the large antler brand size (not the jumbo size) and there are only two of them.

So was just wondering how early we can get there, check in and get onto the train (for an 8.35am train), so we get, as we call it, "poll position" in the luggage/suitcase storage compartment at the end of the carriage?

 

[tennisfan]

The train may or may not be there first thing. I'm not sure as I have gone from Ashford. If it is anything like Ashford they mark the posts at the station so you know where to stand for your carriage when the train comes in. It is usually a bit of a scrum sort of thing to get on the train though, regardless of when you check in. Having said that I would try and check in as early as possible, there is the minimum of 30 minutes beforehand so try before that.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

This it what worries me and im getting on the train at Ashford with 1 medium size suitcase, so i cant imagine how worried you are about it. Som luggage can fit in the overhead space above your seats aswell.

 

[sara969]

When we went a few weeks ago, we stayed at a travelodge in Kings Cross, although we were close by to the station we decided to get there early as it was our 1st time and we were not sure where we were going.
However it was pretty straight forward and there was lots of people around to help and show us where to go.

We arrived at St Pancras at around 7am even though our train was for 8:35.. we collected our tickets and then went through the gates..
We then went through luggage security and then along to find our gate number.
Because we were early we found a seat right next to our gate number, so we just sat there, fetched a coffee from Costa and collected my daughters Disney Colouring pack from the information desk
(tip.. no one tells u that the colouring pack was at information to collect, i found out from a lady sat next to me, but alot of people didnt know)
When they were about to open our gate, we were already queued to go through...

We found our carriage and luckily the baggage places was empty when we arrived so we had space for our cases.
But there isnt alot of room for cases unfortunately.
But theres space above ur seats for pushchairs and small bags and i saw some people sliding their cases in the spaces behind their seats.