We travelled out to Amsterdam last Friday on the 0831 service. We booked back in early June and paid £78 one-way pp in Standard Premier.
St Pancras was extremely busy, but they were doing a good job of 'combing' the queues and pulling people forward whose trains were leaving soon. Try and use the left hand checkin gates, as they lead through to manual passport control, which I noticed was far quicker than the automatic gates down the right hand side. We rolled up at 0745 and just as we got through, boarding was announced.
We had Standard Premier tickets and chose carriage 1, as in the middle of that carriage the direction of the seats switch around, and instead of the configuration being 1-2 it basically goes to a row of 1-1 with the pair of seats facing each other over a table. There is a small partition behind each set of seats, so a nice little private area (we were travelling with friends on the opposite side of the carriage) with the added bonus that I could park up my daughter in her buggy next to us. Recommended if you're travelling this way.
On time departure, and shortly breakfast was served - the tray posted upthread with croissant, roll, jam, yoghurt and OJ. After the trays were dished out the crew came down the carriage passing out pain au chocolat (including an extra one for my daughter, which she was delighted with). After the clear in they came round with a basket of apples which I thought was a nice touch.
After what seemed like a very short while an announcement was made saying the bar/buffet would be closing shortly, I was surprised but then I realised we were only 15 minutes from Brussels at this point (I am much more used to the 'rhythm' of the longer Paris service).
We had three minutes pause at Gare du Midi, so I took the opportunity to get some fresh air and show my daughter a bit of Belgium. Quite amused by the thousands of discarded cigarette butts visible between the platform and the train.
Upon departure from Brussels we trundled north at a leisurely pace and the bar/buffet was reopened. After 10 minutes or so the trolley came round with a full bar service, soft drinks, beer and red/white/rosé wine. I had the rosé and was pleased to note it was a very pale Coteaux d'Aix en Provence, my favourite. After I finished that getting another bottle (and one for my travelling companion) from the galley was no trouble. Drinks were served with a bag of nuts and they also came round later with some Dutch liquorice (I think...)
North of Antwerp we speeded up again and eventually arrived in Amsterdam just around 20 minutes late. No reason was given for the delay (we did come to a standstill a couple of times during the slow bit in Belgium) but one of the crew did come through the carriage shortly before arrival thanking everyone for travelling with Eurostar.
All in all it was a fantastic trip, very convenient especially the ability to wheel my daughter all the way on board and then park her next to us. Compared to to the return, where we had the hassle of flying back from Schiphol to LCY on a cramped Dash 8, I would take the train every time - when they get the return arrangements sorted.
