A mother who recounted her family's ordeal during the pre-Christmas Eurostar travel chaos on Facebook urged a report into the fiasco to reflect "the human side" of the saga.
Emma Powney was stranded in the Channel Tunnel for hours with her partner Tom and two young children - Joshua, five, and Noah, two - after their train broke down.
The 30-year-old, who was returning from a trip to Disneyland Paris, said her "exhausted, cold and tired" family were treated "worse than cattle" on the night of December 18 and 19.
In words that were repeated, with her permission, on a Rail magazine blog, Ms Powney described the conditions in her carriage, the lack of information, the heat, the need for nappies for the youngsters, the awful toilet conditions, the stress and how she finally "lost it".
And she said she was forced to use blankets bought at Disneyland to lay on the "wet, filthy floor" so her children could go to sleep.
Ms Powney, who was travelling to London to read the inquiry report into the chaos, branded a subsequent offer of £150 compensation from Eurostar "insulting" and said the family simply wanted their holiday back.
The family saved for two years to spend £2,500 on the trip of a lifetime, only to find their journey home to Halstead in Kent took around 17 hours.
Ms Powney continued: "Joshua is old enough to separate our five-day stay at Disneyland from the terrible Eurostar experience. But when I ask Noah if he enjoyed his trip, he just says 'No, the train broke'.
"We were left in the tunnel with no idea what was going on. This was supposed to be a wonderful holiday and, to start with, it was. Disneyland was magical, it snowed. But everything was ruined in the end. I have lost all faith in Eurostar."
