Unless I was connecting at Sunan Airport in Pyongyang, I would never sit in an airside terminal for eight hours just to avoid going through immigration and security. Eight hours is plenty of time to take the train into the city, do a little shopping or light sightseeing, have a nice lunch and be back at Schiphol to go through security and exit immigration. We've connected through AMS many times both inbound from North America as well as from elsewhere in Europe to transatlantic when coming home. Sometimes our connection times were only two or three hours, in which case we stayed airside but when we have six or eight hours we ALWAYS go into a given city. Particularly when you're so near to one of the greatest and most unique cities of Europe, Amsterdam. For crying out loud, Schiphol is only a fifteen minute train ride from Centraal Station--how could anyone resist?