USAFA A-Day; LONG Lines to Get in With No Real Reason.

My wife and I were at A-Day for the class of 2016 yesterday and it was well worth the time and effort. Like so many others, we arrived at 7:00 for the 9AM ceremony to capture the best seats.

We learned that we could not get in until 7:30AM so like hundreds of others, we parked on the side of the road anxiously waiting to get one of those coveted bleacher spots smack-dab in front of our Basic Cadet.

Fast forward to 8:45AM. I could have easily drove though the gates and selected the exact same bleacher location as if I walked in the ceremony just 15 minutes early. I'm not sure if this year was different that past years but it was a big waste of time for a couple hundred cars that had to do a U-Turn past the gates and idle for 1/2 an hour while they waited to be let in. We were WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too early.

So for the class of 2017 and beyond, enjoy that extra hour of sleep and let the anxious people battle it out an hour early. I was about the 20th person in the bleachers and it didn't serve any benefit.

Not all parent's can make it out for A-day and some don't see the point with Parent's weekend so close after. Fast forward 3 years, you will want to be there early for the grad parade where they do the wedge for the only other time in their cadet careers. Everyone is there.

I guess it is all a matter of perspective. I did not have to wait in line, as I am retired military and have a valid ID card. I did however enjoy getting a good parking spot in front of the cadet field house. Lord knows I did enough walking for 10 people that day, and coming from sea level that is a big deal. I also don't like to feel rushed. I met and talked with some really great people/parents before the start of the parade. On this day, sleep was the last of my worries, I had plenty of time to catch up on that later. To see my kids for those brief two and a half hours is just hard to put into words. Guess I am just a sentimental mom. Waiting is all part of the fun. If you thought this was crazy, wait until PW, there will 10 times as many people and the parking is horrible. I'll take a low key day like A-day anytime =)

kdc246 said:

I guess it is all a matter of perspective. I did not have to wait in line, as I am retired military and have a valid ID card. I did however enjoy getting a good parking spot in front of the cadet field house. Lord knows I did enough walking for 10 people that day, and coming from sea level that is a big deal. I also don't like to feel rushed. I met and talked with some really great people/parents before the start of the parade. On this day, sleep was the last of my worries, I had plenty of time to catch up on that later. To see my kids for those brief two and a half hours is just hard to put into words. Guess I am just a sentimental mom. Waiting is all part of the fun. If you thought this was crazy, wait until PW, there will 10 times as many people and the parking is horrible. I'll take a low key day like A-day anytime =)

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Talking with other waiting parents for 1.5 hours proved to be enjoyable. My point was that I was under the assumption that you want to come VERY early to get a good spot. A couple hundred other people were under the exact same assumption. On A-Day, that's simply not the case.

MN-Dad-2016 said:

Talking with other waiting parents for 1.5 hours proved to be enjoyable. My point was that I was under the assumption that you want to come VERY early to get a good spot. A couple hundred other people were under the exact same assumption. On A-Day, that's simply not the case.

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I just don't know how old we have to be to learn about assume( I'm speaking with you)... There was printed material that read gate would not open til 0730...

scraper said:

I just don't know how old we have to be to learn about assume( I'm speaking with you)... There was printed material that read gate would not open til 0730...

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The gates opened at 7:30 as promised. But in another thread it said to go at 7AM because the gates can open up then. That's the reason why so many people were waiting. They wanted to get in as soon as they were allowed to enter. For that matter, some people got though earlier than 7:30AM.

But it still seems you didn't get understand my only point. By 7:30AM, a couple hundred cars were idling waiting to get in to land that perfect spot on the bleachers. Everyone realized it started at 9AM. Everyone's goal was to get in at the very earliest possible time to get the best seat for fear of getting a bad spot. As printed, the evert started at 9AM. So for 1.5 hours, I was sitting on the bleachers chatting with others.

The reality was that the sections were perfectly distributed. So the best seat for section 15 was a terrible seat for section 1. Hence, everyone HAD the prefect seat in the long bleachers.

My exclusive point was that there was positively no reason to come that early (even 7:30) and feel like we were going to get bad seats. If I got to the north gate at 8:30, there would have been no lines what-so-ever. My post wasn't meant to complain. I was posting for anyone who does a search in 2017 and beyond. So if you want to go early to sit in the sun or talk with other families, then arrive 1.5 hours early.

We were running late and hit the gate at 8:45. We parked at the field house, boarded a bus and were dropped off at the parade field at 8:55. We got the exact seats we wanted at the top of the bleachers in front of our dd's squad. We noticed that there were significantly fewer attendees than 2 years ago...but heck, we are down to a class of 980 instead of 1,250.

I agree that in any given year the crowd will try to sit in front of their cadet's squad so the crowd evenly disburses through out the stands. I was disappointed I didn't arrive earlier as my "chat" time was essentially eliminated.

usafamomma said:

We were running late and hit the gate at 8:45. We parked at the field house, boarded a bus and were dropped off at the parade field at 8:55. We got the exact seats we wanted at the top of the bleachers in front of our dd's squad. We noticed that there were significantly fewer attendees than 2 years ago...but heck, we are down to a class of 980 instead of 1,250.

I agree that in any given year the crowd will try to sit in front of their cadet's squad so the crowd evenly disburses through out the stands. I was disappointed I didn't arrive earlier as my "chat" time was essentially eliminated.

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Did the same exact thing. I had looked at you tube videos of previous A-day ceremonies and saw that the stands weren't filled. As soon as I sat down, the parade started.