My DS is a 3/C....I was wondering many of the same things about a year ago. Maybe this information will help.
First, most of your plebes will get a surface cruise as a training block. Mine went out of San Diego last year, participated in the first beach landing exercises of amphibious craft in two years with 14 other countries off of Coronado Island. Then they sailed to Hawaii. He and the other mids and a few ROTC (seemed like there were 15-20 total on this ship) were on the Bonhomme Richard, a Marine LHD (you parents only thought there was a bunch of acronyms associated with USNA, wait till you see the fleet acronyms!). The BHR (Bonhomme Richard) had a facebook page, so I saw in general what they were up to. The mids participated fully in everything. They rode in the amphibious craft out of the well of the ship to the beach, rode in helicopters over the Pacific on the way to Hawaii, shot various guns from the deck, etc. I wondered if they'd be just watching, but they were immersed pretty fully in all that went on. He presented his father with a couple of 25mm shells from a gun he fired off the deck. They refueled a new stealth ship at sea (Maybe named something like Freedom), which was it's first refueling. The ships top two officers were USNA grads, so treated the mids very well.
Some of his buddies started their cruises in Norfolk, seemed like most were San Diego or Norfolk. One of his friends flew to Croatia to begin his surface cruise.
My son had a blast. He has no desire to go SWO upon graduating from the academy, but was with Marines, which is one of his primary interests, so that was very interesting to him. He took plenty of pictures.
He did report a couple of ROTC guys and a mid who were way out of line, drinking (way too much) in Hawaii, not making it back to the ship, even a girl who slept with one of the officers on board while drunk. He was pretty amazed at the behavior. The girl did not return to USNA. While in Hawaii, he shared a room with a couple of others from the cruise for a couple of days, then slept on the ship a couple of days. Couldn't rent a car, so rented a bike and looked around some. He had several days there before flying back to Annapolis.
My son sailed the other training cruise on the 44 foot sailboats out of Annapolis. There were 8 mids and 2 instructors on each craft. They sailed to NAPS, which took like 4 days, without landing anywhere. Spent the night at NAPS, looked around some there. Sailed through NY harbor. It was really hot, like 105+ every day. When he came home for a week after 3 weeks on the water, he was very tan! Sailing was ok, but he passed on the chance to train and be an instructor this summer. Their boat's latrine did not work well and he was in charge of keeping it up and running for one way of the trip. There was a girl on their boat who complained bitterly the entire 3 weeks......the others (1 other girl and 6 boys) were very fed up with her.
My son also opted to sign up for summer school, taking the navigation course he would have had in the fall of his 3/C year. This allowed him to be a bit more relaxed as he started his engineering classes in the fall. He tells me the nav course is not hard, but time consuming, so he was glad to have it out of the way. By taking summer school, we only had him 8 days. Which was ok. He felt prepared for the school year and ready when reform came.
Compared to what his high school buddies did over their summer between freshman and sophomore years of college, he was happier than a pig in mud!
Now, for this summer: protramid (Professional Training for Midshipmen).....don't know a lot about that yet. And he will be the 2/C in his company (one per company) who deals with "admin" during one of the plebe summer blocks and helps the 1/C detailers. This is kind of a stepping stone to being a detailer next year.
He is currently on Sea Trials staff for his company. They did a "run through" yesterday for SMT, working on their times, etc for each part of Sea Trials.
I know this is not true for every midshipman, but ours is not pining for home. And really never was. Is grateful to be here at Christmas, Thanksgiving, Spring Break (last year, his plebe year, he went to San Diego with a friend for Spring Break) that week in the summer, but is very happy there and quite frankly, two weeks of our routine is plenty for him. That is his life now.This summer he has plans for the open block as well. He plans to spend time, on his own, with a buddy from USNA whose father is an Admiral, at a base in San Diego working out with SEALS during his open block. We hope to have him a week. The opportunities they have,the friends they make.....all very cool.
We try to go up for a football game....we are not far from Colorado Springs (well, 300 miles), so met him and a buddy there for Navy-Air Force football last fall. I got to go to Herndon with his older brother...managed to work it into a DC conference. We may go this summer to Annapolis. I miss him terribly and it is hard to admit that he is ready to return to USNA after two weeks with the fam. Their world is so very different..........coming home is a drastic change, much more so than a "regular college" student experiences.
So, parents, when you get your kiddo's ship assignments, search facebook. Encourage them to take a camera with them on their summer adventures. Be prepared to hear about all kinds of exciting things. I even got an app for my iphone with Navy SEAL abbreviations and definitions, and the Navy News app. I haven't had time to look, but I am sure there are more apps related to all of this. I need to search "marines" on the app store.
These summer cruises are sort of training for us parents as our mids will transition into the fleet, sooner than you'd like to think!
I hope to hear about all your DS/DD's summer assignments and how the plebes fare over the summer as well! This forum is a lifeline for parents!