......will anyone ever answer my original question?
This is a plebe Mom. I am not into football and know nothing about football. But I tried my best to attend one game last October which happened to fall onto the Family Weekend. If you asked for my advice, that is the weekend you should attend. From what I know, during the football home game seasons plebes are not allowed to go out on Friday night. It is academic night. Early Saturday morning there would be parade and WP skydiving team for show around 8am. Parade will be represented by assigned Regiment(s) for regular home game but all Regiments will parade on the Family Weekend. The stadium will be opened around 10a and there are many activities and pregame tailgating set up by parents at various places and in parking lots. Your plebes will have to sit with their companies. During the break your plebes May attempt to sit with you then they have to go back to their seats. After the game, they will return to their barracks to sign out to leave the post with you given that they have applied and received approval for weekend pass days before. You will have your plebes until the Sunday evening before evening formation. We usually dropped him off at 5pm.
The reason why I chose Family Weekend because I am from Washington State, I have to coordinate work and family for travel. The advantage of that weekend is full of activities for parents as early as Thursday evening. Friday you can attend the class with your plebes, talking to their professors, Contitutional island tour, visiting their barracks in the afternoon, and having dinner at the Mesh Hall, library...you can’t do that at any other home games. The usual home games are pretty empty but on that weekend it will be almost full. Don’t let the crowd discourage you. So far I have stayed at the Thayer for the A-days in their executive suite that I paid about $2k that was full of mold and no apology from the hotel. I vow not to return but I don’t mind to have their Sunday brunch at all. I don’t like to stay at Homewood Suite in Newburgh because it brought back the nightmares during the RDay. We were stuck in the elevator on the way out to WP, my plebe had to pry it open...there are many hotels south of WP in Nanuet and Nyack areas with reasonable rates, and less than 30 minutes to WP. I have not explored the Peekskill or Fishkill areas yet. I hope that will help.
