overnight visit arrival time?

williamsdr3

Parent of USNA Mid '24
5-Year Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2018
Messages
378
I've decided to bite the bullet and take my youngest on his authorized overnight visit (LOE) this month. He went to SLE already this year. Fortunate to scrounge up two free tickets with miles but surprised how high the hotels and AirBNB's are close by (i.e. not in/near a major city).

In order to arrive at the Admissions Office for a 7:45 a.m. program start, what time do you recommend hitting the Visitor's Center for the initial arrival? It says an allow an hour to process through. I don't know how far any of these things are and how long it takes to park, etc. It is going to be painful on East Coast time that early. I would hate to be visiting from the Pacific coast.

I am reading through some of the other overnight visit posts but thanks for any other pro tips for parent or student you want to throw in there. He did CVW at USNA in March so he has some idea of the shadowing concept.
 
My DD is there now for the overnight. They arrived at 6 a.m. this morning. It took 40 minutes to find a parking spot, they have a lot of spots reserved so it was hard finding an open spot, some of the people rode the shuttle, but, they ended up being late to arrive since they got on the wrong one, so be careful if this is option you take, they told them to use the blue shuttle if that helps. They stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which is not that far away, rates are reasonable. Good luck to your DS.
 
Hello. I went on a day tour this past February. People on overnight tours and day tours arrive at the same time and attend the same morning briefing.

I am also from the west and flew in the day before and stayed at the Thayer Hotel on campus. I woke up and ate breakfast early enough to arrive at the visitor's center security check at 6:45. The security check was quite quick. If I remember correctly, only those age 17 and above have to do it. Security definitely does not take 1 hr, at least not in Feb. I then walked back to campus from the visitor's center. I went past Thayer gate, past Buffalo Soldier Field, past the second security gate to a bus stop. The bus is free by the way. I took about a 3 minute ride and was dropped off at the admissions office. I arrived early, probably at about 7:30 and the briefing began on time.

If you have a car, you should not drive it past the second gate because parking near the admissions building is reserved. You can park at Buffalo Soldier Field and take the bus.

Most people actually arrived closer to the 7:45 start time, and many even arrived late.
 
My DD will be going for an overnight soon. It does not say to bring a sleeping bag. Does she need one? Are black jeans and tennis shoes with a nice sweater too casual for her visit? We want to pack light, so that we can explore NYC with just a backpack rather than luggage.
 
My recollection is that sleeping bag was not needed at USMA overnight. The clothing your DD is considering is fine.
 
Thanks everyone for the tips. We are at WP right now. Getting the access control pass on Saturday for the Mon/Tues visit was huge and took 2 seconds. My 17 year old son didn't need one - just me - due to his age.

For our logistics report - since we already had the base access pass, we departed West Point Motel at 7:00 a.m., arrived Buffalo Soldier Field through Thayer Gate about 7:05, waited few minutes for the blue shuttle bus (sometimes white at least it was on the return) with most of the daily and overnight tour crowd, and arrived right on time about 7:30ish for the 7:45 start. For anyone interested, there were 4 overnight visit candidates and about 10 other day visitors juniors and seniors with their parents (except one seemed to be traveling alone).
 
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