PTR Letter with Report Time Out

One of my annual reminders: do not stand anywhere near the Alumni Hall doors, which conceal a yawning black hole vortex that will suck you in, if the line is moving quickly, and you are waiting for a parent to drop off the car at the Stadium and ride the shuttle back. Friendly and welcoming Plebe Summer staff will whisk you inside to a warm onboarding process.

Loiter under the trees on the parade field across the street, if waiting for one last family hug and parental words of wisdom.
 
Capt MJ said:
One of my annual reminders: do not stand anywhere near the Alumni Hall doors, which conceal a yawning black hole vortex that will suck you in, if the line is moving quickly, and you are waiting for a parent to drop off the car at the Stadium and ride the shuttle back. Friendly and welcoming Plebe Summer staff will whisk you inside to a warm onboarding process.

Loiter under the trees on the parade field across the street, if waiting for one last family hug and parental words of wisdom.
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Bring some cash - there is a little tent near Alumni Hall where they sell breakfast sandwiches and coffee!

There was in 2019 anyway.
 
A1Janitor said:
Bring some cash - there is a little tent near Alumni Hall where they sell breakfast sandwiches and coffee!

There was in 2019 anyway.
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It was there last year too. I don’t think Business Services will miss an opportunity to make some money and for the early morning crowd their coffee helps.
 
ChatterMom2 said:
EThus morning DD received her PTR email with her report time. 0615

Go Navy!
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Congratulations. Same with DS last year.
0615:
Parking around Alumni hall is wide open. Park there. We were in line at 0600 outside Alumni hall but the staff were still setting up. It was an emotional and exciting event for us.
0730:
DS went in. New officers outside were demanding to see PTR letter before proceeding to report desk. Have this ready.
0800:
We walked towards Bancroft Hall, stopped at 1845 donut shop next to chapel.
Crew were setting up chairs in front of Bancroft Hall. Several parents were marking their chairs. We asked the crew and, yes, it was approved/allowed. We taped two chairs in the second row. The crew placed industrial sized paint burlaps in the first row. The seating behind the plebes are for parents.
0920:
We left the area and returned around 1500. Someone moved our chairs back two rows to the rear. Crazy 😧.
 
severn said:
Congratulations. Same with DS last year.
0615:
Parking around Alumni hall is wide open. Park there. We were in line at 0600 outside Alumni hall but the staff were still setting up. It was an emotional and exciting event for us.
0730:
DS went in. New officers outside were demanding to see PTR letter before proceeding to report desk. Have this ready.
0800:
We walked towards Bancroft Hall, stopped at 1845 donut shop next to chapel.
Crew were setting up chairs in front of Bancroft Hall. Several parents were marking their chairs. We asked the crew and, yes, it was approved/allowed. We taped two chairs in the second row. The crew placed industrial sized paint burlaps in the first row. The seating behind the plebes are for parents.
0920:
We left the area and returned around 1500. Someone moved our chairs back two rows to the rear. Crazy 😧.
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Did you have DoD ID that allowed you to park on the Yard?

This comes up every year as a point of confusion, as I think the PTR allows drive on/drop off but not parking, if not a DoD ID holder, but I can never remember where this guidance is. There is simply not enough room on the Yard for staff, mids and a new class’ worth of parents to park on the Yard.

Found it! This is a screen shot from the usna.edu Plebe Summer Home pages. For general incoming plebe readership, recommend going through that section, read every link, hamburger menu item, etc. That is your official primary source guidance. Info from Parents Clubs can be helpful and is always well-meant, but may or may not be perfectly accurate for the current year.

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As far as the chair marking, the set-up crew is likely the outsourced contractors for USNA facilities and would probably be unaware of any official policy. I doubt USNA has an official Chair Reservation policy, as that is way down in the weeds. Humans are gonna be human, and everyone will have different feelings about What Is Right, and it all works out somehow, if people just let it go and focus on what is really important that day.
 
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Everyone around the time I walked with my son (early morning) were also walkers. I saw no cars dropping anyone off or parking.
 
So, for planning purposes, should we be at the gate an hour early if we are to walk into the Yard via Gate 1 and the report time is 0815?
 
For those that haven't been on the yard before, if you enter through Gate 1, it's a solid walk to get to Alumnus Hall. It's easily a 15-minute walk without stopping and gaping at all of the gorgeous things along the way.
 
My suggestion? The later your reporting time, the earlier you should get there to give time to get through the gate and make the walk. When I dropped the dude off for his 1000 check-in, we actually got there before 0900. There was a pretty decent line to get through Gate 1, and it took at least a half hour to do that. Then, we walked over. At that time, they were actually a little behind for the reporting times, so 1000 wasn't a hard deadline.

And, the parking meters in Annapolis start at 1000 (at least by the dock), so if you have a later time and park off the yard in a metered spot, keep that in mind.
 
IronmanDaremo said:
My suggestion? The later your reporting time, the earlier you should get there to give time to get through the gate and make the walk. When I dropped the dude off for his 1000 check-in, we actually got there before 0900. There was a pretty decent line to get through Gate 1, and it took at least a half hour to do that. Then, we walked over. At that time, they were actually a little behind for the reporting times, so 1000 wasn't a hard deadline.

And, the parking meters in Annapolis start at 1000 (at least by the dock), so if you have a later time and park off the yard in a metered spot, keep that in mind.
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Lol We got there an hour early too because when they first opened and before his report time - because he forgot his vaccination card. They didn’t care - they gave him a bunch more jabs! I didn’t care because I didn’t have to get the jabs.

The coffee was necessary for me being up that early with little sleep. Luckily I had time to walk back to Historic Inns and catch up on my sleep a little while his arm was sore.
 
Are they using a ‘drive and drop’ through gate #8, at alumni hall, again? For ‘24 we couldn’t even get out for the car. Detailers were right there and yanked-I-mean-‘helped’ them out of the car. Swiftly.

I believe that morphed into drive though gate #8, parking briefly in designated spaces at alumni hall to say goodbye, after ‘24.

(Which was all greatly different than it was for my ‘22 (pre Covid). NO driving on the yard (unless properly credentialed). No drive and drop or briefly park through gate #8 and alumni hall).

What do instructions say for this year?

Agree with others, that the later the report time, the longer the lines. Allow plenty of time to get through pedestrian gate #1 if walking!
 
Capt MJ said:
One of my annual reminders: do not stand anywhere near the Alumni Hall doors, which conceal a yawning black hole vortex that will suck you in, if the line is moving quickly, and you are waiting for a parent to drop off the car at the Stadium and ride the shuttle back. Friendly and welcoming Plebe Summer staff will whisk you inside to a warm onboarding process.

Loiter under the trees on the parade field across the street, if waiting for one last family hug and parental words of wisdom.
Click to expand...
That surely didn’t happen last year. My daughter loitered specifically hoping to process earlier. She was the last report time and everyone she knew had a much earlier report time. She even went up to the marine who was checking PTR letter and he said nope, come back at your assigned time. Not sure if things have changed or if that was just an anomaly last year.
 
Yeah, we lingered around, but there were so many people and they were about 15 minutes or so behind reporting times. It was getting toasty as well. We ended up going over to hang around near the fountain so future c/o '41 could play with the water. Got back in line when they called c/o '26's report time up, and took a vid of him going into the doors. Walking away from that was when my allergies acted up.
 
LA rockymnt hi said:
That surely didn’t happen last year. My daughter loitered specifically hoping to process earlier. She was the last report time and everyone she knew had a much earlier report time. She even went up to the marine who was checking PTR letter and he said nope, come back at your assigned time. Not sure if things have changed or if that was just an anomaly last year.
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My caveat was if the line was moving quickly. If they are on pace or behind pace, they don’t flip the suction attachment on at the doors. Besides, Murphy’s Law applies. Your daughter wanted to get on with it. The P2B trying to wait for a special family photo, last hugs and words of love and advice - Murphy will suck him or her right into Alumni - if the line is ahead of pace and intake can absorb them.
 
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