🔺 [If your dates can move] 31 of the year's 32 busiest days are in one season?

Ask what makes the parks busy and the answer usually comes back as public holidays. The factor the model leans on hardest is the season itself. Nearly every peak day of the year sits inside it, and lighter days survive in there all the same.

What lifts the crowd hardest is not the month and not the holiday — it is the season. The factor fires on 296 of the 724 days we score, or 41%. The season averages Fairly busy against Normal for the year, 1 level apart. Of the 32 busiest days in the year, 31 sit inside it.

Of the 272 days of this season still ahead, the table lists the 40 quietest. Days on the same level are not ranked against each other. Each level is what we expect of that date, not a record of how many came.

• Oct 12MonSports DayFairly easyroom↓
• Oct 11MonSports DayFairly easyroom↓
• Oct 1ThuNormalroom↓
• Oct 2FriNormalroom↑
• Oct 4SunNormalroom↓
• Oct 6TueNormalroom↓
• Oct 7WedNormalroom↓
• Oct 8ThuNormalroom↓
• Oct 9FriNormalroom↑
• Oct 13TueNormalroom↓
• Oct 14WedNormalroom↓
• Oct 15ThuNormalroom↓
• Oct 16FriNormalroom↑
• Oct 18SunNormalroom↓
• Oct 20TueNormalroom↓
• Oct 21WedNormalroom↓
• Oct 22ThuNormalroom↓
• Oct 23FriNormalroom↑
• Oct 25SunNormalroom↓
• Oct 27TueNormalroom↓
• Oct 28WedNormalroom↓
• Oct 29ThuNormalroom↓
• Oct 30FriNormalroom↑
• Nov 23MonLabour Thanksgiving DayNormalroom↓
• Dec 1TueNormalroom↓
• Dec 2WedNormalroom↓
• Dec 3ThuNormalroom↓
• Dec 8TueNormalroom↓
• Dec 9WedNormalroom↓
• Dec 10ThuNormalroom↓
• Dec 15TueNormalroom↓
• Oct 1FriNormalroom↑
• Oct 3SunNormalroom↓
• Oct 5TueNormalroom↓
• Oct 6WedNormalroom↓
• Oct 7ThuNormalroom↓
• Oct 8FriNormalroom↑
• Oct 12TueNormalroom↓
• Oct 13WedNormalroom↓
• Oct 14ThuNormalroom↓

🔥 41% of the year is "busy season"!

The factor fires on 296 days, 41% of the 724 we score. The season averages Fairly busy against Normal for the year. 41% of the year is held above the yearly average as one block.

Of the 32 busiest days in the year, 31 (97%) fall inside it. The peaks are almost entirely inside this season.

📅 The spread still comes from the weekday!?

By weekday, Thursday averages Normal and Saturday averages Busy. Even inside the busy season, the swing you can still control is the weekday.

The 213 weekdays average Normal; the 83 weekend days Fairly busy. If the season is fixed, the weekday still moves your level. The season raises the floor; it does not create the day-to-day swing.

🤔 Is every day of a busy season busy?

Of the 296 days, 53 (18%) came in below the yearly average. The lightest is Fairly easy, the heaviest Packed — 4 steps apart inside one season.

Strip out public holidays and school breaks and count plain weekdays only: Monday is the heavy one, Tuesday the light one. The season lifts the whole block; it does not reorder the weekdays inside it. Crowds by weekday takes that apart.

🏨 The park climbs, the room rate does not!

Inside this season, 96 nights push room rates up and 200 pull them down. The park level rises, yet falling rates stay the majority. Booking a room and picking a park date are two separate decisions.

Park and room answer different questions. Park crowds and room rates explains which. The mirror season is counted in the quiet season.

• Dick Thomas Johnson / CC BY 2.0❄️[Avoiding crowds] Same winter, but two steps apart!"January and February are quiet" is only half true. January really is quiet; February is the opposite. We tested the Lunar New Year theory and it did not hold.
• Dick Thomas Johnson / CC BY 2.0🍁[Autumn visitors] 105 of the 182 autumn days are quiet — but only through September?105 of the 182 autumn days land below the yearly average. By month, the quiet part stops after September. Counted day by day.
• Dick Thomas Johnson / CC BY 2.0🎄[Visiting this winter] 8 of the 90 Christmas days come in under the yearly average?Of the 90 days in the Christmas season, 8 sit below the yearly average. The busiest lands on Dec 25 (Sat), the quietest on Nov 23 (Mon).
• Dick Thomas Johnson / CC BY 2.0🧩[Between events] 2 gaps, 16 days — but only 6 of them really empty?We have 3 verified events with 2 gaps between them, 16 days in all. Merchandise and menus for the next one land first, which cuts the gaps to 6 days.
• Dick Thomas Johnson / CC BY 2.0📚[Going in Jan or Feb] 67 exam-season weekdays, above the yearly average?The 67 plain weekdays of January and February average above the yearly average. Only 30 beat it, short of half. Holidays, breaks and weekends removed.
• Dick Thomas Johnson / CC BY 2.0🎏[Golden Week visitors] Is May 5 (Wed) the quietest date in the run?Of the 24 Golden Week days we forecast, 18 land below the yearly average. What lifts the level is how many days off run together, not the name of the holiday.