We normally go during that time of year because it usually happens to be our Fall Break.
We never go without some kind of a discount. The last few years, we've gotten room-only discounts and added tickets to them (full price on the tix). When I look at the breakdown on the cost of the room I always see the room cost with the discount (usually ending - as you say - at the beginning of the Columbus Day weekend) and then at full price for the Columbus Day weekend. While we're not getting a discount every day of the vacation, we are getting it for the first few days, which helps some.
In the past, and this may have changed recently for all I know, if we booked a package like "free dining" or something that included room + tix for a combined discount, we'd get the entire vacation at the full discount as long as we checked in before the package discount's deadline. A lot of those "free dining" and other types of discounts seem to have their deadline just before that Columbus Day weekend. Columbus Day weekend certainly drives crowds then, but it's our experience that all the Fall Breaks happening at that time are also a significant crowd driver.
