Haven't posted at the DIS in a long time (usually only when a trip is coming up - it's kind of hard to be here when you know you can't go).
Anyway, a trip has managed to pull itself together over the last week, and we are booked (officially) for Feb. 6 to 13 at POFQ, but there's a good chance that we'll be adding a one-night room only for Feb. 5 (it all depends on airfare prices and flight times).
We were effectivly locked into this week based on being able to take time off - but I had always thought it was a good week in general because it is the week BEFORE President's Day rather than the week OF President's Day. We've never gone in February before (the last trips have been week BEFORE Labour Day and week AFTER Labour Day - the latter of those two being the best for crowds). Everything I had read stated that February has low crowds UNTIL President's Day weekend, and then things get busy. We'll be leaving on the 13th - and while I can expect some increase in crowds on Friday the 12th, I figured that we would miss the worst.
Anyway, I re-subscribed to touringplans.com to get an idea of what our week looked like (and while I know I can't divulge numbers for that week), I'm somewhat shocked by what I've seen. Websites that give general outlooks for crowds are still stating that they'll be low - **************.net is one example - BUT, touringplans is giving me numbers that look more like weeks in Regular or Peak Seasons, rather than what you usually see in Value Seasons.
I've noted in this thread the mention of the Dance Championships Feb. 5-7, so I know to avoid DHS on those days. But even Thursday Feb. 11 is coming up as a fairly busy day.
I do realize that there are never days below 4, so the reality is that the Crowd Calendar is a 7 point scale in reality. In other words, I consider it to be something like:
4= Not crowded
5= Low crowds
6= Some crowds
7= Fairly crowded
8= Mostly crowded
9= Extremely crowded
10= Horribly crowded (parks will limit entry due to capacity)
As I said, I don't want to break the rules and give out the numbers, but my general comment is that if 7 is the mid-point of that scale - we're looking at only two out of seven park days during that stretch which have crowd numbers on the lower side of 7.
Anyway, this just seems somewhat high, and I'm wondering if I'm missing something.
Thanks!