I know Disney is always busy, but I like to get a general idea on how the parks are going to be before we go and of course plan for crazy anyway, lol. Which are the best free crowd calendars?
You've received some very good advice above. For DLR, the consistently best "crowd calendar" information that I've found is right here on this forum!
We've got DISers who are in the parks regularly on a weekly basis, year in and year out (thank goodness for our local passholders who can report current conditions, any anomalies, and compare current trends to past data!), and DISers who are on holiday trips at this moment who can report back on daily conditions. This isn't a computer algorithm -- these are real people reporting real conditions because they're actually right there in the parks.
Also, the crowds conditions at DLR will be affected by the school calendars (local, greater SoCal, Northern CA, OR, WA, NV,
UT, AZ, etc.), convention calendars, AP blockout calendars (this is big!), holidays, DLR promotions and events, weather, etc. We have threads on this board that discuss this.
For example:
Holiday crowd info --
Halloween Time Superthread, DLR 2019... too early? Me thinks not!
School calendar & convention info --
2019 Calendar of Events & School Breaks and DLR
Current crowd pattern trends --
Why are Mondays so busy?
Weather -- during the recent rain storms, threads like this one kept folks here up to date on crowds and practical rain gear:
Can we chat rain?