There is no "perfect" time to visit Disney World but one week came pretty close

Making the decision to visit Disney World is exciting and can be stressful regardless of whether you hire a travel planner or go it on your own. Picking what week might be the slower week is nearly impossible.

There are a lot of Disney fan blogs on the internet and some will previous year's analytics at you in the hopes of giving you an estimate on crowd levels. Others treat you to a daily attraction wait time list that gives you some idea of what the parks are like on that day.

I can't give you analytic data because I don't believe that one year carries to the next the same way. I can't give you daily wait times because I don't live in Orlando and visit the parks every single day. What I can give you is my experience from having visited Disney several times throughout the year.

Predicting when a slow week will happen isn't a science. It's a guess and most of the time we are all wrong. That being said, my most recent visit was a little eye opening in terms of attraction wait times, park congestion, and even parking.

January is a good time to visit Orlando. The weather is a lot nicer, it was mid to upper 60's the week I went. The start of the month brings in athletes from everywhere to take part in the Disney Marathon. Needless to say, it's a busy weekend and it is busy leading up to the weekend.

I took a chance. I wanted to see what the week after the marathon was like so I booked my reservations and visited Monday through Friday. Here is what I found out and why this should matter in the future.

The holiday season was over, the marathon was over, and the Arts Festival at EPCOT was set to begin on Friday.

Monday - Disney had not yet started the free-to-park-hop for annual pass holders so we went to Magic Kingdom. Wait times were less than 30 minutes on practically every ride. The park itself was not crowded and it was actually easy to maneuver through the gift shops with a stroller.

I was surprised to see the Starbucks line low for a change as well. Food lines were shorter and we actually did more on that day than the last few times we had visited over the summer and fall.

Tuesday - I took my 4-year-old to Animal Kingdom. We got there around 11 and walked on to Kilimanjaro Safaris. In fact, we rode it twice. At Expedition Everest, we rode that three times in a row and almost a fourth until a rude cast member refused to let my son ride because he measured the first time on the tips of his toes and wouldn't let him measure again. I took him to Dinosaur and he rode that three times.

Needless to say, we were out of the park at 3:00 and did everything and then some. While we didn't ride AVATAR: Flight of Passage, he was too short by a 1/8 of an inch, the wait time was only 60 minutes.

Wednesday - The kids didn't have school so we hit the parks early. We started at Hollywood Studios where we walked on four times for Smugglers Run. Rise of the Resistance was down. We then hit Tower of Terror for a 20 minute wait but opted to skip the 45 minute wait for Slinky Dog Dash and did Toy Story Mania instead for 40 minutes.

We jumped on the Skyliner and headed to EPCOT where it was basically a "do whatever we wanted" kind of day.

Thursday - We decided to bounce park-to-park-to-park hitting Magic Kingdom, Epcto, and Hollywood each in one day. There were little wait times for any attraction and we ended the night at EPCOT to watch the new Luminous fireworks show. We got a table at a restaurant in Mexico right up against the fence on the lake. Perfect viewing opportunity with no crowds.

Friday - Friday was off to EPCOT for the opening of Festival of the Arts. It was incredibly crowded which I wasn't completely expecting for opening day. I knew the weekend would be bad but Friday surprised me a lot. We stayed there long enough to make the round around World Showcase and then headed to Magic Kingdom where the crowds were much less.

Overall, this is the 2nd time I have visited a Disney park after marathon weekend and it was quite relaxing. I visited in September and it can be hit or miss as kids go back to school because some families will still take their kids out of school. Yes, the summer months are hot and that drives some guests away but not as much as you would think.

Honestly, standing in line with a bunch of people in the middle of July and August is just painful. I might have to wait another year to see if this post-marathon week holds up but it was interesting and again, enjoyable.