re: Disney World - Observations from my first trip

We've gone in January numerous times...outside of marathon weekend, it's pretty dead crowd-wise. Also, you can find like a week in between Thanksgiving and Christmas that is pretty calm where you can enjoy all of the Christmas offerings. Sept and Oct are usually great too. Crowds stay pretty low since school has only recently started, and you get the Halloween festivities plus Food & Wine Festival in EPCOT.