So I got some dumb, dumb questions for you brightlined -
The lower the number the better?
How does one quantify the difference between say a 25 and a 32
TIA
Yes - that's an approximate average wait time for every ride in the park combined. 40 is high, 44 is peak, 17 is the low.
25 and 32 isn't going to be a huge difference - it's the really the bigger ranges that you'll feel it.
I've personally always liked the last couple of weeks of January as a time to visit. To be fair, I was not there this year at that time, but I was there
last year during that timeframe (with an MK), and it was really lovely. Medium crowds, the weather was nicely cool (my kind of weather). (I was enjoying it so much, I actually added an extra day.) I think you've got a good set of dates.
(I was there on Jan 7 and 8 this year, both 25 there, and had a really nice visit - I thought it was going to be crazy, and it wasn't. I was there at the beginning of last week, too, and it was 25-27 during my days - I had a great time - it was busy-ish, but nothing out of bounds.)
Side note: I posted that mainly as a quiet way to contest some of the advice here:
1) Honestly, since OP is asking about the last week in January, they'll be fine with any of those choices. Late January is a bit of a dead season - post-holiday / pre-spring, - there's not much going on, and the weather can be on the cool side. For OP, it's really more about whether they want to see fireworks or not.
2) CoasterGT24 mentioned that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday had the lowest averages for the month, but that's not really a fair statistic to predict late January, since the monthly average includes the
beginning of January. (Monday has an insanely busy Jan 2nd that throws its average.)
3) Mondays aren't bad in
late January. MKs aren't blocked out on Sundays at the end of January, so there's not the same rush back to the park on Monday - people will have been there the day before. (Sundays in late January have often been pretty chill in general, too.)
4) I personally just don't like Fridays because of Friday
nights, which isn't represented in the day average. Fridays can be mild through the afternoon - but it can get pretty busy at night. But, again, that's just my personal taste - and it's probably not enough to be really noticeable in late January.
To be fair, it's all guesswork, too. We're all relying on what we've seen and experienced, and it could always be totally different than anything that's happened before.