People often ask: “When is the best time to visit Disneyland?”

If by “best” those people mean “not crowded,” then any recent visitor to the park would be able to give the correct answer – which is, of course, “a school day, 20 years ago.”

Forget about trying to find a magical crowd calendar that will tell you the secret days when no one’s showing up at Disneyland and you can have the park all to yourself. If that secret crowd calendar ever existed, lots of other people have found it by now, and they would all be there at the park, waiting for you – along with thousands of other fans.

The “offseason” no longer exists as it once did at Disneyland. Thanks to parents taking their children out of school, easy monthly payment plans on annual passes that steer locals to weekday visits, and event programs – such as half marathons and food festivals – that bring fans to the parks on previously slow weeks, Disney has found ways to fill its theme parks no matter the time of year.

If you must go to Disneyland on a day with sparse crowds, here’s the better question to ask: “Is it raining?” If the answer is yes, then go. That’s your best chance to find one of those magical days when crowds are light at Disneyland.

Now, if by asking for the best time to go, you’re simply looking for a day when you can have fun at Disneyland – or any other local theme park – the answer is “whichever day you want to visit.” Calendar tricks don’t provide nearly as much help in avoiding theme park crowds as when you arrive and what you do on the day that you do choose to visit.

The only time you will find an empty (and dry) theme park is the moment it opens in the morning. That’s a tough thing for many local fans to hear, as work or school keeps us from hitting Disneyland on most days until the late afternoon or evening. But the best day to visit the park is one where you can get there before it opens (and when there’s no Extra Magic Hour early access for hotel guests – that’s Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings at Disneyland and Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at Disney California Adventure).

So, what do you do once you’re in the park? Whatever you want. It kills me to see people getting frustrated trying to follow some itinerary they got from a friend or downloaded from a website. Yeah, I’ve offered step-by-step plans to a lot of readers over the years. But offering that kind of advice to some theme park visitors anymore is like giving a bottle of Johnnie Walker to an alcoholic. They think they’re getting something great, but they just end up miserable.

Here’s my rule for visiting a theme park – if you’re having a good time, you’re doing it right. Don’t worry about whether someone else waited less time for a ride than you did. Don’t worry about how many rides or shows you see on your visit. And for all that is good and holy in the world, don’t worry if you are visiting on the “right” day.

No matter how many other people are in the park with you, there’s something fun waiting for you, with little or no wait. I’ve never had to wait longer than until the start of the next show to learn how to draw a Disney character in the Animation Academy at Disney California Adventure. Or to get into Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland, which remains a cute show with a wonder of “real world” animation.

Heck, on my last visit with my children, they had as much fun killing time playing checkers on the old-time board in the Starbucks on Main Street as anything else they did all day.

If you stop treating the park like some reality-show competition, you might find a lot of fun waiting for you. Actually, that’s a pretty good lesson for anything … not just a visit to Disneyland.

Robert Niles is the founder and editor of ThemeParkInsider.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThemePark