I agree! The sooner the better. The deposit is a small price to pay for peace of mind and if you have to cancel you get all your money back as long as it is at least 7 days out from arrival time.
I was just thinking the same thing this morning!! We'd like to be their early Dec 2004 and I was trying to remember how early I booked last time! We stayed last Dec at a preferred site....I think I booked in Feb 2002. I was waiting for the DC discounts to be announced since you couldn't modify your existing ressie to add the DC discount later. With DC being gone at that point, I don't think I need to worry about that!!