If you are considering a pkg, and you have faith that Disney will offer another spectacular Fairytale type deal (7 nights for 4) in 2005, you might be better off holding off. I don't have that kind of faith in the pkg discounts, so personally I would buy whichever non expiring tickets I needed at the best deal I could get as soon as I could afford them. Ticket prices usually go up as time passes (with the exception of one time there was a discount on "gift" APs, which expired a year after purchase). If you are interested in purchasing tickets that will expire, like the FITS passes, I would purchase them a few months before I go, so I would feel confident that I would get them in time, but also have a few months leeway in case I needed to delay my trip for any reason. First, you will need to determine which type of tickets you will need, weighing in various criteria, like will you go back to WDW within a year, is there a chance your trip could be delayed, how flexible are you with dates, etc.