Moved this from the OBB email thread, ready to get flamed, but my cent and a half on the topic.
Probably get flamed for this, but we don't book a dummy dates, well not totally true when Hawaii came out we booked that once a slot opened and moved our Mexican riviera cruise to a 4 night Dream to save vacation time for the Hawaii cruise. That was not our intention when we originally booked, Hawaii just kind of happened. I get the feeling that the price increases in our off peak cruises could partially be because that is where some of the dummy dates are going because they would have a cheaper deposit. Personally that they allow you to do this in any window at all without penalty is pretty generous, not sure what other lines do. All I know is that the off peak prices have really jumped, not sure if it is due to the dummy dates or just general price gouging?
I understand this does cause issues for those that can't cruise every year, but if the dummy dates are driving prices up it kind of hoses you in a different way. From DCL's perspective if people hold and move at the latest date possible, they may have to offer what looked like a full fare room at an igt, ogt, or vgt rate and make less money, which from a profit stand point isn't all that great for DCL. Just food for thought.
Cgolf
Just wanted to add that our way to cruise so often is to utilize the off peak cruises with the OBB, which is why I hope they don't ever artificially fill up and drive the prices up because of an artificial demand. January 2015 is stupid right now, booking onboard last Friday for a 7 night Magic in an 11b was I believe only 300 to 400 less than what we could have done a fantasy veranda for this coming January, could be off a bit but pretty close, pricing is out of whack right now for some reason