Booking last minute - choose drink package or UDP?

[Beth 2001]

I'm thinking about booking two balcony cabins next month on either the Dawn or Breakaway for myself, my husband and our teenage twin sons and am trying to decide between the drink package and the dining package. We generally eat in specialty restaurants at least 5 of 7 nights and are not big drinkers. Plus our sons would only get a soda package that's valued at less than the UDP. For these reasons, I'm leaning towards choosing the UDP but am concerned that reservations may not be available given how close to sailing we're booking and how many people now have the UDP. Could any recent Dawn/Breakaway cruisers comment on how easy it was to make specialty reservations on board? If we would have to eat at 5 pm or 9 pm in the specialties then we would rather choose the drink package and eat in the MDR. Thanks for any information and advice you can provide!

[monkeybone]

I just came off the Breakaway last week. We change almost all of our dinner reservations when on board. We did have to be flexible and it worked out great. Dinner starts at 5:30. You should have no problem at 9pm.

Enjoy your cruise :)

[Beth 2001]

Thanks! We love eating in the specialty restaurants so I would definitely rather have the UDP as long as reservations are available onboard!