Boarding the ship was routine, easy and took about 40 minutes. We've come to the conclussion that Bigger doesn't mean better. The Dream has been advertised for it's size but we found out that although the ship is huge, most of the size increase was for additional staterooms and cabins. All of the public spaces were over crowded and the lines to eat on the lido deck were so long that we stopped going their after the second day. For the first two days on the lido food courts once we did get our food there was no place to sit and eat it.
Having said this I need to say the service was superb and so were the accomodations. The pools areas were so crowded that we chose not to go there and no we aren't prudes as a matter of fact we are members of a well known 4Wheel drive club located in N. California that took this cruise as a group.
We had two tables for 10 at the late seating for dinner. The food was ok, but pretty much the standard cruise ship menu. On lobster night everyone in our group had more lobster than they could have possibly eaten. As always the deserts were worth waiting for.