We cruised on the Dream April 17, 2010 through the Western Caribbean. This was our second cruise. Our first was on the Caribbean Princess so I'll have some comparisons between these two ships and cruise lines since that's my only perspective for other cruises.
Embarkation:
We arrived in Port Canaveral at 12:30 which was earlier than Carnival told us to arrive but were able to board quickly. The porters took our bags immediately and we were inside the port in 2-3 minutes. We were in line upstairs in about another 2-3 minutes. It took us about 15 minutes before we were eating lunch in the Crimson dining room. The process was orderly and very painless. Our luggage arrived in the room around 3:30 and our room was available to us on schedule. We basically ate lunch, walked around to kill 15 minutes and then the doors to the cabins were open so we were able to drop off our stuff and head to the pool.
Loud when side propellors were running. Plenty of room.