I never went to the Cove pool on the Dream but did this year on the Fantasy quite a bit. We had early dining so I would usually hit it late afternoon (started to empty out around 4:00. I would then come back after dinner and we usually had the pool to ourselves for an hour or so. The time right after early dining was also good for the kids pools. Even when the pool was crowded on sea days it was still a great place to sit (or stand) and relax.