Just curious, but I find this hard to picture - there are 8 lifeboats per side on the Dream. With full capacity (4000 guests) that would mean 500 people per lifeboat. They just don't look that large. Are there two levels inside?
I'd love to know too why they do any have such huge muster stations inside. We were in the theatre for the first time on our last cruise, and we were surprised at several things -
1. How many people were in there. All seats taken and people packed in standing. Which boats do the people in the theatre muster group fill into?
I can't even imagine trying to join parents and kids in that setting in a true emergency.
2. How little of the emergency drill was actually explained. Outside the drill was always relatively serious with no talking encouraged. The one in the theatre was light-hearted and there was very little discussed. Maybe I missed it??
We also felt the lack of lifevests are a mistake. Sure, they're hot and uncomfortable, but that's a small price to pay for preparedness. We really couldn't figure out where our lifeboat would be from there, and I guess next time we should ask. If anyone knows these answers, I'd love to know.
Liveboats usually hold 120 or 150 passengers, those on RCL Oasis class are bigger, they hold about 220 per boat. The rest is covered by inflatable rafts. Next time you are on the outside promenade, count how many of those you see and look at them, what their capacity is. They are the white cylinders. I think they hold about 50 people each. One system I find quite fascinating, but which
DCL doesn't have, I think, is the Viking Chute sytem. It's a very big raft, that can hold several hundred people and which you get in via a chute. RCL's Radiance class has those.
As for the theatre being a muster station, it actually makes sense, as the ships becomes narrower at the front because of the form of a ships bow, there is not enough standing room outside for all the passengers to await lifeboat boarding, the theater is actually right next to those lifeboats outside. Next time you are in the theatre, just open one of those doors on the side, marked Exit, you'll be standing right outside on the promenade deck... Not sure, which muster stations are assigned to the theatre on DCL, but I'd guess it's 2 lifeboats per side. Just check outside, which letters those lifeboats have, should be the same as the muster stations in the theatre.
Also, I can see why they got rid of the rule to bring the lifevest to the drill, it implies you always should return to your cabin first to get your lifevest before going to the muster station. Now think you are on Deck 11, your cabin is on deck 1, as you are not allowed to use elevators in an emergency, first, you walk down 11 floors to your cabin, the last 4 floors, fighting against people who come up the stairs from their cabins to the muster station. Once you are in the cabin, you grab the vest and then have to get up 4 or 5 floors to get to the muster station. Just think how much valuable time you lose. Time which might decide over life and death.
As there are enough lifevests at the muster stations, just get there from wherever you are and get a vest there. Of course, if you are in the cabin at the time of an alarm, take the vest from there.
When you enter your cabin for the first time, it should be in your own interest to check if you have all the vests in the sizes you need, if they are in good order and also put them on at least once so you know how they work.
And what we should do? 
We are just fine, because I always keep 2 weeks of food on hand for earthquake and snow emergencies.)
