The Dream Palace serves as a resting place for the Dream Rod. Here, Kirby can summon Dream Friends returning from previous Kirby titles as friends in the Story Mode. The Dream Palace can only be entered if a certain big switch was pressed in a previous stage; the first opportunity to do so is the mandatory big switch in Donut Dome.
Each Dream Palace can only be used once, and after that, access is blocked until Kirby completes another stage. At that point, the Dream Palace opens up again. However, it is possible to visit Dream Palaces in other levels to acquire more Dream Friends.