Retiring domain associated with a DreamHost WordPress site - migrating site content to a new domain

I recently decided not to renew a domain managed and registered with DreamHost. That domain had an associated WordPress site. This is the sequence I followed to preserve the content of the site.

1. Turned off renewal for the domain (domain_old).
2. In WordPress for domain_old I exported the site as a XML file which I downloaded and archived.
3. In DreamHost control panel Manage Websites I clicked "new website". This let me add a subdomain to one of my existing domains.
4. In DreamHost control panel Manage Websites I clicked on domain_old and scrolled down to entry for Domain. That says "change your WordPress site to run under a different domain name". I chose the subdomain I created earlier. This took about 5-10 minutes to run.
5. When I then visited the subdomain I created the WordPress site came up.

The process only took a few minutes the first time I tried.