This was my second trip on ZUIDERDAM, the first being in 2003. Then, everything went wrong; this round, everything went right. Drove to Ft. Lauderdale from Naples the day before and stayed with friends. Pre-boarding was done online and I breezed thru check-in. "Hotel" staff had a 'rhythm' much like a well-oiled machine but didn't lose the human touch. The food in the dining room AND Lido deck were of consistent high quality, with only a few...uh...'wrinkles'. After all, everybody can't like everything. Ship activities were well planned and executed. Now, a word about ship handling and seamanship, which, I think, transcends everything else. We tendered in Cozumel and between the ship and the dock, the seas picked up astoundingly fast, so by the time we reached our landing point, it was kind of dicey. In the space of about six seconds, as we tried to land, the tender was smashed (and I MEAN smashed)against the dock, staving in the starboard catamaran bow on the first shot and ripped off the bumpers on the second shot... and it happened fast! We pulled off, damage was assessed and it was determined that we could make it back to the ship safely. No one was hurt. Tender crew handled this superbly; most surprisingly, NONE of the passengers "lost it", but it got very, very quiet on that tender, until we got back to the ship, in, by now, very rough seas. Hats off to the crew of #15 boat! I understand ZUIDERDAM is going to Italy in about six weeks for drydock. I really hope HAL will make an effort to keep this ships company reasonably intact as re-training a new crew is 'labor intensive'. For the record, I'm booked for a 'back-to-back' Ft. Laud/San Diego Panama Canal cruise in November, on ROTTERDAM, '08, my third HAL booking. I have confidence that trip will go as smoothly as this, all contingencies considered.