LIers rattled, but still set to sail

The cruising will go on -- at least, for now.

Long Islanders who have booked cruises may be expressing trepidation about their upcoming trips in the wake of the startling Costa Concordia accident in Italy last weekend, but they are still planning to take their trips, according to reports from Long Island travel agents and passengers.

"I would have expected a lot of cancellations. Surprisingly, we haven't had any," says Doris Massari of Sunset Travel in Bellmore. "I can't figure it out. I think they're just saying, 'It is what it is, and it's not going to happen again.'"

Jill and Marc Hyman of Hewlett, for instance, are going ahead with plans for a Caribbean cruise from Puerto Rico this week. Before the Concordia ran aground and capsized, killing at least 11 people, Jill Hyman never thought about a behemoth cruise ship being dangerous. For the past week, that's all she's been thinking about.

"This timing stunk. It really did," says Hyman, 52. Still, "deep down in my heart, I feel nothing is going to happen."

And that's what the cruise industry is waiting to see: Will passengers still consider cruising safe? Or will they stop booking or cancel trips because of this incident?

Jody Smith, director of product strategy for Liberty Travel, which has 18 offices on Long Island, says they have fielded concerned calls from local clients, but haven't seen a "wholesale panic everybody-canceling-cruises" reaction.

NO REFUNDS AVAILABLE

For the record: Neither Carnival, the parent company to Costa, nor other cruise lines are offering refunds to people spooked by the Concordia accident, Massari says.

Avid cruiser James Reed of Oceanside compares the rarity of this incident to that of an airliner crash. "They have a low incidence of accidents and deaths," Reed said of cruise ships. "I figure the odds would be with me. ... You've got to be sane about it." He said he plans to cruise to Canada this year, and he'd take a Costa cruise if the opportunity arose.

Whether the accident spurs a rampant slash in cruise fares remains to be seen. The Concordia accident comes at a particularly critical time for the cruise industry -- January through March is known as the "wave" season, the biggest booking period of the year. Massari said she was on the phone with several cruise lines on Tuesday whose prices had dropped since Monday, even though they weren't advertising any sales.

As far as vacationing goes, cruising remains a safe means of travel, experts say. From 2005- 2010 there were only 16 fatalities out of more than 98 million passengers on cruise ships, says Bud Darr of the Cruise Line Industry Association.

Still, the situation on the Concordia is troubling: Human error has been blamed for the initial impact, with Capt. Francesco Schettino accused of deviating from the ship's preprogrammed course and abandoning the ship and its passengers. There are reports that the ship hadn't yet conducted a safety "muster" drill for passengers, and that, in the aftermath of the crash, the cruise line staff seemed unprepared to help passengers escape.

"I think a lot of people are kind of alarmed by the stories coming out," says John Deiner, managing editor of the New Jersey-based CruiseCritic.com, a consumer website.

NEW EMPHASIS ON SAFETY?

In the wake of this incident, cruise lines may beef up their safety tactics. By maritime law, ships have 24 hours after leaving port to conduct their safety drills with passengers, and how soon the musters are done varies from ship to ship, Deiner says. And they're not taken very seriously by some passengers.

"A lot of times people go through the drill, they're very lackadaisical. They want to get back on deck and listen to the band." Going forward, that's likely to change.

The Hymans, meanwhile, have made their own safety plan. They've discussed where to meet in case of a shipboard emergency, and they'll both carry flashlights at all times in their fanny packs onboard. And Jill is consoling herself with this thought: "If anything, this is the safest time to go. Everybody is going to be extra cautious in every which way."

Jay Clarke contributed to this story.