Cruise business watertight despite sinking in Antarctic

— -- There's nothing like the sight of a rapidly sinking ship to get people to reconsider a cruise. Or, at least, that's the conventional wisdom.

The reality is that the foundering of G.A.P Adventures' Explorer Nov. 23 in frigid Antarctic waters hasn't made a dent in demand for cruises to the region.

"We've had a lot of calls, but not a single cancellation," notes Chuck Cross of Polar Cruises, a travel agency that specializes in trips to the polar regions.

If anything, business is busier this week at Polar Cruises as the firm fields calls from people scheduled on upcoming Explorer voyages who now are looking for a last-minute replacement.

"The season is pretty much full" on every ship, Cross says. "We're trying to place them in any opening we can find."

Despite worldwide coverage of the accident that often stressed the dangers of travel to the poles, Cruisecritic.com editor Carolyn Spencer Brown says it's unlikely the sinking will have any sort of impact on bookings.

"What happened to Explorer (isn't resonating) for a couple of reasons," she says. "One is that safety procedures worked and everyone, including crew, was successfully rescued. The other is that destinations like Antarctica attract a more adventure-minded traveler."

As one rescued passenger told ABC News: "They promised us an adventure, but I didn't think they ever intended to make it this good."

A tiny but growing niche of travel, expedition cruising to Antarctica is nothing like traditional cruising. Most voyages take place on small, often spartan, ice-hardened vessels that have quarters for just 50 to 150 passengers — compared with 3,000 or more on big, mass-market cruise ships — and draw a hardy crowd. Many ships are former research vessels designed to operate in iceberg-filled waters; others, like Explorer, were built for polar tourism.

The number of people sailing to Antarctica has quintupled over the past 15 years, to about 35,000 a year.

Many say if there's anything worrisome about the Antarctica tourist boom, it's not the expedition ships such as Explorer — a legendary vessel launched in 1969 by adventure-travel pioneer Lars-Eric Lindblad — but the bigger, more traditional ships such as 960-passenger Crystal Symphony that have begun visiting Antarctic waters.