Mark Wagner / Courtesy Airport Chatter

This screenshot from Airport Chatter shows a listing of eateries at Philadelphia International Airport.

Airports can be confusing places, especially large ones that travelers are experiencing for the first time, so knowing where to find that great cup of coffee or figuring out if there is a place near your departure gate to fit in a quick massage before boarding can often be a daunting task.

And that’s the logic behind Airport Chatter, a new website launched several weeks ago designed to take the hassle out of getting around airports.

The idea is the brain child of Mark Wagner and Izzy Kirsh, two 20-somethings working in the technology field and currently living in Toronto and Miami respectively.

“I’m a real aviation fan,” said Wagner. “I love travel and I love airports.” But every time he travels, he said, the same problems and challenges persist. “The more we talked, the more we saw the need to make air travel easier to navigate and to be more social,” Wagner said.

The average airport has three terminals, 18 airlines, 40 eateries, 30 shops, 25 services, three lounges, public transportation, taxis, limos, shuttles, long-term parking, short-term parking and an array of hotels nearby, according to Airport Chatter, which hopes to help travelers quickly locate what they are looking for and display where the venue is located.

The site currently features detailed profiles for some of the busiest airports in the United States and includes every eatery, shop, service and lounge at those airports — more than 6,000 venues in total at 53 airports — helping travelers learn about which restaurants there are after security is cleared or what the costs are for long-term parking.

The site also has a community platform where venues and services can be rated, reviewed and shared with fellow travelers.

The site is available to search at no cost, but to post reviews, users must either log in through Facebook or Twitter, or register with Airport Chatter directly. Reviews are monitored in real time, Wagner said.

Here's a recent one posted by Nephro31 about Cibo Express, a food venue at John F. Kennedy International Airport:

“Has Kosher food but very expensive and not fresh. Good to know though if your in rush.”

The venue also bears a 4.2 star rating, based on a possible five stars, which is an average of the ratings posted. Users can also give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to denote how useful the rating is, Wagner said.

Wagner said individual airports typically have much of the same information on their websites as Airport Chatter, but travelers typically have to visit more than one site and it takes time to sort through everything; other commercial sites are frequently not updated with any regularity. Airport Chatter aims to create one site that allows travelers to access detailed airport information all in one place, easily and quickly, he said.

“The goal is really turning Airport Chatter into a global airport platform for travelers,” Wagner said, that will include everything they need — before, during and when departing the airport.

Expansion plans include adding the larger airports of Latin America and Asia next. Eventually all international and domestic airports will be included, he said. In addition, he and colleagues plan to roll in more robust features in coming months, like social profiles and gaming mechanics, similar to Four Square offerings. And based on research that touts their success, he said, the site plans to eventually include rewards, both real and virtual.

Henry H. Harteveldt, co-founder of the Atmosphere Research Group, a market research company, said there are a number of commercial sites currently offering services similar to what Airport Chatter provides.

“There is definitely no clear winner in this space yet,” he said. It’s early in the game, but Airport Chatter will need to create a site different enough to draw in more users, he said. “The challenge will be to make it so useful, people go to it first.”

And that won’t be easy, he said. “People don’t think about airports all that much” unless on the way to or already at them. Also critical to Airport Chatter's ultimate success will be to eventually offer the service on a smartphone or a tablet.

But even then it will be tough, he said. A recent study done by the Atmosphere Research Group found that few of the 5,058 adults surveyed even used airport apps. Of survey participants who owned smartphones, 63 percent had no airport app at all, and only eight percent of those surveyed had and regularly used them, he said.

And for the social media piece to be successful, the capability to easily find other travelers similar to the users will be very important.

“But the good news is, I think there is an opportunity for someone to come in to really help travelers,” Harteveldt said.

Wagner is quick to say Airport Chatter is still in its infancy, and would not say how much traffic it has received, though it is beginning to get some traction. Overall, he and colleagues have been pleased with the initial response, noting most users have searched the site, and less have posted reviews, which he expects will change as it takes hold.

“Obviously, the site still really needs tweaking,” Wagner said, noting that technological issues have been particularly challenging. “This is not it. It’s all about the future,” Wagner said, adding that he and co-workers are hard at work on version 2.0.

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For the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, just about every aspect of the storied liner – from safety issues to class differences among passengers – is being explored, analyzed and celebrated. 

But little attention is being given to another group of Titanic travelers: the dogs that made the voyage.

A new exhibit at the Widener University Art Gallery, in Chester, Pa., that opened Tuesday hopes to change that by including stories of the dogs and their owners who sailed on the Titanic, said J. Joseph Edgette, professor emeritus of education and folklorist emeritus at Widener University, who produced and curated the exhibit.

“I wanted to include things that people don’t normally run across,” Edgette said, noting that there were no Titanic-related exhibits that he was aware of that focused on the famed ocean liner’s canine passengers.

“Everybody knows about the iceberg, how the ship went down, and the heroic stories, but it doesn’t go beyond that, yet there are hundreds of other aspects that we need to give attention to,” said Edgette, who based much of his findings on eyewitness accounts of the evacuation, ship’s records and his own research. “Until recently, most scholarship has not covered the dogs.”

Twelve dogs set sail on the Titanic, according to Edgette, although other researchers have come up with differing accounts. Only three survived, he said.

Those that were saved included a baby Pomeranian, owned by Margaret Hays of New York City, who kept the puppy in the cabin with her, Edgette said. When passengers were evacuated, Hays wrapped it in a blanket. Crew members allowed her to get in a lifeboat with the puppy.

Others that lived were Sun Yat-sen, a Pekinese belonging to Henry and Myra Harper (of Harper & Row publishing fame), also of New York City, and a small Pomeranian owned by Elizabeth Rothschild from Watkins Glen, N.Y.

All surviving dogs were small and were kept in the first-class cabins of their owners, Edgette said.

Two of the dogs that perished were owned by William Carter, a coal magnate. Carter’s children were worried about their pets, but their father assured them the dogs were safe and encouraged his children to get in the lifeboats, Edgette said. The family survived, and later received insurance reimbursement from Lloyds of London in the amount of $100 for daughter Lucy’s King Charles spaniel and $200 for son Billy’s Airedale.

Other dogs that died included two Airedales, one named Kitty, owned by John Jacob Astor IV and his wife, and a fox terrier owned by William Dulles, an attorney from Philadelphia.

The exhibit features photos – some authentic, some representative -- of the dogs and their owners. One  photo depicts a group of dogs tied to the rail on the Titanic’s deck, which perished, and another shows crew members walking several dogs.

In addition to the dogs, the exhibit focuses on several Philadelphia-area families who sailed on the Titanic, including the Widener family, for whom Widener University is named. Three Widener family members sailed on the Titanic, but only one survived.

The exhibit also includes displays about the company that built the Titanic, details about the ship, information about the recovery of bodies after the sinking, how local families memorialized members who lost their lives after the tragedy, as well as Titanic’s impact on popular culture.

Free and open to the public, the exhibit runs through May 12.

Correction: In an earlier version of this post, we published several photos from a Widener University Art Gallery exhibit that depict dogs who sailed on the Titanic.

Msnbc.com has learned some images featured on our story and in the exhibit are not authentic, but rather were intended as representations of the breeds on board. Rebecca Warda, collections manager at the gallery, said the exhibit will be updated with signs clearly indicating which images are historically accurate and which are representations.

The photos have been removed from msnbc.com.

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Courtesy Doug Mack

Doug Mack, shown here in Venice, traveled through Europe using a 47-year-old edition of Arthur Frommer's classic travel guide "Europe on Five Dollars a Day" while researching his new book, "Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day: One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide."

Most of us are not like Indiana Jones, and do not want to travel like we are. And that’s the premise behind a new book that pokes fun at the current trend for travel writers and travelers to seek out the road less traveled.

To research "Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day: One Man, Eight Countries, One Vintage Travel Guide" (Perigee/Penguin), to be released April 3, author Doug Mack traveled through Europe, visiting many major cities and sites, using a 47-year-old edition of Arthur Frommer’s classic travel guide "Europe on Five Dollars a Day." Along the way, he may have spent far more than five dollars a day, but he discovered the beaten path offered some unexpected surprises.

Mack answered a few questions for msnbc.com:

Why did you write this book?
The back-story is that I was at a book festival in Minneapolis with my mother, and I happened across a copy of "Europe on Five Dollars a Day," which I initially found interesting only because the title was so laughably outdated. When I showed it to my mom, she got all excited: she’d been LOOKING for that! For YEARS! It turned out she had used that book during her own Grand Tour in 1967; she also mentioned that she had all of her letters from her trip.

At first, I was just interested in the family-history angle, but as I dug through the letters and paged through the book, it also struck me that they offered intriguing big-picture views into travel and life in a very different era. I decided go to Europe guided by those letters and that book, both because it seemed like a fun adventure but also to see for myself how the tourist experience had changed in the last generation.

Did your journey turn out to be what you hoped at the outset?
Yes, in the sense that I generally had a great time and found lots of interesting comparisons between then and now.

That said, I had also naively hoped that in every single restaurant and hotel, I'd find an aged proprietor who would instantly recognize my 1963 guidebook and start regaling me with stories about Arthur Frommer, and we would become fast friends, and share many bottles of wine and hours of lively conversation until the wee hours, just like in a movie. Alas, it was not like that all day, every day — more often, I got blank stares from jaded young employees when I pulled out my book. But those awkward experiences also made for amusing stories.

What’s your personal favorite story or experience that you wrote about in the book?
In Rome, I stayed in a place called the Hotel Texas. Frommer's 1963 description runs nearly half a page and raves about its “glamorously-decorated” spaces and sophisticated guests. When I got there, though, it was essentially an archetype of deteriorated grandeur. When I showed my book to the desk clerk, he got very excited and told me he remembered "Europe on Five Dollars a Day," remembered that quote, remembered the glory days. He pulled out a hotel brochure from that era, and pointed out all the praise from other guidebooks and magazines. I had a fantastic time chatting with him over the next few days and hearing all of his stories. 

How do you think the book will contribute to travel writing memoirs?
I hope that it helps encourage other writers to take a second look at the so-called “beaten path” and realize that there are still plenty of stories left to tell there. There are two classic archetypes of travel memoir writers: the swaggering adventurers who cheat death on a daily basis, and the corporate dropouts who go to a rustic, charming village to learn “what really matters in life.” Those are all fine and good, but it's interesting how these sorts of books have become cliches in their own right; the road less traveled is actually a bit tediously familiar when it comes to travel writing.

How can readers use your book for better travel experiences?
I was about to make a joke that my book really only serves as an example of what not to do: Don't travel with a decades-old guidebook, or you will get very, very lost. But, actually, getting lost was one of the unexpected and revelatory joys of my unpractical travel method. I don't advocate total ignorance, and there were certainly times when I really wished I had been better prepared and better informed. On the whole, though, I found that getting lost and having to rely on my wits rather than a smartphone or a stack of Lonely Planets ultimately made for a more delightful, interesting, and immersive experience.

I enjoyed reading your descriptions of Arthur Frommer’s early years and his transition to travel guide writing. What were his main contributions to the field, then and also more recently?
Before Arthur Frommer came along, the major guidebooks were aimed at well-off travelers, what one might call the steamer-trunk crowd. Frommer's book had much more populist, middle-class appeal; it was essentially a manifesto for budget tourism, starting with the forthright, catchy title, almost like something from a self-help book: "Europe on Five Dollars a Day." I liken Frommer to Julia Child: they both provided the template and encouragement for the typical American. 

The general layout and style of Frommer's book was also different, more clear and concise and intuitive to use: chapter per city, each one divided into neighborhoods, all the recommendations in bold type — it's a template that basically all guidebooks follow today, but which was innovative at the time.

In the 1990s, Frommer's was one of the first guidebook companies to have a major Internet presence, and Frommers.com remains one of the most prominent travel web sites. Arthur Frommer himself has a blog there.

What do you think are the main ways travel guides have changed since the original edition of “Europe on Five Dollars a Day” came out?
The biggest thing is just that there are so many more of them — Frommer's now publishes something like 470 different guidebooks, Lonely Planet has even more, and there are many other publishers. Today’s guides also tend to be more specialized, focusing on a particular city or activity or demographic. I have not yet found a book titled The Extreme Athlete's Guide to the Vatican, but it probably exists.

The coming change, of course, is that guides are going digital. All of the major guidebook publishers also have material online, plus their own smartphone apps, and then there's all the competition from the likes of TripAdvisor and other crowd-sourced sites.

And have they changed for the better or for the worse?
Mostly for the better — planning is easier when there’s so much more information available. However, I think it's a shame that most guidebooks today don't give you a sense of the personality and specific writing voice of the author. Frommer wasn't trying to fit a specific institutional voice or style manual, so reading his book is sort of like hearing tips from a trusted friend, just because of the conversational tone of his writing.

How did “Europe on Five Dollars a Day” hold up?  Did your view of it change AFTER you traveled with it?
As you'd expect, most of the hotels and restaurants listed in the book were closed. Others had gone upscale, way out of the range of a budget traveler. Oh, and five dollars a day? Not a feasible daily budget nowadays, shockingly. Some cities were virtually unrecognizable from Frommer's descriptions — Berlin has changed tremendously since the 1960s, obviously — but some, like Rome and Paris, felt basically the same. And in every single city, there were at least a few hotels and restaurants and attractions that were still around and seemingly unchanged since Frommer's day. It held up enough for me to get by.

What is an example of how using “Europe on Five Dollars a Day” got you in trouble, and an example of how it was surprisingly rewarding?
In Paris, "Europe on Five Dollars a Day" led me to a restaurant called Le Grand Colbert, which Frommer says is really cheap and off the tourist path. Well, it turns out that it was featured in the movie “Something's Gotta Give” a few years back, so now it's a huge tourist magnet, and definitely not cheap. I walked in and the maitre d’ gave me this horrified look that basically said, “Sacre bleu, not another one of those Diane Keaton groupies. . . .” It was a spectacularly awkward meal.

There were other times, though, when Frommer's book led me away from the crowds. Like in Munich, there’s this lesser-known neighborhood that he compares favorably to Greenwich Village. I went there and it was still quiet and funky and charming, as Frommer promised; if anything, I think it was less touristy now than it was back then.

Did you send a copy to Arthur Frommer? 
Yes, my publisher sent him a book. And I was so nervous about what he would think! I have tremendous respect for him and his legacy, of course, and I trust that comes through in the book, but I also knew that the very nature of the project was probably off-putting to him: I'm a young, upstart writer doing this goofy experiment and also telling his story. But just recently, I heard Mr. Frommer on the radio show "Rudy Maxa's World," and he gave the book a glowing review — he said it was erudite and amusing and he thinks it will be a best-seller. His words, not mine. Here's hoping....

Are you still a committed non-adventurer?
Mostly. I still like to go to seemingly familiar places and find the unfamiliar thing; I really love finding the stories hidden in plain sight. But I'm certainly more adventurous than I was, so we'll see. Maybe my next book will involve using an outdated guidebook to climb Mount Everest.

What is the next travel experience you have planned?
My fiancée is trying to convince me that we should go on a hitchhiking trip in Asia. (As you will have guessed, she's quite a bit more adventurous than I …) I'm still dubious, but she's doing a good sales job, so it might happen. I'm also hoping to spend some time exploring some of the forgotten communities and cultures right here in the United States.

What’s the big message of the book you want readers to walk away with?
My message is basically the same as Frommer's underlying point all those years ago: No matter where you travel, make it your own. What's important isn't following the crowds or even not following the crowds but appreciating a place and a culture on your own terms. Don't be afraid to be a cliché and follow the masses to something really cool; don't be afraid to get totally lost and away from the crowds and out of your comfort zone. Find your own path.

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Slideshow: Titanic Belfast

Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images

The Titanic Belfast Experience is a new £90 million visitor attraction location in Belfast's Titanic Quarter, on the original site of the Harland and Wolff shipyard -- birthplace of RMS Titanic.

Launch slideshow

For Titanic buffs, life is about to get a whole lot better.

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the storied ship is quickly approaching , and cities on both sides of the Atlantic are ramping up efforts to commemorate the April 15 centennial with an extensive array of events and celebrations — from museum openings and special musical and theatrical performances, to recreated meals and graveyard tours. “Anyone with a connection to the Titanic seems to be doing something to mark the anniversary,” said Charles Weeks, professor emeritus of marine transportation at the Maine Maritime Academy and a member of the Titanic International Society.

Here’s a roundup of some of them: 

Ireland
“Titanic Belfast” is scheduled to open March 31 in a new six-story structure overlooking the slipways where the Titanic was built. The venue will feature nine galleries of interactive exhibition space that explore a range of stories, from the people who built the ship to the technology and science that located the wreck. A few of the exhibits include: recreations of the ship’s decks and cabins; an undersea exploration center; and the Shipyard Ride, which uses special effects, animations and full-scale reconstructions to recreate shipbuilding in the early 1900s. 

“It is the largest Titanic experience in the world,” said Bernard McMullan, a communications and public relations executive for Tourism Ireland. Several weeks of events in Belfast's recently developed Titanic Quarter will be held in conjunction with the attraction’s opening.

Photoblog: Inside Titanic Belfast

Just outiside Belfast is "TITANICa The Exhibition," currently at the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum in Cultra, which features more than 500 objects recovered from the Titanic's wreckage. Other Titanic tributes launched in Ireland include a yearlong series of events and activities in Cobh, County Cork, the ship’s last port of call. Only four of the 123 people picked up there survived. “Titanic 100” includes a memorial, Titanic-themed trails and boat tours, exhibitions, concerts and tours of local pubs “where people enjoyed a farewell drink before they boarded the doomed liner,” according to Tourism Ireland. 

England
The city of Southampton, where the Titanic began its fatal journey, will open the SeaCity Museum on April 10. The disaster had a devastating effect on the people of Southampton, as most of the crew lived there and more than 500 households lost at least one family member, according to the town’s website. Exhibitions will focus on themes such as the hidden history of Titanic's crew and the international fascination with the story of the Titanic, and will feature a “disaster room” and hands-on activities. 

France
La Cité de la Mer, a center in Cherbourg dedicated to deep-sea adventures, will open a new permanent exhibition on April 10, 100 years to the day the Titanic sailed there to pick up passengers. “Titanic — Return to Cherbourg” aims to recreate life onboard the ship through the testimonies from survivors and witnesses, along with exhibits, concerts, theatrical performances and guided tours. 

Canada
Nova Scotia, which boasts some 20 Titanic-related sites, will hold commemorative events on April 14 and 15. “Titanic Eve - Night of the Bells” is an evening walking procession featuring stops at Titanic-related landmarks, interpretative presentations, live performances and a moment of silence at the exact time the Titanic began to sink. Flares will be set off to symbolize the ship's call for help. The Titanic Spiritual Ceremony, an interfaith memorial service, will take place at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, with musical performances and a wreath-laying in honor of the 121 Titanic victims buried there. The Nova Scotia Archives has set up a new “virtual archive” where people can pull up Titanic-related files. Some events, including exhibits at The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, will extend into summer and autumn.

Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s easternmost province and the closest to where the ship went down, will host exhibitions, concerts, film showings, re-creations, music events, theatrical performances, lectures, tours with Titanic experts, and visits to Cape Race, where the Titanic’s distress signal was received. Local dishes that the lighthouse keepers and residents dined on in 1912, and music inspired by the Irish immigrants and musicians who perished, will also be featured. 

Atlanta
The St. Regis Atlanta will pay tribute to St. Regis founder Col. John Jacob Astor IV, who died in the sinking along with his butler. Throughout April, the hotel will serve a signature cocktail and afternoon tea menu created for the occasion, and offer a special package in the Empire Suite, for $3,300 a night, the same price in 1912 for the crossing in one of two deluxe parlor suites aboard the Titanic. On April 10, a complimentary cocktail reception will offer guests and the public hors d’oeuvres inspired by the last dinner served on the Titanic, and will feature sabering (a ceremonial opening using a sabre) of 100 bottles of Heidsieck Champagne, a label served on the Titanic.

Branson, Mo., and Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Titanic Museum Attractions will host “A night to remember: An original musical tribute to Titanic,” on Saturday, April 14. Musical performances and appearances by descendants of passengers and crew will highlight the production. Both museums are in the shape of a ship, and boast hundreds of artifacts and exhibits that detail the story of the ship’s history and fate, to let visitors “experience what it was like to walk the hallways, parlors, cabins and grand staircase of the Titanic.”

Denver
The Molly Brown House Museum, named for the American human-rights activist and philanthropist who survived the sinking, is holding guided tours, musical performances, special teas, lecture series and a special exhibit, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown: Denver’s Heroine of the Titanic,” which runs through Dec. 31. The “Steerage Class Shindig” will recreate the experience of third-class passengers with “a hearty meal, a rollicking band and a fine pint.” 

Orlando, Fla.
“Titanic The Experience” takes visitors back in time through live interactive interpretations by storytellers in period costume, full-scale room re-creations, memorabilia and artifacts recovered from the wreck site, including a 3-ton portion of the ship's hull, the captain's wheel and personal belongings from Titanic passengers and crew.

Springfield, Mass. 
The Titanic Historical Society will host a Titanic Centennial Memorial Weekend (April 20-22) to unveil and dedicate a new memorial. It will also feature guest speakers, visits to the nearby Titanic Museum, a raffle with collectibles, and a gala dinner and costume contest. “We’ve been doing these types of events for many years before the movie,” said Karen Kamuda, vice president of the society. 

St Louis, Mo.
Titanic Centennial Weekend (April 13-15) will include an Edwardian Champagne reception, an exhibit of Titanic-related artifacts, and a screening of the 1958 film "A Night to Remember." The signature event, “The Last Dinner on the Titanic,” will recreate the 11-course meal served on the Titanic’s last night. Between courses, guests will be entertained by live period music, and will receive a boarding pass and an envelope with the name and historical biography of an actual first-class passenger. Guests will experience “the elegance, grandeur and luxury of the R.M.S. Titanic, while enjoying a gastronomical extravaganza from another era,” organizers say.  

New York metro area
A trolley tour on April 7 will take visitors through Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, the final resting place of some passengers on the Titanic.

At the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, the world premiere of “Titanic Tales: Stories of Courage and Cowardice” will be performed on April 12 at 8:30 p.m., part of the Center’s Target Free Thursdays series. The original piece weaves together survivors’ recollections, taken from testimony given at the American and British boards of of inquiry, with music of the period, including works performed by the Titanic’s band on that fateful night.

The Jane Hotel in the West Village welcomed surviving crew members from the Titanic by offering care and dry clothes, though in 1912 it was the American Seaman’s Friend Society Sailors’ Home and Institute. To commemorate the centennial, the hotel is offering two signature cocktails until April 18 in the Jane Ballroom: the Bourbon- based “Unsinkable Molly Brown," and the Champagne-based "ST-705," named in honor of the 705 passengers who survived. 

NYC Discovery Walking Tours will offer a two-hour “Titanic History Tour” in Greenwich Village, with stops at The Seaman’s Lodge, where survivors took shelter, the Titanic Memorial Arch, and sites associated with passengers John J. Astor, Isidor Straus and others. The public tour is offered on April 14 at 1 p.m. and April 15 at noon for a cost of $20. Call 212-465-3331 for reservations, meeting place and information about private tours.

The Titanic International Society will host a weekend of remembrance April 27-29 in Secaucus, N.J. It includes a candlelight memorial service, with readings and music, and a luncheon cruise around New York Harbor that will pass the intended destination of the Titanic and the pier where the rescue boat Carpathia docked. Charles Haas, the society’s president, said there was a general sense that after the centennial, interest in the Titanic might wane, but he does not concur. “I’m especially optimistic about the number of young people who are fascinated by the Titanic story,” he said.

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Tom Wallace

Floodwaters rush into Vernazza's harbor after an intense rainstorm ripped through the Cinque Terre region of Italy on Oct. 25, 2011. Monterosso, another Cinque Terre town, also was devastated.

For the residents of the Cinque Terre, a region of five quaint coastal villages nestled in cliffs overlooking the Ligurian Sea on Italy’s northwestern coast, the arrival of spring may be especially sweet this year.

Last fall, torrential rains, massive flooding and mudslides, some more than 13 feet high, devastated the area. Homes, businesses and trails were damaged. In the aftermath of the violent Oct. 25 storm, there was concern about how the storm would impact the tourism season, which typically begins in spring.

But preliminary reports are positive.

The Cinque Terre is ready to receive tourists, according to a representative in the Italian Government Tourist Board in New York, who said that by Easter, the region hopes to have all the paths open. The famous “Via dell’Amore” (“Love’s path”) trail is open, but others sustained damage and were closed due to safety issues. The Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, the national park, provides regular trail updates on its website. 

About 400,000 tourists visited the region in 2011, about half of whom are Italian and some 60,000 Americans, the representative said, quoting data from the regional office in Liguria of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat). 

Edward Piegza, president and founder of Classic Journeys, who spoke by phone with his company’s local tour guides as well as business owners in the Cinque Terre before being interviewed by msnbc.com, said many shops and restaurants are open in Monterosso, one of the two towns damaged by the storm. And those that are not “are working quickly to rebuild by tourist season, the beginning of April,” he said.

Classic Journeys has offered its “Tuscany and the Cinque Terre Cultural Walking Tour” since 1996.

Classic Journeys

A group of tourists walks to Vernazza in Italy's Cinque Terre region in 2005.

The Cinque Terre is known for distinctive pastel-colored homes, seaside charms, and its network of walking and hiking trails along cliffs, linking the towns and winding though terraced hills of vineyards, and olive and chestnut groves, offering dramatic views and ample opportunities for much needed espresso and gelato breaks.

The Cinque Terre, Piegza said, “captures a different time and place.” And much of the draw is its “real sense of authenticity, when people lived more simply.”

Beth Rubin, manager of custom travel planning for Select Italy, a company specializing in travel to Italy, said tourism to Cinque Terre had “exploded” in recent years. “It’s very outdoorsy and offers an active vacation that’s not too expensive. People who are traveling on a budget really like to go there.” Select Italy plans to offer its full range of tours, and its local suppliers “are going to find a way,” to work around any potential problems, she said.  

Other tour companies are reporting similar determination to proceed.

“We would never consider canceling our tours,” said Carolyn Walters Fox, who handles marketing and media relations for Country Walkers, “as long as it’s safe.”

Country Walkers specializes in active travel and has offered guided walking and hiking tours to the region for about 15 years. Currently, six tours are planned from May through the autumn. The local people “have been so good to us,” Fox said. “Tourism is an opportunity to give back.”  

Melanie Morin, who manages tours to the Cinque Terre region, is not worried if trails the company used in the past are not open in May. “The alternative routes still make a spectacular tour,” she said, and the local residents “are really trying to do everything they can to be ready for the season.”

Piegza, of Classic Journeys, recounted how one of its tour groups had been dining at Al Pozzo, a restaurant in Monterosso last October when the rain started. The group was able to leave the area before the storm became dangerous, but the restaurant was severely damaged.

Restaurant owners Jolanda and Gino Barilari, told Piegza by phone earlier this month that Al Pozzo recently reopened, and some American tourists had just finished eating lunch.

“They were able to complete their restaurant almost a month early,” Piegza said, noting that for more than four months the extended Barilari family “worked from sunrise to sundown, seven days a week, to rebuild. They were so exited. They said ‘wow’ we made it through.”  (“Rebuild Monterosso” provides updates for businesses and activities.)

Slideshow: Italian dreams

Franco Origlia / Getty Images

Tourists in Italy can learn about history, architecture, art and much more.

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“We encourage people to come,” said Michele Sherman, an American expat living in Italy, and executive director of Save Vernazza, a nonprofit created after the disaster to raise funds and awareness to rebuild, restore and preserve the town. Vernazza was the town most impacted by the storm. “A lot has been done, but a lot still needs to be done,” she said. 

The group’s website Travel Advisor page lists updated information about what local businesses and trails are open or scheduled to reopen, and what is off limits. “We’re in constant contact with all the local business owners and we’re in the loop about the status of trail repairs,” Sherman said. “We’re always walking around with a camera.”

When UNESCO added the area to the World Heritage List in 1997, it cited “the harmonious interaction between people and nature to produce a landscape of exceptional scenic quality.” But through the years the surrounding terraced hills were neglected as the local economy shifted from agriculture to tourism, Sherman said. “The focus in Vernazza changed.” But finding a balance between maintaining the territory and sustainable tourism is critical to moving forward, she said, “not only to prevent further disasters, but also to preserve Vernazza’s cultural heritage. It's still beautiful,” Sherman said. It’s not what it once was, “but it can be that way again.”

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Frank Ockenfels / AMC

The Season 5 premier of AMC's "Mad Men" is March 25.

It may be impossible to time travel back to 1960s-era New York, but that hasn’t stopped some "Mad Men" fans and haunts featured on the TV show from trying.

"Mad Men," which premiers its fifth season on Sunday, is filmed predominately in Los Angeles, but nostalgia for the fictional advertising world of Don Draper and his fellow Madison Avenue executives has spawned a wave of tourism in Manhattan, where the drama is set.

The show “is as quintessentially New York as yellow taxis and pastrami on rye,” writes NYC & Company, the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for New York City.

“New York City is the center of media and pop culture — visitors are drawn here partly because they see the city portrayed in film and television and it feels familiar to them,” said Kimberly Spell, chief communications officer for NYC & Company. Shows like “Mad Men” “accentuate the unique vibrancy, style and glamour of the city.”

Related: Will Don Draper finally be happy this season on 'Mad Men?'

Leading up to the premier, the city is boasting special hotel packages, "Mad Men"-themed cocktails, walking tours, and ample opportunities to dress up in period attire and turn back the clocks to soak up the retro style and glamour of the 1960s.

Here is a round up of some of them:

NYC Discovery Walking Tours offers fans a chance to stroll through midtown, taking in the history and architecture of the era. On “The World of Mad Men: NYC During the Early 1960’s,” stops include the Summit Hotel, the Seagram Building, the Pan Am Building, and the Lever House, and other places Don Draper might have seen when he leaves his office to buy a “35 cent pack of cigarettes and meet a client for lunch.” The public tour, which costs $20, is offered on Saturday, March 24, at 2 p.m. and Sunday, March 25, at 4:30 p.m. Call 212-465-3331 for reservations and meeting place. Tours by private appointment are also available.

Richard Anthony, one of NYC Discovery Walking Tours’ historians, said he and colleagues were impressed with the show’s authenticity. The scripts “are very well-researched, they aren’t at all arbitrary.” In recent months “there’s been a big buzz about 'Mad Men'; it’s led to this birth of interest in New York” during the early 60s. The private tour was given about four times in recent weeks, Anthony said. “People are always looking for that part of New York history they want to escape to.”  

Several companies offer general tours, including NYC Discovery Walking Tours’ “Famous Movie Sites of the East Side” and the guided bus tour “New York TV & Movie Sites,” given by On Location Tours, that pass or point out "Mad Men" locations, like the Time & Life Building and the Ziegfeld Theatre.

The Roosevelt Hotel NYC, the setting of several episodes and where Don Draper lived in Season 2 after his wife Betty threw him out, offers a “Mad Men in the City” package. Included are a stay in a newly renovated room, 1960s-inspired mixers at mad46, the 19th floor rooftop bar or at Madison Club Lounge, one of Draper’s frequent hot spots in the hotel’s lobby: two tickets to The Paley Center for Media; and copies of "Mad Men" Season 4 on DVD and the newly released “Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook” to take home. The package starts at $425 a night for a minimum three-night stay, and is available from March 1 to June 30.

The Pierre, a Taj Hotel, which has appeared in previous episodes, offers guests the chance to sip classic cocktails from the early 60s and “dress up in their favorite 'Mad Men'-inspired garb and embrace their inner Don Draper and Joan Holloway” beginning on March 27 and on every Tuesday throughout the season. The offer is part of the regular weekly complimentary jazz music series from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Two E Bar/Lounge. Cocktails on the special drink menu cost $14 and include Irish Coffee, one of fictional character Roger Sterling’s staples, and the  Bikini Martini, “the most voluptuous drink in town,” inspired by Christina Hendricks, who portrays Joan Holloway, made with Hendrick’s Gin, Peach Schnapps and Blue Curacao.        

The Paley Center for Media will host a “'Mad Men' Season Premiere Viewing Party” on Sunday, March 25, at 8 p.m. The fifth season premiere will be shown on the big screen, “all the better to soak up that gorgeous period detail.” Before the screening, there will be an era-appropriate cocktail party and a "Mad Men" Trivia contest. Guests will receive a Season 5 "Mad Men" poster, and are invited to “break out the sharp suits, pocket squares, and kicky frocks.” During the screening, commercial breaks will show actual ads from the early sixties, featuring Sterling Cooper clients like London Fog and Lucky Strike. Tickets cost $30.  

Though three-martini lunches and desk-side scotch cabinets may be largely gone in the 21st century, according to NYC & Company, its website invites prospective visitors to plan a self-guided tour by viewing a slideshow that features sites that appeared in the series or are tied in to the time period, like Sardi’s Restaurant and P.J. Clarke's, a vintage watering hole where patrons can still drink “frosty mugs of beer and hear Frank Sinatra on the jukebox, while the dining room serves up mouthwatering comfort food (including, according to Nat King Cole, ‘the Cadillac of burgers.’” But one word of advice from the slideshow: do not waste time looking for 405 Madison Avenue, the address of the fictional advertising agency: it doesn't exist. 

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• THE OUT NYC open for business in New York City
• Friendly faces make exploring new cities more intimate

Last year's deadly earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent disaster at Fukushima nuclear power plant took a toll on Japan's tourism industry, but a year later, the country's travel landscape is rebounding. 

"We started to see small numbers of guests returning to Japan in September of last year," said Duff Trimble, president of Wabi-Sabi Japan, a Toronto-based company that creates customized trips for private groups. "Inquiries really started to increase last November and there was the usual surge of requests immediately following the holiday season. Quite frankly, I was surprised how busy we were."

“I’m seeing a bounce back,” said Jack S. Ezon, president of Ovation Vacations. “It’s not huge, but it’s back on people’s radar.” 

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake shook Japan, and the tsunami that followed killed nearly 16,000 people, wiped out entire towns, slammed the Fukushima power plant and triggered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Ezon has noticed a change over the past four or five months, and said seasoned travelers are among the most likely to visit. "They may be a little more intrepid," Ezon said.

Colleague Jessica K. Levy, a travel concierge with Ovation, said a few clients went to Japan recently, but “no one expressed any concerns.” One man in his 60s loved it so much, she said, “he extended his stay.”

Levy also recently visited Japan, and noticed discrete collection buckets for victims in some areas and a general sense that people are "quietly rebuilding their lives," but it didn't seem like a country that had experienced such a severe tragedy, she said. 

The U.S. Department of Commerce, which tracks U.S. flights to and from Japan, including connections, said there was an initial dip in Japan-bound air traffic immediately following the earthquake and tsunami last March, but it rebounded to pre-disaster levels by June.

For 2011, the number of people flying from the U.S. to Japan dropped 4.5 percent compared to the prior year, according to data from the Commerce Department.

The decline in travel to Japan from other parts of the world was sharper over the same period, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

There are other variables that may account for the modest downturn, said Richard Champley, a senior research analyst for the Commerce Department. For example, fewer Japanese citizens have been visiting the United States in recent years, and there are more direct flights from the U.S. to other Asian destinations beyond Tokyo, which has been a major hub. 

Price sensitivity due to the strong Japanese yen and the ongoing global economic uncertainty may have hurt the rebound as much as the aftermath of the nuclear accident, added Trimble of Wabi-Sabi Japan. 

But business travelers are taking the lead in the current rebound.

Initially, business travel to Japan experienced a sharper decline than leisure travel, said Stacey MacAlister, managing director for the Americas for JTB, a travel management company. Now, the increase is greatest among business travelers, she said.

“The rebound business-wise happened fairly quickly,” said Ron DiLeo, executive director for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. “I’ve had conversations with major carriers serving the Japan market, and the load factors are all strong.”

Since last March, DiLeo said many companies have conducted education sessions that stress the importance of putting into place better procedures to ensure that employee whereabouts are more easily tracked in crisis situations. “Travel managers are telling business travelers that they need to be able to communicate through any number of ways,” he said. “But flights are full.”

Michael Steiner, executive vice president of Ovation Travel Group, said the first six months following the earthquake and tsunami were rough, with business off about 50 percent. “But it is slowly rebounding, and in recent months, is pretty much back,” Steiner said, noting that most of the travel was to Tokyo, quite far from the areas impacted by radiation.

A recent spending forecast noted that Japan had been struggling with its economy even before the earthquake and tsunami, but construction and manufacturing are among the areas that are expected to lead business travel growth over the next five years. The report was prepared by the GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association, a trade group for corporate travel managers and suppliers.

“It’s one of those odd cases,” said Joe Bates, senior director of research for GBTA Foundation, where redevelopment due to the earthquake “is actually going to spur business travel,” both inbound, outbound and within Japan. Export demand is also thought to be a major factor impacting business travel growth, according to the report.

Johnson Yip, president of Pacific Protour, a tour operator that caters to leisure travelers, said until recently, his company had no business since the earthquake. “There are a couple of bookings going there in May and another few tour groups that I'm working on for June and October departure,” Yip said. “Hopefully this is an indication that travel to Japan is coming back, ever-so slowly, but it’s still a good sign.”

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The front of New York City's first-ever gay hotel, THE OUT NYC, is pictured during the official opening to the public on Thursday. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP - Getty Images)

On a recent afternoon, construction was brisk and the excitement was palpable at 510 West 42nd Street in Manhattan, the site of THE OUT NYC, a sleek, three-story structure with a glass façade that its creators say will be the first gay hotel in New York City.

The 105-room boutique hotel, located between 10th and 11th Avenues in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, close to Chelsea, Times Square and the Theater District, opens its doors on March 1.

“I had a vision five years ago,” to create a gay hotel that would be conveniently located, said Ian Simpson Reisner, a managing partner of Parkview Developers, which owns THE OUT NYC, but would also “be a relaxing home base resort-style retreat where guests can stay, eat and play.” 

PhotoBlog: Inside THE OUT NYC

Reisner said he drew much of his inspiration from both Ian Schrager and André Balazs, whose elegant hotels with cutting edge décor are very gay friendly. THE OUT NYC, Reisner said, is similar in conception and style, but is a gay hotel that is very straight friendly. By marketing it as a “straight-friendly” urban resort, it sends the clear message that the property welcomes gays as well as straights, and tourists as well as locals, he said.

THE OUT NYC is part of a global trend, said Darren Cooper, senior consultant for Out Now Consulting, an international company based in the Netherlands that specializes in marketing to the gay community.

“Traditionally gay-owned and or operated hotels and guesthouses have been located in vacation resorts, and catered almost exclusively to the gay leisure traveler,” Cooper said. But since 2003 there has been growth in larger, metropolitan, upscale, boutique hotels that are predominantly aimed at the LGBT community but also marketed as "straight friendly." The LGBT community is announcing that it is now “part of the mainstream, but that straights are welcome, too,” he said.

Cooper cited a number of reasons for the increase, including the fact that post 9/11, the LGBT travel market “showed remarkable resilience, a fact that was not lost on the global travel industry as well as gay entrepreneurs and hoteliers.”

Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, said the fact that up to 10 percent of the population self-reports as being gay “creates an opportunity” for hotels that appeal to a substantial demographic.

The change in marriage laws may also play a role in the increase.

THE OUT NYC “will be an attractive offering for LGBT audiences and their straight friends visiting the City on the heels of the passage of same-sex marriage,” said Kimberly Spell, chief communications officer for NYC & Company. And the hotel’s opening “is another example of how New York City continues to evolve and reinvent itself.”

Rooms at THE OUT NYC will start at $250 a night and include wireless high speed Internet, flat screen TVs, in-room MP3 docking stations, workplaces and mini-bars. Valet parking will be available. Eight “Sleep Shares,” hostel-style rooms that sleep four, will be equipped with four full-sized beds, personal TVs, a bathroom, and privacy curtains. These innovative shared accommodations, from $99 per person, were designed to “help make the property affordable to a younger demographic,” Reisner said.

THE OUT NYC, designed by Paul Dominguez, will feature multi-use function spaces to be used as a business and conference center or for intimate private diners, large events and weddings. Public spaces include a 5,000-foot wellness center, three courtyards (one will boast an ipe-wood sunbathing deck, two hot tubs, and a cascading curtain of rain; another will feature a bamboo garden), and the 11,000-square-foot XL Nightclub.

The full-service restaurant and café, KITCHIN, set to open in May, will serve upscale comfort food. Guests will be able to dine at large communal tables and enjoy picnics prepared by the restaurant’s staff. Reisner said that he hopes the hotel’s welcome-to-all philosophy and atmosphere will help make the KITCHIN “the neighborhood cafeteria.” 

THE OUT NYC “is a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have,” said Henry H. Harteveldt, co-founder of the Atmosphere Research Group, a market research company. “I think it is going to be challenging” to succeed.

“The hotel is going to have to deliver,” said Harteveldt. “The hotel has to fill up its rooms; it doesn’t matter what sexual orientation its guests are.” Customers will expect the usual amenities like predictable hot water, good Wi-Fi connectivity and an on-site restaurant with good food and fair prices, Harteveldt said. He expects it to be especially challenging in New York. Unlike resort areas, where properties are frequently destinations themselves, the lure of New York City’s many attractions often means less time is spent on the premises.

In addition, in recent years a number of mainstream hotels, including Starwood, Kimpton and Marriott, have welcomed the LGBT community though marketing efforts and service. For example, when gay guests arrive to check in at a number of hotels, well-trained front desk personnel now handle questions like how many beds should be in guest's room with greater sensitivity, Harteveldt said.

Another challenge will be getting repeat guests who are members of major brand loyalty programs. “For customers, loyalty is huge,” said Harteveldt. “By staying at The OUT NYC, they will be forfeiting perks and free future stays. It will be a tough choice, especially since they are often treated just as well at mainstream properties.”

Cooper, the marketing consultant, said that Out Now’s research pointed to a possible promising outcome. In a study, LGBT2020, which collected data from 18 countries around the world in 2011, New York was the No. 1-rated city destination for LGBT travelers globally. “In my opinion, a hotel that catered to this market was bound to happen sooner or later in New York,” he said.

But Cooper agreed that when competing with the best hotels in the world, who are already training their staff and who have access to the global LGBT community through a media network, “you have to make sure that you get it right, and that isn't done overnight.”  He said several properties in Barcelona, Berlin and Buenos Aires opened by Axel Hotels in recent years cater predominately to gay leisure and business travelers and have been successful in competing in a tough marketplace, with facilities and service that “raised the bar for LGBT properties globally.”

And word of mouth, too, will be important in the hotel’s ultimate success, as the global gay community “is small, and it talks,” Cooper said. “The opening of OUT NYC is big news — people will be talking, blogging, writing, tweeting, chatting and texting about this,” he said. “Good news travels fast, as does bad in this community. If OUT NYC gets it right, the hotel will flourish.”

Slideshow: The Big Apple

Long referred to as the center of American business, New York is a melting pot of cultures and landscapes. Take a visual tour of some of the Big Apple's most famous attractions. (Dave Etheridge-Barnes/Getty Images)

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• 'Tartan Butler' helps visitors trace their roots
• Outta my way! America's rudest cities

Slideshow: National spectacles

Nearly 400 national parks can be found all across America, and feature breathtaking vistas, rock formations millions of years old, and more.

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In an announcement made earlier this week, the Department of Transportation will spend nearly $41 million to improve access to America’s national parks, forests and wildlife refuges and upgrade older transportation infrastructure within those spaces.
 
The funding, which is being provided by the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks program, will be allocated to 58 projects in 24 states around the country. The District of Columbia will also receive funding. The awarded projects aim to conserve natural, historical and cultural resources, and reduce congestion and pollution.
 
Projects range from redesigning and widening the Nauset Bicycle Trail at Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts to purchasing new fuel-efficient buses to transport visitors between Sausalito and the Muir Woods National Monument in California. A full list of the projects can be viewed here (PDF).
 
Cuyahoga Valley National Park, outside Cleveland, Ohio, will receive five grants totaling $3.2 million for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, an attraction the FTA said has been successful and popular. Projects planned include the installation of a pedestrian bridge, rehabilitation of a bicycle transport baggage car, and repairs and design improvements for an older wheelchair-accessible rail car.
 
“Our nation’s scenic parklands and protected areas are national treasures attracting millions of visitors each year,” DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. “It’s vitally important to preserve and protect these lands for today’s visitors as well as future generations by investing in safe, accessible and environmentally sustainable transportation.”
 
Derrick A. Crandall, president of American Recreation Coalition, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, said the new funding may help boost international tourism. “It’s equipping our parks to better serve 21st century American travelers,” Crandall said, “and is a huge opportunity to regain our share of international tourism.” 
 
According to the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group, global long-haul travel increased by 40 percent from 2000 to 2010. The United States’ share, however, shrunk to 12.4 percent from 17 percent. As a result, the United States lost 78 million potential visitors who would have generated $606 billion in spending, the association said.

Story: Travel experts applaud Obama's pro-tourism measures

Char Miller, director of the environmental analysis program at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., said the spending is “only a shot in the arm.” Fixing all of the ailing roads, bridges and trails in parks around the country would take more than $41 million, Miller said. 
 
The National Park Service lost roughly $400 million from its budget from a decade ago. Since then, President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama added incrementally to its funding, but the budget has since been cut and remains below levels from the 1990s, according to Miller.
 
“We can do better,” Miller said. “We should do better.” 
 
John Garder, who handles budgetary affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the overall budget is currently $167 million less than it was two years ago. “The National Park Service is hundreds of millions of dollars short each year from what is needed to adequately address the operating and maintenance needs of the parks,” he said.

Jack S. Ezon, president of the corporate travel agency Ovation Vacations, has visited and hiked in many of the world’s national parks. Although excited about the new funding, Ezon is concerned that it might mean additional traffic to the parks, which could result in a more commercial, less pristine environment. 

“But it’s still a net gain for us,” he said. “It gives people a great appreciation for our land, making them more sensitive to the environment and more committed about taking care of our planet.”

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Enzo Russo / EPA

Evacuated Costa Concordia passengers wear life vests and blankets Jan. 14 as they wait to disembark a rescue boat for shore.

The recent incident of the luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia running aground off the coast of Italy has refocused attention on safety at sea.

In response to the Concordia disaster, Carnival Corporation, the parent company of Costa Cruises and several other cruise lines, said Thursday it would review safety and emergency response procedures. "While I have every confidence in the safety of our vessels and the professionalism of our crews, this review will evaluate all practices and procedures to make sure that this kind of accident doesn't happen again," said Micky Arison, Carnival Corporation's chairman and CEO, in a statement.

Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor-in-chief of Cruise Critic, walked msnbc.com through a typical safety drill on a cruise ship and answered some other important safety questions. 

What is covered during a typical safety drill?

“There is no typical safety drill,” Brown said. There are many different-sized ships and cruise lines, and they all originate from different countries, but there are some important points about what to do in the case of an emergency that most lines generally cover in drills, she said. These include:

• how to know if there is an emergency, which is signaled by a series of short blasts and one long blast over the ship’s loudspeaker.
• how to reunite with family members if passengers are separated. (Brown said it was not as much of an issue as it could have been in the recent Costa Concordia disaster, which occurred while many passengers were dining, so families were most likely together.)
• how to use a life jacket, which passengers typically bring from their cabins.
• where to go on the ship when an emergency occurs.
• what to do in the case of a man overboard.

Most drills “are pretty substantial,” Brown said. “But they are a big bother for some people. Nobody wants to do them when they are just beginning their holiday, but it’s important, and they are taken very seriously,” by most cruise lines.

Are drills usually held the first day?  

Drills on all cruise ships must be held within 24 hours of departing from port, Brown said.  Many times, especially for cruises that depart from U.S. ports, safety briefings are conducted on the first afternoon, and often before the ship leaves port.

“But 24 hours is a fairly long time,” Brown said. In the Costa Concordia case, the passengers who boarded the ship in Civitavecchia did not yet have a drill, but the ship did not go against standard procedure, she said. 

Some press reports have suggested that none of the passengers were given safety instruction, but that is not true, as passengers who boarded before the Civitavecchia port of call did have safety briefings, Brown said. “They were within their rights. That’s the big tragedy. But I think that will change.” Brown said she would not be surprised if the 24-hour window would be shortened so safety briefings would occur closer to the time of embarkation.

Do most people attend the drills and have they proven to be effective?

Brown said it was impossible to know, but that most ships were careful to have crews “go cabin to cabin” to check public areas to see if people were not attending, and to make checklists that reflected attendance. “It may be boring to attend, but the fact is, we’ve seen very few fatalities during cruise ship emergencies, until now,” Brown said. “That is an indication that safety measures are working." One main problem in the Costa Concordia case is “there was no leadership whatsoever,” Brown said. 

Cruise survivors: 'There was so much chaos'

What does maritime law require? 

The International Maritime Organization, a specialized United Nations agency, oversees maritime safety through international conventions. The Safety of Life at Sea convention, known as SOLAS, mandates that safety briefings be conducted within 24 hours of leaving port, Brown said. “But it is very broadly interpreted by individual cruise lines, and it is up to local authorities if they want to add measures.”  The agency, however, does not have policing powers. 

Are some cruise lines more diligent than others overall in terms of communicating about safety?

Readers of “Cruise Critic” frequently remarked on the publication’s blog that certain cruise lines, like Norwegian and Princess, are considered to be quite serious about their  safety briefings, Brown said.  Since the recent Costa Concordia tragedy, readers have indicated that its safety drills were lax and sloppy, Brown said. Other cruise lines, she said, “go above and beyond,” like Royal Caribbean.

How safe is that cruise ship anyway?

How does a typical cruise safety drill compare to a typical airline safety briefing?

Safety drills aboard most airlines usually last only about two minutes, and are often on video rather than in person, Brown said. Cruise safety drills typically last about a half hour to 45 minutes. However, there is a hierarchy in the cruise world. “Captains ultimately answer to no one -- on board,” Brown said.  The reasons are steeped in seafaring history, she said. "But I think that’s something that will change.” More checks and balances are needed, and she anticipates there will be changes in the future as a result of this tragedy. “A lot of standardization is probably coming out of this,” she said.  One area that will likely change will be to include instruction in multiple languages, which now only occurs on a regular basis on a few lines, Brown said.

How difficult is it to evacuate a ship the size of a small city?

It is not an easy task, Brown said, “but systems are in place, so no matter how big or small a ship, it can be done successfully.” Most crews are well-trained in emergency preparedness and are required to conduct practice drills every week, often when the ship is at port and passengers have disembarked. Simulated drills include basic procedures, like where crew members should be stationed during an emergency (checking cabins for passengers who remained inside or in public spaces directing traffic) as well as more elaborate scenarios, like man overboard drills or what to do if a fire breaks out in an engine room. In addition, new technologies are being developed and implemented that will make safety even better, Brown said. But currently, she said, when it comes to safety, most lines “take it very seriously and work very hard at it.” 

Related stories

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• What you sign away when you book a cruise
• Cruise tragedy conjures memories of doomed Titanic

Slideshow: Luxury cruise ship runs aground

DigitalGlobe

The Costa Concordia ran aground Jan. 13 off the coast of Italy, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of passengers as the ship began heavily listing.

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Information from CNBC was included in this report.

Chris Helgren / Reuters

Passengers wearing period costume queue to board the Titanic Memorial Cruise in Southampton, England, on Sunday.

Updated April 8 -- The first of two Titanic-themed cruises set sail from Southampton Sunday on a 12-night cruise that will follow the Titanic's original itinerary.

The vessel, the MS Balmoral, is operated by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines — whose parent company, Harland and Wolff, built the Titanic. The ship has a 1,350-passenger capacity, but will carry 1,309 paying passengers on the Titanic Memorial Cruise, “the same number that sailed on the fateful Titanic voyage,” the company said on its website.

The cruise sold out nearly two years ago, so a second ship, the Azamara Journey, part of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., was added during the summer of 2011. That ship departs New York on April 10, “exactly 100 years to the day the Titanic departed Southampton” the company said, for an 8-night voyage.

As of January, when about one-third of the spots on the Azamara Journey were still available, interior staterooms were selling for $4,900. The top cabin, the Club World Owners Suite, cost nearly $15,000.

The Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. More than 1,500 people lost their lives.

Slideshow: Titanic Belfast

David Moir / Reuters

The Titanic Belfast Experience is a new visitor attraction location in Belfast's Titanic Quarter, on the original site of the Harland and Wolff shipyard -  birthplace of RMS Titanic.

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The cruises were designed to replicate food, entertainment and dress of the era. “Passengers will have the opportunity to dress up in period clothing on some nights,” said Miles Morgan, founder of Miles Morgan Travel, the company that organized the Titanic Memorial Cruises.

Expert lecturers will be on board to discuss Titanic-focused topics, including Philip Littlejohn, grandson of Titanic survivor Alexander James Littlejohn, and author of "Titanic — Waiting for Orders" which tells the story of his grandfather, who was a 1st Class Steward on the ship. Dana McCauley, co-author of “Last Dinner On the Titanic: Menus and Recipes from the Great Liner,” is the food consultant, and will help create menus based on meals eaten during the Titanic’s inaugural voyage.

“It’s been an interesting journey,” said Morgan. The inspiration began about five years ago when a gentleman walked in off the street to one of his 12 travel agencies in England and suggested the idea.

The ships will make stops at cemeteries in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to visit the final resting places for many unclaimed victims, and atop the Titanic grave site on April 15, when a memorial service will be held at 2:20 a.m., “to pay tribute to all the brave passengers and crew on board that fateful night,” according to the company site.

“We are not releasing what will take place in advance,” Morgan said, regarding the details about the service. “Because it is a very unusual occasion, many passengers will also find their own way to remember the moment.”

AP Photo/File

The Titanic sails out of Southampton, England, in April 1912 at the start of its doomed voyage.

Among the passengers will be Titanic fans, but also some descendants of survivors and those who perished.

“I want to be outside on the deck, to feel how cold it would have been,” said Jill Kirby, great-niece of a ship worker, to experience “the personal feeling of actually being there and reliving a moment that occurred  100 years ago, to just have a feeling of how people must have felt.” Kirby, originally from Southampton, England, but now of Los Angeles, said her great-uncle, Alfred Albert White, was a crewman in the engine room, and was the only one from his department who survived the tragedy.

Often it is the famous passengers who are remembered, she said, but “many unknown lives were lost. The cruises are excellent ways to memorialize those victims that may not be as famous. All lives are important,” she said. “The lives of these people meant something and were cut short because of this terrible tragedy.”

Tim Wallis, of Waterloo, Ontario, is taking the voyage to honor his great-grandmother, Catherine Jane Wallis, who died in the sinking but whose body was never recovered. “I just kind of felt an obligation to complete the journey,” he said.

“She made it to the rail and was about to get on a life boat, but realized that she forgot her paperwork,” said Wallis, who recounted the story based on eyewitness accounts. She went to retrieve her papers, “but she never made it back,” he said. His great-grandmother was on the ship to work, as her husband drowned eight months earlier and she had to support her three small children.

Wallis also said he was taking the cruise to honor his aunt, who spearheaded efforts in DNA testing for Titanic victims, and who died on April 15, 2006. Wallis has a few other uncanny connections to the Titanic: his own birthday is April 15, and he and James Cameron, the “Titanic” film director, share the same hometown.

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