Travel agents say no effect yet from Triumph

The Triumph was being towed to Mobile, Ala., Thursday amid reports of filthy conditions onboard after the ship lost power at sea due to a fire.

"As of now, cruise bookings throughout Travel Leaders Group have not been impacted and we are not seeing cancellations," said Kathy Gerhardt, spokeswoman for Travel Leaders, a network of independently owned and operated travel agencies in the U.S.

Gerhardt noted that the cruise industry is in the middle of "wave season," the six-week period each winter when cruise vacations are promoted for spring and summer travel with deals and advertising, "and our bookings to date have been very strong and robust compared to one year ago."

Heidi Allison-Shane, a spokeswoman for CruiseCompete.com, said the website has "seen above-average quote requests as well as bookings over the last five days with very few cancellations. Prices remain the same."

But others sounded a note of caution. "Initial reports from travel agents indicates no impact yet, but there are clear concerns that after the ship returns to Mobile and videos come out, that may turn the tide," said Michael Driscoll, editor of the industry newsletter Cruise Week. "No single cruise ship problem has been so vividly reported over a drawn-out period of time, other than Concordia," the ship that capsized off the coast of Italy in January 2012, killing 32 people.

Driscoll said Carnival canceled a one-day sale this week and will be hit harder than other cruise lines by the Triumph story. Carnival owns the company that operated the Concordia, and a third Carnival ship, the Splendor, lost power at sea in 2010 and was towed back to port under similar conditions to those on the Triumph.

Driscoll added that "many cruise sellers expect a harsh round of media coverage to spike Friday and over the weekend, as firsthand reports and visuals get reported in national media and the hometowns of people once they return from the cruise. Logically, that may cause a downward blip in bookings, but it is expected to pass quickly once the situation dies down."

But Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com, said that while "travel agents are going to say this is not going to have any impact," she believes "it's too soon to tell." She added that consumers are right to be concerned: "This is a cruise line problem. This is not an act of God or nature."