I went on the Costa Cruises website to check out the Concordia’s webcam and saw the message, “data transmission is temporarily suspended.”

I recently returned from a wonderful trip on the Celebrity Silhouette for a 12-night Caribbean cruise. On the first day I was talking with my daughter who brought up the Titanic and I said, “Kate, that can’t happen today with communications, GPS and Coast Guard flights.” And even with the Concordia disaster, I was right. If this had happened in 1912, like the Titanic, there would have been many more deaths. But it does beg the question, how did this happen with GPS and ships that are so incredibly safe?

I can tell you that our captain, Nicholas Pagonis of the Silhouette, was very communicative. When we returned from the Caribbean to New York City in high seas (18 foot swells), he explained what was going on in great detail, that the stabilizers would be fully extended and that he would constantly monitor the situation.  He was not a social butterfly — I seldom saw him milling around the ship — but I had the feeling he was a ship-lover’s man. That’s what you want as your captain, your pilot and your general manager.

Our first full day on the ship was Christmas. We sat with an elderly couple at the Christmas brunch. We enjoyed talking with them and appreciated their comments. “We tried the Italian Line, Costa,” she said. “We did not like it and did not feel comfortable.” Never did this comment hit a nerve than until the totally shocking and unnecessary Costa Concordia disaster.

— Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO