"We said if we felt scared, if we were uncomfortable about any situation, we would just walk off and rent a car," Karen Deines, 39, said Friday after United Flight 1253 landed safely at Orlando International Airport.

Like millions of Americans, the Deineses have been concerned about traveling since Sept. 11, when 19 hijackers seared the public psyche with disturbing visions of what could happen aboard a plane.

"But we thought things seemed safe, and the president and his cabinet members are flying," Mrs. Deines said as her 5-year-old son and 16-month-old daughter tugged at her clothes. "And we just said, "You know, we've looked forward to this vacation. And why should we let the terrorists ruin our yearly trip to Disney World?' "

Other visitors to Orlando spoke in similar terms this weekend, persuaded, they said, by President Bush's pleas to return to the skies. It is the kind of talk that gives tourism officials here some hope as they struggle with a crisis that has thrown the state's biggest tourism market hard off the rails.

Some theme parks were starting to see more customers by week's end, but it also was apparent that the damage was severe and the recovery uncertain.

In the days after Sept. 11, more than 250 Orlando area conventions scheduled for later in the month were canceled. An additional 80 bookings were lost for October.

The downward spike came at summer's end, precisely the time Orlando area hotels need convention business to make up for lower attendance at theme parks. Suddenly there weren't nearly enough "heads in the beds," as industry folks put it, to pay the bills.

Already hit by a summerlong recession, many businesses reacted quickly. Thousands of hotel workers have been laid off or will lose their jobs soon. Theme parks are cutting as well. Disney, the region's largest employer with 54,000 employees, froze wages and decreased hours for more than 46,000 employees. Hardest hit are 15,000 part-timers.

The impact quickly spread to a slew of related industries: caterers, linen companies, dry cleaners, gift shops, printing houses, landscapers, window washers, pest control and pool care services and cab drivers. All have reported layoffs or lost business, and state labor officials report an increase in claims for unemployment benefits.

By Friday, as a few attractions began to see more encouraging numbers of visitors, Orlando's business and government leaders spoke bravely about digging out.

"We are seeing for the first time, over the last four or five days, more reservations than cancellations," said Richard J. Maladecki, president of the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association, speaking Friday at the group's monthly luncheon.

At the same time, however, managers at the airport Hyatt Regency, where the luncheon took place, were planning to lay off 100 workers.

Many hotels remain in "crisis management mode," said Dana Tesone, an industry veteran and an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida's Rosen School of Hospitality Mangement.

"I wouldn't say they're optimistic and I wouldn't say they're panicking," Tesone said, adding a recitation of the new daily routine for area hoteliers: "Executive committee meetings at 8:30 every morning. Meetings with presidents and senior executives on a weekly basis. Immediate cutbacks in terms of perks and benefits for the executive people. And they're all trying very much to avoid layoffs."

They're also cutting prices. At one Fairfield Inn, for example, the usual $75-per-night rate was down to $48. And many hotels were offering three-night packages with the third night free.

Tourism officials, meanwhile, are working to find the money and the right message for emergency ads that they hope will lure people back to Florida. The target will be people in "drive markets" such as nearby Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, even though those visitors spend far less than the average tourist who flies in.

In a bit of gallows humor, some in the industry joked last week that, with people afraid to fly, the drive market has just been extended to eastern Canada.

The Orlando area, composed of Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, relies on the airlines to deliver 46 percent of its out-of-state visitors. The state, in turn, depends heavily on those counties to deliver sales tax dollars. Of the 71-million people who visited Florida last year, 43-million came to the region.

Now the signs along I-4 blink "Rooms Available" and "LOW Walk-in Rates," messages fraught with desperation. But not all the news was as gloomy as the overcast skies that settled over the region as the weekend began.

At Disney World, where officials do not share attendance figures, Friday seemed like a very respectable day. The Magic Kingdom's famous Main Street was a river of bobbing heads and bare legs. No fewer than 75 strollers were parked at the popular children's water tour, "It's a Small World."

Exiting the ride were the Funderburgs of Springfield, Ill., who almost didn't make the trip, said Stu and Lisa Funderburg, a pair of lawyers with three children, ages 4, 7 and 9. On Friday, all five wore bright red shirts to guard against separation.

"The increased security is pretty good and you feel pretty good about the plane," Stu Funderburg said, adding that their flight from St. Louis to Orlando was 70 percent full.

Business also was better than expected this week at some smaller attractions, which have the flexibility to change rates and marketing pitches each day as conditions warrant.

"The big attractions are like a big battle ship. They can only turn one degree at a time," said Todd Hansen, marketing director at the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum on International Drive. "We're like these little speed boats. We can dart in and out like that."

At Arabian Knights, a dinner show featuring horses in a 1,200-seat arena, managers adapted to the crisis by adding a patriotic flourish to each night's finale. A cast member rides into the arena with U.S. flag. Ten others follow on horseback holding flags of U.S. allies in the new war against terrorism. There's a recording of Lee Greenwood's patriotic standard, God Bless the U.S.A., and cast members lead the crowd in singing New York, New York.

"People love it. They start chanting, "U.S.A! U.S.A!' " said Michelle Harris, a spokeswoman for the attraction. "I've not seen anybody sitting when this is going on."

Amid the crisis were a few other flashes of better news for the area. Planners of some 60 conventions that were canceled after the attacks have called back to reschedule.

And the National Black MBA Association Inc. showed up nearly 10,000 strong last week at Disney's Swan and Dolphin hotels, easily the largest convention in town.

Antoinette Malveaux, the group's president and chief executive officer, hailed the decision not to cancel as "a huge message of patriotism and economic support."

One of the conventioneers was Robert Hicks, 40, head of a nonprofit government group with offices two blocks from the White House. Hicks heard the boom of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and could see the smoke from his office.

"I understand that what happened two weeks ago is a psychological blow to America, but you can't stop living your life," Hicks said. "You always think in the back of your head that something could happen. But when it's time to go -- sad to say that -- you can just as well get killed in a car accident."

When Hicks flew to Orlando last Tuesday, there were 10 other people on the plane.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk