Mia Maurice, 2, looks out the train window as the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council’s popular Polar Express returns to its Cumberland station.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council kicked off the holiday season’s rides on The Polar Express by stockpiling the standard hot chocolate and sugar cookies along with the new travel musts: hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and (just in case somebody asks) surgical masks.

“We’re fully prepared,” said Natalie Carter, the council’s director of operations, as the train pulled out Saturday morning. To prove the point, she pulled out a giant metal pole with claws on the end for grabbing objects. “Grabbers,” she said, demonstrating, “if we have to pick up tissues off the floor ...”

With so much attention focused these days on preventing the spread of the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, along with other seasonal flus, organizers of this season’s imaginary journey to the North Pole are taking precautions to keep the germs, or the fear of them, from spoiling the fun –– and depressing ticket sales.

“This particular weekend was very, very soft,” said the Tourism Council’s president, Robert Billington, who plays the role of the train’s conductor. However, he said, there is no indication it had anything to do with concerns about the flu. The slow start, he said, probably has more to do with people recovering from Halloween last weekend, noting that 93 percent of the tickets for the season are already sold out.

On Saturday morning, roughly 360 people, mostly families with young children, boarded The Polar Express in Cumberland for the 90-minute round-trip ride north on the Providence & Worcester Railroad to Uxbridge, Mass., and back.

Inspired by the now famous children’s book, “The Polar Express,” illustrated and written by Chris Van Allsburg, this will be the 10th year of the rides, which feature readings from the book, storytelling, songs, snacks and, of course, a visit with Santa.

The Tourism Council launched the train rides in 2000, four years before it hit the big screen, under a “handshake” agreement with the book’s Rhode Island author; the council later signed a contract with Warner Brothers, which bought the rights to the book’s name, said Billington. The rides are a major fundraiser for the nonprofit Tourism Council, he said. Last year, The Polar Express generated gross revenues of about $129,000, he said.

On Saturday, Laura Veilleux and her family, from Franklin, Mass., were riding for the second year in a row. Her daughter, 8, and son, 6, had dressed in their pajamas like the children did in story. Worries about the flu didn’t even cross her mind, she said, when she signed up for the trip.

“They have hand sanitizers in their lunch box,” she said. “But my kids are healthy, so even if they did get it” she wouldn’t be too worried.

A few cars away, Alison Evans spooned multigrain cereal with butternut squash and corn purée into the mouth of her 5½-month-old daughter, Cecilia, as her 3-year-old son, Preston, gazed out the window.

Since the crowds were smaller, she said, she figured it was a good weekend to come.

“I worry about [swine flu],” said Evans, who traveled from Seekonk, Mass., “but he’s in daycare all day and comes home to her …” Her daughter, she said, is scheduled to get her first vaccination in two weeks, when she is six months old.

Paula Wolfe knows all about the risks of contracting swine flu. She’s a nurse who works at Miriam Hospital in Providence. “I’ve seen a lot of it,” she said.

But that didn’t stop her from taking her 3-year-old grandson, Finnian James Murphy, on The Polar Express.

“I think it’s wise to take precautions,” she said. “People should use common sense” and stay away from other people when they’re sick. But that doesn’t mean everybody stays home, she said. “You have to live.”

Tickets are $35, and reservations are strongly recommended: (401) 724-2200, www.tourblackstone.com.

larditi@projo.com