Personally I'm curious as to the economics of this to "just cruise less".
I get that "parking" a ship this size is expensive, but is it more expensive than sailing?
My initial thought is that since fuel has become untenable its better to spend (much) more time just parked somewhere. The article mentions sailing less, but doesn't seem to quantify that, or discuss mooring costs.
Or perhaps there are other reasons (visa etc) which limit stop-overs?
Not that I am an expert in this but living in a harbor city I know that mooring in harbours is not cheap (e.g. where I am 20k€/day). That means you will have significant mooring costs. Potentially wages are lower because there are less people om board.
When they are at sea they have to pay fuel (probably 100k€ per day), but they also have paying customers on board which is priced to be profitable. If cruise ships wouldn't earn money they would not exist. Without customers they don't have money.
A ship uses fuel all the time, just to keep the lights on. And it could cost thousands of dollars in diesel fuel to even move to the next available port.
Fuel costs are a deal breaker for ships, trucks, and RVs, too.