The cruise line business is very cyclical so the companies hold really big piles of cash for when things get slow (like 2007-2008 financial crisis) All the big

The cruise line business is very cyclical so the companies hold really big piles of cash for when things get slow (like 2007-2008 financial crisis) All the big companies had a couple billions each sitting around just for shit like this. They just fired most of the crew (they still need to have 100+ crew per ship to keep them in good condition) and anchored them waiting for better days. With this reduction in costs they could easily wait out a year or two for business to come back. Wendover Productions did an excellent video on the topic https://youtu.be/N4dOCfWlgBw https://youtu.be/N4dOCfWlgBw (including how they solved getting their tens of thousands of employees back home when planes were not flying really)