Nobody is going to want to go on cruises again, not after COVID-19. Uh yeah, that didn’t last long.
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English, where we help you upgrade your English with current events and trending topics. The idea is this: if you’re learning or practicing English, you need to get exposure to lots of different words, lots of different topics. And since you’re not trying to sound like a textbook, you need to listen to real, authentic stuff. So that’s what we do here, we bring you stories about what’s going on in the world. And as a special bonus, we show you how to use an English expression that you heard in the main story.
If you’re new to Plain English—or even if you’re not—you can find the full transcript of today’s lesson at PlainEnglish.com/595.
How and why does that happen? Well, we number every single episode, every lesson, and today’s number is 595. So that means you can get all the additional study resources at PlainEnglish.com/595. It’s that easy. And the only reason that happens is JR. JR is the producer and he makes sure it’s all uploaded for you each and every Monday and Thursday morning.
Coming up today: Have you been on a cruise before? Have cruises ever caught your attention? You might be interested in hearing this story. The world’s biggest and most lavish cruise ship is about to set sail in January 2024. It’s called the “Icon of the Seas” and it recently passed its first tests in the water.
You might have heard me say “set sail” just now. In the second half of today’s lesson, I’ll show you exactly what that means and how to use it. JR has also picked a song of the week for us. So I think we’re ready to go. Let’s do this.
20-deck ‘Icon of the Seas’ to be world’s largest cruise ship
Royal Caribbean is the world’s second-largest cruise line, measured by number of passengers. But the five largest cruise ships in the world all belong to Royal Caribbean. And the company is about to top its own record when it launches the “Icon of the Seas” next year.
The “Icon of the Seas” will be the largest cruise ship in the world. It measures 1,198 feet long—ten feet longer than Royal Caribbean’s “Allure of the Seas,” the longest ship sailing the oceans today.
The Icon will have 20 decks—a deck is like a story, it will be 20 stories. It will have a park with living plants, seven pools, zip lines, and a waterpark with—what else?—the biggest waterslide on any cruise ship. There will be eight neighborhoods, or clusters of amenities and guest suites. The neighborhood names are funny: AquaDome, Thrill Island, Chill Island (that sounds like me!), and The Hideaway are examples of neighborhoods.
The ship will include a water arena for aquatic shows, with robotic arms that can throw divers into a pool. You might not associate ice with a Caribbean cruise, but the Icon also includes an ice arena. The waterpark will have six record-breaking water slides and a surf simulator. If watersports aren’t your thing , you can try rock climbing or minigolf.
The ship will host up to 5,610 passengers—a small city. Those passengers will be served by up to 2,350 crewmembers. They’ll serve meals, pour drinks, entertain the guests, man the controls, and scrub the decks.
How times change! In December 2019, the “Diamond Princess” departed Japan with a little over 3,000 passengers. One of those passengers boarded from Hong Kong and was carrying a strange new disease. Soon, 712 people on this cruise ship were infected with the “novel coronavirus” and the ship was quarantined off the coast of Japan for two weeks—a nightmare scenario for those on board, especially given how little we then knew about how to control COVID-19.
The cruise industry as a whole soon shut down, and people wondered whether anyone would want to cruise again—to leave home, be contained in a tight space with so many strangers, far from medical care.
Well. That is now ancient history . When Royal Caribbean opened its reservation system for the Icon’s first journeys in 2024, the company had its best month ever . Its bookings are “significantly higher” than in 2019, before COVID. The cheapest ticket for a seven-day cruise on the Icon started at about $1,500; it’s now $1,800.
But you can spend a lot more if you want to. The “Royal Loft Suite” is a two-story, six-person luxury suite. It has two bedrooms, a dining area, a bar, a spacious private terrace, outdoor jacuzzi, and a piano in the living room. I checked prices for a few dates in 2024. That suite can set you back $54,000 per week. The Icon will depart from Miami and serve destinations in the eastern and western Caribbean.
The Icon is almost ready. It was built in Turku, a city on the southwest coast of Finland. And just last month, it sailed the open ocean for the first time. The ship passed its initial test of engines, propellers, brakes, steering, navigational systems, and more. Construction continues on the amenities and more tests will be done later this year. The ship will be delivered in October and set sail for the first time with passengers at the end of January 2024.
The Icon marks a milestone in other ways, too. Instead of burning fuel oil, the Icon will be powered by fuel cells and liquified natural gas. A fuel cell converts the energy stored in a fuel into electricity without burning it. Instead, the fuel reacts with hydrogen to create the power. Its byproducts are heat and water.
Royal Caribbean intends to form a class of ships called the “Icon.” Two more ships of the same class—so far without names—are scheduled. The second in line is already under construction and is scheduled for delivery in 2025, with another one to follow the next year.
I have never been on a cruise. If you’ve listened long enough, you kind of know what type of vacation I like. I like cities , I like road trips , I like the beach sometimes, but I get restless after a few days.
Primarily what I wouldn’t like about the cruises would be the crowds. I’ve been to St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands , where the Icon will stop, and I’ve seen the area where the cruise ships stop. And people get off the cruise, they have a limited amount of time, and so the area right around the cruise port is just full of overpriced stuff to buy and boring, generic restaurants and bars.
But I don’t know. I am kind of curious about what a cruise ship vacation would be like. It’s just never high enough on my list to do. You guys let me know what you think, tell me in our Facebook group or on Threads. I promised on Monday to be checking my Threads, just to see how this would go. @plainenglishpod on both Threads and Facebook.
JR’s song of the week
Every Thursday, JR picks a song in English for us to listen to. And unless he specifically gives that duty to me, which he does only rarely, then I listen to it for the first time as I’m creating the lesson. And that’s the case today, the song is “this is what falling in love feels like” and the artist is JVKE.
He became a TikTok star during the pandemic and his music went viral, and he released his first complete album titled, “this is what _____ feels like.” And he’s got several songs with similar titles. This is what heartbreak feels like, what sadness feels like, what falling out of love feels like—those are other songs on the same album.
“this is what falling in love feels like”—all lower case, in case you search for it—by JVKE is the song of the week, and “Jake” is spelled JVKE in all caps.
Now it’s time to study an English expression, and today it’s “set sail.”
Great stories make learning English fun
