FORT LAUDERDALE -- Royal Caribbean Group chairman Richard Fain held the CruiseWorld audience at rapt attention Thursday, telling an origin story of the Magic Carpet, the standout feature on Celebrity's Edge-class ships.
The cantilevered deck on the ship's starboard side serves as a dining venue, lounge and tender boat platform, and is known for its bright-orange color. Why orange?
Fain recounted how he and Michael Bayley, then the president of Celebrity Cruises, went to the shipyard to see a mockup. The color of the Magic Carpet seemed muted in the yard.
To test the color in the Caribbean light, Royal Caribbean Group brought steel slabs in different colors back to Miami headquarters and laid them out in the parking lot.
"Turns out, everybody at Royal Caribbean Group has an opinion on absolutely everything," Fain said. "We had more opinions over that color. Nobody argued about whether it should be 1,200 or 1,400 guests, whether it should be tall or long. But the color!"
He added, "We kept refining it. We had about 10 different colors laid out. Everyone opined. And I think where it ended up was great."
The Magic Carpet on the Celebrity Apex, the second Edge-class ship. Photo Credit: Celebrity Cruises
'It's the people'
At CruiseWorld, Fain also talked about the value of people, nurturing a culture of excellence, pandemic-era relief and his new book, "Delivering the Wow" (Fast Company Press, 2025).
Fain was interviewed in turns by Travel Weekly editor in chief Arnie Weissmann, Royal Caribbean senior vice president of sales Vicki Freed, Silversea senior vice president of field sales Joe Leon and Celebrity vice president of sales Jennifer Suarez.
Freed brought up Fain's inspirational Covid-era videos and support of the advisor community. "I don't think this is a question of us doing something good," Fain said of advisor support. "It's good business. We need you. I think you need us, and together we do amazing things."
They also discussed Royal Caribbean Group's Covid-era plan called Pay it Forward, which offered zero-interest loans to the trade. "Our accountant said, we have to assume a 40% default rate on those loans," Fain said. "In fact, we've had less than 1% default. It shows how people underestimate the vibrancy of the travel advisor community."
Leon asked why Fain pursued Silversea. Royal bought a majority stake in the luxury line in 2018 and the remainder in 2020.
"It's the people. It's the people, it's the people," Fain said. "Silversea had tremendous people and reputation. The loyalty program was amazing. And one thing that made it kind of interesting, and one of the reasons we were able to buy it, was that Silversea, and Manfredi [Lefebvre] and his management team, looked at it and said, 'Royal Caribbean builds amazing ships. Imagine if we could bring that level of innovation and expertise.'"
Suarez asked what advice Fain would offer to managers. He said: "Excellence is an overused term today. But I think in any industry, if you're not doing it well, you're not going to be successful at it.
"It becomes harder and harder to do it well because there are so many competing pressures on you. I think part of it is that there's so many pressures on you for things that are urgent. We tend to focus on the things that are urgent, rather than the things that are important. … To get to excellence, you need to make sure that you prioritize them.
"And, again, it's always the people."